Helmet

I’d also recommend Utena, but I would not recommend that to a beginner, if only because Utena goes far and beyond it’s genre (and in fact, I’d argue that Utena is to magical girls as NGE is to mecha anime). I’d set someone on something like Yuki Yuna is a Hero, if only to get them up to speed on the current trend of anime.

Man, I remember listening to Vocaloid songs back when I was a young teenager. I don’t think any other songs have ever made me cry.

Vocaloid, as you’ve said, is a very unique outlet for people who lack the voice. It can also lead into other things as well – for example, the anime Black Rock Shooter was based on a Vocaloid song of the same name, and Mekaku City Actors was based on a song series done by IA, another Vocaloid. It’s unfortunate that Vocaloids don’t have as strong a presence in the west; it’d be interesting to see what sort of influence a Vocaloid could have on the music industry.

Light was always terrible, morally speaking. There isn’t any shift at all. He murdered people willingly and justified it to himself that it was okay because they were ‘criminals who deserved it.’ Then it became ‘People who got in the way of justice.’ Then suddenly, he thought himself a God, and thus all his actions were morally sound.

I honestly stopped watching the show for a while because even though all the mind games were pretty fun, following a law school kid continuously get away with murder started getting dull. And in the end, Light’s personal failings were the only thing that led to his eventual capture. You could argue that he is a tragic hero, but again, I find that there was never any real redeemable quality to him that could lead one to conclude that he was ever a hero at all.