(no subject)

[telophase]

Earlier today, before I left town, I posted a few thoughts on Death Note here in response to someone's question on death_note about whether the characters ever become interesting. I figured I'd see if anyone out there had any opinions or discussion on it. Or not. SPEEEEEEEEAAAK TO MEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now to watch Paranoia Agent, which officially own my brain. (I'm on my mom's laptop and the keyboard is driving me crazy...)

Comments

[matildarose.livejournal.com]

First off- Paranoia Agent is love. Especially the episodes where Satoshi Kon decides 'aw lets do something different and throw people off track'. And Shounen Bat/Lil Slugger is damn scary.

As for Death Note, I can see where the OP is coming from. Since Light is the first character introduced, we assume that he's the hero aka the person the author wants us to root for. However, as the manga goes on, well, we realize that that isn't the case.

At the beginning, Light's the type who's got the brains and the looks, and damn it, he thinks he knows just what the world needs (.... hey, I know some people like that). However, where the plot's path careens sharply from being a story about a good-looking snotty kid is when he actually *gets* the power to change the world as he sees fit. The more he uses this power, more he willingly lets go of his humanity to get his goal.

I find myself attracted to this kind of anime and manga- that's why I love Monster. It's subplot after subplot after subplot after subplot, so even if the plot moves slower than a glacier going uphill, you don't mind. The emotion inherit in shoujo isn't going to be as prevelant in series like DN, but, if it's crafted well, it'll be there. While there were some temporary skirmishes, L and Light don't duke it out for the sake of the world like two grunting Saiyujans(sp?) in space (apologies to Toriyama), they mentally stare at each other in a room for the one moment one of them leaves a spot open. They get nervous, they get paranoid, etc, etc.

..... Can you imagine Death Note DBZ-style? ._.;; "... Hey, uh, let's meet in a few episodes. I need to go gorge myself on various sugary productstrain."

[obviouslyanon.livejournal.com]

For me, I found Light interesting from the first chapter I read. It a pretty different character from others I've seen before. I started on chapter two and thought, "Oh wow. There's... an interesting set-up ...I need to go stop reading and think about this for a second."

In retrospect, it was probably more the concept than the characters, the characters were just the way they were because if they weren't the plot wouldn't have worked as nicely at that point.

In reference to the OP, I politely disagree that Light doesn't have a personality or that the plot is about him killing people. It would be pretty dull if it were just 18 pages a week of someone writing names down. "Next week on Death Note: Light learns Russian and starts writing in an appointment for the Mafia."

I've had friends I tried to get into Death Note say the same thing, really. No matter how pretty I say the art is or how great the plot gets later on, they don't really connect with the story in the first chapters. They usually crack a joke about sociopaths and ask for more chapters of Fruits Basket next time instead.