Death Note Anime

-The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
-This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
-If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.
-If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.
-After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Directed by Tetsuro Araki and animated by Madhouse, the Death Note anime began airing in Japan on 3^rd October 2006 and finished on 26^th June 2007, spanning 37 episodes. The anime hardly deviates from the manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and drawn by Takeshi Obata. For an explanation on the story of Death Note, please read the manga review for Death Note in the books section of Entertainment.

The anime is available to purchase in the UK from most high street shops such as HMV. Altogether there are 9 discs which can be bought as a box set (note that the Death Note anime has been certified as a “15”). There are the options of English or Japanese dialogue and English subtitles or none.

I have enjoyed the anime very much as the director kept the story line and characters very close to the original story in the manga. The anime portrays the characters in the manga very well and I believe that the Japanese voice actors and English voice actors portray the voices suitably. I would recommend Death Note to older teenagers who like serious (even political) matters and fantasy violence, as well as humour.

In fact, Death Note has been so popular that it has been made into three films; Death Note, Death Note 2 and L change the world. These films deviate from the manga more than the anime (particularly L change the world) but I enjoyed them a lot. The directors of the films have produced a good interpretation of the original story within the films; these are also available to purchase on DVD with the option of Japanese dialogue, with or without English subtitles.