Is it Overrated or Underrated? Death Note.
- Thread starter Yusuke Urameshi
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it deserves the praise it gets
System001
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It's overrated. It has far too much hype, more hype than it deserves. Yes it's a very good anime/manga, but there are stuff out there that rival Death Note, and there's also stuff that just outright stomps it. It also has a few ass pulls and potholes (as every story does), which frankly are overlooked as people very rarely analyze Death Note rarely. If you haven't read/watched a lot of anime/manga, and then you decide to give DN a go, you'll probably end up thinking that it's the shit. Although if you've watched a few anime/manga, specifically the good ones; eg FMA (arguably the best shounen), Code Geass (I've watched this repeatedly, and I can find few faults, perhaps the only prominent one being the whole Ragnarok/Sword of Akasha thing, not necessarily because its flawed, but just a bit weird and rushed), 20CB (Never read it, though I've heard it's amazing) Liar Game (Had to stop reading this as I didn't want to suffer from severe withdrawal symptoms that would ensue when I finally caught up. The tricks and psychological stuff that happens in this manga is just nuts, probably surpassing DN.) One Piece (It's good at what it does. lol) Then you have your Manhwa, eg Tower of God (It's like some sort of virgin goddess ate FMA, One Piece, Death Note, and Liar Game, and slowly gave birth to something amazing.) Let's not forget the Golden Age Arc of Berserk either, possibly the best arc of any manga/anime I've ever read, then you'll probably realise that DN isn't as hot as people make it out to be. So yes, DN is overrated. O__O
x Tensa zangetsu x
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Miles vi Britannia
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To be completely honest, I'd have to say it's a tad overrated.
Don't get me wrong, Death Note IS a fantastic series and certainly one worth getting into. It's more deserving of its popularity than a lot of other big series. However, I have seen people who would say it's a top tier series when I would honestly have to disagree. Death Note is very strong in plot and the mystery/psychological element is pretty well done, but I have seen other series that are just as good if not better (20th Century Boys, Monster, Liar Game, etc.). More than anything though I find that Death Note is lacking when it comes to characters, as any character who isn't Light has little to no development in this series. Most of the cast is pretty static and there's hardly any depth to the other characters. Even in the case of Light, I can't stand him because of his hypocrisy and how he convinces himself that he's in the right when he's honestly just being a selfish snob with a god complex. It's not even that his evil is why I hate him (characters like Liar Game's Yokoya are just as manipulating but much more respectable in my opinion), but rather the fact that he gets off thinking that what he's doing is "for the greater good" even though his "justice" went downhill very very fast. Light's delusions about what he was doing and his behavior all the way to the very end just weren't respectable to me.
Death Note is certainly worth it, but when people say it's the best anime/manga of all time I would have to disagree. It's also a sad thing that Death Note is probably one of the only mainstream mystery/psychological series out there. I mean stuff like Monster has its own following and all, but there's no way I could possibly deem that to be "mainstream" in the grand scheme of things. Especially not compared to DN.
Don't get me wrong, Death Note IS a fantastic series and certainly one worth getting into. It's more deserving of its popularity than a lot of other big series. However, I have seen people who would say it's a top tier series when I would honestly have to disagree. Death Note is very strong in plot and the mystery/psychological element is pretty well done, but I have seen other series that are just as good if not better (20th Century Boys, Monster, Liar Game, etc.). More than anything though I find that Death Note is lacking when it comes to characters, as any character who isn't Light has little to no development in this series. Most of the cast is pretty static and there's hardly any depth to the other characters. Even in the case of Light, I can't stand him because of his hypocrisy and how he convinces himself that he's in the right when he's honestly just being a selfish snob with a god complex. It's not even that his evil is why I hate him (characters like Liar Game's Yokoya are just as manipulating but much more respectable in my opinion), but rather the fact that he gets off thinking that what he's doing is "for the greater good" even though his "justice" went downhill very very fast. Light's delusions about what he was doing and his behavior all the way to the very end just weren't respectable to me.
Death Note is certainly worth it, but when people say it's the best anime/manga of all time I would have to disagree. It's also a sad thing that Death Note is probably one of the only mainstream mystery/psychological series out there. I mean stuff like Monster has its own following and all, but there's no way I could possibly deem that to be "mainstream" in the grand scheme of things. Especially not compared to DN.
