The Death Note manga, written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata (somewhat unusual in and of itself as most mangaka write and illustrate), debuted in December 2003. The story follows the exploits of Light Yagami, a remarkably intelligent high schooler who discovers a mysterious notebook called the Death Note. The titular book has the ability to kill anyone simply by having their name written in its pages. It turns out that the notebook belongs to the death god Ryuk who has grown bored with his immortality and has decided to gift the artifact to a human basically to see what happens.

Light begins the story by using the Death Note to kill criminals who have escaped punishment in order to make the world a better place. He soon becomes known to the world as “Kira” and is revered as somewhat of a god, though his actions catch the attention of Interpol agents, as well as the eye of the mysterious detective known only as L.

What follows is a suspenseful cat and mouse game between Light and L as each of them hope to discover the other’s true identity; L hopes to prove his suspicions that Light is Kira are correct, while Light hopes to learn L’s real name in order to write it in the Death Note. Things become complicated with the arrival of a second “Kira” in the world thanks to a second Death Note arriving in the world. And while Light is eventually able to best L, he soon finds himself being pursued by L’s two successors, Mello and Near. Light’s arc takes him from a sympathetic antihero to a true villain over the course of the story’s 12 volumes, with many fans wanting him to “win” despite his nature.

Ohba once said that while he had no specific theme in mind for Death Note, he did say that “…no human has the right to pass judgment on another’s actions. No one should play God.”

Death Note proved to be a smash hit as a manga, and an anime adaptation began airing in 2006. Since then, the series has expanded into light novels, video games, stage dramas, television dramas, and even musicals.