is a manga created by writer
Tsugumi Ohbais a writer best known for the manga Death Note. His real identity is a closely guarded secret. As stated by the profile placed at the beginning of each Death Note manga, Ohba collects teacups and develops manga plots while holding his knees on a chair, similar to a habit of L, one of the main...
and manga artist
Takeshi Obatais a Japanese manga artist. He works as the artist in collaboration with a writer. He has also mentored several manga artists, including Kentaro Yabuki of Black Cat fame, Nobuhiro Watsuki of Rurouni Kenshin and Busou Renkin, and Yusuke Murata of Eyeshield 21.He originally became noticed in 1985...
. The main character is
Light Yagami, also known as is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the manga and anime series Death Note. He is an extremely intelligent, athletic, popular, but bored young man who finds the Death Note dropped by the Shinigami Ryuk by sheer chance...
, a high school student who discovers a
supernaturalThe supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
notebookA notebook is a book or binder composed of pages of notes, often ruled, made out of paper, used for purposes including recording notes or memoranda, writing, drawing, and scrapbooking....
, the "Death Note", dropped on Earth by a god of death, or a shinigami, named Ryuk. The Death Note grants its user the ability to kill anyone whose name and face they know, by writing the name in the notebook while picturing their face. The series centers around Light's attempt to create and rule a world "cleansed of evil" as
"God"A god complex is an unshakable belief characterized by consistently inflated feelings of personal ability, privilege, or infallibility. A person with a god complex may refuse to admit the possibility of error or failure, even in the face of complex or intractable problems or difficult or impossible...
using the notebook, and the efforts of a detective known as
L, widely known by the letter , is a fictional character in the manga series Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Considered the world's greatest detective, he lives in secrecy...
to stop him.
Death Note was first serialized in 108 chapters by
Shueishais a major publisher in Japan. The company was founded in 1925 as the entertainment-related publishing division of Japanese publisher Shogakukan. The following year, Shueisha became a separate, independent company. Magazines published by Shueisha include Weekly Shōnen Jump, Weekly Young Jump,...
in the Japanese manga magazine
Weekly Shōnen Jumpis a weekly shōnen manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the Jump line of magazines. The first issue was released with a cover date of July 2, 1968, and it is still circulating. One of the longest-running manga magazines in Japan, it has a circulation of 2.8 million copies...
from December 2003 to May 2006.