Death Note begins when Ryuuku, a Shinigami, becomes bored and decides to drop his death note in the human world. It is found by a boy named Yagami Light (Yagami Raito/Light Yagami). Once finding it, Light doesn't really believe the Death Note is real, but he tests it out anyway, just to see. Once he realizes it does in fact work, an idea forms inside of his ehad. He decides to rid the world of evil. How does he do this? Simple, kill all the criminals in the world he can such as murderers. Not only that but Light does it in a certain way but using the default way of dying that comes with the Death Note. He simply has them all die of heart attack so that it will become obvious to everyone that evil is being punished.
But-- Is it the right thing to do? Raito thinks so, but other people definately don't though.
First the internet and then the newspapers and television news become filled with news of a being called Kira, who is someone people believe to be punishing criminals, and the way it's being done is through heart attack. Kira, which comes form Killer, is in fact Light, not that he is too fond of that name he was branded with though.
It isn't long before the whole world has become aware of the existence of Kira. An internation police conference is then held. Not only that, a man who goes by the alias of L makes himself and his interest in this case known. L is a world famous detective, one who can solve even those cases that seem unsolveable and hopeless. He asks for the help of the Japanese police and sets up a trap for Kira.
That is how it all begins, the manga and the battle between Light and L. Throughout the manga the two are caught up in a battle, though not a physical one. Their battle is using their minds, Light trying to kill L and L trying to catch Light and bring him to justice. The thing is though, that in this manga, justice isn't so clear.
Both Light and L believe them self to be justice, be righteous. The world is also greatly effected by Kira. Crime rates go down while Kira is punishing, but later in the manga when he stopes for awhile, the crime rates sky rocket back up.
Also, as Death Note progresses, others come into possessions of death notes. You get to see how they can corrupt someone quite clearly if you're paying attention. You will see how dangerous the power to kill someone with out really 'dirtying' your own hands with their blood is. You'll also see how it isn't that simple, even killing that way won't leave your psyche safe and uneffected.
