Just write a name: Remembering Death Note

I was just talking with my friend about the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones when our conversation focused on the character Jaqen H’ghar. In season 2, we saw his ability to kill people whose names were blurted out by Arya. For me, Jaqen H’ghar is an amazing character, particularly because he reminds me of one of my favorite animes of all time: Death Note.

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It all starts with a black notebook

There are lots of animated series from Japan that sells themselves as “daring.” But, in reality, only some of them deliver. One of these chosen few is Death Note, which featured not only loads of deaths (as the title suggests) but also an epic battle between two geniuses.

The story revolves around high school student Light Yagami who finds the Death Note, a notebook with the power to kill anyone whose name is written on it. He, then, decides to use its power to get rid of the world’s criminals, thinking of it as his own sense of justice. When the killings start to alarm the authorities, the world’s greatest detective, a guy known only as L, was hired to find the perpetrator. 

It is in the intellectual battle between Light and L that Death Note really differentiates itself from other animes. It featured the two characters trying to outsmart each other, akin to an adrenalin-powered chess game where the loser dies. More than the power of the notebook, the twisted game of cat-and-mouse between the cool and composed Light and the awkward and amusing L really made this anime stand out.

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