Death Note is one of those anime that almost everyone knows about, even those not particularly familiar with anime (and not just because of the famously terrible Netflix adaptation). It seemingly has international universal appeal. And I haven’t seen it.
I’m not trying to be stubborn and I’m not the type of person who thinks true anime fans avoid mainstream anime entertainment. Death Note simply hasn’t caught my interest enough to try it yet. And I think everyone who watches anime has at least one popular series they simply haven’t tried yet, no matter how long they’ve been watching anime, more often than not simply because the mood hasn’t struck them yet.
It’s easy to see how the absolute power over life and death in the hands of a “mortal” could easily corrupt. I haven’t looked up any sort of spoiler, but I imagine one of the main themes is the protagonist learning to understand that humans can rarely be classified as strictly good or strictly evil, so using their power to try to conquer evil would be both futile and ultimately disastrous, threatening to turn the protagonist into the very evil they hope to destroy.
At 37 episodes, this series is nothing to sneeze at. It’s not like sitting down to enjoy your favorite 11 episode seasonal anime. Obligations keep me from powering through long anime, so it’s a commitment to add this to my watch list.
All that said, I do plan to watch it someday. I just haven’t yet.
What popular series have you managed to avoid?
I Watched an Anime 
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