Death Note/Narm

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Light eating a potato chip in slow motion, to Ominous Latin Chanting. The guys at Adult Swim realized this and made it the episode's promo. The English dub has Light's "I'll take a potato chip...and eat it!" delivered in an even more dramatic voice than in the original, and added maniacal laughter; whether this is deliberate Lampshade Hanging or unintentional is unknown. Still, this being a Subjective Trope, many fans consider the Epic Potato Chips(tm) scene awesome. Really awesome.
  • Mikami's Catch Phrase of "DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!" is another cross between awesome and narm. It would help it if didn't sound like he was channeling Strong Bad.
    • There is also the fact that, for any Doctor Who fans, you can't help but think of him as Cyberman Kira.
  • Mikami's death in the anime. It would have been more dramatic without all the High-Pressure Blood. Seriously, it's like a geyser.
    • And if he hadn't done it with a pen. Sure, you'd probably die if you stabbed yourself in the chest with a pen in real life, but it wouldn't have caused blood to spray from your body like a firehose.
    • It's ridiculous no matter what weapon Mikami used, because the entire thing, the thrashing about, the fucking blood geyser, is so cartoonish. The geyser is a physical impossibility, although the pen does make it even more absurd. It's also infuriating to fans of the manga, because it didn't need to be so stupid. Mikami's fate in the manga fit much better.
  • Matt's death was absolutely hilarious. So anticlimactic, and it came right when he was suggesting that he wouldn't be killed because he could tell the angry mob useful things! His status as a Red Shirt-wearing Ensemble Darkhorse was icing on the cake.
    • The above scene is nastily parodied here.
  • The extreme facial expressions used by Light and Mikami all throughout the final episode manage to straddle the line between Narm and Nightmare Fuel.
  • Larry Connors introduces himself to Soichiro under the alias 'John McEnroe'. There should have been a scene with him saying "Light Yagami is Kira!? YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!" and throwing something.
    • Considering he's the first sign the task force gets of Near's existence, the moment is a good, hearty tennis is still in season.
  • A kid threatened bullies with this gem:

"Leave me alone or I'll put your names on the Internet!"

  • "I want to tell you I'm L." Really anticlimactic there, L.
    • This happens in the dub because the way L said "I'm L" in Japanese is "Watashi wa L desu." The significance of L and Light's Japanese Pronouns is for another page. The point is, this is a long phrase to match, and the match is awkward.
    • The scene was better in the manga: the reader sees "I am L", rather than hearing it, and then immediately sees Light's reaction.
  • A certain foot-washing scene is supposed to be a Biblical reference, but it's more awkward than anything else.
  • Misa's suggestions that L was a stalker, and her asking to go to the bathroom after losing her memory while being held under suspicion of being the Second Kira, were most likely supposed to be disturbing; but they came off as funny because Misa is already a ditz.
    • She refers to L as "Stalker-san."
      • Misa's one to talk.
    • Any serious scene where Misa opens her mouth qualifies.
      • Except if she's being insane or creepy.
  • L throws up his hands in the air, screams, and tips over his chair upon hearing the word "Shinigami" in one of the video messages. Seeing someone typically so calm get so worked up over just hearing the word is hilarious, especially since he took seeing a shinigami considerably better.
    • He looked like he was about to sneeze.
    • The armchair tipped over. How did this happen?
      • Interestingly, this scene is a lot more serious when you first watch it (provided you're an L fan); it looks like L is having a Kira heart attack, and your like "Oh Shit, L NOOOOOO!!!" Then you realize that L did not in fact have a heart attack, you're relieved, and don't notice the Narm. Then you watch it again, know that L doesn't die at that point...Priceless.
  • Mello ordering Sidoh to help get rid of the task force storming his lair. It's supposed to look intense, but the way his eyes bulge out make him look like someone from Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy getting angry.
  • Sidoh looks like a total dork screaming "yippee" when he regains his Death Note. It feels inappropriate, since this comes right after Soichiro's death.
  • Any of Mello's scenes in the English dub. His voice actor is trying so hard to sound dramatic that his dialogue sounds pathetically unrealistic. Sadly, this makes it hard to take Mello seriously. The over-the-top expressions Mello tends to make probably don't help.
      • What really sold the blanket shot was that he delivered that line and then paused for a full 2-3 seconds before actually throwing it.
      • Well, Mello is competitive, so he may have been trying to one-up Light's legendary potato chip scene.
      • The anime strongly implies that Mello planned his Death. Waiting to give Takada the blanket could be to show that he realizes what's about to happen. So it's like "You can use this blanket!" *pause* 'As soon as I hand it to her, my time is up.' *gives blanket*. But yeah, it did seem akward the first time I watched it.
  • This scene (slightly paraphrased):

Mello: Shinigami are real.
Near: I instantly believe you.

  • The deleted scene in which Light stays in the graveyard after L's funeral, starts laughing madly, proceeds to crawl on top of L's grave, and shouts "What do you think of that, L? This is my perfect victory! That's right—I win!" with a crazed look on his face. It is chilling until we see Light looking like a dog barking at the postman when he yells at L's grave.
  • Light's utterly disgraceful manga death. I'm still not sure whether it was intended to be sad, horrific or satirical, but I was laughing so hard I almost choked.
  • L's death is ruined by Light's rape face.
  • Funny fact, Light's last name is "I'm a gay" written backwards. No wonder the guy never seems interested in women.

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