Death Note, tome 1

4.5 stars. So, my brother asked me today what my favorite work of fiction, and while Left Hand of Darkness popped into mind, when I thought of what I actually enjoyed the most, I had to admit, my guilty pleasure is Death Note. The Manga has slightly better characterization than the anime. Here, his descent into a god complex is more gradual. (Though the anime does have the luxury to spend more time getting the pacing just right, so it's not a clear cut case of 'manga is better'.) This is both a silly and more complex work than it first seems, as there are a number of details that can easily escape the reader. The biggest one is the prosecution system in Japan is different from America ((99% conviction rate means a lot of cases are never even prosecuted), and the lack of guns. The latter is important to understanding several plot points later on that involve guns. The thing most likely to escape both Japanese and American readers' notice is that there are heavy implications that modified!memory Light does not like L and is putting on a display of virtuousness for both his own mental benefit and to lower his Kira suspicions. This is really easy to miss, since he is, after all, a liar. However, it can be fun to imagine him and L becoming close friends since it makes later moments more dramatic, so, one may wish to imagine whatever they like happening during the time skip. Certainly, one of the things that added to my enjoyment was mentally filling in blanks. Another fill in the blank is the mystery at the end Matsuda brings up regarding Mikami.

One flaw is the work misunderstands how blanks work. They can be lethal at close range; but to be fair, this is something a lot of fiction gets wrong.

Another thing that bugged me is that Light is supposed to be a genius, but the death note has unlimited pages, which can be burnt as fuel, and it never, ever occurs to him to think about perpetual motion machines. But at that point I'm probably taking the work a little too seriously.

If you liked Death Note, you might like Liar's Game which is similar in a 'logic games' sense but the two major characters actually get along. small edit: thinking about it and re-reading Kafka, I do like Kafka more right now. But it's a close one!