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Despite might be a key word there- my answer would flat out be be "because they are goofy and ridiculous," for the whole thing overall. Please take this with a grain of salt, though- I have pretty serious issues with the pacing/padding, especially in the interminable second half, but think "wow, this is bonkers and not as smart as it repeatedly, confidently declares" to be the appeal.

Because matsuda and L are great, and objectively the best.

@miela583 @digital-devil Both sound good, thank you. I will prepare to reevaluate Death Note in a little bit.

First half of the series is amazing, top 5 anime all time. Second half is the worst thing I have ever seen.

Because it's an anime with a notebook that can slay people and death-gods - even though the story itself is pretty serious I think it's easy to suspend disbelief. I never had any trouble believing extreme eccentrics like L, Mello, Matsuda etc existed in this world. Most of the strangest characters are also super-geniuses and I think there's already an established trend in media conflating "super genius" with "weirdo"

Extra context is that I was there as the Death Note anime was airing (feels like an age ago now) and was a teenage girl, and so were a huge swath of my fellow fans. Most of the characters having quirks A) led to them being really memeable with lots of lighthearted, fun, jokey fan content made and B) a lot of people found certain characters oddities genuinely endearing and attractive.

A lot of guys around this time took up the habit of sitting like L in chairs, wearing eyeliner and eating sweets because he was so ridiculously popular with girls lol.

Late addendum: I own the full manga, full anime, both of the light novels, the "how to read" extsinsic materials, played the DS game, watched every single live action adaptation and the Broadway musical (which is... so, so much better than it has any right to be, maybe the goofiness of Death Note's premise made it work as a stage musical).

"I'm kind of an expert."

Less an expert and more a piggie eating up the content slop that is the endless reboots and adaptations, even though almost all of them are objectively bad.

[Sad Netflix sounds]

How. Dare. You.

And thank *you* for following! :)

To clarify, most people are either action shounen or moe enjoyers. I have a general dislike towards both.

I will also try to finish some old unfinished reviews. The first half of 2023 is likely going to have no reviews, since I am expected to write a large (15 page) paper by May. (Though a Pui Pui Molcar: Driving School review might be finished then).

Enjoy vacation, and good luck on the paper! When I did my thesis, doing the touchy bits of formatting as I went was unexpectedly key.