Death Note

In Tokyo, brilliant yet disaffected high school student Light Yagami finds the "Death Note", a mysterious black notebook with rules that can end anyone's life in seconds if their name is written in it, as long as the writer knows both the target's true name and face. Light uses the notebook to kill high-profile criminals and is visited by Ryuk, a shinigami and the Death Note's original owner. Ryuk, invisible to anyone who has not touched the notebook, reveals that he dropped the notebook into the human world out of boredom and is amused by Light's actions.

Global media suggest that a single mastermind is responsible for the mysterious murders and name them "Kira" (キラ; the Japanese transliteration of the word "killer"). Interpol requests the assistance of the enigmatic detective L to assist in their investigation. L tricks Light into revealing that he is in the Kanto region of Japan by manipulating him to kill a decoy. Light vows to kill L, whom he views as obstructing his plans.

The Death Note concept derived from a rather general idea involving shinigami and "specific rules". Author Tsugumi Ohba felt that they would not be able to create a conventional fight-style manga for Weekly Shōnen Jump, so they preferred to develop a suspense-type conflict manga instead. After the publication of the pilot chapter, the series was not expected to receive approval for serialization. Eventually, upon learning that Death Note had received approval and that Takeshi Obata would illustrate the artwork, Ohba said they "couldn't even believe it". Due to positive reactions, Death Note became a serialized manga series.

"Thumbnails" incorporating dialogue, panel layout and basic drawings were created, reviewed by an editor and sent to Obata, and with the script finalized and the panel layout "mostly done". Obata then determined the expressions and "camera angles" and created the final artwork. Ohba concentrated on the tempo and the amount of dialogue, making the text as concise as possible. Ohba commented that "reading too much exposition" would be tiring and would negatively affect the atmosphere and "air of suspense".

By April 2015, the Death Note manga had over 30 million copies in circulation. On ICv2's "Top 10 Shonen Properties Q2 2009", Death Note was the third best-selling manga in North America. The series ranked second on Takarajimasha's Kono Manga ga Sugoi! list of best manga of 2006 and 2007 for male readers.

It was nominated for the 38th Seiun Awards in the Best Comic category in 2007. The manga received the Grand Prize for Best Manga and Best Screenplay at the Japan Expo Awards 2007. The series won the 2008 Eagle Award for Favourite Manga as voted by UK fans. According to a survey conducted in 2007 by the ministry of culture of Japan, Death Note occupied the tenth place among the best manga of all time.

The series release outside Japan has inspired other works, as well as individuals making their own mock "Death Notes", including one that was associated with a real-life murder. According to Wired magazine, Death Note "[turned] Japan's most-popular print medium into an internationally controversial topic that has parents wondering whether they should prohibit their kids from reading manga entirely". Live-action director Shusuke Kaneko commented in response, "If preventing them from seeing this movie is going to make kids better, then why not prevent them from watching all bad news?"

In regard to the 2019 The Twilight Zone episode "The Comedian", Rosie Knight of The Hollywood Reporter stated that Samir's story appears to take a large influence from Death Note. The Simpsons has parodied Death Note in both comic books and animation with the 2008 comic book story "Murder, He Wrote" in The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror #14, where Bart receives the notebook from the Ryuk-ified ghost of Krusty the Clown, and the "Death Tome" segment of the 2022 television episode "Treehouse of Horror XXXIII", with Lisa receiving the titular book.