In between these dates, television anime was being made digitally, but directly for the NTSC format at 480 lines of definition. What I do know is that Death Note is the anime I choose whenever I want to introduce a friend to anime, and that means a lot. Fast-forward nearly a decade into the future and Death Note remains as popular as it ever was; with both older and younger generations being familiar with the entire series – including those who have no real interest in anime in general – and now Manga Entertinment UK are re-releasing the series on Blu-ray. From my perspective the Death Note Blu-ray provides the best experience you can receive from the series; but you’d need to own the series on both DVD and Blu-ray to get the best of both worlds.

Death Note is a popular anime series that sees Light Yagami attempting to provide his own form of justice by using the Death Note; a book previously owned by the Shikigami Ryuki that can kill people by simply writing down a persons name. For the anime industry, that means anime made up to the late nineties, when it was traditionally created using cel and paint, photographed on 16 or 35mm film, or anime made after 2006 and 2007, when animators started to digitally create anime in high definition. For L and the authorities, murder is murder, and a sudden rash of unexplained deaths among criminals surely must be connected. Standard Edition release features the complete series on 5 discs, with episodes presented in crisp 1080p resolution with 16:9 video aspect ratio. While not HD in the slightest, suddenly colours were richer, 24fps progressive animation with zero visible compression resulted in clear imagery with much more in the way of detail, and the animation was smooth in a way that interlaced NTSC could never manage.

You can differentiate them more easily than usual, as the text translations are in all capitals, but once again, where there is screen text and dialogue, things flash by a little too fast to read.

It’s just a still image and a burst of music, where TV stations usually list the local sponsors for the series. VIZ Media’s Death Note Blu-ray home media releases will be available as a Standard Edition and also as an “Omega” Limited Edition, a definitive collection containing the complete 37-episode series along with 2 Death Note anime feature films.Initially sceptical of a prank, or a sick joke, he’s about to dismiss it from his mind, but curiosity urges him to pick it up, and try it out.