Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

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Rooks
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Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Rooks »

I will admit I don't watch too much anime, not since the '90s were over anyway, but a friend and fellow Suikoden fan recommended the Death Note anime to me. I watched it. I hated it. And now I am going to vent my grief here. . . because.

I was wondering what people here may have thought of it; I thought it was terrible, misogynist, blatantly self-indulgent, dull, with painfully transparent undertones, etc.

Let's just examine the misogyny though for the moment: Note how every female character in the entire series is just there to be used by the main (male) characters, and indeed is. They are either obstacles to be removed -like the FBI agent's wife- chess-like pieces to be used and discarded if necessary, or just annoying goaders who seem incapable of understanding the situations unfolding around them -like Light's mom.

Yeah, I get the fact that Light is gay, and that is fine by me. In fact, his tense relationship with "L" was at one point what I considered to be the series' only redeeming quality. But isn't it really hurtful to show a clearly homosexual character who treats women with such disdain, at best, and often murderous callousness at other times? This is compounded by the fact that the homosexual relationship between Light and "L" seems to be related more to dominance and control rather than mutual trust and respect. I would not have thought it possible for a work to be misogynist, homophobic, and homoerotic all at the same time, but it looks like Death Note pulled it off.
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Aerolithe Lion
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Aerolithe Lion »

I once had an uninteresting girlfriend who was obsessed with it. That's pretty much why I never watched it.
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Belle
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Belle »

Uh... since when is Light "clearly homosexual"? I'm not talking about the backwards Yagami joke, I'm just curious how you reached that conclusion.

I only watched the series once, but I never found it misogynistic. Light used a lot of people, men and women. Yeah, it sucks how he treated Misa and Shiori, but I also remember him using Ray Penber to *spoiler*, and also using a couple of other people (both men) as new Kiras in his master plan.

edited for spoiler
Last edited by Belle on Tue Nov 20, 2012 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Nikisaur
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Nikisaur »

I personally loved it! Then again I read the manga beforehand, which was much more in depth than the anime I think. More twists and turns.
Well the only people who had any real power in the show were male, I see that. All of the major players, the 'genius characters', were male. Chief of police etc too. I never saw it as that big a deal. Everyone gets manipulated.

Also Light doesn't seem to show any attraction towards anyone. So he is essentially asexual for me.
The only thing Suikoden lacks...is dinosaurs.
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Xelinis
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Xelinis »

I gleamed that he was asexual, that the only things that really turned him on were his logic games and enforcing his flavor of justice. I found the whole thing kinda mediocre in the end.

Go watch a good anime like Kino no Tabi or Mushishi.
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gildedtalon
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by gildedtalon »

Love this anime, stopped watching when my brother told me that [REDACTED] Lemmy has edited this post for me as it was just a spoiler from start to finish. Thanks Lemmy, and sorry I didn't tag my spoiler everybody!
My GameFAQs account now is SheenavsKilley
I already closed gildedtalon, my old account
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Hirathien
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Hirathien »

Uhm... Spoilertag maybe?
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Nikisaur
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Nikisaur »

gildedtalon, how about not giving away one of the biggest spoilers in the series? Seriously.
The only thing Suikoden lacks...is dinosaurs.
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Punkaiser
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Punkaiser »

I read quite a lot of mangas, i.e. deathnote including but never found anime to be good. For this one, the beginning seems to be very interesting but the more I read the more I felt how awkward the plot's getting then of course...I quitted.

by the way, agree about asexual Light, he doesnt even seem to have anydesire for sex, may be that's could be expected of someone who considers himself god.
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Neclord X
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Neclord X »

There are two parts on the anime. The first part is glorious, there are some doubtful things, but in general is really great. Original, great characters, nice development. If it ended at the end of the first part would be one of the best anime ever.

But then there is the second part, that was almost hurts you phisically just by watching it. Nice characters become dull, new characters are bland, and after all that mind games a focking kid just watch some dvds and guess who the criminal was. Don't know how much years has passed since that but I'm still mad.

So 9/10 of the first part + 0/10 from the second part makes a 4'5/10 An average-low anime in overall, but as many other things just because they didn't finish it on time.
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Belle
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Re: Death Note: bad anime or worst anime?

Post by Belle »

I agree... the second part just isn't anywhere near as good as the first part. (And I'm not just saying that because L is ridiculously hot.)

Oh well, there's always the live film.
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