i never actually owned the box set, but instead decided to review this instead of going through every book (which im assuming most people did as well). i have always liked the manga art style, whether it was just in drawings , or in an anime, or in graphic novel form. i had only read a little bit of some other graphic novel series before this, never really dedicating myself to hard into them. when i first picked up the death note series and finished the first book i was already sucked in and intrigued. the art is amazing, the characters are splendid and the writing for the story is phenomenal. without getting to deep into the plot, and for no spoilers, i will keep the description brief. death note is revolving around an investigation of a murderer who found a notebook called the death note, inside it contains instructions saying " whomever name is written in this book, shall die." obviously skeptical at first, the finder tests it out only to find that it really works, but to only find out that along with this power is a "shinigami" or god of death. the most incredible minds go against each other in this series. my favorite read of all time,and worth every second. I feel like this series should get a 3.8 because it was definitely close to being really good, but missed that with the ending. That being said, I did like the ending much better in the manga than the anime. DN starts off strong with a battle of wits between Kira and L, but then gets a wrench thrown into the consistency when Misa arrives on the scene. Having a character bring some sort of emotional weirdness to the dry yet mesmerizing back and forth between Kira and L was interesting, but ultimately Misa fails as a believable character. She becomes downright annoying, which may have very well been the point since Kira must juggle her whiny needs and counter L at the same time to achieve his ultimate goal. When Kira and L did get emotional over their battle of who is going to catch whom first the story was fantastic. Kira getting angry over L "get[ing him]" and L being mopey when his theories seem to end up implausible despite the gut feelings of who Kira is made for wonderful reading. It showed how human the characters were at their best and also how they were at their worst: Misa pitching dating fits. Then the series shoots itself in the foot and kills off the best character. In a sort of cat and mouse game between Sherlock and Moriarty the series decides to kill off Sherlock. Granted, that's not a very fair analogy, but it's the best I can come up with. Why Ohba decided to kill off L boggled my mind until later on in the series, but even that explanation seemed a paltry excuse. Also, the fact that it takes 3 years for Sherlock 2.0 to get up to speed and go after Kira head on seems ridiculous. The time to gather information I can understand, but what bothers me is how the hell the Japanese task force could let 3 years go by without having ANY headway on the case at all. Considering Kira's father was alive and has a good head on his shoulders shouldn't someone have been able to piece more information together by then? The sheer stupidity of the other characters (until Sherlock 2.0 shows up to get their thinky bits working again) makes the series all the more ridiculous and shows a neglectful character consistency.Sherlock 2.0 in the form of a runty little white haired L lookalike named Near seemed too cocky to be likable. L had his moments of questioning his theories and assumptions in a manner that made him believable and endearing for his quirkiness. Near, who plays with toys more than anything else, doesn't endear himself because he plays with toys TOO much and seems to be more of a ringleader making his SPK minions do ALL the grunt work. The smile that creeps on Near's face in a few strips made me want to smack it off. The "other" Sherlock 2.0 character, Mello, who looks like some sort of goth reject with a pathetic 70s bowl cut and a Hershey bar fetish, is also after Kira and does so in a much more brazen manner than Near. In the end, Near admits that only his sterile, clinical manner and Mello's off-the-cuff antics blended together could be the only way to have ultimately caught Kira comes across as contrived. It's a bit too cliched. Considering that was pretty much how L operated at his best.... why did he have to go to begin with?I also greatly disliked the lack of good female characters. There aren't many to begin with, but those included are basically mindless stereotypes. Misa is a whiny, jealous, immature brat who has moments of clarity when helping Kira, but ultimately has sawdust for brains. Naomi, Raye Pember's fiancee, had the most potential for being good as an additional opponent to Kira and maybe prolonging the series in a more interesting way, ends up being duped by him in a not overly convincing manner. Unfortunately, she was doomed to begin with by being Pember's fiancee because apparently strong, smart women becomes docile homemakers once they get engaged, having to give up their livelihoods to be subservient baby makers. Takada, the good looking and seemingly smart NHN news announcer, was also a contender for being an interesting female - if only they hadn't painted her as some weak-kneed fangirl susceptible to a man in a position of power (Kira). She may have some book smarts, but in the end she's just like all other women - easy - according to Kira. This generalization makes Kira AND all the female characters in the series pathetic and boring to read through.When the series focused more on how the world views "good" and "evil" the writing really shined and presented interesting contrasts from humans and the shinigamis. Ryuk's general one-liners of how humans are so (insert adjective here) after a poignant monologue by Kira or L really made me think about what we value and whether or not criminals are as black and white as we see them, (which of course they aren't and would've been a fascinating facet to include in the series). In general, Ryuk's comedic timing of one-liners kept the series well balanced in the beginning. But the lack of shinigami-isms when Sherlock 2.0 shows up really exemplifies how poor the writing became in the end. No witty well-placed comments needed because there really wasn't a place for them in the midsts of I-knew-you'd-think-that-so-I-thought-I'd-think-this-so-you'd-think-that-but-really-I-was-thinking-this-in-oder-to-get-you banter between Near and Kira. The round about thinking in order to mentally "catch" each other fell flat from being too unbelievable. As mentioned before, the ending was satisfying, but only slightly because of how much I disliked Near. The ever annoying Matsuda questioning Near's actions gave a little food for thought, but a bit too late.
What do You think about Death Note Box Set (2008)?
I hated the ending. It was just so... disappointing.
—elizabeth
