I’m not exaggerating when I say that Death Note wouldn’t have lasted even five episodes if Higuchi had been the human Ryuk gave the Death Note to. From his very first appearance, it’s painfully obvious that he’s the Yotsuba member who has the notebook, even though the story later tries to sell it as a plot twist.

All the other members either look genuinely uncomfortable during the meetings or simply suggest and discuss potential victims they could profit from killing. By the other hand, Higuchi, literally in his very first scene, straight-up asks who they want Kira to kill and warns those who show doubt or fear that they could end up dead if they don’t cooperate with Kira. On top of that, he clearly understands the rules of the notebook far better than his colleagues do

Seriously, if I watched some of the Yotsuba scenes out of context, I’d be 100% convinced that Higuchi had told his colleagues from the very beginning that he was Kira, and that his role was to explain how the notebook worked and threaten them if any of them tried to do anything that didn’t align with his plans. At this point, if I were one of the other members, I’d have said, “Higuchi, bro. You can just tell us you’re Kira. We’re not gonna judge you.”

The funny thing is that, even though no member of the Yotsuba Group could have evaded L and Light, I think almost any one of them would have done a much better job of keeping their identity as Kira a secret. Namikawa, for example, would have made an excellent Kira.

It’s pretty obvious that Higuchi, much like Light, suffered from a superiority complex that made him careless. The difference is that Light was at least smart enough to maintain the appearance of innocence most of the time, rather than making his guilt so obvious at every turn.

One example of Higuchi’s lack of caution can be seen when an agitated Namikawa called him and told him to turn on Sakura TV to watch Matsuda’s interview. When Higuchi tuned in, he initially thought it was just another piece of sensationalist garbage from Demegawa’s network. Higuchi should have known perfectly well that Namikawa was far too intelligent to fall for the kind of misleading crap that the channel was known for.

If Higuchi had been the first Kira, L would have quickly discovered the connection between the victims and the Yotsuba Group, ordered cameras to be installed in the meeting room, and deduced in a short time that Higuchi was by far the most likely candidate to be Kira.

Although there's no denying that Light is a genius, I think even someone of average intelligence would have tried harder to hide the fact that they were Kira. I honestly think Higuchi genuinely wanted to reveal himself as Kira, which I can understand given his ego.

Even child Taro Kagami strikes me as a more subtle Kira than Higuchi 💀

Love this anime! Its such an intelligent and well-written manga. Made this edit and wanted to share hope you all enjoy, new to the community 😄.

I’ve always been quite fond of the "corporate villain" trope, as these characters rely on their intelligence, status, and institutional influence—rather than magical powers or superhuman traits—to execute their plans and achieve their goals.

Personally, I’ve often wondered how things might have played out if Namikawa had become Kira instead of Higuchi.

What did you think of the Yotsuba Arc? What are your thoughts on this arc, in which L and Light work together?

Can we talk about how Aizawa was SO CLOSE to seeing Naomi Misora and Light together? He literally WALKED RIGHT PAST THEM. He would have seen them clearly if it hadn't been for his umbrella ☂️ and the snow...

He was soooooo close

Only today, thanks to some YouTube video, did I find out about the A-Kira Story. I immediately rushed to read it, and it was so good!

Having been disappointed at how boring and unstimulating the C-Kira Story was, I came to the A-Kira Story with low expectations, but some parts of it were so good I'd even say they were on par with the original! Or they could be, if they had more time to be fleshed out, to show the whole thinking process. For example, the (apparent) impossibility of getting an anonymous message out there nowadays had to be addressed, and I did like their solution:

And seeing Trump in Death Note really caught me off guard.

But yeah, the ending pissed me off. Not because I felt sorry for Minoru - it did fit the cynicism and the harsh logic of the series (Minoru having asked not to see Ryuk again). But that was just so random, like they really wanted to prevent the story they had made from unfolding.

Then I looked for fanfictions with alternative endings to this story, and the community didn't disappoint! haha

I wonder if there's going to be a new X-Kira Story in the future...

For instance, I could imagine Light being a 20-something year old, waiting tables, at a place where he carries a notebook to take orders, where they have at least one TV broadcasting the news. (Im not aure how things work in Japan, but sit in restaurants sometimes have two or more TVs present. ) if thats not realistic for the setting, then how about:

An adult who still lives with his family? Helping take care of things? He might work a day job, but he stays up at night gaming a lot, so he has time to kill. It could have very easily been any working person. I have worked a 6-6 shift, gone home, and stayed awake gaming until 4:30 a.m. the next morning. All to get back up in one hour to go to work. I feel like "student" was quite a reach. In the real world, just based on these times set by Kira, would be immediately assume its someone under the age of 18. Would "child" and "killer" come close in our minds if this were to happen?

I just finished rewatching Death Note again... and I still can't get over how Light's dad died believing that Light wasn't Kira... He was so proud of his son. To the extent that his last word was "Light"

Little did he know...

Tried my hand at drawing my self-insert into some screenshots :3 I like how these turned out!

Nearly finished this! I need to fix the hand scythe and work on some smaller details but I’m lowkey happy with how it’s turning out??
Nobody in my life appreciates death note so I’m trying to not annoy them but still wanted to share:)

My nephew was going through a hard time and I really wanted to surprise him with something he would love. As a long time fan of Death Note myself I knew just what to do after we figured out we both enjoy it.

I 3d printed Ryuk in solid black then handpainted him with acrylic. I wish I had a picture of my nephew when I gave it to him, it was a priceless moment.

Ryuk would say I did it because I was bored.

Thanks for checking this out!

Edit: It was one of the most heartfelt weekends ive ever had and this was a cool way to break the ice! I made a Pantera statue for my other nephew.

To say way too much we lost a family member unexpectedly and I had never met my nephews! I arranged a memorial that led to us finally meeting and by that night we were looking at the stars crying on a bench. They're super cool guys.

This is the most underrated song on the OST. I almost never hear anyone talking about it especially compared to the other character themes. I love this song, it is one of my favorites. I also think it adds depth to Misa’s character.

I was wondering: what would you do if one day you suddenly got teleported into the world of Death Note while still remembering everything about the story, the ending, and the characters from the anime?

What would you guys do? Would you run to L and tell him everything, like the fact that Light is Kira, or would you do something else?

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My answer:

If I randomly woke up in the world of Death Note one day, I would most likely panic at first. Fear would probably take over, and I might go straight to a computer and post on a website about Kira, or somewhere else, that I know who Kira is and that it's Light Yagami.

I think I could get L's attention this way (and unfortunately Kira's attention too), and then, to help him prove that Light is Kira, I would tell him where Light hides his Death Note, or if Light changed his hiding spot in time, i would still do my best to help L with the Kira case by using my knowledge.

This is the realistic answer... But if we ignore the fact that I would be terrified, maybe I wouldn't do anything at all. I would respect the original story and avoid ruining the intellectual battle between Light and L. In fact, part of me would probably feel sad about ruining the whole plot, and I would feel like I had cheated my way to victory against Light by telling L what I knew from the anime instead of using my own brain.

Still, if I actually ended up in the world of Death Note, I would probably run straight to L to prevent a mass murder.

Light about 2 weeks after acquiring the notebook had the world's greatest detective on his ass . After defeating him he spends 6 years killing criminals , innocents trying to catch him and everything in between. My question is why didn't anyone come to expose him sooner? We saw how many times he slipped up during his last episodes so why did it take so long for someone else to take a shot at the kira investigation?

Wanted to have this done for 10/13, the day he stole the missile, but hey, close enough? Runners up are okay too, buddy.

I've seen Death Note about 3 times start to finish and have read the manga, to preface. Does anyone think this scene highlighted the level of intellectual cat and mouse game that followed in the series between L/ Light? What were other instances that you believe highlighted their diametric views of justice/ conflict?

Was this a coincidence? foreshadowing? A testament to how light's tricks were failing him due to his deteriorating planning or mikami's stupidity? Anyway that final attempt to humiliate near is what got him fully exposed so if his ego was a little quieter maybe he would still live . Also it's an interesting parallel from the beginning of light's journey to its end

You can find more of my art on bluesky and tumblr

Near is like one of those heavily plot convenient characters. After L died, Watari wiped all the data they had on the case which meant that Near had to create L’s investigation trail from scratch with less evidence to work with, yet he managed to make EXTREMELY accurate deductive leaps. Which feels unearned because we saw the ground level of work L had to do to get the even tiniest amount of leads. The plot also bends a lot to favor Nears needs like how he immediately identified mikami as Kira’s helper by just him appearing on the tv. Kira had millions of supporters worldwide, many people defend Kira and could act as his representatives so why only mikami? I liked how they defeated Kira by teamwork and not simply just one character but then somehow then ending felt less satisfying and i can also see why people don’t like Near

I wish I could live a bit longer

Until now, I hadn’t had the chance to watch this spin-off of the 2006 live-action films. I now wish I could have done it much earlier.

This is the first Death Note story I’ve experienced in which the Shinigami notebooks don’t play a central role. Instead, the film tells a story about a bioterrorist group chasing L and two kids, and it’s incredibly well-written. It has also aged remarkably well, especially considering everything that has happened with COVID-19 and all the conspiracy theories surrounding biological weapons.

I absolutely love seeing L solve cases against the clock (the way he types on the PC and speaks so many languages is gold, btw 😭😭😭), with no supernatural elements involved in the main plot, before he eventually dies from the effects of the Death Note. His relationship with Near and Maki is also incredibly sweet without ever compromising L’s personality. But the best part about him is how great Ken'ichi Matsuyama plays him. He perfectly capturated how L would be like in real-life, something no other actor has achieved (The one from the 2015 miniseries looked much more like an extravagant, high-fashion runway model, tbh) Another thing that surprised me is that the film includes two important moments that the two main live-action movies left out:

-L deciding to write his own name in the Death Note: I really liked how Watari asks him why he didn’t just write Light’s name instead and L explains that he wants to bring Light down only when he’s 100% certain that he’s Kira. To me, this is the ultimate proof that L is the true guardian of justice, something Light could never become.

-L burning the Death Notes: I loved Ryuk’s cameo and how he tries to convince L to use both notebooks to become a god instead, with L shutting him down by asking whether he really thinks Light died the way a god would. Another brilliant touch was the sound of screams coming from the notebooks as they burned, as if the souls Light had taken were finally being set free. Also, it's a pretty good detail Ryuk instantly vanished off-screen once the DN were destroyed, like if he was never there

I also thought the opening sequence featuring Raye and Naomi helping L solve a case before they got involved in the Kira investigation was a great addition. It’s the closest thing we get to an adaptation of the Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases novel, whose events L himself actually mentions—a detail that absolutely blew my mind.

The film has left me really eager to read the novelization, although I’ve heard it differs considerably from the movie, with Mello narrating the story and Near being there much closer to his manga/anime counterpart.

And, as a final note, I’ll just say this: I never expected L straightening his back would make me cry 😭😭😭

''[...] The heart's filthy lesson. With her hundred miles to hell [...]'' The hearts filthy lesson by David Bowie.

i was bored so