Death Note - Review

Death Note is a unique show that brings a new meaning to the concept of Death Gods. Death Note would have to be the finest written non-action, non-romance anime/manga of our time, with a story that can easily get you hooked.

This is the setting of this incredibly unique show.The first two episodes are capable of getting almost any anime fan hooked, to this thought-provoking show. Underneath all the death and normal day-to-day occurrences is a battle of wits, where you have two geniuses Light and L, constantly trying to outsmart each other. During these mental clashes it is easy to change the side you support, as both characters are so alike but with different ideals.

Story: 

Death Note gets a 10 in the story department, because of the way the plot unravels.The story is unique one. A notebook falls from the sky, and the human who writes a name in it is capable of killing the individual pictured in his mind.

Yagami Light, who obtains this power to kill, utilizes it in hopes of creating a utopia in which he is god.

Death Note presents the viewers with questions  which cannot be easily answered.This series challenges the viewers morals and for that, it deserves highly.

Characters and Music:

The character designs are highly detailed and strangely enough, even a lot of detail is put into something as simple as writing that it can make anything seem so dramatic. There's really nothing negative that can be said about the animation because no corners were cut in the production process.

The music helps add to the spectacular viewing experience, with the addicting opening and ending themes and a superb orchestra score to back it up.This definitely has to be one of the most ingenious shows ever!

With great and power and ambition, Yagami Light is forced to play a chair gripping game of cat and mouse with those who seek to detain him.The way L attempts to persecute Light is something I have never witnessed in an anime.

The chase between L and Light is very very engaging. They are constantly out-witting each other and the mind games are exciting, always keeping you on edge. The first 15 episodes will magically draw you closer and closer to the scene as suspense hangs over their individual methods for identifying the other.

Overall:

Death Note is definitely one of the best anime series of all time, for it presents a deeply unique and compelling story rivaled by few. I can truly say it is one of the best, if not the best anime I've watched.

However, there is nothing perfect in the universe.The flaws begin once it is apparent that there will be a second arc. This to me, seemed like an unnecessary way of drawing out the anime.Somewhere in between, an awesome twist comes and an awesome character disappears in an awesome manner. The episodes that follow are not so awesome anymore.

Although, there might be some minute flaws and a few boring scenes, we can blindly conclude that:

Death Note is a Gem. A masterpiece.

It's something that can bring your mind to an eternal state of thought.

Rating:  10/10

Trivia:

1. Manga - written & illustrated by Tsugumi Ohba - 12 Volumes
2. Anime - Directed by Tetsuro Araki - 2 Seasons - 37 Episodes

Cloister Black

Light and L are depicted as opposites in just about every way. Watch episode 2 again: you'll see that Light uses a PC and L uses a Mac.

When L wants to communicate without revealing his identity, he uses a capital L as his symbol. The letter comes from a real font called Cloister Black.

Early in the planning of Death Note, Near and Mello were intended to be L's twin sons. That idea was shot down because neither Ohba nor Obata could imagine L having sex. They must not write fan fiction.

Author Tsugumi Ohba has a hidden identity.

F.R.I.E.N.D.S and The Big Bang Theory

F.R.I.E.N.D.S and The Big Bang Theory are the most popular sitcoms of all time, in the whole television history.

If you have watched them, then you might have felt the similarities in the characterization and the emotions between both the shows.

Let us enter the descriptions. (Source : Wikipedia)

A brief description about plots:

F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Friends (stylized as F•R•I•E•N•D•S) is an American television sitcom, starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six 20–30-something friends living in Manhattan. After several script rewrites and changes, including a title change to 

Rachel Green flees her wedding day and finds childhood friend Monica Geller, a New York City chef. They become roommates, and Rachel joins Monica's social circle of single people in their mid-20s : struggling actor Joey Tribbiani, business professional Chandler Bing, masseuse and musician Phoebe Buffay, and newly divorced paleontologist Ross Geller, Monica's older brother. To support herself, Rachel becomes a waitress at Central Perk, a Manhattan coffeehouse where the group often hangs out; when not there, the six are usually at Monica and Rachel's nearby West Village apartment, or Joey and Chandler's across the hall.

The show started airing on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. All ten seasons of Friends ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings, ultimately reaching the No. 1 spot with its eighth season. The series finale on May 6, 2004, was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth most watched series finale in television history, and the most watched television episode of the 2000s decade.

THE BIG BANG THEORY

The Big Bang Theory is an American television sitcom which is primarily centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, both physicists at Caltech, who share an apartment; Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress who later becomes a pharmaceutical representative and who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon's similarly geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Rajesh Koothrappali. The geekiness and intellect of the four men are contrasted for comic effect with Penny's social skills and common sense.

Over time, supporting characters have been promoted to starring roles: Neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler, who joins the group after being matched to Sheldon on a dating website (and later becomes Sheldon's girlfriend); Bernadette Rostenkowski, Howard's wife (previously his girlfriend), a microbiologist and former part-time waitress alongside Penny; Stuart Bloom, the cash-strapped owner of the comic book store the characters often visit.

The show's pilot episode premiered on September 24, 2007.

MY VIEWS

To put it simple and in a single line, I felt that:

Big Bang Theory is an INSTANT ADDICTION! One can get addicted to big bang theory by watching the pilot itself.It may be the first show which completely focused on nerd comedy.

BUT, somewhere around & after 5 or 6 seasons, the show loses it's essence and some episodes will redefine boring. ALTHOUGH, it gets uninteresting as the season count increases, big bang theory can always be that show with which you can enjoy your holiday with a popcorn (large, of course).

Where as in the case of Friends, it gets BETTER and BETTER up until the very last episode.This is what I can say about Friends and that explains every thing in a single line.

However,if you are interested and patient enough, you can go through the full contrasting from here on.

1. Ross is similar to Leonard. Both geeks ending up with a hot girl.
2. Rachel and Penny, the hot girl, who is the love interest of geeks in the series.
3. Pheobe's ‘Smelly Cat ' ,and Sheldon’s ‘Soft Kitty '.
4. Both, Roschel (Ross + Rachel) and Lenny(Leonard + Penny) are on and off.
5. Howard-Rajesh and Chandler-Joey bromance.
6. Both Joey and Penny are struggling actors, waiting for their 'big break '
7.  Chandler and Sheldon, both of them have a sarcastic nature but it is portrayed very differently, while Sheldon is more towards geek and weird in nature, Chandler is more normal and uses sarcasm as his tool for every situation he lands up in.
8. Howard and Joey, the flirty ones and the weirdos.
9. Both plots show a group of friends going through similar stages of life, including complications in job life, getting hold of their lives, moving towards a stable life and managing the complications of relationships and  at the end of the day yet sitting together and enjoying food/drinks with them.
10. Rachel, Monica, Joey and Chandler were neighbors, in the same way as Leonard, Sheldon, and Penny.
11. Both, Leonard and Rachel’s mothers reveal to their kids their plan of divorcing their spouses.
12. Pheobe and Howard’s father left them at an early age.
13. Joey’s agent is Estelle LEONARD.
14. Most importantly, it all revolves around an APARTMENT.

Here's a surprise to all The Big Bang Theory and F.R.I.E.N.D.S. fans.

FRIENDS & BBT for LIFE!

Stranger Things and Elfen Lied

Firstly, the Descriptions

Stranger Things:

When a young boy disappears, his mother, a police chief, and his friends, must confront terrifying forces in order to get him back.In a small town, this incident starts a chain of events that leads to the disappearance of a child - which begins to tear at the fabric of an otherwise peaceful community. Dark government agencies and seemingly malevolent supernatural forces converge on the town while a few locals begin to understand that there's more going on that is hard to believe even seen by our own eyes.

Elfen Lied:

Two university students come across a seemingly harmless girl named Lucy, unaware that she's actually a mutant serial killer with a split personality.

Comparision & Similarities:

As we can see, both have a quite different plots except for a single character and a few scenes/shots involving that character.

we can find many similarities in Eleven character(excluding appearance).

Here are the ones I noticed:

• The young girl who is experimented on by a secret organization lead by her cruel father-figure.
• She is given a number for a name.
• She is kept isolated and her psychic abilities are tested to their limits for weapon use.
• She kills some guards with her psychic abilities and she escapes and then she makes friends with a boy who feels a strong trust for her but her friends are unsure of at first.
• She speaks very less & doesn't know the meanings of some words.
• She is hunted by hordes of people and her father-figure.
• She has a quiet and gentle side which suppresses her horrid past and abilities.
• She has the darker side which is triggered by flashbacks or bad situations where she will unleash her power recklessly.
• Elfen - Eleven - El

About the Scene in which El will be shouting("papa") while she was being taken forcibly to test her abilities.Later, she kills two guards with her abilities.

 Now, this scene is EXACTLY the opening scene of Elfen Lied. Any one can easily be reminded of it while watching Stranger Things.

NOTE:I'm  not saying that ST is copied from EL, but just bringing out the character influence.

This is what Duffer brothers, creators of ST said about this in an interview

In Jurassic Park, the secret DNA is the frog DNA that makes everything weird. What is the secret DNA that people aren't picking up on in this? That you haven't seen anyone nodding to?

Ross: I think there's two things. One is anime. 

Matt: Everyone's picked up everything. There's a kind of obscure anime called Elfen Lied, and it was like the first trailer, someone was like, in the comments, someone pointed out, "Oh, this reminds me of Elfen Lied." 

Ross: They picked up on that, but not very many people. That's deep cut.

Matt: I'm like, "Oh, wow." I don't know how that came through in the trailer. I was like, "That's crazy, I didn't realize anyone had even seen that anime." That's an older [series], it's very very violent though, so in that way it's very different, but a girl who escapes from a laboratory.