Briana Lawrence of Anime News Network explained that many fans feel "Death Note" went downhill after the defeat of L. She wrote that the introduction of Near and Mello as L's protégés was an interesting idea at first, but they would have been much better characters if they had been treated as individuals and not as two different halves of L. "Every volume always had to point out the fact that Light was still battling L through Near and Mello, but if Light has defeated L already why do we want to watch him battle L all over again?"