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Death Note is a truly unique and engaging piece of work. It offers trashy good fun that keeps you hooked from start to finish. The concept is completely enthralling, despite the fact that the writing and plotting can be borderline retarded at times. You can't put the book down, yet you're constantly aware of how dumb things play out or are set up. But that's what makes it so hilarious! Tsugumi Ohba is definitely an ideas man, but as a writer, he's mediocre at best, kind of like a manga Dan Brown. The story follows Light Yagami, Japan's top high school student, who discovers a black notebook in the schoolyard. This notebook turns out to be a Death Note, a magical notebook for demons or shinigami. Light learns all about its properties from its owner, Ryuk, a death god. Once Light realizes that he can kill anyone by writing their name in the notebook while visualizing their face, he decides to create a utopia free of criminals. But his actions soon attract the attention of the United Nations, who bring in L, the world's greatest detective, to track him down. The conflict in this book is both nonsensical and enjoyable. You have to wonder why there is any conflict at all when Light has such a fool-proof murder weapon. And yet, he manages to get caught up in a web of suspicion and intrigue. The Death Note itself has a gazillion rules that are introduced in a rather clumsy way. Every chapter seems to bring a new rule, which is often stated explicitly at the start of the chapter like a rulebook. And the arbitrary 40-second delay from writing the name to the death is just one of the many mysteries that add to the book's charm. Tsugumi Ohba's writing is good enough to keep you reading, but it also has its flaws. The moral question posed in the book about Light killing killers is handled in a rather simplistic way. And some of the characters, like Light and L, are completely bizarre and border on being caricatures. But despite all its flaws, Death Note is a great read. It's like watching a cheesy action movie and enjoying it for what it is. It's not a sophisticated adult comic, but it can definitely be enjoyed by adult readers who are looking for some mindless entertainment. It's the Con Air of comics – big, dumb, and great fun.