Death Note was what I'll call a roller coaster of a manga. By that, I mean that it was up and down in terms of likability. But I will give it this, it kept up a really nice pace and unlike certain other mangas it didn't drag on too much. The characters were interesting, at first it was the battle between L and Light that kept my interest but after a certain point I just didn't care anymore. I can understand why they did that though, it was important. To me Death Note was like a game between Light and L, then Near of course. They each had players and pieces in the game. That was how it worked. It could be argued that Light manipulated his pieces (Mekami and Misa) but also that Near did (because he too used pieces in the game). I thought the themes were interesting, particularly the religious themes because what really is out there. Also the way Light thought he as Kira was "God" was crazy and it really backfired for him in the end because at the end, after everything he had done he was just that --nothing.
I loved the pace, but the characters weren't that great to me. I didn't like any of them very much with the exception of L. I think it worked out well though because I wasn't really on either side. I could see Kira's reasoning, at first but after awhile too many people were dying for no reason. Hence why it was called the death note.
I agree with Near, that note book was the worst homicide weapon in the world. He had to get rid of it, even if there were crimes being committed. As it was, people were dying who hadn't committed crimes simply because they were in Light's way and that wasn't cool. It kind of reminded me of fascism a little I guess.
Overall I liked the story. It kept my interest and I wanted to know what happened next. I'll be watching the anime later to compare.
