The awesome and most excellent series of Death Note, is about a young teenage genius named Raito Yagami, who finds the Death Note, a notebook that kills whoever's name you write in it. Armed with this secret item, Raito (known as Light Yagami in the NA version) vows to purge the world of evil and generally make everyone nicer and more respectful.

Warning: Spoilers below.

Light, as the series progresses, becomes slowly more mad and twisted, in blind pursuit of his goal, which shifts from making the world a better place, to ruling over it as a god. He is (slightly) aided by the rogue Shinigami Ryuuku (or Ryuk), who originally dropped the notebook in the human world.

As Light kills criminals and follows his goal, the police enlist the aid of L, the greatest detective in the wortld, to track down "Kira", the monicker of the person people think is doing the killings.

L, with the aid of Light's own father, work a task force intended to capture Kira. However, with the access to his father's files, Light stays one step ahead of everyone.

Later in the series, a second person claiming to be Kira appears, and by tricking Light, manages to find out who the real Kira is. This "second Kira" turns out to be Misa Amane, a small time magazine model who possesses a Death Note as well. Her Shinigami, Rem, tells her the story of how she ended up with it, and also the important detail of how one can kill a Shinigami, namely making them fall in love with a human and using the Death Note to save the human's life.

It should be noted that Misa falls madly in love with Light and does anything he tells her to from this point on in the series.

When L finally meets Light, he is immediately suspicious that Light is Kira. After a long and arduous battle, and by using Rem to save Misa, Light kills L, Rem, and gets another Death Note.

After this, Light becomes the new L, and enjoys long years of freedom as Kira, until L's true heirs, Near and Mello, step into their own positions over in America.

Mello, a nosy, glaring, slightly effeminate genius, disappears into the seedy criminal mafia, whereas Near, a quiet, focused, non-emotional but playful young detective, joins a government-funded group called the SPK. With these two new adversaries, Light faces new challenges after years of free reign.

It is interesting to note that each character in Death Note can be recognized for distinct behavioural traits. L, for example, is almost always eating, drinking coffee, or playing with snacks while he is speaking. Misa tends to speak in third person. Ryuk tends to laugh at everything. Near is always surrounded by toys, lego, darts and action figures. Mello always has chocolate in his hand or in his mouth.