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At first I didn't want to read Death Note because people were telling me not to. They said it was boring and all the main character did was kill people by writing their name in his note book. If you know people like this, don't listen to them. I picked up volumes one through three in my school library, read them, decided to keep reading and now I'm a fan of the series.

The story is good, it's not the greatest thing ever. It includes a lot of talk and content that makes you think, if you're not into this then maybe you should pass it ... up. Anyways, it's basically the same thing back and forth between Light and L but you become intrigued to see what happens next every step of the way. There are a few intense moments during the story but that's about it.

The art style isn't amazing either but it's a lot better than other things out there are the moment. The detail isn't prized so much in the backgrounds but in the detail of the characters. They're given a lot of detail in certain frames and it makes their 'emotions' stand out.

The characters are probably the most interesting part of Death Note. Light and L really steal the show for different reasons. For Light, it's because of his ever changing personality and his quest to rid the world of criminals using the Death Note. He was donned with the nickname "Kira". With L, it's because he's so abnormal to anything I can think of right now... from the way he sits to the way he plays with his food. I'll let you find out for yourself. If you read it from beginning to end, you'll see how much the characters evolve and change.

I actually really enjoyed reading Death Note... up to volume seven. Something big happens in that volume that turns most readers away from reading it but because of the way my brain works, I read it all the way to the end. The second half of Death Note was decent, it didn't have that original fire to it but it was still enough to keep me wondering what will happen next. I found that the final volume was well worth having to go through four mediocre volumes to get to.

Overall I think Death Note is something that you either love or hate. You can't really say until you've tried to read it and then make a fair judgment. I still think that Death Note would have been considered amazing if it ended at volume seven. Even though it went all the way to volume twelve, it could have added some sort of good spice to the mix instead of giving the readers a new annoying character in Mello. Anyways, it was a good read and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading psychological manga.

Right off the bat of my review, I'll say this: I'm bias. At least for Akira anyways.
Normally, I tend to avoid being bias at any costs but seeing as this is my first review on this site, I'm going to be bias. Why? Akira is my favourite anime movie.

The Story: 9/10
If you've read the manga and watched the movie, you'll understand the differences between the two. I prefer the manga which is why the story didn't get a 10 from me. Don't get me wrong, the movie might be different from the manga but that doesn't take away from it and it's best to view ... these two as totally different stories involving the same characters.

Art: 9/10
I love the art style of Akira and most of Otomo's works. There are a few minor points in the art style that I don't care for. For me, his style when drawing women isn't that great. Most people become confused on whether or not Kei is male or female.

Sound: 10/10
How can you not give this soundtrack a perfect score? It's completely fresh and it stepped far away from people back in 1988 were use to hearing. The tracks are long and set the mood for the scene they play in. I would touch more on that but I would have to spoil it in order to express my full enjoyment.

Voice Acting:
(First dub = Streamline dub - Second dub = Pioneer dub)
I didn't rate this and I'm never going to. Akira has two English dubs that I'm about to touch on. The Streamline dub had bad synchronization between sound and mouth movement during some scenes and it was also bad that when some character's should have been shouting their dialogue, the words were softly spoken. Of course this was 1988 we're talking about so it's expected to be bad (but you can find some humor in the bad voice acting). Kaneda and Tetsuo have better voice actors in the Streamline dub (in my opinion) because they sound more natural to the character as opposed to the Pioneer dub. It should be noted that I watched the Pioneer dub first and prefer the Streamline version. The Pioneer dub fixes a lot of the problems but if you're like me, you'll find one thing very annoying: Joshua Seth. The entire time I was watching the Pioneer version, I just kept thinking about Digimon and how annoying Tai's voice is. I wasn't able to pay as close attention to the movie as I should have during my first time. If you don't want to get into the whole "which Akira dub is better" situation... just watch it subbed. Probably the easiest way to watch it. Another thing to note is that the Pioneer dub has a lot of unnecessary swearing which can get annoying after awhile.

Character: 8/10
I only give it an 8 because I want to rate it high but at the same time, in comparison to the manga... the characters were under developed. It's a shame that certain characters from the manga weren't included (Chiyoko) and that some had minor roles in comparison to their larger roles in the manga (Lady Miyako and somewhat Joker). Kaneda, Tetsuo, Colonel and Nezu were built up strong but in comparison to the manga, it lacked. (Yes I know I said to view both of them as two different things XD)

Enjoyment / Overall: 10/10
I enjoyed Akira because it fit my more mature views on anime. I admire it because it helped set standards for certain anime of my generation today. I would touch on other things that made it enjoyable but I can't because I don't wish to spoil anything. I'll say this much: I watched the movie first and loved it (especially the climax) and when I read the manga, it helped draw in an emotional connection to the characters and story. I wouldn't recommend this movie to everyone because not everyone will love it but I do suggest taking some time to watch it if you haven't already and see if you like it.