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The full episode, in writing.
Picture this: It’s 2007, Death Note is everywhere, and fans are hanging on every twist the story throws at them. Then the ending drops — and almost overnight, the fandom splits in two. Why? Because the series that made people question justice, morality, and who deserves power suddenly delivered an ending that, for a huge chunk of people, “ruined everything.” But what exactly happened at the end of Death Note that set off years of debate, disappointment, and even anger? Let’s break it down.
Death Note is the creation of writer Tsugumi Ohba and artist Takeshi Obata, serialized in Weekly Shōnen Jump for 108 chapters. The anime adaptation, directed by Tetsurō Araki, ran for 37 episodes. At the center: Light Yagami, a high school honor student who finds a notebook that can kill anyone whose name is written inside. He’s pitted against L, an eccentric genius detective. For much of the series, their psychological duel drives the tension — two equally matched minds, both playing for impossibly high stakes.
The first major turning point comes in episode 25, with the death of L. Up until then, L had been the intellectual rival that kept Light—and viewers—on edge. L’s death was both shocking and, for many, a sign that the story was raising the stakes even higher. But that’s also where the seeds of the ending controversy were planted.
After L is gone, two new characters take the stage: Near and Mello. Near, whose real name is Nate River, becomes Light’s main opponent for the final arc. Mello, or Mihael Keehl, is more of a wild card, but both are presented as successors to L. The last dozen episodes focus on this new rivalry, with Near leading a task force and Mello using more violent methods.
According to DualShockers, a wave of fan criticism hit the series in its final arc. The main complaint: Near and Mello simply didn’t match the charisma or complexity of L. Some viewers felt the tension that made the first half electric just fizzled. For comparison, L had nearly 25 episodes to develop, while Near and Mello together have less than half that. The pacing became faster, the psychological battles less nuanced, and the series leaned harder on exposition.
Fans on forums like MyAnimeList and Reddit (as cited by Comic Book Resources) started threads with hundreds of replies, dissecting every part of the ending. Some called the last arc “rushed,” others “anticlimactic.” Many argued that Light’s downfall felt unearned — not because he lost, but because the people who defeated him weren’t L. L’s final confrontation with Light was spread across nearly two volumes of manga, while Near’s trap is revealed and executed in just a few chapters.
The key climactic scene in the anime takes place in an abandoned warehouse. Near reveals that he manipulated the names in the Death Note, exposing Light as Kira. Light tries to kill everyone, but he’s shot and flees, wounded and desperate. In the manga, he’s finished off by Ryuk, the shinigami who dropped the Death Note, who writes Light’s name as promised from the very beginning. In the anime, Light dies alone, with a vision of L standing over him. For some viewers, this was poetic justice. For others, it was a betrayal.
Why did this ending divide the fandom so sharply? One reason comes down to expectations set by the first half of the series. The original L-versus-Light battle was a chess match where every detail mattered. Many fans believed that only L was worthy to defeat Light, or that Light’s “god complex” deserved something more epic or ambiguous than what Near delivered. When Near and Mello took over, their character development was compressed, with much less psychological interplay.
Another factor: Death Note’s ending is morally definitive. Light is exposed as a villain, his crimes laid bare, and he dies without redemption or ambiguity. Some fans wanted a more nuanced conclusion, maybe even a scenario where Light escapes, or where the morality of Kira’s actions is left unresolved. Instead, the ending draws a hard line: Kira loses, conventional justice wins. This black-and-white finish disappointed viewers who saw Death Note as a story about moral gray areas.
Numbers show just how polarizing this was. Death Note’s anime holds an average user score above 8.5 on MyAnimeList, but if you dig into episode-by-episode ratings, episodes 36 and 37 — the final showdown — have thousands more negative reviews than the series average. In fact, the final episode thread on MAL racked up over 3,000 comments in the first 48 hours after airing, with debates spilling onto fan blogs and YouTube reaction videos that are still getting views over a decade later.
Why did the creative team make these choices? According to interviews with Tsugumi Ohba, the goal was always to show that abusing godlike power leads to downfall. Near and Mello were intended as reflections of L, but also as reminders that justice can be impersonal and even a bit cold. The lack of emotional connection some fans felt to Near, compared to L, was a deliberate risk. But for many viewers, this risk backfired, making the conclusion feel hollow or mechanical.
Some fans believe the manga’s ending, with Ryuk writing Light’s name, is truer to the series’ themes. Others prefer the anime’s more dramatic, desperate Light, dying alone and haunted by L’s ghostly presence. The sheer variety of “fixed” endings posted on fanfiction sites and YouTube — ranging from Light escaping to Near dying in a reversal — shows how strong the urge to rewrite the finale remains.
According to Comic Book Resources, Death Note’s ending is now cited alongside other divisive finales, like Game of Thrones or Lost. Its inclusion in lists of “endings that ruined everything” is less about the plot itself and more about how it handled the legacy of its core conflict. With more than 30 million copies of the manga sold worldwide, that’s a lot of disappointed — or divided — readers and viewers.
And here’s one final twist: after the controversy peaked, Death Note’s ending became a kind of rite of passage for new anime fans, with questions like “Did you like the ending?” showing up on quizzes and dating app profiles. Even now, almost 20 years after the series first aired, Death Note’s ending might be the most-argued anime finale of all time.