Review: Death Note

Death Note Review

This is a review of the Death Note collection on 9 DVDs.

 There may be minor spoilers in the pictures shown, and notes but this was released in 2006 so i am a little late to the Death Note party.

There was a manga  released first but i have not read any of it, so this review is just the series.

 The series introduces Shinigami or death gods who live in a dull and boring realm and can extend there lives by taking the lives of humans.

 Each  Shinigami has their own Death Note, this is a book that will cause the death of anyone whose name is written within. The Shinigami will gain the life of that being.

 Light Yagami an intelligent young man, finds a Death Note and takes on a mission to make the world a better place by writing the names of criminals in it.

 The Death Note Light finds is dropped in our realm by the Shinigami Ryuk.

Ryuk seems to be visiting human realm to alleviate his boredom.

 Lights antics soon come to the attention of the authorities and of another young genius called only L. I am not sure who L works for but it seems he is like a private contractor hired by the government to solve crimes.

 The series follows the psychological drama as Light and L match wits in order to fulfill their desires. It is generally well done but does sometimes get a little into the "I out thought you and knew you were going to do that so i did this, but knowing you would know that i would do this,  i did this other thing as well..etc."

 The dynamics between Light and L are great and we were often left wondering if there was a little more to the relationship. The series doesn't shy away from such things as one female character was clearly in love with another. But the relationship between L and Light is only strongly hinted at.

 Don't come to this show expecting man on man loving, its sadly just not shown on screen.

There is only a very small amount of fan-service here.

 The art is amazingly good, and i absolutely love the design of the various Shinigami. Though i wish they and their real were explored more.

 What must be towards the end of the second season kind of takes a downward spiral for me, i wasn't as interested in where the story was heading.

 The show explores themes of morality, justice and death. I really did enjoy it and really want more.

 I am a little confused but Death Note Relight (1&2) seems to be the same anime but from Kyuks perspective and there are some live action movies also available. Be aware that the live-action movies may have English subtitles but may not be dubbed in English.

 This is a great show, low on the action but highly engaging. The DVD set is released by Madman in Australia and while the DVD set is of good quality i can not recommend purchasing it through the Madman web store after the problems i have had with them.

Review: The Shannara Chronicles

The Shannara Chronicles 

Season 1 Review

 

 This review may contain minor spoilers, but i will try to avoid any major ones.

 The story begins with An elven princess and a magical tree that imprisons demons or something. 

Wil Ohmsford (Austin Butler- Arrow), a half elf being given blue balls from his late father.

The blue balls are actually magical elf stones.

  Will meets Allanon (Manu Bennett - Spartacus, Arrow )

a human druid, and adventuring ensues as the group travel the land trying to imprison demons and avoiding those who would want to relieve Will of his blue balls.

 The scenery is fantastic and the eye-candy is delightful with some notable actors being; Aaron Jakubenko, Daniel MacPherson, Mattias Inwood and Marcus Vanco. 

 Having said all that, there are also some strong female characters or whatever.

 The show is definitely fantasy but there is a backdrop of sci-fi in that the story is set in the far future. Where humans have caused some kind of cataclysm and magic has resurfaced and diminished since then.

This history isn't really important to the story and its pretty much summed up, in my mind, by one scene where two of the main characters are riding past a rusted ute and one mentions in passing that he wonders what this stuff was all used for. Its just kind of there, it could just have easily been an ancient ruined fantasy civilization.

The fantasy races existing in our Earths far future seems to be a bit silly, its not really a major issue though. Some of the demons look cool but most just look like armored humans, which was a bit disappointing. There are a few races in this world and one, the gnomes are by far the most interesting.

I'm giving it 3 out of 5 because while the world isn't the most engaging, where that let me down the eye-candy kept me coming back for more. Long enough to actually enjoy the story, there isn't enough fantasy on television and i did enjoy this.