[Categories: Anime Reviews]
Death Note episode 2: Battle
After the impressive but merely introductory first episode, this is where Death Note really gets off the ground. L has announced his interest in tracking down the person responsible for the murders…and Light rises to the challenge.
Okay, so we don’t actually see L properly but through the shadowy Watari’s appearance at the Interpol meeting he makes his intentions clear. What struck me was how everything he said was part of an elaborate plan, and he had seemingly worked every word out in advance. Although Light claims to have expected suspicion among the police, I have a feeling he didn’t see L coming at all. If anything, he was caught off guard completely.
Despite L getting vital clues from very little information available to him, the lengths Light is going to in order to keep his weapon safe are quite remarkable. He seems really drunk on the power the death note holds now - if he hadn’t struck me as arrogant and self-righteous to begin with I’d say it had woven some sort of spell over him. His indignation and defiance against L’s broadcast really shows how power corrupts - for some reason he comes across as more maniacal and easily enraged than his cool, calculating manga counterpart.
Ryuk on the other hand is happy to sit back, munch on an apple and be entertained by the havoc his notebook is causing; this is all a game to him, of course. The chilling thing is, it’s the same for Light…except he is a mere mortal who is using human lives as pawns in his deadly game. The moment where he kills the ‘L’ on the TV is a turning point in that he is killing in order to keep up his plan, rather than directly take out the guilty.
This episode highlights in my eyes what makes Death Note great: now the L vs. Light rivalry is established the cat-and-mouse structure of the story is set up and is already making its first steps. The point where L effectively said “Aha! One point to me already!” and results in Light throwing down the gauntlet and standing up to the challenge had me grinning from ear to ear like Ryuk himself. Now that’s entertainment!
Posted on October 15th, 2006 @ 1:21 am
Omoshiroi! XD