Brutal murders, petty thefts, and senseless violence pollute the human world. By contrast, the realm of the death gods is a dull, unchanging gambling den. The ingenious 17-year-old Japanese student Light Yagami and the sadistic shinigami Ryuk share one conviction: their respective worlds are rotten. For his own amusement, Ryuk drops his Death Note into the human world. Light stumbles upon it, initially dismissing its first rule as ridiculous: the human whose name is written in this note shall die. However, the temptation proves too strong, and Light experiments by writing a felon's name, which disturbingly results in his first murder. Aware of the terrifying, godlike power now in his hands, Light—operating under the alias Kira—pursues his twisted sense of justice with the ultimate goal of cleansing the world of all evildoers. The meticulous mastermind detective L is already on his trail, but as Light's brilliance rivals L's, the grand chase for Kira evolves into an intense battle of wits that can only end when one of them is dead.