If being infectiously popular is a crime, then Tsugumi Ohba would be the biggest criminal of all. Eons after the release of his magnum opus, Death Note has remained one of the most prominent series that has transcended the imaginary borders of Japan and became a huge name in the West.
From featuring an anti-hero protagonist to unforeseen plot twists, many consider this series to be the top-notch work of the 21st century. Some even walked the extra mile by calling it the work that defined our generation. However, even such high praises couldn’t hide the one major flaw that plagues the legacy of the reverse mystery series.
Surprisingly, this flaw is the same as the one present in Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, which happens to be poorly written female characters.
Death Note and its almost tale of becoming the ‘perfect’ anime in the Otaku Community
Ever since Tsugumi Ohba’s Death Note premiered all the way back in 2016, the Otakus were taken aback with what a 37-episode series can do. With a plot that alone sends shivers down the spine of its viewers, it was carefully interwoven with characters that left an everlasting impact on its viewers.
Clearly, it gave a quintessential experience of how Light Yagami, the Figure of Justice, gets blinded by the power of the gods, running wild, killing anyone and everyone, who dares to stand in his way. Additionally, the background score added to the tension of the plot, making the viewers chew on their nails.
Everything seemed perfect, until a fan decided to take it to Reddit, posting a question, “Worst-written character in anime?” The user gave their characteristics of a poorly written female character and wrote down their interpretation of not having “ample build-up” or having “cheap emotional thrills” that ruined the tension of the plot.
Though the Redditor used Sword Art Online II as their reference, another fan was quick to refer to Misa from Death Note. The fan mentioned that when it comes to female characters, Ohba-Sensei is “pretty bad” and gave the example of his other renowned work, Bakuman.
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By using both mangas as their argument, the fans emphasized that the author can weave a masterpiece of a story. But when it comes to writing female characters, they will not be nearly as good as the male characters.
Even though some fans claim that it is because of the highly misogynistic culture present in society, the illustrator of the series came forward and explained the real reason why the work’s female characters are so bad to look at.
Takeshi Obata unravels Death Note’s most difficult aspect
One of the worst trends that follows in the series is how almost all the female characters get exploited, making them look miserable for the most part or having a gruesome death that forces its viewers to turn their faces away. However, the work has it much worse because Takeshi Obata, the illustrator of the acclaimed work, mentioned one aspect that he hated the most.
During the New York Comic Con 2014 via the Comics Alliance, Obata-San admitted how he can’t “capture” the expressions of the female characters and called it the “most difficult thing” of his work. He said,
I’m really bad at drawing female characters. It’s difficult to capture their expression because I don’t understand them! Making them pretty and cute is the most difficult thing.
While Death Note struggled to create female characters, resonating a much worse problem than Masashi Kishimoto’s Naruto, Tite Kubo’s one female character in Bleach, singlehandedly changed the perspective for female characters.
Death Note can be streamed on Netflix.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
