All the high reviews gave me high expectation, but Death Note wasn't as great as it could have been.

The anime has a strong concept with lots of complexity to keep you interested BUT the majority of the entire series are just exposition. It becomes extremely tiring when almost the show is spent telling you what's happening rather than showing you or implying situations then allowing the audience to come up with their own conclusion.

Characters are flat flat flat (with exception of L) everyone else is very surface level without any depth.

Dialogue feels awkward, be it that I am watching a translation subs, there might be some elements lost in translation but the exposition style dialogue doesn't help.

Art wise it is detailed and well done. But doesn't save the overall story.