This would be the kind of anime i'd recommend to someone who hasn't seen one before, it has a more dark and violent theme. It isn't overly long, as much as I like other anime series trying to introduce someone to a show with several hundred episodes is usually a tough sell. It is well thought out and you see the progression of two brilliant characters in Light and L, it's quite intense and surprising plus you get some humour from Ryuk to break things up a bit. I also think the art style goes very under the radar, it's beautiful but it's hard to talk about Death Note and not just talk about the story.