Between the genuinely dramatic moments featured in Death Note, it also has its fair share of cheesy moments, as well.
- 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 YMMV, many fans consider the Epic Potato Chips™ scene awesome. Really awesome.- Here is a sample of Light's crazy laughter.
- And here is the same scene in Japanese.
- The Spanish version has the same lines and one extra problem: his voice cracks.
- Now in 12 different languages.
- Here is a sample of Light's crazy laughter
- Mikami's Character Catchphrase of "DELETE! DELETE! DELETE!" is another cross between awesome and narm. It sounds like he’s channeling Strong Bad. Then in the final episode he shouts it at the top of his lungs after writing down both the Japanese Task Force and SPK's names while prostrating himself and Milking the Giant Cow like he just busted the fattest nut of all time.
- There is also the fact that, for any Doctor Who fans, you can't help but think of him as Cyberman Kira.
- Following the rise of Broken Matt Hardy, there's another layer of narm to the phrase.
- 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 fountain 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.
- 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 Dark Horse was icing on the cake.
- 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." 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.
- A certain foot-washing scene is supposed to be a Biblical reference, but it's more awkward than anything else. (Though for some fans it’s also hot.)
- 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.
- 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.
- The English dub of Episode 23 has a particularly clumsy translation error. As Light and L are watching Higuchi in his car, Rem (whom they can neither see nor hear) asks Higuchi to give up ownership of the Death Note. In the original Japanese version, Higuchi outlines why that would be a bad idea, but does not specifically mention the Death Note. In the English dub, however, Higuchi says, "Even if I forgot about the notebook, my life would be over." Neither Light nor L reacts to this!
- In the manga, Higuchi obtaining the Shinigami Eyes. It was likely meant to invoke fear in the reader... but coupling the eyes with Higuchi's appearance just makes him look like a grinning ape.
- 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. See screencap.
- 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.
- 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. Of course, given who it is, this was likely intentional.
- L's death is ruined by Light's rape face.
- Ukita's death is somewhat ruined by the fact that his head is drawn unusually large in that one moment. You can see it on his character sheet.
- Light regaining his memories would have been cool if he didn't scream bloody murder for thirty seconds straight! To make matters worse it looks like he's going into the Avatar State.
- Aizawa gives us this gem in the English dub:Aizawa: That settles it. THEY'RE WRITING NOTES!
- Near wearing L's mask in the warehouse was probably supposed to make him look mysterious... it made him look more silly than anything. That... or freaking creepy.
- When Light makes a deduction he gets a red tint and a black background, when Mello does it his eyes widen, and when L does it we hear his calm Internal Monologue. Near? He gets inexplicably glowing Prophet Eyes as the entire room spins around like a tornado.
- The scene at the beginning of chapter 61 in which Near and Mello are informed of L's death is hard to take seriously because Mello looks totally psychotic and Near looks like he wasn't paying attention.
- When Light is framed and Matsuda shoots at him, his reaction is so blatantly exaggerated that he looks like swimming, and his screaming makes him look like an angry swimming instructor. Indeed somebody noticed this and made videos referring to the swimming lessons like this or this.
- Out of the 12 languages used in this series, 11 of them manage to perfectly capture the spirit of Light's Evil Laugh in the final episode (the Italian, English, and original Japanese in particular are highly praised). The Hungarian dub, on the other hand, makes Light sound like a circus clown and completely derails the moment.
- The fact that Light takes the time to gloat at the last second that he’s won, only for the Death Note to not take effect. It’s meant to be serious, but it just comes off as hilarious due to Light inadvertently exposing himself purely because of his firm grasp on the Villain Ball.
- Some of the serious moments are undercut by the incredibly silly "American" names of the FBI agents. Most readers with even a basic understanding of the English language will quickly note how they're utterly gibberish, most likely the result of the author being completely unfamiliar with foreign naming conventions. None of them really hold a candle to "Night God Moonlight", though.
