Deathnote Rant(because it sucked).

[Accountfailed]

I recently watched the entire DeathNote series and I really have to say, of all the anime's I've watched over the years, DN was potentially the best, and absolutely the most disappointing of them all.

Why? Here's why.
THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT BECAUSE THERE ARE (many)SPOILERS.

Spoiler

The ending, that's why.

Right, so we spend some 20 or so episodes watching Light and L duke it out in a clever game of intellectual/detective warfare, which was really fucking good. It was a joy to see the now memory-lost Light trying to (unwittingly)find himself so he can clear his own name, but L is still in the picture, and still suspects Light, and for a safety measure, shackles himself to him.

And then they kill off L.

That was the "sos" signal of anime burnout I guess, killing off the most interesting and like able character by far, but I could accept that, if it was in the name of a good story.

And then this asshole happened.

That's Nier, the supposed 'replacement' for L. This is the most annoying, nonsensical and straight up **** of a character I've ever seen shoehorned in to something.

The first thing he says, the first impression given by this character to the audience is "If you don't win, you're a loser." You think this kid is a dick from the start and only to make things worse in comes Mellow an even bigger, dumber Nier who's rocking so many transsexual vibes he might as well be voice acted by Lady Gaga.

similar hair too.
But I digress, LOOK AT THIS DOUCHEBAG. And Mellow's 'substantial' role in the plot is to pooter about being generally antagonistic, scarf chocolate all day, every day(seriously, there is maybe 2 scenes in the entire series where he isn't stuffing his pie hole.) and then die, That's it!

Which is of course, completely different from Nier's role, which is to pooter about being generally(but more so) antagonistic, playing with fucking toys all day, every day, and then SOLVING EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE USING MAGIC DETECTIVE POWERS.

Oh but the worst is yet to come, the biggest affront to my intelligence and a middle finger the entire audience as a whole. Nier, that **** I keep ragging on because he's a ****, WINS, by pulling some completely stupid piece of additional info out of his ass at the last minute, the whole ending was so badly handled that they had to defy both Light's and his doppelganger, Mikami's personalities to fit in this stupid "crime doesn't pay" ending. Nier wins, Light PANICS(the one thing he never ever does), Mikami pretty much rats him out by SPEAKING DIRECTLY FUCKING TO HIM AND REFERRING TO HIM AS "GOD" and they both die by gunshot wound. THE END.

The worst part of that for me was that Nier 'Winning' didn't even make any sense. Because of Light's actions, crime worldwide was down 70% and both the Japanese and the American government (the two governments funding and legally backing Nier's and L's operation) had accepted Light's rule, meaning that not only were they not funded or supported by any branch of government, effectively making them a terrorist group at that point, but their entire motive and moral stance was made moot as well.

Nier and L were trying to "uphold the law" and prove they are the greatest detectives by catching the big bad guys at the moment. But by the end of the series Light's rule IS(or pretty much anyway) law, and as such "arresting" Light(had he of simply said "okay, bring me the fuck in, see what happens"), would not only have done nothing(as the police would have just gunned down Lights arrogant-ass kidnappers when they brought him in.) but would have breached the law and landed them as the criminals.

And the show just ignores that big fundamental hole in this apparent genius' reasoning, and continued to roll the credits as if it all made sense.

What a waste of a good show, all to a stupid climax "holy shit fix everything before we accidentally make a good point" ending. It was almost as if somebody burst into the script writer's office, slammed his down on the table and said "you will change this message to CRIME DOES NOT PAY or else!". But there you go, if you haven't actually seen death note and are reading this anyway(you bastard) then I suggest you do give it a look, but stop after say... episode 20 or so. Honestly, even an "and they all lived happily ever after" ending would have been better than the crap they tossed out at us.

/rant.

EDIT: Do let me know of any grammatical/punctuation errors you find, it's late and google chrome's spellcheck is a bit bananas.

 

[Sneaky Paladin]

I guess this deserves a spoiler

Spoiler

You're mad at them for killing off a likable character like L then? Well what if they killed off some random character nobody liked? Would you have actually cared at all? Didn't think so.

Also you spelled Near wrong, and I know you're arguing against them but those are probably the worst pictures of them you could find. Even I hate Near with that face.

 

[Radeonx]

Well, I recall that Light sort of went all crazy and world domination-y (Even more then "Ima be the leader of a new world! power hungry) and he seemed pretty insane towards the end.
That might've been why he panicked and stuff, but I don't really remember that well.
And yes. The ending was very, very dumb.

 

[Outright Villainy]

Well, I don't think it was it ruined. I do pretend the second half of the show never happened though...

 

[ZombieGenesis]

It's true, Near was considerably worse than L.

But originally the series was going to end after that first arch anyway. Mello and Near were essentially a sequel that just got tied into the original run.
So no need to worry really.

 

[Krion_Vark]

Spoiler

both Light's and his doppelganger, Mikami's personalities to fit in this stupid "crime doesn't pay" ending. Nier wins, Light PANICS(the one thing he never ever does), Mikami pretty much rats him out by SPEAKING DIRECTLY FUCKING TO HIM AND REFERRING TO HIM AS "GOD" and they both die by gunshot wound. THE END.

I am quoting a part of your thing in the spoiler and will put a spoiler for my rebuttal.

Spoiler

Light does not die from a gunshot. You should probably re-watch the last episode.The Shinigami whose name escapes me right now says and I quote: "I told you that if you got caught I would be the one to kill you." Then proceeds to write Lights name in his book and after teh time elapses Light has a heart attack.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

I feel like you missed a sizable part of the point. The ending isn't about "crime doesn't pay" (okay, it is by default, but it's bigger than that). At its core Death Note is a debate between the two largest debating schools in moral philosophy today. Light represents the utilitarian philosophy, a school whose core principal is that the moral choice is the one that does the most good or the least evil. Juxtaposed is L, who represents the deontological school of moral philosophy. Deontologists say that there is an absolute good and an absolute evil. The ending isn't about "crime not paying," it's a statement that there is an absolute good and an absolute evil, and clearly the writers believed that in a conflict absolute good would win.

Light's slow descent into power fueled madness is clearly a critique of utilitarianism, meant to point out that when you allow that sort of thinking it becomes all too easy for people to twist their ideas of what is for the best to fit with what they want for themselves. Inversely, L, who represents the deontological side, can not compromise, and has to make the ultimate sacrifice. In the context of the show, what that means is that he knows that ultimate good comes before his own desires (I.E. to live).

Now, I will admit that I have never been sure why it was Neir and Mellow who took over. Perhaps they were just the best way that the writers could think of to wrap it up, and demonstrate the affects of L's sacrifice, I really don't know. Still, I think maybe you owe the show a little more consideration before you write it off because of the ending. There's a lot of depth to it, and I don't think that the writers made their decisions carelessly.

 

[Xenetethrae]

Spoiler

Light does not die from a gunshot. You should probably re-watch the last episode.The Shinigami whose name escapes me right now says and I quote: "I told you that if you got caught I would be the one to kill you." Then proceeds to write Lights name in his book and after teh time elapses Light has a heart attack.

Spoiler

The Shinigami's name is Ryuk. And he does not tell Light that he would kill him if Light was captured. He says, "when we first met, I told you that I'd be the one writing your name in my notebook". He doesn't say anything about Light being caught.

Spoiler: Back to the OP...

while I agree the ending was certainly out of character for Light, it was easy to see that Light was going to fuck up somehow because that's ALWAYS how these types of animes go.

In the end, all I really wanted was for Light to have taken out extra insurance against Nier in the form of writing in the death note that an entire squad of commandos would just happen to show up at that abandoned warehouse and kill everybody except Light and then commit suicide. That would have certainly made up for the shallow ending.

 

[Ian Caronia]

I recently watched the entire DeathNote series and I really have to say, of all the anime's I've watched over the years, DN was potentially the best, and absolutely the most disappointing of them all.

Why? Here's why.
THIS IS THE PART WHERE YOU STOP READING IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN IT BECAUSE THERE ARE (many)SPOILERS.
*snip*

You, my good Escapist, are welcome to join the Death Note fandom. There's a lot of people who agree and disagree with you. I'm one of them.
...Agree, that is. I agree.

Long story short, you stuck it through whereas I didn't, and you seemed to grow an attachment to Light, whereas I wanted him to die a horrible painful death the minute he killed that FBI agent and his wife WAAAY early on in the series. I fucking hate Light. I love to hate him. He's a perfect and authentic villain-
To me.
The reason Death Note was so great at first was because of the duality, the true message being discussed by the series: Is Light doing the right thing?
The only clear answer we get is that Light is absolutely a megalomaniac with (quite justified) delusions of grandeur.
_When L was brought in, we the audience were able to view justice from a different perspective and, for those like me, a character to root for was brought in. Like many would talk about The Shield, Death Note became a story that people could have intellectual discussions about.
_Soon after the initial set-up was over, however, we began to see a shocking link between L and Kira: They're methods were nearly the same.

It's after this revelation that the audience became slaves to the plot and the intellectual battle L and Kira were locked in. ...Sadly, what you're talking about, that single moment where EVERYTHING changed, is where the fanbase diverges. One fanbase really likes where the series went while the other would've preferred to see L and Kira finish things between one another.

Before all of that stuff you righteously tore into (cathartic to read by the way ), before Nier and before the government bowed to Kira, there was Light and L.
...And Misa, I guess. But mainly Light and L.

Personally, if you love Death Note like I do but want to see a FAAAR better ending to the fight between Kira and L, watch
Death Note 2: The Last Name, the Japanese live action sequel to the Japanese live action movie adaptation.
_I will warn you that it does incorporate some minor elements from the ending of the show (no Nier or Choco-Jackass as I call him, though, thank God), but they won't cloud the insanely clever twist this semi re-imagining has in store for you. Even if you don't leave it happy, you should definitely be left satisfied and on a better note than the show left you. : )

NOTE: This is also why I think Hollywood should go back to sucking it's own C**K instead of touching Death note. I read once that some exec said "We'll do it right", as if the Japanese cast and director did it wrong. PFFF Yeah,sure. Idiots.

 

[Ian Caronia]

I feel like you missed a sizable part of the point. The ending isn't about "crime doesn't pay" (okay, it is by default, but it's bigger than that). At its core Death Note is a debate between the two largest debating schools in moral philosophy today. Light represents the utilitarian philosophy, a school whose core principal is that the moral choice is the one that does the most good or the least evil. Juxtaposed is L, who represents the deontological school of moral philosophy. Deontologists say that there is an absolute good and an absolute evil. The ending isn't about "crime not paying," it's a statement that there is an absolute good and an absolute evil, and clearly the writers believed that in a conflict absolute good would win.

Light's slow descent into power fueled madness is clearly a critique of utilitarianism, meant to point out that when you allow that sort of thinking it becomes all too easy for people to twist their ideas of what is for the best to fit with what they want for themselves. Inversely, L, who represents the deontological side, can not compromise, and has to make the ultimate sacrifice. In the context of the show, what that means is that he knows that ultimate good comes before his own desires (I.E. to live).

Now, I will admit that I have never been sure why it was Neir and Mellow who took over. Perhaps they were just the best way that the writers could think of to wrap it up, and demonstrate the affects of L's sacrifice, I really don't know. Still, I think maybe you owe the show a little more consideration before you write it off because of the ending. There's a lot of depth to it, and I don't think that the writers made their decisions carelessly.

...Well this blows my explanation out of the water, however I can counter your closing statement with:

Spoiler: Involving the ending and the ending to Death Note 2: The Last Name

L's sacrifice was only a stepping stone in the grand scheme of the show. This destroys the gorgeous point you, and the original writer, wanted to make about L's firm belief in deontology.

In this live action adaptation, the ending shows Light being caught in his own game by L, who he thought had died in his arms. L explains that during the time he had the Death Note (one of the two, one of them from the other shinigami), he wrote his own name down in the book and promised himself it would be the last name. This shows L using a key rule in the book about how long someone has to live once their name is in the deathnote, and how they die.
_By literally killing himself, L gave himself a set amount of time to catch Kira (which he knew he was on the verge of but didn't want to let slip through his fingers at any cost) and immunity to Light's nasty plan that had killed L off in the show (a plan L didn't know about, but he knew Light doing something clever to get rid of him). The sad part is that L not only sacrifices his life to catch Kira, but his afterlife, as it's clearly stated those who use the Death note can't go to either Heaven or Hell. L commits himself to true death all for the sake of stopping Kira.

That is a far better portrayal of what you were explaining, and it's why I prefer the live action movie to the rest of the series (excluding the goodness up to ep20 or so).

So, in my conclusion, the OP had every right to tear into the show's ending since it did a poor(er) job at really bringing home the point you beautifully explained, which is ultimately the point of the story.
_Glad to see someone else was able to really explain the true gold in Death Note!

 

[Commissar Sae]

Ands thats why I stopped watching at episode 25, as far as I'm concerned it ends with Light as the new chooser of the slain/god of this world. Sent a chill up my spine and fed that darker side of me that hates happy endings.

 

[Fusioncode9]

I haven't watched the anime but I've seen the two live action movies. I liked the twists and there was no Near and Mellow or whatever his name is. A lot of people told me they like the movies better anyways so I don't if I should watch the show.

 

[Doomcat]

Personally i couldn't finish the second season, i stopped around the last/second to last episode. it just kinda spiraled downwards and became confusing for me. Light's intelligence seemed to be lapsing (i know people can make mistakes, but seriously, wtf) While i can attribute that to his growing delusions, it still didn't make sense to me.

L and Light's battle personally had me on the edge of my seat. it presented not only the cat and mouse game between them, but the moral conundrum which has been mentioned above multiple times. like you said, around the second part where Near and Whats-his-face came in, the show started to collapse on itself for me.

I really can't say much else here that hasn't been said already. the only real thing i would say is that Light and Misa seemed to just...well, degrade for me. While it's been a few months since i watched the show, what i remember was Light and Misa both making stupid mistakes that they should have KNOWN would land them in the bubbling pot. but instead go through with them :/ anyway, i'll shut up now.

 

[Siegreich]

I just can't take death note seriously, the series falls apart the moment Light kills Lindt L. Taylor for going on Tv and saying hes wrong, that and the murder of the FBI agent were completely unwarranted, and make no sense whn looking at Lights approach, which was otherwise surgical and occasionally overcomplicated to an extreme degree. And yes Mello and Near were boring, unlikable and basically just plot devices to keep the bad guy from winning.

 

[Madara XIII]

It's true, Near was considerably worse than L.

But originally the series was going to end after that first arch anyway. Mello and Near were essentially a sequel that just got tied into the original run.
So no need to worry really.

I do so agree about Near. I just hated that little bastard and while I did root for Light most of the time at least L was likable.

 

[Madara XIII]

I disliked the second season at first, but thats a little harsh.

who's rocking so many transsexual vibes he might as well be voice acted by Lady Gaga.

Whats wrong with that!? Though Mello is a little girly...but he's sooooooo hawt! =D He's part of why I gave Season Two a chance.

Spoiler

And then they killed HIM off!

Hahaha yeah it was funny. Sorry I really didn't like that chocolate eating bastard. Siddoh was great though despite the fact he only had 1 episode

 

[Seieko Pherdo]

I disliked the show become Light became the thing he was trying to destroy and made himself out to still be a hero instead oh "oh god what have I become." and I also think the second part of the show should have not happened and they should have explained what happened to the world after the ending instead of saying "well petty justice wins, show's over."

 

[Madara XIII]

Spoiler

both Light's and his doppelganger, Mikami's personalities to fit in this stupid "crime doesn't pay" ending. Nier wins, Light PANICS(the one thing he never ever does), Mikami pretty much rats him out by SPEAKING DIRECTLY FUCKING TO HIM AND REFERRING TO HIM AS "GOD" and they both die by gunshot wound. THE END.

I am quoting a part of your thing in the spoiler and will put a spoiler for my rebuttal.

Spoiler

Light does not die from a gunshot. You should probably re-watch the last episode.The Shinigami whose name escapes me right now says and I quote: "I told you that if you got caught I would be the one to kill you." Then proceeds to write Lights name in his book and after teh time elapses Light has a heart attack.

His name was Ryuuk or Ryuk. Either way you are correct. Light died by the Deathnote.