Synopsis

Light Yagami is an ace student with great prospectsâ€”and heâ€™s bored out of his mind. But all that changes when he finds the Death Note, a notebook dropped by a rogue Shinigami death god. Any human whose name is written in the notebook dies, and Light has vowed to use the power of the Death Note to rid the world of evil. But will Light succeed in his noble goal, or will the Death Note turn him… into the very thing he fights against?

The writer remarked on their preference for reading the previous "two or four" chapters carefully to ensure consistency in the story.

The typical weekly production schedule consisted of five days of creating and thinking and one day using a pencil to insert dialogue into rough drafts; after this point, the writer faxed any initial drafts to the editor.

In contrast, the writer took three or four days to create a chapter on some occasions, while on others they took a month.

The first time they met in person was at an editorial party in January 2004.

The two did not discuss the final chapters with one another and continued talking only with their editor.

After the publication of the pilot chapter, the series was not expected to receive approval for serialization.