I watched the anime before I read the manga, and I suggest you do the same.

The level of voice acting, along with the outstanding soundtrack just makes this manga SO much better.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with the manga. They're equal as far as enjoyment is concerned. But, I feel like if you enjoy reading manga more than watching anime, then you might just enjoy the manga a LOT more if you watch the anime first.

When it comes to the mind battles, you can hear L's or Kira's theme play in the back of your head as you read... It's really an amazing thing. Never experienced it before besides with Attack on Titan.

Now, we'll get onto the story.

The best part of this series is up until chapter 58. Then it starts to die down until the very end, which, (imo) is well worth the wait. The ending is very intense, and very good. But the actions leading up to the end were quite tedious and boring, I must say. (Even though, I do like Near)

I am rating this an 8.5 for in-case you actually read it BEFORE the anime, but if we were taking it into consideration that you watched the anime first, i'd give it a 9. The manga and anime differences are slight, but I do enjoy the manga a little bit more, however without hearing their voices or the music in my head, I would say I enjoyed the anime a bit more. If you understand my confusing analogy lol.

Check it out, it's great.