Death Note
Offline This is a show I think you will find entertaining and thought provoking.
A year or so ago I got hooked on a tv show called Death Note. I was Christian when i started it, and I was an Atheist by the time the show finished.
This isn't the reason I became an atheist lol, but i think subliminally it effected me a lot.
The show is very objective towards morality but it deals with a very moral based struggle.
The show doesnt make either side out as evil, and it tore my morality apart, and in the end i was a more open-minded person. Also, it was very exciting and entertaining to watch.
The show is about a student who gains the power of a shinigami (A death God) and can kill anyone by writing their name in a notebook, He hesitates to try the power and then he uses it to save a girl from being raped by killing the rapist.
This is the only thing that is unreal about the show, there is no heaven or hell, and the Death God does nothing to interfere, the death God was simply bored so he dropped his notebook into the human world to see what would happen. The show looks at the plot similarly to the shinigami, objectively and for excitement, the viewer can take his own moral sides. In the end I had no side I agreed with.
The more the student uses the death gods notebook to kill "evil", the more self righteous he gets. He is killing people after all. Is he better then the people he is killing? What about who he is helping? Is it right to make people be good by killing those who are bad? Who is he to decide what is good and what is bad anyway?
Kira - (the student) explaining humans to the shinigami :
"Humans are like this, If the question was asked at school 'Is it wrong to kill bad people?' Everyone would get on their moral high horse and say, 'Yes that is wrong!' Of course that's the correct answer to give. Humans will always seek to maintain appearances in public. But this is what they are really thinking. Even if they're too scared to support me publicly, they are hiding behind the anonymity of the internet. Support for me is growing. They don't have to say it because they already know, someone is erasing the wicked. The innocent are supporting me internally, whilst those who are wicked run and hide in fear. (laughs) This is how it should be."
It gets very interesting but i don't want to spoil any more
This teaser doesnt even cover 2 episodes. The show is very fast paced, has an interesting plotline, raises philosophical questions, and is just plain exciting. You can watch it online.
What it doesn't have is the typical drama, backstories, and hundreds of purposless episodes that most anime's have.
There are 37 episodes and they are all necissary to the development. The story stops at nothing to advance the plot and it suprised me many times.
The ending was incredible.
This show is great and I havent heard of one person who watched it and said they didn't like it.
If you want to see the point that hooks most people (the end of episode 2) you can watch this and you should be somewhat filled in on what is going on by what i've written. (its about 3 minutes long)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RWPrqvfJDQ&feature=channel
if you want to start from the beginning (recommended)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erhDMGUkPXc
If you dont want to watch it (Not recommended)
Then I don't have a link for you 
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I've seen a few episodes here and there and I enjoyed them. I would also recomend it. I don't care for most anime, but this one is worth a try.
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
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cool. I'd also mention that the english dubbed voices suck, in fact they say some really corny stuff over some of the more deep stuff in the japanese. my links are with english subtitles, the voiceacting and scripts are much better.
btw this account has the first 9 in high quality
http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=ioOAnimeOoi&view=videos&start=20
I watched the whole series. It was very good.
While the show contains Shinigami and other supernatural elements, it has a very rational attitude. It also implicitly strongly supports moral relativism and exposes flaws with a black and white worldview. I wouldn't recommend Youtube though. Whenever I want to watch some show or movie, I simply search for it on google and pick out a source with good quality.
Edit: Since we're talking about anime, I would also recommend one called, "RahXephon."
Our revels now are ended. These our actors, | As I foretold you, were all spirits, and | Are melted into air, into thin air; | And, like the baseless fabric of this vision, | The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, | The solemn temples, the great globe itself, - Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve, | And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, | Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff | As dreams are made on, and our little life | Is rounded with a sleep. - Shakespeare
Ahh, good ol' Death Note
Wow I can't believe I haven't seen that picture! lol thats hilarious
Wow! Just imagine the ruthless efficiency in which to world would be rid of the naughty...
... i never thought i'd say this, but...
We must destroy the Death Note!
What Would Kharn Do?
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
MySpace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2avdf289OY
This is a hilarious DN parody
I'm sorry, did we watch the same ending? I have to say I thought the Ending to Death Note was the worst ending I have ever seen ever. Not so much how it ended, It was obvious it would end that way, IE; they said it would end that way in the first episode, it was why it ended.
Little mister Super Duper Genius has been wearing that fancy pants watch the entire bloody series, had it save his life two bloody times, and he doesn't think enough to make a second one and send it off to emo mullet fanatic boy?
I find that retarded.
Or just tell him to tear out two pages and keep them in his pocket constantly, testing them out every couple of hours to make sure they work. Something! He was far too not paranoid enough to be a good mastermind, Let alone God of the World.
I could have done better.
Plus I hated who they turned little miss actress into. She could have been so awesome, and instead they turned her into blindly submissive slave wench. Is it so much to ask for at least one lead female to not be emotionally dependent on the lead male?
Plus his decent into madness was entirely too quick for me. It didn't give you any time to enjoy it.
One a positive note, the 'Rebirth' Scene was brilliant, and most of the reast of the series was great.
In related News I'll take a potato chip. AND EAT IT!
When you say it like that you make it sound so Sinister...
K, you have the right to your opinion but how about a SPOILER ALERT......
Yeah i knew what was going to happen, and actually i like the manga ending version better. I know it was predictible, but it was what happened during it.
The irony in the ending was done very well, especially in the manga.
Also misa misa was supposed to be an innocent character used to develop lights character...
Yeah... I hated her character a lot too, probably my least favorite character, but i didn't hate her part in the show.
lol the potato chip, exactly why the english dubbed version sucks
Seriously though, spoiler alert city.
I thought Death Note was terrific - though I would add that part of this might simply be because it was a refreshing change of pace from typical anime fare (Seriously. Naruto and bleach can go to Hell. They are boring and predictable. The first couple of shows were entertaining... but after you've seen one or two shows, you've basically seen them all).
The ending was brilliant. Light was welcomed to the cold firmness of reality; the fans who thought his watch or other trickery should've saved him, IMHO, missed the whole point of the ending.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
Spoilers? I had about as definite of spoilers in my post as one of Nastrodamus' ravings, but perhaps it could spoil it for someone. Oh well.
EDIT: After reading over my first post, I guess I was a bit more spoilerific than I thought. Sorry.
WARNING: My Last Post may have contained spoilers, this post may also contain spoilers. Reader Discretion, is advised.
As far as the actual ending, I fully agree that Light needed a good reality check on isle 5 of Sanity-Mart, for there truly was a major spill. I just think that the way he got that reality check was a let down. I don't like that something so simple ended up getting him, though Matsuda turning 100% all original awesome was a nice twist.
I should probably drop the grocery store metaphors now.
I do agree, Death Note was a refreshing change of pace from most anime. Bleach and Naruto could have been good, but the creators decided to pull a DBZ and just keep bringing out newer and bigger bad guys. That's why Death Note does receive definite props from me, it had a defined storyline with a concrete ending. I just wish the ending hadn't been that Light had suddenly become retarded, but rather that he had actually met his match and been outsmarted. Which I guess did happen, but I get annoyed when people keep coming up with these insanely complex plans to circumvent their opponent's equally insanely complex plans when an extremely simple plan can result in victory. Its the engineer in me I guess.
Then again, I would have done this from the start. Not quite to that degree, but something similar.
Edit Jr; I'll have to check out the Manga one of these days, I've just seen the anime. What is different about it?
When you say it like that you make it sound so Sinister...
I hate to come in this late in the forum, but i have to chime in and say i loved death note.
the "rebirth" epi was by far my favorite. Part of me thinks that should have been the ending. Just Light saying, "I've won!!" - Credits. Fuck the world, here is your new god. Take that Krishna!
But it didnt end there, oh no. To be honest it got a bit off the wall toward the end, (which is odd to say when "death gods" are in the first episode) but i'll forgive it due to it being an overall great series. Also i think whoever owns the most stock in apples owes this show many thanks.
Any book is a kids book if the kid can read.
I'm downloading it right now
It sounds interesting
To be fair, the Japanese voice actor oversold the "eat the potato chip" line as well. The giant helpings of ham are a part of Light's character and not a fault of the voice actor; keep track of how many times he reveals his true self just to gloat in front of the people he's killed. I can think of at least three instances off the top of my head.
On a related note, this is something you should realize sooner rather than later: You cannot determine good voice acting from bad voice acting if you are not very, very familiar with the language. Most people who will not watch any anime that isn't subtitled don't realize how much anime is stocked with absolutely terrible voice actors.
But yes, Death Note is a quite excellent series. It is far more cerebral than most anime fare, and that alone deserves praise. The moral relativism is quite interesting; one could make the argument that the "heroes" (L, Mello, and Near) are even more heartless than Villain Protagonist Light himself.
Finished it.
That was awesome.
But the ending really was not so good.
All L episodes were great but after that it got worse. L replacements weren't nearly as good as L himself.
When Misa showed up I thought it would be a great addition to the show. But future development disappointed me, she was way too stupid.
Light got stupid in the end too, that was disappointing.
But it still was a great show.
They pulled off the ending in the manga better in my opinion... It gave me a very different feel then the anime ending did.
I forgot to mention that I read the manga ending because of a recommendation from my friend instead of watching the anime ending.
Not much different in terms of what happened, more of how it was shown, and what was said.
A conversation between ryuk and light in the manga at the end is the main reason I got that different feeling.
I would have deleted me saying "The ending was incredible" A long time ago if i could edit topic posts.
It sounds interesting. I'll have to give it a look when I'm finished going through DB/Z/GT.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Well, I have been hooked since this thread started. That is really saying something since I basically haven't seen anything that caught me in like...ever. Then too, I remember when “Speed Racer”was on first run in America.
OK, while googling the vids, I ran across one really good one. At least for those who know 19th century comedic opera:
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/430799/death_list/
=
O_O
... damn Gene... you sure its healthy to be watching a cartoon with excessive heart-attacks, at your age?
What Would Kharn Do?
LOL I remember Speed Racer. But it was re-runs for me and I hated it.
How long ago was the original run?
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
MySpace
1980? give or take
Oh... In that case they would've been fresh. At any rate, I still hated it.
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
MySpace