A most singular work, this is true. It is not often, these days, to see a true piece of science fiction, one that is daring enough to ask a question, and to ask that question in a way that it does not make it too simple of a question. Indeed, this is one of those rare pieces, something that can best be described as "art." To the plot question: something had to happen, in order for this work to be complete and not a soap-opera. Light was as successful as what was needed to explore the question; anything more would have been too baroque. I find the entire Near arch to be... a good symmetry (I will not say perfect, as I do not believe in perfect symmetries in a complex dynamic, but this was as near perfect as a human storyteller can make it, in both the anime and manga).

In the end it seems like Kira defeated himself. At the part just before he ran, he called out for help, and everyone he called to he'd either killed, got killed, made forget, or betrayed. His whole plan was undone because the ne person he kept til the end was too unstable to be reliable, because he had reachedtjhe point where his go couldn't except a partner. He wanted a worshipper. Misa Misa, and Takeda's implicit beilief in him as someone who cared about them both kept him alive and got them killed. A did his father's need to believe in his innoscence. Without his father's protection and Misa Misa's loyalty he could not have beaten L. His betrayal of Takeda and use of Mikami, who only saw him as an object of worship, set the stagew for his downfall. And when he made it clear to his father's taskforce that he intended to kill them, there was no protection left. Even L's death contributed to his defeate because it made him to arrogant. To ready to believe his next victory would be easy after that. He was always on a path to self destruction, and Ryuk always new it. In that he was like every other would be conqueror. His ambitions ad abilities made him blind to the fact that it was not just himsef that got him there, in power, and it would take more than himself alone to stay. A brilliant work of real art. I feel privledged to have experienced it.

I was disappointed by Death Note anime's end. I know that he was just a man after all, but I didn't even like that L died so soon into the show. So why can't evil win? Also, why don't we see more of the Shinigami world? This felt like the show wrapped up so soon. Damn, I wish it ended when Kira killed L and the others halfway in the series.