Death Note Anime: Synopsis (without Spoilers)

If you’re new to the world of anime, your friends probably recommend you to start off with Naruto, Dragon Ball or Death Note. All of these series are seen as over-rated by some because of the huge fanbase and their constant raving about how you should DEFINITELY watch it. 

Take a quick sneak peek at the storyline below and decide if it’s worth your time. Here it goes!

When Light Yagami, a high-schooler, finds a mysterious notebook called the DEATH NOTE which can supposedly kill people, he decides to test it. 

In order to kill, one must have the face of the person in their mind’s eye while writing down the name so as to avoid confusion. Once the name has been written, the person in question would die of a heart attack within forty seconds if the cause of death wasn’t specified.

(You can read the other rules pertaining to killing a person here.)

Yagami reluctantly switches on the news channel and finds that a few people have been held hostage by a criminal. Seeing this as the best opportunity to test the notebook, he pictures the criminal’s face and writes down his name on the notebook. The criminal dies of a heart attack shortly.

After grappling with the realisation of what he had done and contemplating the value of the weapon that he held before him, Light Yagami decides to use the Death Note and take justice into his own hands to end all the wrongdoings constantly plaguing the world. 

Soon, Yagami meets Ryuk, the Shinigami. Ryuk introduces himself as the owner of the DEATH NOTE and tells him that he can’t enter heaven or hell once he dies since he has used the notebook. Ryuk also tells him that he won’t assist him directly in his endeavour and that if his time of death was near, he’d write down Yagami’s name on his notebook. 

Yagami agrees and Ryuk stays by his side as he continues killing criminals, invisible to everyone except Yagami. As criminals continue to die in quick succession, Light gains popularity as “Kira” or killer amongst the masses. 

However, the sudden and quick deaths don’t go down well with law enforcement agencies and they employ L, a renowned detective to solve the case. A special team headed by Chief Yagami (Light’s father) is formed to catch Kira with L’s assistance.

With just a few experiments, L narrows down his targets to those associated with the police force and installs surveillance to find out who the killer might be. He is almost completely sure that Light is Kira and joins him as a fellow student at one of the most reputed colleges in Tokyo. 

(To know how brilliantly L does this, you’ve got to watch the anime. Revealing anything at this point will spoil the fun.)

L introduces himself to Light as Ryuzaki and reveals that he’s L and that he suspects him of being Kira. What follows, is a splendid battle of wits, deception and trickery between two of the greatest minds. 

As the story progresses, the pattern of killings change and both L and Yagami are forced to suspect that there might be a second Kira. The possibility of a Death Note isn’t considered until the second-half of the series and once things become clearer, they definitely become more interesting. 

There are also new characters who indirectly help in enriching the story later on in the series. 

Will L succeed in proving his point or will he slip up and be killed by Yagami instead?

Death Note is available on Netflix (no, we don’t mean the Death Note live action movie) and many other platforms that stream anime online.