Around 12:30 AM, after finishing the final episode of the [ Death Note ] animation, Shiga Taka let out a long sigh.
There wasn't a single weak point in the entire series; the last episode remained just as brilliant as the rest. L's decision to actively write his own name in the Death Note to lower the Male Lead's guard was a truly unpredictable move.
The ending was largely as expected, though I hadn't anticipated that Misa Amane would ultimately choose to commit suicide out of love.
Upon closer reflection, it made sense. Even if she wasn't the true Kira, she was the Second Kira. Having killed so many people, she could never escape legal punishment. Moreover, her life had revolved almost entirely around the Male Lead. With his death, her reason for living vanished, making her choice to die with him understandable.
With the deaths of the Male Lead, the Female Lead, and L, the entire story was a tragedy. However, given the animation's dark and unconventional style, and the Male Lead's inherently villainous nature, it didn't feel overly depressing. The ending left one with a sense of melancholy, like a towering skyscraper that had been painstakingly built only to collapse in an instant.
The final scene, where Yagami Sayu remarks, "Since Kira disappeared, crime has been increasing," also offered a thought-provoking observation.
True, murder is illegal and wrong, but... is the existence of the Death Note entirely a bad thing?
Not necessarily.
If the Death Note truly existed in the real world, would society become a better place?
This isn't just some hollow animation that's merely entertaining. It prompts genuine contemplation, making it exceptionally outstanding in that regard.
Of course, the animation's greatest strength lies in its intellectual battles.
The Male Lead and L engage in one brilliant move after another, their strategies so dazzling that they truly embody what a high-IQ confrontation looks like.
No animation before had ever excelled so brilliantly in intellectual combat, and it's unlikely any will in the future. This animation might very well become the ceiling for intellectual combat anime—the standard by which all others are measured, with no other work able to compete.
Before watching the final episode, Shiga Taka had worried that the animation might fail to deliver a perfect conclusion. Now that he's seen it, while he feels a sense of bittersweet emptiness, his worries are unfounded.
He doesn't know what others think, but to him, this animation achieved a perfect ending.
Undoubtedly a masterpiece!
Having followed it from beginning to end, he personally witnessed the birth of a masterpiece!
The thought struck Shiga Taka, and he grew even more excited.
This masterpiece had to be praised to the heavens!
He'd buy three copies of the anime's DVD set in one go, and three more for each new volume as they were released.
He also added Death Note to his "Must-Recommend Masterpieces" list, vowing to recommend it to anyone who asked for an anime recommendation.
Shiga Taka turned off the TV, grabbed a pen to jot down his plans, and returned to his room. He spontaneously started promoting Death Note online and wrote a lengthy, glowing review on a review site:
"I've been following since the manga's early days. The anime aired from October 4th to March 28th—26 episodes in half a year—and it exceeded all my expectations.
While there have been many excellent anime in the past two years, Death Note remains the absolute best.
The concept of the 'Death Note' itself might initially sound like a chain letter, and many schools probably had similar chain letters, so it naturally creates a sense of familiarity. But when something like that becomes real and gains such power, it's truly fascinating."
The fact that they came up with this angle was impressive in itself. However, no matter how clever it was, it remained just a gimmick. What truly mattered were the story's excellence and the animation's superb quality, and in both these aspects, Supervising Director Lin Zhiyan and the animation studio LSP did not disappoint.
The analysis that follows delves into these aspects in detail, but be warned: it contains spoilers. If you haven't watched the anime yet, it's best to do so first.
...
The review meticulously dissected the plot and production elements one by one.
The sprawling, multi-thousand-word review took Shiga Taka two to three hours to complete.
After finishing and publishing it, he turned off his computer, deciding to go to bed since it was already very late.
Yet, despite it being past 3 AM, he tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
Watching the final episode of Death Note and witnessing its legendary status had left him too exhilarated to sleep.
He took a deep breath, sat up in bed, and retrieved the first four volumes of the Death Note DVDs he had already purchased.
Since he couldn't sleep, he decided to rewatch the anime instead. It was a good opportunity to revisit the earlier episodes.
In truth, Shiga Taka wasn't the only one too excited to sleep.
On forums and in chat rooms, many people stayed up late discussing the final episode of Death Note, raving about the animation:
"If I write my own name in the Death Note first, no other Death Note can touch me for 23 days. I never imagined there was such a trick! So powerful! Truly the greatest battle of wits animation of all time."
"The Male Lead's downfall was failing to anticipate L's determination to catch him, even willing to write his own name in the Death Note. He got careless."
"Guess L didn't expect the trick he used to make Light underestimate him would actually buy him 23 extra days lol"
"It's understandable. The Male Lead cherishes his life too much. Otherwise, he would have traded with Ryuk for the Shinigami Eyes long ago. In that situation, he could never have imagined L's move, just as L couldn't have predicted Shinigami Rem would side with the Male Lead."
"The Male Lead's loss wasn't unfair. If it were me, I probably would have thought I had it in the bag too. After all, with a Shinigami involved, how could L possibly still win?"
"If it were me? I probably wouldn't have survived the first three episodes."
"True. With an ordinary person's intelligence, even with the Death Note, how could they possibly match a super-genius like L?"
"This animation is truly amazing."
"Definitely. It's been so long since we've seen an animation this good."
On the review website, positive comments for the animation poured in one after another, unstoppable.
Previously, because it was an original animation, everyone was unsure about the ending. Even those who wanted to praise it held back, and most people remained cautious, hesitant to give high scores or even rate it at all.
Now that the animation had concluded with a satisfying ending, eliminating concerns about a sudden drop in quality in the final episode, people felt free to rave about it.
Within just a few hours, the animation's score skyrocketed to 8.9, even approaching the 9-point mark.
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