Death Note ''Death Note'' (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It was serialized in Shueisha's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Jump'' from December 2003 to May ...

'' is a Japanese

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series based on the

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series of the same name written by

Tsugumi Ohba is the pen name of a Japanese manga writer, best known for authoring the ''Death Note'' manga series with illustrator Takeshi Obata from 2003 to 2006, which has 30 million collected volumes in circulation. The duo's second series, '' Bakuman. ...

and illustrated by

Takeshi Obata is a Japanese manga artist that usually works as the illustrator in collaboration with a writer. He first gained international attention for '' Hikaru no Go'' (1998–2003) with Yumi Hotta, but is better known for '' Death Note'' (2003–2006) ...

. It was directed by

Tetsurō Araki is a Japanese animator, storyboard artist, and director. He goes by the alias when working as an episode director and key animator. His most notable direction titles include '' Death Note'' and the first three seasons of '' Attack on Titan''. ...

at Madhouse and originally aired in Japan on

Nippon TV JOAX-DTV (channel 4), branded as , is the flagship station of the Nippon News Network and the Nippon Television Network System, owned-and-operated by the which is a subsidiary of the certified broadcasting holding company , itself a listed su ...

every Tuesday shortly past midnight, effectively from October 4, 2006, to June 27, 2007. The plot of the series primarily revolves around high school student

Light Yagami is the main protagonist of the manga series ''Death Note'', created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. He is portrayed as a brilliant but bored genius who finds the Death Note, an otherworldly supernatural notebook that allows the user to kill ...

, who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook called a ''Death Note''. This book causes the death of anyone whose name is written in it and is passed on to Light by the

Shinigami () are kami (spirits) that invite humans toward death, according to Japanese religion and culture. have been described as monsters, helpers, and creatures of darkness. are used for tales and religions in Japanese culture. Japanese religion I ...

Ryuk after he becomes bored within the Shinigami world. A two-hour "Director's Cut" compilation

television film A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

, titled ''Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God'', aired on NTV a few months after the anime concluded. Although advertised to be the "complete conclusion", the popularity of the series inspired the release of a second TV special, titled ''Death Note: Relight 2: L's Successors'' nearly a year later. These specials recap the first and second arcs of the anime, respectively, with new scenes added to fill in any plot holes resulted from omitted footage. In 2007,

Viz Media VIZ Media LLC is an American manga publisher, anime distributor and entertainment company headquartered in San Francisco, California. It was founded in 1986 as VIZ LLC. In 2005, VIZ LLC and ShoPro Entertainment merged to form the current VIZ M ...

licensed the series for a bilingual release in North America. Episodes of the series were officially available for download soon after they aired in Japan; according to Viz, this was "significant because it marked the first time a well known Japanese anime property asmade legally available to domestic audiences for download to own while the title still iredon Japanese television." Viz Media began releasing these episodes via Direct2Drive on May 10, 2007. In addition to this downloadable release of a subtitled version of the series, Viz also acquired the rights for the home video release of both the subtitled and dubbed version of the series. On October 21, 2007, ''Death Note'' premiered on

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

Adult Swim Adult Swim (AS; stylized as

dult swim Dult is a village in Batala in Gurdaspur district of Punjab State, India. It is located from sub district headquarter, from district headquarter and from Sri Hargobindpur. The village is administrated by Sarpanch an elected representati ...

and often abbreviated as s is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television Television channel, channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programme ...

. ''Death Note'' episodes were also added to Adult Swim's streaming video service,

Adult Swim Video Adult Swim (AS; stylized as dult swim'' and often abbreviated as s'') is an American adult-oriented night-time cable television channel that shares channel space with the basic cable network Cartoon Network and is programmed by its in-house ...

, on Fridays before airing on television. On November 9, 2008, Death Note began airing weekly, at 3:30 a.m. EST, starting with episode 1, "Rebirth", on Adult Swim. In Canada, the series premiered on YTV's Bionix block on October 26, 2007. In October 2007, Hong Kong began airing the Cantonese version of ''Death Note'' at 12:00 a.m. Saturday nights on

TVB Television Broadcasts Limited (TVB) is a television broadcasting company based in Hong Kong SAR. The Company operates five free-to-air terrestrial television channels in Hong Kong, with TVB Jade as its main Cantonese language service, and ...

. On April 14, 2008, ''Death Note'' premiered in Australia, where it aired on

ABC2 ABC TV Plus (formerly ABC2 and ABC Comedy) is an Australian free-to-air television channel owned by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and part of its ABC Television network. The channel broadcasts a range of general entertainment pr ...

on Mondays at 9:30 p.m. Five pieces of

theme music Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at so ...

are used for the series. The first opening theme, titled "The World", is performed by

Nightmare A nightmare, also known as a bad dream, Retrieved 11 July 2016. is an unpleasant dream that can cause a strong emotional response from the mind, typically fear but also despair, anxiety or great sadness. The dream may contain situations of d ...

. Nightmare also perform the first ending theme, , which reappears as the ending theme in the television film ''Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God'' and as an insert in episodes 12 and 19. Both songs appear on their album ''

The World Ruler ''the WORLD Ruler'' is Nightmare's fourth full-length studio album. Nightmare's experimentation with the styles of electronica, ambience, and usage of live brass began in this album. Three different versions of this album were released: a CD-o ...

''. The second opening theme from episode 20 onwards is "What's Up, People?!" and the second ending theme is , which also appears as an insert in the TV special ''Death Note: Relight: Visions of a God''. Both themes are performed by

Maximum the Hormone is a Japanese heavy metal band from Hachiōji, Tokyo. Their lineup has consisted of vocalist Daisuke-han, drummer Nao, guitarist Maximum the Ryo-kun, and bassist Ue-chan since 1999. Each member alternates singing lead vocals, often within ...

and appear on their album ''

Bu-ikikaesu is the third studio album by Japanese rock band Maximum the Hormone. It was the band's first album to chart on the Oricon charts, debuting at number five and selling 70,000 copies in its first week, after which it remained on the charts for seve ...

''. The final episode's ending theme is "Coda ~ Death Note" by series co-composer

Yoshihisa Hirano is a Japanese composer and arranger. He is best known for composing the scores for anime series, such as '' Death Note'', '' Hunter × Hunter (2011)'', and ''Edens Zero''. He has also made the orchestration for video games, mostly in the F ...

. "Misa's Song", performed by Misa's voice actress

Aya Hirano is a Japanese actress and singer associated with the voice acting agency Grick. Beginning in the entertainment industry as a child actor in television commercials, she appeared in her first voice acting role in the anime television series ''An ...

, is heard as an insert for episode 25. The English version of the song is performed by the character's English voice actress,

Shannon Chan-Kent Shannon Chan-Kent (born September 23, 1988) is a Canadian voice and stage actress. She is known for her roles as Silver Spoon and Smolder and the singing voice of Pinkie Pie in '' My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic'', Misa Amane in the English ...

Episode list

Television films

Home media release

Japanese

English

References

External links