Death Note

Light Yagami starts out as an ordinary university student until a mysterious notebook appears in his life, one that kills anyone whose name is written inside it. The power feeds his intellect and an extreme sense of justice, and he adopts the moniker Kira to punish criminals according to his own rules. That campaign draws the attention of L, an eccentric and brilliant private detective who publicly declares Kira evil and sets out to unmask him. The series turns into a tight psychological contest between Light and L, with allies, rivals, and the enigmatic N adding layers of strategy and moral tension without revealing final outcomes.

Released in 2015, this Japanese live-action TV adaptation was created for television by Yoshihiro Izumi, and it’s based on the manga by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. The cast includes Masataka Kubota as Light and Kento Yamazaki as L, among others.

The 2015 TV run didn’t collect major international awards, and there are no widely cited nominations on the level of Emmys or Golden Globes tied to this adaptation. Its recognition has been strongest among domestic viewers and franchise fans rather than in major award circuits.

As part of the larger Death Note franchise, the show reinforced interest in adapting manga to live-action formats and kept public conversations alive about justice, power, and the ethics of punishment. Light and L remain iconic figures in contemporary pop culture, and their confrontations continue to be referenced in discussions about morality in fiction.

Audience response has skewed positive, with a vote average around 7.4 out of 10 from viewers. Critics and fans often highlight the central intellectual duel, the moral ambiguity at the heart of the story, and the performances by Kubota and Yamazaki. Opinions differ on pacing and how closely the series follows the original manga, but the main themes of justice versus authority and the costs of absolute power are consistently noted.