Death Note Review

Ohba's script is a machine made of stated rules, and the pleasure is watching two people find the gaps in them. The notebook's conditions are printed in the volumes, so the reader plays under the same constraints as the characters and can catch a cheat. Obata's art is the other half of it. The panel layouts fracture and tilt as pressure rises, shadows are laid on like woodcut, and a scene of two men eating cake carries more visible tension than most action manga manage in a fight.

Light's decay from a bored student into someone who requires an audience is written without a shred of authorial sympathy. The story loses its best relationship at the midpoint and never fully replaces it; Near and Mello split one character's function in half and neither half is as good. World-building barely exists beyond the shinigami realm, which is fine, because the book is a closed room. The final trap is a satisfying piece of construction and the last page is exactly right.