A gifted student stumbles upon a “death note,” magical notebook that kills anyone you write the name onto, with the specific date and circumstances you specify; he decides to rid the planet of criminals to make a better place for all of us, but of course that’s not in everyone’s taste. Plus, maybe he gets kinda carried away a little.

The story is disturbing, misogynistic and of all-around dubious morals like only a Japanese story could be in the 21st century, but the bottomline is, it’s original and captivating — after the first half-dozen episodes, it’s very hard to stop and go to bed. And it’s decidedly more ambiguous than Dexter, which is a good thing because I’m not an impressionable 10-year-old.

Don’t worry about the change of direction around episode 17, it’s all made up for in the end.