To me, Death Note was all about the battle of wits between L and Light. Even though the series focused on Light, L in my opinion was the true protagonist. To have him die was probably meant to be a shocking twist that would enthrall viewers (OMG what’s going to happen next!) but it completely ruined all that the series had going for it. The introduction of the other two super-genius detectives was the largest cop-out of the series. L is touted as being THE go-to genius detective, and then all of a sudden two more crop up out of nowhere, simply because the creators realized “crap, we killed off L! Who’s going to battle Light now?!” Their existence is way too convenient and subsequent battles with Light lacked the intriguing chemistry in their mind-play.

So, in the end, there is no way for the anime to keep from going downhill unless it completely re-writes the last half of the manga. I doubt they will, so this anime will end up failing much like the manga did. It’s a horrible waste of potential, but unavoidable if they mean to be true to the manga.

I realized after the *SPOILER* death of L *SPOILER* that the story was turning into the story of the Rise and Fall of Kira. If you think about it, the first part of Death Note is full of glorious moments by Light. In the middle, he starts to slip up and lose. He meets a girl, whom he necessarily doesn’t love, this girl will eventually bring his down fall (and people wonder why there are so many apples in DN). The end of Death Note is the absolute downfall of Light. That’s how I saw it at least.