Death Note makes it’s debut on Blu-Ray in the US for the very first time. Bringing over the Re-Light feature films, the Omega Edition contains all 37 episodes, and a manga as well. In Death Note, Light Yagami is a normal high school student preparing for college, until the mysterious black notebook is seemingly dropped in his school yard out of thin air. Soon afterwards, Light meets the shinigami Ryuk, and plans to use the death note to punish those he deems as evil.

Death Note is an 2006 shounen anime series, it is produced by Madhouse, and licensed by Viz Media. It is currently available on DVD, Blu-Ray, and through streaming services in English.

The duo of Shinigami Ryuk & Light Yagami give the series a feeling of freshness.

I’ve been a fan of Death Note since it’s initial release in 2006, so you can imagine how thrilled I was when Viz announced a Blu-Ray combo set would be coming state side for the first time. Coming packed with the Re-Light feature films, this set is essentially a completed box set of the anime adaptation. While the latter half of the anime suffers a bit, the first half is perhaps some of the greatest anime episodes ever.

Characters like L gave the first half Death Note a strong opening, it’s not surprising the series suffered after his death.

Editor’s Note: This review contains some, if not all major spoilers for the anime. You have been warned.

THE GOOD: Death Note’s many characters flesh out Light’s personality, as well as the overall tone of the series, so there’s never that one character that felt useless. Even the characters with limited screen time have their important roles in the story and plot. The OST is one of the greatest in anime, especially during it’s time of release, and the dub is one of the best English dubbing in anime history.

Exploring the virtue of good and evil with Death Note.

THE BAD: Sometimes stories suffer with the loss of certain characters, Death Note is one of those stories. The rivalry between Kira & L is the pinnacle of the series, and L’s death is the beginning of the anime suffering from such a loss in the second half. They try to mimic the rivalry with the introduction of Mello and Near; two characters who share similarities to L, but this for the most part, fails.

L replacements Near and Mello aren’t very good at their jobs.

OVERALL  THOUGHTS: Death Note has an extremely satisfying opening half, but the latter suffers quite a bit due to a key character’s death. However bad the second half is though, the overall experience of the series is extrenely satisfying. Otaku Dome gives Death Note an 86 out of 100.