People are so quick to blame “otakus” or everything in the world but themselves. Turns out the popular manga series turned anime, novel, tv-series and movie Death Note, has caused crime and controversy in every where but Japan. I guess Japan has enough problems.

If you don’t know what Death Note is, it’s a popular manga series that turned into a big franchise. For those of you who have seen it would understand why. It is probably the most well written anime I have ever seen. If you really enjoy suspense, mystery, shinigamis (death gods) and a cute blonde Anime girl, Death Note is definitely for you. 

Death Note is about an emo teenager named Light Yagami who is the son of police officer. Not only is he a good student, he’s actually quite brilliant; however, he thinks life is boring and constantly complains in the beginning until he comes across a Death Notebook. The Death Notebook holds a mysterious power where you can write down a person’s name in the book and they’ll die within a matter of seconds. He uses this notebook to eliminate criminals. His new job causes a lot of problems for him but he manages to get out of a lot of sticky situations that get crazier every episode. There’s really never a dull moment.

The manga series didn’t become controversial until it debuted outside of Japan. First kids started carrying around fake death notebooks to school in China where the government banned “scary magazines based on popular Japanese stories”. Then in Belgium, body parts were found on a hiking trail with the note “I am Kira.” Then kids in South Carolina, Virginia and Alabama carried around death note replicas with their enemies inside.

Parents don’t like the anime and hate that it’s being marketed towards children. I always thought it was too complex for little kids. As a result, people want a ban on the series in the US. I’ll admit the TV series isn’t exactly rated G but you would think kids would be smart enough to realize the difference between fantasy and reality. Also, if they’re writing down their enemies in a notebook, chances are they’re crazy and they need counseling. 



10 Comments

Or perhaps the real blame should be on the parents whose job is to teach kids morals and responsibilities. So tired of blame being put on video games, movies, tv, comics, anime, etc.

Death Note has some really crazy stuff in it, but it’s FAKE people. Yea some kids can’t seperate fiction from reality, but a lot of adults can’t either. Just because people go mental and start killing people doesn’t mean anime is to blame. So we should ban Harry Potter because kids run around like witches and magicians too? What about the Pirates of the Carribean movies? For awhile kids at my school starting talking like pirates which is really ficking annoying. If anything, we should ban that.