This post was originally published by me at http://blackanddarknight.wordpress.com (no longer available) on December 30, 2012. 

If you haven’t figured it out by now, I enjoy dark, twisty things.

In moderation, at least. I will tell you that I had to follow this anime up by watching utter ridiculous-ness because I needed to laugh after the emotional ups-and-downs it takes you through.

The basic premise:

What if the shinigami (gods of death) had notebooks in which they had to write the names of those who were to die? What if one of them dropped their notebook into our world?

What if a 17-yr-old genius picked it up, and decided to give his own judgment to the world, in an attempt to create utopia?

This anime is a paranormal thriller with twists and turns like Inception, but more intense. Because with Inception, you can see some of what’s going on. Death Note leaves you hanging on the edge of your seat until the very end.

And I will warn you – the ending is just like the entire storyline. Dark and twisty.

But really, it can’t end any other way.

This is not a story for young children, either. I’m 27 and was thoroughly disturbed in some places at the things Light Yagami was willing to justify doing to create ‘utopia’.

This isn’t disturbing in a gory kind of way, but rather in a psychological one.

A friend of mine (Lissa) says she enjoyed it because she felt it left everything ‘gray’, it neither approved of nor condemned Light’s actions.

I disagree that it left everything ‘gray’. Most of the story is told from Light’s POV, so of course it’s not going to condemn his actions, because he’s convinced himself that no matter what, the ends justify the means.

It’s not until the ending that we see the truth of the matter.

I was reminded of a scripture when the anime reached it’s conclusion.

“. . . be sure your sin will find you out.” – Numbers 32:23b KJV