Death Note is the story of Light Yagami and his discovery of a mysterious notebook left in the human world by a mischievous Shinigami named Ryuk. Whosoever has his or her name written in the notebook will die. Using this deadly tool, Light decides to rid the world of criminals and corruption through murder. This attracts the attention of the International Police Organization and the eccentric detective known only as “L.”
The manga, written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, ran in the Weekly Shonen Jump from December of 2003 to its conclusion in May 2006. In June 2006, the first of two live action films based on the manga debuted to wild box office success in Japan. The anime began airing in Japan on October 2006.
The first of the two movies, Death Note, took The Pegasus at the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film with the second movie, Death Note: The Last Name being the runner-up.