death note anime

Anime Like Death Note

Light Yagami is a high school prodigy and genius. However, he has an ever-increasing boredom and disdain for the rotten violent world. One day, he happens upon a notebook, called a Death Note, which states that if you write a name in it, the person will die. To his surprise, the notebook’s claims turn out to be true. This Death Note, the property of the Shinigami gods of death, gives Light the power to change this world and he decides to become its new God by executing all criminals.

Considered a masterpiece by many, Death Note shows its viewers a game of highly intelligent cat and mouse like no other series. Few other anime series can compare, but allow these anime recommendations to try.

Anime Like Death Note

For Fans of Mind Games

terror in resonance anime

Terror in Resonance

After a terrorist attack on a Japanese nuclear facility, the country was paralyzed to act. After six months of searching for the perpetrators, the public is shown a video of two boys known as Sphinx who take credit for a recent bomb attack. The pair are soon linked to the terrorist attack on the nuclear facility by police. Threatening more mayhem to come, it is up to the police to catch these terrorists. However, Sphinx has been very careful to never kill anyone with their attacks. Instead, they hope to use them to expose a secret government experiment and its cruelty.

Like in Death Note, the mass-murdering protagonists of the series aren’t necessarily good, while the oddball detectives that serve as the antagonists are not necessarily bad. Both are one of those unique anime series where you are not quite sure who to root for.

monster anime

Monster

Dr. Kenzou Tenma is a renowned brain surgeon with a perfect life, at least until one night when he is faced with a difficult decision. Both a small boy and the mayor are brought in with mortal injuries, and he can only save one. Naturally, he saves the boy, but when a series of murders begins to happen around him, all evidence points to the boy he saved.

Do you like psychological thriller mysteries that question mortality in its purest form? Well, will this be the anime for you! Tense, realistic, and just a dash of supernatural, if you liked watching the plans unfold in Death Note, than this is the next best thing.

one outs anime

One Outs

Toua Tokuchi is an athlete and a gambler. He makes his money with a serious fastball and a simplified game of baseball called One Outs. However, one day he is approached by a veteran slugger and asked to join his long unsuccessful team, but the owner of the team doesn’t want him to threaten the money that he makes by losing. Toua, being the gambler that he is, eventually settles that for each out he pitches, he gets 5 million yen, but for each hit, he loses 50 million.

Confused on how baseball and murdering people with a notebook are even remotely similar? It is all in how they are played out. You wouldn’t think baseball is much of a thinkin’ game, but according to One Outs, there is a lot of strategy to it. Watch two opponents try to outwit each other in a setting you would never expect.

Decim making a cocktail while a woman in black waits from Death Parade

Death Parade

After death there is no afterlife, just reincarnation and oblivion. To decide your fate, you are sent to a bar where the bartender will challenge you to a game in which you wager your soul’s fate.

Both series deal heavily with death enough to have “Death” right in the name, but that is not what makes them so similar. What makes them similar is that in Death Parade, two people face off in the bar and the bartender needs to decide who is good and who is evil, a decision that Death Note taught us is not so easy.

For Fans of Law and Order

psycho pass anime

Psycho-Pass

In the 22nd century, the justice system has changed. The Sibyl System now determines the threat level of each citizen by examining their mental state for criminal intent. This has become known as their Psycho-Pass. Once criminal intent has been identified, Inspectors like Akane Tsunemori are in charge of subjugating them. However, this tough job is not without dangers. This is why Inspectors are paired with Enforcers, like Shinya Kougami, latent criminals with just the right amount of psychopathy to keep other criminals in their place.

Both series feature the “Law versus Crime” as they fight against each other with genius minds. While Psycho-Pass is a little more technological, both revolve around people trying to catch criminals by any means possible.

hell girl anime

Hell Girl

Those with a powerful grudge are able to access a website at midnight where they are allowed to enter anyone’s name and have them ferried off to hell. Ai Enma, the Hell Girl will come for them and not judge, merely carry out vengeance.

There is a fine line between revenge and justice, and both series dance around that line. In both Death Note and Hell Girl, right and wrong initially start out pretty clear cut, but over the course of the series, the lines in each begin to blur.

eden of the east anime

Eden of the East

During her graduation trip to America, Saki Morimi has a chance meeting with Akira Takizawa, a man who is naked and suffering from amnesia. Despite several suspicious traits, she befriends him, but it seems Akira may have something to do with a devastating terrorist attack that happened in Japan.

In both series, the main characters aim to make the world a better place to live. In both series that is done by a somewhat supernatural proxy ala a notebook or a cellphone that grants wishes. Both proxies have rules that must be followed.

detective conan anime

Detective Conan

Despite his teenage age, Shinichi Kudou is one of the great detectives of the world. However, one day when he witnesses some illegal going-ons, criminals catch him and dose him with a mysterious drug. Next thing he knows, he is waking up as a little boy again. Now Shinichi must try to solve his own mystery while stuck as seven-year-old.

While dipping its toe into darkness occasionally, Detective Conan is one of those Friday night mystery shows that even the young ones can enjoy. That is not to say there isn’t some intrigue for the adults though. While not as complex as Death note, Detective Conan still provides plenty of good mystery cases.

For Fans of Life With Just a Dash of Supernatural

Future Diary anime


Future Diary

High school student Yukiteru Amano spends his days alone, writing in his diary and talking to his imaginary friend Deus Ex Machina, the god of time and space. However, one day, Deus gives Yukiteru the power to know the future of his surroundings through his diary, also giving 11 others equally powerful diaries. Now they must kill each other with the winner taking his place as god.

Both series deal with supernatural notes the foretell things dealing with life and death. While in Future Diary, the diary is used to escape one’s death, the death note is used to kill others. Regardless, moral dilemmas, mind games, and fights for survival are abound.

durarara anime

Durarara!!

Tokyo’s downtown district of Ikebukuro is awash in strange rumors, everything from colorless color gangs to a headless rider roaming town populate the rumors. For Mikado Ryuugamine who just moved there from the countryside, he is but one witness to the district’s slew of strange events.

Both series feature high schoolers who are bored with life and decide to do something new. In Durarara, he starts a gang, in Death Note he kills a bunch of criminals. Regardless, in both stories you get more and more into a world that is based on the real world, but with distinct supernatural features.

black butler anime watch order

Black Butler

Young Earl Ciel Phantomhive is a noble in the service of Queen Victoria of England. Not only does he handle the business affairs of his family’s toy business, but he travels around solving mysteries that irk Her Majesty’s kingdom. However, he doesn’t do it alone. After the death of his parents and in his darkest hour, Ciel formed a pact with a demon to help him get revenge on those that wronged him in exchange for his soul afterwards. Now this demon poses as his butler, Sebastian, a man with superhuman abilities.

What is a Shinigami if not a demon? However, while Sebastian can be seen, they are not the only things that Death Note has in common. Both involve a grand degree of mystery-solving, dark arts, and boys who want to create a new world. Although. Ciel’s changes are on a slightly smaller scale.

Have your own recommendations for anime series like Death Note? Tell us about it in the comments section below.

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