Death Note, for me, was a pretty damn good anime, one of the first I've watched. Looking back on it now, I can safely say that it's still a pretty damn good anime, though maybe not as great as I remember it.
The premise and the overall story was damn good, I think. A classic tale on how "absolute power corrupts absolutely". The animation was damn good, the pacing was damn good, basically everything overall was damn good.
Though you can't spell Death Note without contrived....well, you could, but you get the point. The story, particularly around the halfway point, got really confusing and all that, basically going "I knew that you knew that I knew that you knew that I knew that!" and the like. Towards the end I had no idea what the hell they were doing to prove who was Kira.
But overall overall, it was a damn good anime. I just recently watched the live action movies, and those were...interesting to say the least, though obviously just cash in's.
EDIT: Though apparently One Piece is better. I haven't seen it, but from what I have seen it looks in the same vein as Naruto I.E. pointless filler after pointless filler. Though that could be 4Kids castrating the show at the time.