For people who read manga regularly, Death Note should stand above the crowd. Its influence is so widespread, there is even a chance that people who have not read manga have heard of Death Note. Meticulously written and drawn by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata respectively, Death Note is a crowning achievement in the manga world. It stands as an example of why the comic book art form should be taken seriously.

The plot is tightly riveting, and the nuances of each character so carefully crafted that their growth never seems outlandish, even though the story revolves around Shinigami and their private notebooks. Death Note tells of the dark journey high school student Light Yagami must take when he comes across a Death Note and decides to cleanse the world of criminals, creating what he considers a utopia in the process. Using the Death Note, Light mercilessly kills those he considers guilty of wrongdoing. As is clearly demonstrated throughout the series, a utopia built on killing and deception is no utopia at all.

The manga series attained popularity through the clever plot twists and the charismatic, yet sinister protagonist. An anime was created based off of it, as well as several live-action films (some better than others). As you would expect in a story about killing people for a "higher purpose," the story takes some of the darkest turns ever seen in a narrative. In this list, we'll take a look at some of the darker moments Death Note portrayed, as well as some of the insane, jaw-dropping parts that made you consider putting the book down, turning off the TV, or canceling your Netflix subscription, depending on how you consumed this tale.

20 Oh My God, They Killed Kenny!

When Light Yagami first discovers the Death Note, he experiments with it after reading some of the rules printed within. Using his innate brilliance and common sense (albeit, a very twisted common sense), Light Yagami comes to understand the workings of the Death Note. In the Netflix adaptation, Light Turner (very loosely based on Light Yagami) also discovers a Death Note. However, in this live-action film, the Shinigami Ryuk, whose Death Note it is, arrives to explain the workings of the book to Light Turner. Light Turner is not exactly the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.

We'll heave a sigh and say reluctantly that it doesn't matter too much that this Light Turner is not the genius that Light Yagami is. But for Light Turner's first test of the Death Note, Ryuk suggests he tries it out on a bully named Kenny Doyle. Yes, the bully is aggravating (as all onscreen bullies are) and he is violent. But really, Light Turner? Decapitation is the way you chose to kill Kenny? He clocked you one, and you decide to remove his head from his body? Light Yagami, as evil as he was, never gave in to wanton, gory inclinations while he was mass-killing his way to utopia.

19 The Death Of The Best Antagonist In Manga History

Death Note introduced the world to one of the best games of cat and mouse ever to be read in a comic. Light Yagami, in pursuit of his ideal world without evil, ends up butting heads with the equally brilliant and adorably eccentric L, the reclusive leader of the task force designed to capture Kira. Kira was the godly persona that Light assumed as he dealt out deaths to criminals, and L following Light's trail was hypnotizing. Never has deductive reasoning been so mesmerizing.

But of course, with such an antagonist opposing Light, the only way to secure the integrity of their characters was to kill one of them. It would have made no sense to have neither prevail. When L was on the brink of proving that Light was Kira, he was killed. Misa, Light's assistant in being Kira, had been writing names down nonstop, which drew the attention of L. Since L was closing in on her, Misa's Shinigami, Rem wrote L's name down in her Death Note to save Misa, all according to Light's plan. L's eyes closed, and we all had to make do with Near and Mello, L's successors.

18 Goodbye, Father

With a title like Death Note, it is not strange or out of the ordinary for there to be a lot of deaths in the series. It would be odd if there weren't. But even so, some deaths stand out in particular, and the death of Light Yagami's father is one of them. From the very first issue or episode (depending on which you saw first), we felt sorry for Soichiro Yagami. He was clearly trying to act on behalf of justice and bring Kira in to answer for his crimes, all the while unaware that his own son was the infamous villain.

Mello, one of L's successors, comes close to discovering all he can about Kira, so Light deftly works the situation so that his father makes a deal with Ryuk, Light's Shinigami, to obtain his eyes. Anyone with Shinigami eyes can see the name of a person and how long they have left to live. Soichiro manages to see Mello's real name, but he's injured in an explosion Mello set up to aid in his escape. Soichiro dies without giving Light Mello's name and without knowing that his son was Kira all along. And as his father dies, all Light can think about is knowing Mello's name. Talk about cold.

17 Death Gods Play Favorites

Some people have all the luck, and Misa Amane is one of those people. Not one, but two Shinigami favored her over all others, and made the decision to protect her life at the expense of others. Misa is a delightful character, playful and innocent where others are evil and serious. It is curious though, how two Shinigami sacrificed themselves so that Misa could live.

The first Shinigami was named Gelus, and he fell in love with Misa while watching her from the Shinigami realm. When a stalker attacked Misa, Gelus wrote his name down in his Death Note to save her. (Kind of a pot-kettle situation, if you ask me.) Since he had extended her life by writing down her attacker's name, Gelus turned to dust. Rem, another Shinigami, sees Gelus' actions, and decides to give Misa his Death Note and to watch over her as well. Rem eventually develops a real affection for Misa, and dies in a similar manner to Gelus. There's something about that Misa... we just don't know what it is.

16 Intense Tennis

As a disclaimer, we would like to assure any tennis-playing readers that tennis is, in fact, quite an intense game all on its own. We are in no way attempting to suggest that it is dull. We merely wish to point out that the tennis match between Light Yagami and L is the most intense match of tennis we've ever seen. Aside from the competition that tennis naturally evokes, Light and L's match was infused with tension from the fact that Kira and the man who proclaimed he would arrest him are facing off physically instead of solely mentally.

In the anime, the ball is smacked back and forth, hurtling towards the two players as they each monologue in their heads about the identity of the other. Light postulates that if he wins the game, L might suspect that he is Kira. L analyzes Light's reactions as the game progresses. Light wins the match, and we're left scratching our heads at how and why Death Note made a tennis game so fist-clenchingly stressful.

15 Presidential Blackmail

Mello was never the calmest character we met in Death Note. His temper always seemed to get the better of him, and he was one of those characters that you feared would fly off the handle at the drop of a hat. His drive to catch Kira was admirable, but he never cared about the consequences of his actions, so long as he could one-up his opponents. The only likable quality of his was his obsession with chocolate, something we think most people could get behind.

Mello definitely takes it too far when he threatens the president of the United States in order to gain information on the Special Provision for Kira (SPK). Since Mello got his hands on a Death Note, it came in handy when making threats. Not only does he threaten the president with death, since he can write the actions of what a person does before they die, Mello threatens to have the president launch nuclear missiles before he kills him. For Mello, simple death threats are apparently not enough.

14 Killer Overachiever

Light Yagami was a straight-A student who excelled at his studies and who everybody expected great things from. You could take it for granted that whatever he settled on doing with his life, he would do it well. It's just unfortunate that he settled on being a killer/creator of utopia. When Light first finds the Death Note, he picks it up and experiments with it. No big deal. When Ryuk finally shows up in Light's house to talk to him about the usage of the Death Note, boy, does Light have a surprise for him.

Light was probably one of those students who did their homework ahead of time, and he holds on to this tradition by staying ahead of the curve with his self-assigned work as Kira. When Ryuk glides over to tell him how to work his Death Note, Light shows him page after page of names that he has written down. Before receiving any tutelage in using it, Light used the Death Note to begin his work, slating hundred to die of cardiac arrest. Uh...nerd?

13 From Misa To Kira

A big question that preyed on everyone's minds while reading/watching Death Note was why on earth a sweet girl like Misa Amane would develop such a staggeringly huge crush on Kira before ever meeting him. With her talent and fame as a model, she could have landed any guy she set her eyes on. And with her endearing personality, she could have charmed the nicest gentleman. Instead, she chooses to follow Kira fanatically, eventually becoming a Second Kira, proving that she is willing to kill for him.

When she was a child, her parents were brutally killed in front of her during a home robbery. Their killer never saw true justice according to Misa. He never earned a guilty conviction, and instead the trial was prolonged. Her parents' killer just so happened to be one of those numerous names that Light wrote down in his Death Note. Because the killer died of a heart attack, Misa knew that it had been Kira who had given her the justice she wanted. So it is all because of this incident that her infatuation with Light began.

12 The Matt-Mello Tragedy

Mello is not an easy person to be friends with, and aside from Near (who Mello appears to loathe), Mello's best friend would have to be Matt. If all of L's successors were to be ranked according to their intelligence, Matt would be third, with Mello and then Near above him. Matt was instantly an easy-to-relate-to character (at least to me) not just because he sported stylish striped shirts, but because it was clear that his only desire was to sit in a room and play video games.

Despite his wish to game all his life, Matt assisted Mello in his pursuit of Kira. This ends badly for Matt. He helps Mello to take Kiyomi Takada, Kira's TV spokesperson, only to be cornered by her bodyguards. He surrenders and puts his hands in the air, but they gun him down anyway. Mello loses his only friend, and we lose a fellow gamer.

11 Matsuda The Dude

Touta Matsuda was a naive, young detective when we first meet him. He clearly idolizes Light's father, the chief of police, and Chief Yagami helps the fresh detective get on his feet when the Kira case slams into the department. Matsuda becomes a part of the task force assigned to the Kira case. He tries to prove he has what it takes every chance he gets, but often finds himself overwhelmed by the gravity of the situation. His inexperience endeared him to us, especially since he was surrounded by all these tactical geniuses that we could never hope to emulate.

The sad part of Matsuda's story is how much he trusted Light Yagami. His trust in Light's father was never misplaced, because Soichiro Yagami was honorable and had an integrity made of adamantium. But Matsuda is sorely mistaken in trusting Light. When Matsuda finds out that Light is in fact Kira, he gets so enraged that he shoots him several times in the chest. It was crushing to watch Matsuda get crushed.

10 Things Just Got Real

More than any of Kira's other killings, Naomi Misora's death was the one that convinced us that Light's intentions of creating a utopia were founded on an unstable and wicked foundation. We already knew that Light's methods of creating a better world were flawed (killing people is clearly immoral), but there was a small part of us that applauded his mystic vigilantism. He was punishing criminals.

Then the FBI got on the case, and Light decided to make swift work of them, carefully entrapping an agent in a convoluted plot, all so that he could find out the rest of the names of the twelve agents investigating Kira. One of these agents had a fiancee named Naomi, and her death at the hands of Light shocked us more than his merciless removal of the FBI agents. She had been quietly resourceful in figuring out how her fiancee had died, and as cautious as she could be, but she made the mistake of trusting Light Yagami, son of the chief of police. He writes her name in the Death Note and has her kill herself.

9 Mia Is The Real Kira

So of the many complaints fired at the Netflix adaptation of Death Note, the most shocking would probably be the changes done to the "Misa" character. Mia Sutton took the place of Misa Amane as the primary female character in the story. However, Mia was nothing like Misa. Where Misa was sweet and childlike, Mia was vicious and made of sterner stuff than Light Turner. Where Light Turner (pseudo-Light Yagami) was hesitant to use the Death Note, Mia was all about killing those who she perceived as evil. And when the hunt for Kira began, she was the one who took charge of covering their tracks.

Bottom line, she was the one who initiated the killing sprees, which means that she was the one who did what Light Yagami did in the manga. And what would that make her? Yes, dear reader, that would make her Kira. The Netflix adaptation turned Misa into Kira and turned Light into a screaming, fearful, average kid who loved the wrong person. Okay, we are kind of hating on the movie. It's not that bad. But it's not the manga or the anime. Not by a long shot.

8 And Then There Was Light

Light cultivated a facade when he began his work as Kira. He had to in order to preserve his life as Light and to hide his Kira persona. But occasionally that mask cracks, and we get a glimpse at the maniacal egomaniac that Light really is. We don't know if he suffered from the "god complex" before the manga begins, but he sure suffers from it after he picks up the Death Note.

He calls himself the god of the new world, and this new world is one where he doles out judgment as he see fit and he is the highest power. And he truly believes in this vision of his. It grows worse as the series goes on. Light Yagami really thinks he is a god to be feared. That is what eventually leads to his downfall. And that is what mainly turns us away from rooting for him. He's already rooting for himself way too much.

7 Mello Turns Into Jello

Mello reaches a heart-rending end when he takes Kiyomi Takada, Kira's spokesperson. He snatches her away from her bodyguards and locks her into the back of a delivery truck. Because she is an associate of Kira's and he might be keeping track of her, Mello asks Takada to strip so that he can verify that she does not have any tracking devices on her person. She does not, and in order to preserve what modesty she has left, Mello lets her cover herself with a blanket afterwards.

Takada is full-on Kira supporter. She even knows that the real Kira is Light Yagami; in fact, she adores Light. Unbeknownst to Mello, she had hidden a scrap of the Death Note within her bra cup. Light had told her Mello's real name, so she is able to write Mello's name on that small slip of paper underneath the blanket. He suffers from the heart attack that all victims of the Death Note do if a cause of death is not penciled in after their name.

6 Amnesia As A Strategy

You have to give Light credit where credit is due. He has always been brilliant. His grades prove that much. But how ingenious do you have to be to plan to lose your memory and then get it back? If we had been in Light's shoes, we--okay, well, we would not kill people. Let's get that straight. But if placed in a situation where we had to execute a plan where our memory of the past would be erased, we would not have handled it with the aplomb that Light did.

When L's investigation comes perilously close to uncovering Light's connection to Kira, Light realizes the best course of action would be for him to give up the Death Note. By giving up his Death Note, Light loses his memory of his time with it. He arranges matters so that after a certain amount of time, he will come into contact with a Death Note again. Once Light touched the Death Note again, he regained all his memories and could continue his Kira activities.

5 A Wheelchair For Sister

Sayu Yagami was a bright ray of optimism in the Yagami household. She was never as peppy as Misa, but her brightness stemmed from her normalcy. In a house that held the grim and determined chief of police and the intense and psychotic Kira, Sayu, with her normal school kid worries, was a breath of fresh air. It is a terrible shame that someone as nice as her ended up with Light Yagami as a big brother.

Because of her connection to the chief of police, she is taken by the Mafia so that they could get their hands on a Death Note that the task force has in their custody. Sayu's father makes the trade in order to save his daughter, but the experience so shocks her that she is stuck using a wheelchair. And that's the last we see of her in the story.

4 Light Becomes L

In a most disturbing twist of fate, once Light manages to succeed in getting rid of L, he is chosen to be the next L. Light then becomes in charge of the investigation on Kira. It was a double whammy for L fans. Not only did we have to witness our hero succumb to a heart attack while Light smirked down at him, we had to see him replaced with the very monster who arranged his death.

That is when the time skip of the series occurs. Five years pass with Light as the head of the task force, and the unfairness of it is devastating. For five years, Light has gotten his way. He's been killing people as Kira and shaping society the way he sees fit. He's been meticulously misleading the police all the while. It is for this egregious display of arrogance that we tighten our belts, crack our knuckles, and get behind our new "heroes," Near and Mello.

3 The Tokyo Nightclub Incident

We promise, this will be the last time we will bash on the Netflix adaptation. We simply have to address this one last scene (even though there are so many other aspects of the film that we could bash, we're limiting ourselves here). One of Kira's targets in the live-action movie was a nightclub in Tokyo that the Yakuza apparently frequented. Everyone inside is dead in a bloody fashion, and we get to see L in action as he investigates the crime scene.

Look, the thing that made Kira noticeable in the manga was his ability to silently kill with a heart attack. Judging from the amount of blood in the club, the club-goers either suffered from the goriest heart attacks in human history or they were killed by some other means. Kira was never about being excessive for the sake of being excessive, but that's the path the Netflix adaptation of Death Note took. Mia Sutton and Light Turner are apparently more bloodthirsty than Light Yagami, which sounds wrong just typing that.

2 Mad Love Misa

Misa's love for Light Yagami is one of the most dramatic things done to excess in the story. Her naivete in loving Kira persists through all the horrible things he does. Light does not care for Misa the way she cares for him. To him, Misa is a tool that he can use to carry out his goal of creating a better world. And she never sees it. She's clever (at times). She is able to become a second Kira and keep the police at bay for a short while. But she is not clever enough to see past Light's exterior.

Their love reminds us of the relationship that exists between the Joker and Harley Quinn. Admittedly, Mistah J and Harley are crazier than Light and Misa. But Misa follows Light like Harley follows the Joker. And both the Joker and Light would watch their ladies burn before letting them get in the way of what they truly want.

1 Take A Chip And Eat It

This moment pertains specifically to the anime. The anime captured the essence of the manga wonderfully, but we all agree that they took chip-eating to a whole new level. When Light Yagami discovers that his house is under video surveillance, he contrives a resourceful way to continue killing as Kira while appearing to be a diligent student. He sneaks a mini TV into a large bag of chips and as he does his homework with his right hand, he writes names down within the bag with his left hand.

In the anime, this moment is gloriously conducted in slow motion, and the music swells as Light takes a potato chip... and eats it. He even narrates his actions as a chorus of voices churn out the dramatic music. This moment forever stamped itself in our memories as one of the greatest moments in Death Note history (as well as the strangest).