I just got back from Borders, where I overheard an older teenager explain why the anime Death Note was so awesome to a younger teenager, going into a good deal of information about the plot. Unfortunately, not only did he leave out a lot of important things, but various things he seemed to just be making up for the sake of pretending he knew what he was talking about. I felt like interjecting and correcting that guy several times, but part of me found what he was saying too hilarious for me to interfere.

"And you can write, like... any cause of death, and it'll ACTUALLY HAPPEN! I mean, like if you wrote that a METEOR would fall on someone's head and kill him, then a meteor would ACTUALLY FALL ON HIS HEAD AND KILL HIM!"

"And his girlfriend, who's this really hot blond chick, has shinigami eyes that literally let her see EVERYTHING! Like if you look at someone's face, they'll tell you EVERYTHING about them. How good or bad they are, what their name is, like, everything they'll do within the next, like, five years..."

What? And yes, it gets crazier.

"So now this kid's going after him, I think he calls himself N. No, wait... yeah, I think it's N. And he's like.... a SUPER GENIUS, I mean he, like, graduated from college at age THREE, and now he's 14 and he's like the smartest person on the PLANET... I think his name's... like... Miki or something... Yeah, so Miki's all like, [In a weird voice that in no way resembles Near's voice from either the Japanese or English dubs] 'My next plan to catch Kira will be...' It's really awesome."

Yes, I'll admit Death Note has a somewhat complex plot and that guy said he only came in halfway through, but everything is spelled out as overtly as possible through conversations and internal monologues. For a "really awesome" show, that guy didn't seem to be paying much attention to it.

Of course, neither did the director of the show, apparently, considering in the second director's cut episode that aired a few days ago, a part was added in which Mikami used the Death Note to make a man snap his neck by turning all the way around really, really fast... I tried doing that, but I couldn't even get a decent whiplash.