What is Death Note about? Could someone give me a summary?
A student, Light Yagami, finds the Death Note, "whoever's name is written in shall die", (yeah I'm sure you've heard). Though straightforward with his studies, he is keenly in touch with criminal news. The crime rate's raise was alarming, and he learns even further details because he is the son of one of the Police Chiefs. Later believing he could no longer rely on the police or government, he took matters into his own hands and killed criminals with the Death Note in secret. Inmates or running free, they died. Light wanted to cleanse the Earth of all crimes. He would only leave good people in his "new world", and become a god.
Considering how several cardiac arrests for spread-out criminals in a short timespan couldn't have been coincidence, the detectives and police gathered to discuss how to deal with the matter. Some sided with the newly-dubbed 'Kira' (derived from 'killer'), and others objected, saying that even if Kira was killing criminals, it is still murder.
They hired L, the world's greatest detective, to uncover the identity of Kira. And Kira in defense vowed to find out L's face and name to kill
him first.
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Yeah that was just on the spot... I haven't watched/read in a while but that's the main jist. Don't look for fighting action too much in this series (though they're cool when they show up), the franchise tackles the intellectual side more.