i think death note gets more interesting when you contextualize it within Japan's own penal system. any case that goes to trial in japan has a literal 99% chance of a conviction, and Japanese culture assumes that any defendant who is forced past the plea bargaining phase and into trial is guilty. the reason why Light, L, and the police keep twisting themselves into knots is because the art is very much saying "the cruelty is the point." kira gets a mass following because Kira represents the publics willingness to condone all forms of cruelty in pursuit of retribution, and L is backed by the police who created and sustain the material conditions that perpetuates the innate cruelty of Japan's status quo. no matter who wins, everyone loses. the cruelty is the point, the lives don't matter, all that counts is the chase which provides the illusion justice while the cruelty machine chugs on.
Very interesting very similar hear in the United state’s where people make “don’t drop the soap” jokes and where the legal system convicts INNOCENT people every year and the “public defenders” are overworked and underpaid
I don’t understand how people forget that L and the police are just as oppressive as Kira. They are hypocrites for condemning each other. Asserting power over the world. They both do the same thing, Kira just does it out in the open. We even see that L is perfectly willing to let innocents die if it means catching Kira. But then again, what choice are they given but to do what they think is right…
The 99% conviction rate is misleading, only around 8% of cases are prosecuted and prosecutors are hesitant to take on any case they aren’t sure they can win
I disagree with this assessment of death note. These things you’re describing would be incredibly interesting aspects of death note… if they were in death note. Death Note never bothers to analyze the police or the Japanese criminal justice system as a morally polarizing force. They’re consistently depicted as neutral or good, with the overarching criminal justice system not even being a focal point of the story. Even L’s justice is too abstractly defined as to have any relativity to Japan’s fucked up criminal justice system.
@@venus-pq5gg L also breaks the law trying to prove Light and Misa are involved or ARE KIRA, implying his standard Modus Operandi is breaking the law until people break and confess to the crime, not really investigating deeper into the matter, just putting suspects through the ringer so they spill the beans. And yet the INTERPOL doesn't seem to bother, neither the FBI nor the local police. The point is that the organizations that represent justice itself are willing to let brutal illegal methods slide as long as they get the criminal. Yet they judge and try to capture Kira for being more efficient, it's still murder but the lives of the suspects or criminals was already over and their background is not analyzed anyways because what matters is that they are now a victim of Kira, not that they were humans who did wrong and why. So, Kira is practically just killing people dead and non-humans to society, which might or not be on-point too considering he's writing their names on the DEATH NOTE, and it becomes a list of, in a way, already dead people, who in a way, weren't alive anymore to begin with, even Light himself ends up in the notebook itself. Even the people in the justice system kind of fit there because they are above the normal, because they have been given the power to arrest, to exert force, to be more than what you can do, to follow someone for an investigation and not be considered stalkers, to peep into the info that no one should about someone's life, to kill too sometimes, for in most places you cannot legally exert justice by your own hands, it has to go through the system and their selected agents. Which makes them above human despite being human otherwise. Again, their names end up on the DEATH NOTE.
I've recently been interpreting Misa as a caricature of the fan girls of serial killers (ala Ted Bundy). But that could also just be a more common idea in western culture and likely not intentional, seeing as a lot of female characters in anime at this time are very much a product of the male gaze.
"Male Gaze" does not exist, it's a myth. Stop talking as if it's somehow an objective or mainstream observable phenomena, it's just a lefty fringe theory that grew out of lit. criticism that the rest of the world ridicules at America's expense. TH-cam is Global, not your American Liberal echo chamber.
Yeah, unfortunately it you look at Ohba's other mangas/works, he's awful at writing female characters. They're usually flat characters, that have little more purpose than being plot tools for male characters. So while I like your interpretation, it's almost definitely not the case for this writer at least.
I mean that's a generous interpretation and I really like it thematically but you have to imagine that the show would be much different and better if they'd had that in mind when making it.
Doesn't she like him cuz he death noted the ppl who killed her parents or smthng, that's quite a bit more sympathetic of a reason for her to like him than these weirdo serial killer fangirls have
Oddly enough I only just finished watching Death Note for the first time the other day. And I more or less agree with your assessment. When a writer doesn't put much thought into the moral/philosophical themes of their story, I find they tend to leave behind a lot of signs that indicate that. In this case the biggest one is how they overwhelmingly prioritize showing off how Light gets away with his actions rather than exploring their actual implications
hmm but i do thing showing off how light get away have to be at the limelight. the themes and implication always get applied in a subtle way in any story. the themes not getting explored enough is fair tho...
if you don't want to elaborate on your vague statement that's fair. But the material of Death Note _is_ Death Note. Fan speculation may have a fair amount of insight but in the end anything that isn't explicitly the intent of the show is just interpretation, my own take included. I did enjoy the show, just not enough to dive into that space of diminishing returns
I find it remarkable how a show that didn’t set out to deliver a message ended up delivering a big one. L didn’t care about ethics or justice, he just enjoyed the cat and mouse chase of capturing criminals. Why? Just because. Light took it upon himself to remake the world in his image. Why? Just because. He’s good looking, brilliant, and to some extent famous in Japan. He already has everything anyone could ever want, yet he’s bored of it all when the “why” emerges. He even said it himself at the start of the show that he was just bored. The maker of this show didn’t want to deliver a message or anything like that, he just wanted to make an entertaining show. Why? Because he was probably bored. Ryuk takes interest in watching the affairs of humans. He sees how it is all pointless because there is nothing waiting for them on the other side in their endless quest to become good people. The shinigami realm is so interesting (no pun intended) because it in some sense mocks the idea of the afterlife. Various religions and belief systems stress how there is a “better” world than the one they live in, but no one ever asks how the other world would be any better than this one. No ever asks why a god would have us live through a world as we know it if there would just be another one waiting for them. Plus, if the afterworld was so idealized and perfect, even a god would get bored of it all. When we think of god in our anthropomorphizing way, we see him as benevolent, powerful, and all knowing. Shinigami are gods, yet they are not particularly kind and the world they live in is dull and meaningless, so much so that one of them (Ryuk) has to leave his “heaven” just to feel something. I feel like the creator of this show is with an atheist, nihilist, or both, and has strong feelings against notions of god and the after life. You can tell this from his comments and interviews and his choice to end the anime with the quote that nothingness awaits us after death. This show shares a low of themes and premises from with a beach of philosophy called Existentialism. If anyone is infested, I highly recommended checking out a guy named Albert Camu and his concept of “absurdism.” Afterwards, come back to the video you just watched and it will make a whole lot more sense.
I don't get why people refuse to accept any meaning out of media just because the authors may not have expliciteky set out to bring one out. The themes or messages it delivers solely depends on the actual piece of art.
the thing you need to understand about misa is that her parents were murdered and when the justice system couldn't help her,kira DID. misa treats light as a god because to her,he IS a god and she feels she owes him his undying loyalty and love as a thank you for what he did for her. she was also just as morally questionable as anyone else in the series: willing to kill anyone her god told her to kill (or simply to get his attention) and even going so far as to state that if light were to fall in love with anyone else,she would kill whoever he was with. misa is just as complex as light and L,but her personality makes people underestimate her.
True points. Misa is easily dismissed and ignored bc of how “annoying” she is coded to be - but we ought to be cautious and scrutinous about what annoys us and why. I personally feel upon reflection I disliked her more because of her over the top femininity - associating feminine with “cringe”. Your point shows that this cringe reaction made me miss out on a cool moment of interpretation, so thanks for that :)
@@timisontube another important thing to keep in mind is that japan as a whole is very big on the concept of "cute" so misa's personality was intended to be cute (no idea if it hit it's mark in japan but clearly not outside it.XD). her personality is very much a product of japanese ideals about women just with a serial killer twist. but glad i could get you to think a little deeper about her,though. she really is more complicated than people give her credit for (as is sadly the case with a lot of characters) and it's good for people to actually think about the things they read/watch/play rather than to simply take it at face value.
I feel like the AUTHOR underestimated Misa. She had her own death note and she sacrificed her own eyeball to gain a true sight ability to see anyone's real name above their head to write in the death note. She was better equipped than Light to kill her father's murderer, yet she just didn't. If the author was going to make her willingly suffer so much out of loyalty to the hero that delivered her justice, he shouldn't have given her so many advantages that she handed over to Light. I makes her look even more passive and weak and it makes the story worse over all.
I'm so glad ppl are still talking about death note! I agree I wanted L to win but he was just as twisted, I think I like him more because he's self-aware about it. Great video
They were both capable of doing monstrous actions for the sake of justice but Light saw himself as a god above others passing judgement on who he deems unworthy, parasitic, or obtrusive. L saw his team members with respect and valued their contributions even when he needed to take precaution with them. He wasnt the god among man but the only one who had the capability and resolve to fight one. And he chose two proteges with fundamentally different approaches and beliefs about justice to carry the torch.
I think ppl want L to win because he outplays light every single time nearly and light just asks shinigami to kill him because he can’t outsmart him and shinigami just kills him. Very cheap plot, Ruins whole show
I like how death note did away with the basic done before morality argument instead it focused on the battle of pride and ego. To me it was a mostly a study of lights and other characters corrupt mental state I also like when morality is brought up it's used as a cover for deeper motives made it a lot more interesting for me.
I was OBSESSED with this show in middle school. I've never been more obsessed with anything else since, and it had a massive part in shaping my life and thought process--just as every preteen fixation does for everyone. I grew up going to a Catholic school. I was not baptized, from a family that was loosely Orthadox. In my many years at this catholic school, I bounced around between beliefs, culminating in the crushing fear of hell that the school preaches. By 6th grade, I thought I wanted to be baptized, "just in case." and over the next three years, I came to resent Catholicism, and every Christian religion, with a burning intensity. How do these things connect? Death Note played perfectly into that supposed binary between good and evil for me. It explored many of the big questions I had at the time, and all the confusing feelings. I didn't understand why God would condemn those who didn't know him to eternal hell. I didn't understand why just talking to a priest could absolve someone of any crime. I didn't see how an omniscient and all-powerful and supposedly pure good being could condemn so many people to eternal torture. I didn't see how there could be multiple versions of Christianity that each thought they were the "correct" ones. Death Note questioned all of that, and painted a world that made much more sense to me. Horrible things happen, and nobody is pulling the strings to make it happen. Narcissistic dictators come into power all the time, from the ones that rule countries to the small ones running cults. Authoritarianism is easy to fall into. In those years, I was beginning to think like Light (before seeing the series) and wondering why God doesn't just smite all the terrible people in the world. Seeing Light's further widening of who became prey to the notebook showed me how impossible it can be to draw those lines on who should die. If the catholic god exists, he is indeed like Light, and that sucks. Killing and torturing people doesn't solve the cycle of violence. I came to idolize L, and I remember spending a week being immensely lifeless and upset after seeing him die in the show. At the time, I wanted to be in the FBI when I grew up, to also help find the evil in the world and put a stop to it. Because I came from a mindset of initially agreeing with Light, it didn't matter to me that L was doing bad things to stop Light. There was a regular human narcissist with the power to kill whoever he wants, and just as I think dictators need to be brought down, he needed to be stopped. I agreed that killing anybody is wrong. But now, I think it's much more complicated than that. Yes, humans have their own personal morals, but how can anyone equate murdering hundreds of thousands of people to killing a handful, or to wrongfully imprisoning a couple people? It is simply not the same. There is no line where all sins become equally bad. I still think that it is more just to kill one person if that will lead to stopping the deaths of millions. Morality is not black and white, and is entirely dependent on individual perspective. We are surely evil in the eyes of the cows we use for factory farming. Mainly, what this show taught me is that morality is a mess of a spectrum and we decide the consequences we want to impose on the world. In the end though, Ryuk was, to me, the only relatable one. Life only has the meaning we give to it. The show gave me space to explore a world without heaven and hell, and it made sense. Humans will endlessly find reasons to change the world in our image, and there will be endless reasons why that is wrong. It taught me to be wary of narcissism, and of anyone who claims to have all the answers. It lead me on the path of seeing that simply eliminating suspected problems does not actually solve the root. Neither L nor Light sought out the actual cause of crime. They didn't spend time thinking about what leads people to commit crime, what global circumstances lead to poverty and violence over generations. Light didn't seek to understanding systems of power, or politics, or what would actually improve the conditions of the world. Why wasn't Light taking out billionaires? Is revolution against fascism wrong if it kills those oligarchs in power, because killing is bad? Why do some stick to "thou shalt not kill" morals, but it leads to significant misuse of power by others? Humans are indeed interesting, and we sure think we're the center of everything all the time. This show is sure full of flaws, and does indeed lack a solid mission statement, but regardless it really shaped my life and helped me break out of the binaries that it constructs. Of course there were many other factors in my life that lead me to being an agnostic-leaning atheist, but this show was the first thing that made me feel normal for thinking that. Biggest of all, and while not a direct conclusion made by the show, it showed me that the only "just" answer to anything is collective action and collective decisions. No one person, and no small elite group of people, should get to decide how everything works. We are all in this together and we all need equal say in what we want human impact to be. So uh, thanks for making this video and giving me a chance to think about this all again! And write my own little essay in your comments, lol.
Thanks for giving your perspective! I really appreciate your story because it reflects the whirlwind of ideas the series juggles and how we can connect to any one of them depending on our own unique experiences
@@alcyonae maybe , being able to lie after getting her memories back might make her emotionally strong, but she has to otherwise light would be caught or rem would kill light. She was also easilly susceptible to his manipulation, like she killed herself for a man who never really loved her.
Her introduction of being stronger than light since she has the eyes, plus the fact she manages to find Light be essentially manipulating him shows her high intelligence.
A lot of manga creators talk about how, when creating manga, the characters are the absolute most important element. Araki talks about it in his book, explaining how you can have success without plot, without a setting, and without theme, or with any mix of these, but if the work has uninteresting characters it's doomed to fail. I think Death Note is a great example of this, where the work is uninterested in exploring much of the setting or developing depth in the theme in favor of making its characters as memorable as possible.
Also, many studies have shown that death penalty does not reduce crime - as opposed to the drop in crime consequential of Kira's actions presented in the show.
I don't think Death Note was ever intended to preach what is right and wrong. I see it as an exploration of the grey area between right and wrong, the series starts off by showing you Light experimenting with the book on criminals committing violent crimes in that moment(ie. the hostage situation, the men attempting to rape that lady walking by) while it is great that those crimes were prevented from carrying on, the means are morally wrong. Which is the overarching theme of this show, characters focusing on the outcome over the means, L does this several times too, having a stand-in die in episode 2, arranging illegal home surveillance of his suspects, torturing Misa. Personally I appreciate the fact that the supposedly "good" characters - L, Near, Mello, aren't actually good people. That ambiguity is more true to life than having a definitive good side and bad side. So I think the anime really asks you whether the end really justifies the means without telling you the answer to that question.
Misa wasn’t tortured . Why ppl keep saying that she was? She cried wolf because she was in deep doodoo. Then her toned changed once she gave up her memory.
I just spent the last 3 or so days consuming a 10 hour recap of the entirety of the Death Note franchise (the light novels, the extra chapters, the musical etc) and yet was so excited to see this pop up in my subscriptions. Y'all have become one of the channels I most look forward to seeing uploads from, so thanks for putting out another 21 minutes of Death Note analysis for me to chew on 😗👌
Great perspective. I agree that the entire thing had a very nihilistic tone. The world of the death gods was complete nihilism. It didn't portray anything as inherently good, or bad, but really just morally gray. I don't think it only matters what the artist tried to portray but how the audience receives it. While watching it, I felt that I didn't care if either succeeded. The world is unjust. It will remain so, except the way justice is perceived will be different. The story reminds me that justice is something that we made up. It's the pursuit of justice which gives it value. It's the miscarriage of justice which gives us despair. I think the show also shows the limit to what we can pursue while respecting rights, and how, while it is frustrating to see the guilty walk free, it is part of the reality of a justice system. There is no justice. There is only retribution, or shared pain. There is no way to erase the crimes we were victim to. Still, there is value in the journey.
Yeah! That's what people miss with Death Note: it's *just* entertainment. The author has no greater philosophy or ideology to their ideas, it's all psychology and great pacing with great character stories. Any interrogating of right and wrong is solely important for the character drama. And that's kinda disappointing to me personally. For a series this good, it deserves to have something to say.
See I disagree that Death Note not trying to say something was disappointing. imo in the best stories every written, the authors main goal isn't to say something about society or humanity, its to tell a good story. Yet because the author was true to the story, they usually end up saying something, usually a lot of things to a lot of different people. When you write a story with the message at the forefront you are no longer writing a story, you are writing propaganda and people can usually tell, and are usually turned off, unless they are simpletons who like being pandered to.
@@CraigJS91 Fair enough! I mean I really like good stories with messages about the world I live in or the human condition, mostly because society is what I live in and as far as I can tell, am human. But I agree that if your story isn't all there, you're gonna have trouble getting any message across. It's not propaganda if I learned something! I like learnin' stuff! If a work does lean a little hard on an idea without explaining it well, I do kinda go, c'mon man.
@@Guruc13 right, I guess to me it's all about honesty and exploring an idea or concept rather than saying "this is the right way to think about a thing". And I think that's what was so great about death note. It explored justice and the corruptive influence of power without saying "this is the right answer".
Agree. I kept looking for deeper meaning in the show, and still enjoyed it because it made ME think about deeper things like Justice but the show itself doesn't go there. And because I still like the dark humor. When I re-watched, I quit watching when L died. I think the show is better without the last several episodes.
Yeah the stuff with near and Mello felt kinda weak to me. Like it was tacked on. I think honestly if obata was going to also kill light at the end he should have done what the musical did and have ryuuk do it because the game is over and he would be bored with no challenge left for light to face and entertain him.
Ironically, even if Obata sucks at writing women, I think that Misa is one of the most interesting characters in the manga. I mean, yeah, Light and L are the focus and after L's death the manga goes downhill fast, but she remains an interesting addition to the mix. She isn't just a "Chaotic wild card and on the side of Light", she is her own type of selfish and egocentric person, it just so happens that she does so while putting Light (or better, the Ideal of a relationship with Light) above herself. Just look at how Misa costantly does her own thing even if Light says something else. Probably a lucky chance even given his attempt at writing an obsessed girlfriend? Yeah, probably, but it worked nonetheless. Also it's interesting that Misa technically survives the story. Not much longer after it, but she does. I was 100% ready to see her sacrificed as a pawn
Yeah, it’s honestly not that bad in Death Note. Probably because there’s not enough women to be written terribly which is probably an issue with the story as well
If you were to analyze most people’s ideology you would find that they are quite flimsy. Art generally reflects life, it’s that we continually try to find meaning where often there just isn’t any.
This analysis was rationality at its finest. Recently I also realised the series was not intended to hype morality or ethical values. I also realised Lawliet and Light were quite the same. The only difference between them was that Lawliet openly admitted that he was a monster too. If we consider Ryuk as a passive observer, he is like the "last man" Nietzsche described. He was depressed in the Shinigami realm and simply wanted some "entertainment", and I have always wondered why was he so hung up on human world apples. I interpreted it as "little pleasures" or "indulgences" we all do while watching our lives pass us by. Now, as a fan, I have always rooted for L. And I also think L was intelligent but his loneliness made him susceptible to Light's manipulations. L didn't want Light to be Kira. He probably thought no one will be on his intelligence level and be his friend. Light also could not believe when L said that he was his first-ever friend. Both of them believed they were not capable of being loved. They were indeed the same. The only difference I can point out right now is that Light manipulated L knowing this "information". And just a wild guess that Ohba killed off L's character to make a point that there should be a balance between head and heart (no I am not a shipper) when it comes to making friends. As for Light, he was an exploitative narcissist with a grandiose and unrealistic worldview considering only himself that was not meant to be worked out.
Light and L are two highly manipulative psychopaths with different loose principles and goals to justify their actions who get depressed when they're bored and would die for a sense of purpose. That's why I didn't feel sad when they both died, they died doing what they enjoy the most, facing death for a sweet addictive adrenaline rush. Light was vigilante and as the first OP song lyrics imply, has a revolutionary sense of justice which is often chaotic, swift and brutal while L represents the authorities fighting to be the exclusive enforcers of violence. They both strive to be leaders of both opposite sides of the battle and take the challenge very personally.
The message of Death Note is that your anxiety is right - if you choose the wrong option in conversation, your friends will think it's more likely you're a serial killer
Nice essay, man. Really good work. As for Mysa Amane, well to be blunt: I've always viewed her as a male fantasy inserted by the author... for his own pleasure, and that of the readers/viewers who would share is fantasy. Hence why she's so flat.
In L’s defense, he gave Misa food and bathroom breaks while she was being tortured 🤷🏽♀️ lol no I know it’s still torture and he was morally questionable the whole time
"morally questionable" doesn't even begin to cut it for what he did to her (he tortured her to the point of her *TRYING TO KILL HERSELF* and still didn't so much as ease up a bit) and he didn't even come close to treating light the same way when light wanted to "prove" he wasn't kira. even if you factor in that L (and the cops) didn't know HOW kira kills and were simply taking every precaution,that doesn't excuse him torturing misa into attempted suicide while all he did to light was throw him handcuffed into a cell and have him on 24 hour watch (not even REMOTELY strapped up like misa was or even with a blindfold). what L did was unforgiveable in my books (far more than light killing a bunch of criminals...though pretty close to light killing off anyone that was either in his way or he deem no longer useful like he did when takada was kidnapped by mello) and if i had to choose a side,i'd pick team kira over team L any day without question.
@@JT5555 Tbf, both of them are morally messed-up, they're just opposite sides of the same coin of morally messed-up. Imo, I'd be on neither side, Kira's philosophy of justice is a little too "guilty until proven innocent" when it comes to criminals, and is a little too witch trials-like. For all we know, since some of his early Kira actions are based on what he saw on TV, some of the criminals he killed could easily be innocent people that were sensationalized by the news before their trials could prove them innocent...
@@Scarshadow666 oh,both of them are just awful people: i don't think anyone is debating that (even the creator himself said that light's dad was the only good person in the series...or at least involved with the kira case). i'm just saying that L took it too far when his goal was just to catch a serial killer and even the cops thought it was going too far. light was no angel but at least his god complex DID lead to SOME good (example: killing the guy that killed misa's parents after the courts failed to punish him) and kira had followers that believed fully in what he was doing (even though they didn't know why he was doing it). point is that both of them did some pretty bad things but at least kira only killed people while L was willing to torture a suspect to the point of attempted suicide just to find kira and in my books,that one act was far worse than simply killing even just people that are no longer useful (aka: light's worst acts).
@@JT5555 wasn’t she just strapped up for a long ass time? I’m not saying that’s not torture but I don’t remember her being physically abused besides being constantly constrained. Don’t take it as me saying it’s not that bad, I said already that it is still torture, but compared to killing hundreds of people I don’t see how anyone could believe Lights atrocities are more justified. Just because someone is a “criminal” doesn’t necessarily mean their life Is worth less than another person’s.
@@YourName-um6sb she wasn't just strapped up: she was basically kidnapped (blindfold,hand gag and handcuffs included) by people she didn't know,was tightly strapped upright with both a straightjacket and another blindfold while being watched 24/7 but,again people she didn't know (keep in mind that this wouldn't have been the FIRST time a crazy stalker had come at her and she was blindfolded so she had no idea if they were telling the truth about being cops or not) for weeks,only being allowed some relief for the odd bathroom break. sure she wasn't being put under various levels of shocks or being whipped or anything,but the psychological torture was just as bad as any of that and,again it was to the point of attempted suicide (and the cops response to it? gag her so she couldn't). it was beyond fucked up and i have no doubt in my mind that L was holding back simply because the cops would have never allowed him to do anything worse. light,however simply killed people and the people that he killed tended to die fairly quickly without much pain (mostly via heart attack) and then it stopped because they were dead. that far better in my books than torturing someone for weeks to the point of attempted suicide.
I’ve never found the philosophy “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” to be accurate. I think power can do two things: reveal and enhance. When someone gains power, you often find out what that person always wanted to do. Power doesn’t corrupt you, it makes you MORE YOU. More angry, more ambitious, more kind, more human. Light always wanted to do it, the Death Note just took away his restraints and revealed him for what was.
15:26 That is just not true, respectfully *Spoiler Alert* If you read the recent-ish one-shot manga, Near mentions "I don't condone what Kira did, but he managed to reduce the world's crime rate by 70% and bring a halt to wars"
I have the biggest smile on my face right now! I was going to write a mini essay ranting about the Stanford experiment and how it's bullshit but you beat me to it😂 Thank you for talking about it so more people can learn about its inaccuracies as it's been held up as an example of intrinsic human nature when it's really just a shitty experiment that gained popularity.
^ Exactly! It's one of some of the social psychology experiments getting scientifically disproven due to the Replication Crisises most of the studies go through. Unfortunately with these kinds of scientific studies, it's hard for the same kind of info to be easily accessible for everyone and it makes it harder for people to adapt to new updates on scientific studies. I remember being taught about the Stanford Experiment just a couple years ago in college and they were slow to update that parts of the study wasn't scientific fact yet (though I think they've updated it since then, but the change process was bureaucratic and slow).
I think the biggest failure of Death Note (other than not having anything ready after L's exit) is that it did not put any sort of perspective on death itself. We literally have Death Gods in the picture and death is not really innerstood, even by them. The biggest success is the thrill of the chase, but that is inherently going to run out, and it did. Still a great show. Like Seinfeld. ;D
death note was one of the first anime ive seen, great vid on it, i think misa is interesting, back then i dont think i paid her too much attention but my 2nd rewatch i did, one of those characters where her entire commitment is for one purpose in light, which makes the manga ending of her hit a bit harder and kinda made me like her as a character, i enjoyed death note though for what it is 🙏🏾
I feel like the audience is somewhat in the role of ryuk. We watch the entertainment that light puts on for us and we see the things he chooses to fill his life with, this pointless battle between ego/ideology. Sure he has a cult following but was the whole thing really a worthwhile endeavor? Light was excited, passionate, and triumphant in moments but was he happy? Was it a life he was happy with at the end?
Great video! Although, I don’t really think that L necessarily represents the status quo, he is somewhat controlled opposition to Light’s fascist outlook on crime. In my opinion, light is a representation of how most people and our prison industrial complex see “criminals” disposable, not worthy of life, etc, and how some people that are pushed over the edge just enough, can easily become monsters in the name of vigilante justice.
I think Misa represent the idea of purpose, holding on to her purpose for as long as she could, doing things blindly for that very purpose, opposed to light and L, who had goals, but accepted the no purpose nature of life. Maybe...
As an avid Kira supporter, in my youth, the only truly vile thing light yagami did was not love Misa😂 If anything she existed as irrefutable proof this man was a menace 😂
If I was giving the death note I would be the most harmeless person, not because I'm a better person than anyone else, but because I have a really hard time remembering faces and names, so I wouldn't be able to use all that power
Death Note isn't supposed to say anything or have a deeper message, and that was 100% intentional on the authors part. He just wanted to entertain people.
This is really part of the reason why I’m writing my own Death Note based fanfic with a new set of characters, focused on the morality of the characters and how messed up things can become when it comes to greed, power, and a twisted sense of love.
I hope you will talk about Attack on titan and probably it’s my favorite story of all time. Aot shows about perspective of the conflict enemies, freedom and shows there’s no actually a villain, it’s just endless cycle of hated
You're saying having an (spoiler) inborn impulse to create a blank world even if at the expense of the lives of billions is not villiany? And then y'all say this story doesn't glorify genocide
L is obviously lawful neutral, but I wonder if Light is chaotic good or neutral... Maybe he started off with genuine intentions of doing good but then he became completely self interested in his fight with L. Or was it self interest the whole time? I've always found that uncertainty the most interesting part of Light. Because I want to be on his side but also am disgusted by him at the same time.
I think of both Light and L are lawful evil tbh. They're just on opposite sides of the same coin. Both are obsessed with their own self-righteous code of justice/law and will do anything to uphold it. They're far too methodical to be chaotic, neither is good, which the manga/anime both make relatively clear. Nor are they neutral with regards to anything they do because of how ruthlessly driven they both are, and how willingly they sacrifice others to get to their own goal.
Dang it! I've been taking so long in making my own video essay that now you've touched on a lot of what I wanted to say, at least in regards to the lack of any actual commentary on what is or isn't justice given that L doesn't really provide an ideological counterargument and focusing much more on the battle of the minds. I even picked out the same Ohba quote from the volume 13 interview. Granted, I suppose I still have my own stuff to say in relating this lack of ideology to fascism and interpreting the story through the lens of Light as a fascist dictator to find an upliftinf political message, but still, you got to a fair bit of what I wanted to talk about first. Regardless, great video! I never considered Ryuk as a major player in the formation of the story's themes.
This is an amazing breakdown of a number of interesting points. I personally think that it would have been elevated using the subtitled version as opposed to the dubbed but maybe that's just a personal choice. Either way, good job.
I fully disagree, The message of Death Note is that intelligence isn't the end-all determinator of quality leadership, and that logic doesn't dictate justice. Just because it seemed "logical" to Light to murder those who broke the law, didn't do anything materially to eradicate the conditions that created the environment that encouraged those individuals to break the law. Kira didn't solve poverty or create an environment where the mentally ill could seek out counseling, likewise L's hunt for Kira didn't solve systemic issues either, and while the audience is made to sit and judge who is smarter chess player, the world suffers, just as it does in real life. Intelligence != Good Leadership, as logic and reason must be balanced with empathy and systemic wholistic understanding of the socio-economic issues that create the conditions for violent and petty crime to take place. Your essay overlooks this.
I interpreted Misa as the consequence of someone defying fate. Misa was supposed to be murdered by a demented fan of hers, but Gelus saved her. Her being granted that extension sort of 'broke' her soul, as she was living past her expiry date. Her unhealthy obsession with Kira/Light was, spiritually, her way of coping with that fact.
Ngl....it's kinda cool the dude just made Deathnote for just entertainment rather than trying to push some meaningful message or a something. Not saying it's bad to have deep meaning to a story or work but being entertaining is kind of a meaning too lol. I love Deathnote and i want to watch thru it again. The connection between us(the viewer) and Ryuk is really interesting ngl
The biggest question that I had is why didn't Light start killing really famous killers all around the world rather than just in Japan? Just killing Japanese killers at first really set himself up for failure honestly.
this was early 2000's so maybe it would have been harder for him to kill anyone outside of japan both due to lack of proper info access and the simple fact that he mostly speaks japanese so other languages might have been too much to figure out (most of all while he's being cased down by the world's greatest detective). plus his dad was a cop (on the kira case no less) so if he ever caught him looking up news stories about criminals from all over the world (most of all the one's that soon end up dead) then that would look pretty bad for light.
@@JT5555 I feel like there is a HUGE misconception with the younger generations (especially gen z) on how much information was on the internet in the 90s and 2000s and it was actually quite a lot. The biggest newspapers had online publications in 1994 and by 2001 more than 3400 newspapers were available online to be read. That is just official newspaper publications; there were many websites that were dedicated to the collection of various different types of information and murderers were very popular in the 1990s till today. Most of these information pieces (which a lot had scanned pictures of printed newspaper articles) were posted on online web forums or some dedicated internet sleuths created their own websites that had a huge lists of information available to anyone who knew how to make online searches prior to the invention of mass search engines. So in actuality, Light could have very easily found information on murderers from all around the world. This isn't even taking into account that Light could have simply went to a local library and looked up various books and taken out to watch documentaries about famous serial killers from around the world on both VHS and DVD. Yes, the ease of getting "quick and current" (aka knowing right after a big case the conviction) information was lacking in the 2000s, however books are generally written about serial killers within the year of them being arrested and convicted. That doesn't even comment on how tons of paparazzi pieces were much more often found online than they were in printed media. So their would have been lots of speculation pieces on different murders posted online by amateur journalists all over the internet since the 1990s. Light's Dad is a cop so that gave him way more of an excuse to be interested in understanding criminals; especially if he played up that he wanted to be a cop like his dad. As soon as criminals started dying it would have been very easy for Light to excuse the Death Note as his personal predictions of future deaths or deaths that haven't been published in traditional media yet. I'm assuming you are either very young in comparison to myself (you might have been born in the late 90s or 2000s) or you were too poor to have access to the internet during the 1990s if you don't really have an understanding of how much information was already on the internet during Light's time with the Death Note. However, even in the show, it showed how Light was able to get lots of information on killers via his computer at home. So there really is no excuse for Light to not start killing foreign murderers before killing closer to home in Japan. Light was very smart and he could read English and most internet postings for collection information was written in English.
@@JT5555 Then you were too poor to have a personal computer in the 2000s or you weren't allowed unfettered access to it and the internet during that time due to your age/parents.
I wish they had shown more of the turmoil light felt after killing the first person inthe manga, he acted more desperate to believe he wasnt a killer so it made his doubling down on the notebook feel more tragic. Dudes ego and police dad morality complex rlly was so fragile that hed rather try to justify a billion murders than admit to 1 murder he regrets. Its still there in the anime a little, but it paints him as more power hungry than desperate in the beginning.
I dunno if this was intended, but the modern retroactive subtext is wild of thinking of Light becoming “God” is the reconstruction of Christianity. So much becomes this cult of punishment, and even when given so much dominant power doesn’t care about fixing the problems or injustices from the roots. Christianity becomes so rooted in this perception of dominance and superiority. Many many of the grossest want to spend their time being alive being the worst, punishing the innocent and performing pure hatred against others who wish to live freely. It stands even stronger when thinking of Light’s privilege. He’s a handsome, able, educated, and well off guy who’s the son of a cop.
I think the idea is - the ideal life for a person is to create a goal, a drive force that you like and want to do and go for it with full force. It doesn't matter that you never achieve - the fun of the proxess is more important. This hunt was a great joy and main goal for L and Light, like Light was everything to Misa. Thats why shinigami were so found of them. They were opposite of shinigami and lived to its fullest
Really cool video. I appreciate your writing style and really love your takeaway on the series. Insofar as I have a choice about my life, I will choose to desire a better one.
I imagine Misa was largely added for fanservice/comedy relief, however she does also work well with the themes of the story if you consider it to be about an attempt to find meaning in existence that might ultimately be meaningless... like Light and L, she throws herself into her obsession, but whereas Light and L are more cerebral, Misa works as a more "passionate" character in contrast -- even though her feelings for Light as largely counterfeit (as Rem tells her in the musical -- yes, that's a thing, and it does make Misa into more of an idealistic ingenue than she really was in the manga or anime, but regardless) it gives her a sense of purpose in light of the loss she suffered.
The meaning of Death Note is extremely obvious, but it's also extremely nihilistic, which most people are very uncomfortable with, so they prefer to come up with their own ideas of what its about. But Ryuk (and Oba's interview) have made it very clear what the message was: Life is short and meaningless and then you die and that's it. There's no good or evil, there's no point to anything that happens. Nothing matters. The Shinigami realm represents the people who look at that view of life, and think "well, if everything is meaningless, then why do anything?" And Ryuk provides the counterpoint: Because that would be incredibly boring and unfulfilling. Even if nothing you do matters, you're going to be stuck here for a while. So find something to do. Not because your time is too short and precious to waste, but the opposite. Your time here is way too long to just do nothing and feel terrible the entire time. So find something that will have made it good while it lasted, even if none of it means anything.
**SPOILERS** Great video! Though I have to disagree with the statement because I don't think the primary meaning DN wants to put out is justice. Sure justice is all we hear about in the series but I think that the main argument the series is trying to present is whether the end justifies the means. It's just that justice happens to be the theme through which this argument is carried out. Light represents the side that supports that the actions taken to accomplish a certain goal do not have a significant moral meaning and do not matter if the ultimate goal has an overall positive effect or value. L on the other hand represents the exact opposite. He suggests that negative actions are not justified even if they result to something as positive as a 60% drop in global crime. It's also interesting to note that both sides of this argument reach a point where to them, the initial argument is buried underneath their excessive need to prevail over the other in a fiercely competitive manner and that results to them breaking their own moral positions. An example for Light is when he started killing innocent people that just got in his way and for L is going as far as to abduct and imprison Misa or sexually harassing her to steal her cellphone. This sounds a lot how people argue nowadays both on a personal level but as well as in groups (take political parties for example). Notice how the creator did not give a clear "answer" as to who won. You could say Light won because he killed L or you could say L did because he led Kira to his death, but it is not clear who was the real victor, and it doesn't even matter. So to conclude, I believe DN is not necessarily a heavy plot animated examination of what justice is but rather a very interesting and well thought representation of the corruption people have by nature and also a presentation of the argument of whether or not the end justifies the means.
Neither interpretation of justice was valid because both parties accepted justice as a consequence of their own rationality (which is why someone like L can justify holding Misa prisoner illegally). Neither one bothered to subordinate their own ego or rationality to a higher sense of justice. So there were no winners. I think that's the takeaway.
I think what the show was really missing was a look on the institutional nature of evil. It's a touchy subject, that I think it kinda dips its toes in by having L be replaced, but the battle of wits kind of works against it. Totally agree with you on the perspective of Ryuk. I think they could've made it better by having Light be replaced like L was. As to show that these roles of justice vs justice are eternal and transcend the humans that play them out and die. But they'd have to be careful to sell it in a way that doesn't seem nihilistic. To show that life is capable to be made better even if some of these problems are human nature. But that'd also be challenging to write as character drama was what was driving sales, so no wonder the 2nd half had so many challenges without half of that. As for Misa I think she's a product of her time. Women were more marginalized in media in the 2000s than today, but there was a strong desire by writes and fans both to write women in better roles, which manifested in a fascination and empathy toward her on many different levels, even though her character and messages are not great. Like collective trauma processing maybe.
The Stanford Prison Experiment has been pretty debunked at this point - it was a very poorly done study and it's become clear that students intentionally took on certain behaviors and became more brutal because they thought that was what was expected of them, as they though the purpose behind the study was to show how bad the prison system is.
Yeah I felt off about the ending not only bc I started questioning my own moral compass, as sometimes I genuinely wanted Light to win, but the last part was lazy. Its like they made him too OP and had to just make him mess up in ways I don't think Light would have or at least not so quickly. I always thought his ego would be his downfall, but it was so sloppy. But the series does make you think and does entertain.
I just believe people have just have Their own interpretations of what the series my view is both entertainment and as a commentary on the justice system and religion
I actually realized that a long time ago, the writer just wanted a thriller and didn't care about the moral dilemma it could create which would have been great plot points BTW sometimes it takes away from the story to me and sometimes the game is just a game
Hi guys I really love your content and I watched every video that you've uploaded numerous times. Watching your videos on Hey Arnold is actually my go to relaxation. Can you guys make an essay on Full Metal Alchemist (2003) and it's movie (2008). I think there's something to say about it's dark and brooding story arch's vs that of the original Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood which was based on the original manga Hope you'll consider my request. Keep up the great work guys, you two make a great team 💪♥️
Part of it is that this anime has been picked to death for meaning. I think it's honestly just a meditation on what it means to be just and what kind of person would even want to do that job. Even the cops in the story don't lead all that happy lives. I like that the normal police catch him in the end.
I feel like I overestimated Death Note. Its got so much imagery but it doesn't really deliver on the themes. What was the point, what mistake did L make? He just loses because of element out of his hand. I wanted L to win but I would've been fine if the death would have been deserved
My head cannon is that at the end it's all actually happening in Light's head as he reads his book that he has at the beginning of the show. Replacing the character in it with himself due to being an incredibly smart but bored teenager looking for an escape from his dull life.
That would be a horrible and sour tasting ending, I didn't like the real ending because light died but this would devalue all the moments in the show, but creative idea tbh
Fair enough. The tragedy of it all hits harder with the finality of it. More of a personal preference because I prefer happy endings and much of the tragedy of Death Note is delusional and the only happy ending to possibly be had is if it all never had happened
I find it falls into a thing where, sometimes when the interpersonal reactions, become so detailed and engaging, you end up reading for hours, on to realize nearly nothing happened.
Actually, at the end of the manga we see a woman leading a group of Kira worshipers. So even if Light lost and died at the end, Kira did made an impact on society in the long term. Regarding Misa, I think she’s an interesting character. She introduced some lightheartedness that, in my opinion, was needed in a show so full of (for a lack of a better word) pretentious characters. She was extremely powerful and dangerous given that she had the Shinigami eyes AND a Shinigami companion who was willing to die for her. When she is introduced, she gives both an advantage and a headache to Light, which made things more interesting in my opinion. Also, totally unrelated to the script itself, but Misa is one of my favorite art designs in any anime. Her aesthetic is too iconic and she is the human character that embodies the spirit of Death Note.
I liked that Death Note didn't spend an insufferably long time wistfully making the reader ponder whether Light's actions are just or not-- he's immediately framed as the antagonist, a sociopath who needs to be stopped. The story is immediately clear that it thinks what Light is doing is fucked up. The anime spends significantly more time on this fruitless navel-gazing about morality when I was initially hooked by the manga for it's willingness to discard base themes about good versus evil and instead treat us immediately to a back-and-forth, a literal tennis match between two highly motivated individuals using what means they were willing to get the upperhand. But as an aside on themes of good vs. evil, because I think it's disingenuous to reframe Death Note as nothing but a psychological thriller: Regarding L not wanting to resort to illegal detention or torture to try and solve the case, remember that despite Light's self-glorifying claims about being the one to make the hard decisions for a better society, he still refused to make the bargain for the eyes of the Shinigami. Like real people both L and Light's code of conduct was at times arbitrary and self-serving, but I think it's still fair to say that L still represented rule of law even if he wasn't a paragon of it.
In my opinion, L and Light both were psychopaths in their own ways...I feel like if enough time was given to L, he would've turned into something evil for sure
Honestly putting everything aside because you do spit some facts I think the whole I took out all the pages and just left the spine was a lazy contrivance because the book generates more pages as an empties and the spine is more integral to structure of a book than the pages. Considering that the books seem to be semi-sentient I think that it would have rejected or replaced the fake pages because they didn't qualify as part of the death note.
I mean what is a criminal in one country it's a murderer in another it's being gay it's beating someone brutally and speaking out against people in power. If you judge everyone in jail the same which light seems to do you have a very terrible sense of mortality with 0 nuance. What about innocent people what about laws that you and many others find unjust? Anyone who sided with light while watching deathnote must have very bad critical thinking to not come up with basic questions like what if they're innocent or the law is unjust?
I picked up the full manga ast year and I highly suggest to anyone that likes print media. It's not so much that it's better, it's that it's more. Thank you for this video. I wonder if I'll agree with you.
i was kinda disappointed with anime&manga cause there are a lot of countries with death punishment and practically non overthrown convictions. this approach isn't working irl. why kira never made corrupt leaders to confess publicly in their crimes, kill dictators, kill invaders, make billionairs donate their wealth and politicians to get laws what help people and then die?
I think I was just a psychopath like Light because for years after watching death note I was one of the few watchers who actually genuinely wanted light to win. It wasn’t until I watched a few videos like this before I realized wait light was actually kinda bad. I agree with all of us having some evil in us just waiting for the opportunity to come out.
10:39 that part got me laughing out loud 😂 just the idea of Light playing chess and he makes a simple mistake like idk, using a Knight to put L's King in Check, but L just takes Light's piece using his Queen which Light forgot about 😂 then in his mind, slamming his hands on the table and acting out the scene at 10:49
L's care for humanity was demonstrated constantly? I'm surprised with that interpretation. L and Light both speak lies when they discuss their feelings on humanity, it's meant to be an interesting juxtaposition. Light says he cares about humanity and he finds killing under any circumstances wrong (a lie), L says he really doesn't care and it's all just an interesting puzzle to him (also a lie). Example: When L tells the team that they have to be willing to leave the tokyo police department and give everything up to work with him, it at first seemed cruel because he secretly was going to offer them full pay, protection, and housing if needed. So when Shuichi Aizawa falters because he technically has a family he needs to think of, he gets cut. L reveals that he did it NOT because he only wanted people who were willing to risk it all, but he knew Aizawa's priorities were somewhere else and he can't be left responsible answering to his family on why their dad/husband is dead. If he didn't care at all, he really wouldn't care if he risked his life with a family in the wing. When aizawa leaves and cusses L out, L says "well that's too bad, I've always liked you" and he continues to thank him genuinely. He kept him out because he didn't want anyone getting into something they couldn't handle.
Which is why the author's statement completely makes sense. It applies to L! L is trying his all, and when he dies, the testaments of his legacy (near and matt) are completing his will by not taking his route (solo, and assuming other's incapabilities in the fear of letting them down) but they do it together. The author's statement is a direct ode to L.
i think death note gets more interesting when you contextualize it within Japan's own penal system. any case that goes to trial in japan has a literal 99% chance of a conviction, and Japanese culture assumes that any defendant who is forced past the plea bargaining phase and into trial is guilty.
the reason why Light, L, and the police keep twisting themselves into knots is because the art is very much saying "the cruelty is the point." kira gets a mass following because Kira represents the publics willingness to condone all forms of cruelty in pursuit of retribution, and L is backed by the police who created and sustain the material conditions that perpetuates the innate cruelty of Japan's status quo.
no matter who wins, everyone loses. the cruelty is the point, the lives don't matter, all that counts is the chase which provides the illusion justice while the cruelty machine chugs on.
Very interesting very similar hear in the United state’s where people make “don’t drop the soap” jokes and where the legal system convicts INNOCENT people every year and the “public defenders” are overworked and underpaid
I don’t understand how people forget that L and the police are just as oppressive as Kira. They are hypocrites for condemning each other. Asserting power over the world. They both do the same thing, Kira just does it out in the open. We even see that L is perfectly willing to let innocents die if it means catching Kira. But then again, what choice are they given but to do what they think is right…
The 99% conviction rate is misleading, only around 8% of cases are prosecuted and prosecutors are hesitant to take on any case they aren’t sure they can win
I disagree with this assessment of death note. These things you’re describing would be incredibly interesting aspects of death note… if they were in death note. Death Note never bothers to analyze the police or the Japanese criminal justice system as a morally polarizing force. They’re consistently depicted as neutral or good, with the overarching criminal justice system not even being a focal point of the story. Even L’s justice is too abstractly defined as to have any relativity to Japan’s fucked up criminal justice system.
@@venus-pq5gg L also breaks the law trying to prove Light and Misa are involved or ARE KIRA, implying his standard Modus Operandi is breaking the law until people break and confess to the crime, not really investigating deeper into the matter, just putting suspects through the ringer so they spill the beans. And yet the INTERPOL doesn't seem to bother, neither the FBI nor the local police.
The point is that the organizations that represent justice itself are willing to let brutal illegal methods slide as long as they get the criminal. Yet they judge and try to capture Kira for being more efficient, it's still murder but the lives of the suspects or criminals was already over and their background is not analyzed anyways because what matters is that they are now a victim of Kira, not that they were humans who did wrong and why.
So, Kira is practically just killing people dead and non-humans to society, which might or not be on-point too considering he's writing their names on the DEATH NOTE, and it becomes a list of, in a way, already dead people, who in a way, weren't alive anymore to begin with, even Light himself ends up in the notebook itself. Even the people in the justice system kind of fit there because they are above the normal, because they have been given the power to arrest, to exert force, to be more than what you can do, to follow someone for an investigation and not be considered stalkers, to peep into the info that no one should about someone's life, to kill too sometimes, for in most places you cannot legally exert justice by your own hands, it has to go through the system and their selected agents. Which makes them above human despite being human otherwise. Again, their names end up on the DEATH NOTE.
I've recently been interpreting Misa as a caricature of the fan girls of serial killers (ala Ted Bundy). But that could also just be a more common idea in western culture and likely not intentional, seeing as a lot of female characters in anime at this time are very much a product of the male gaze.
"Male Gaze" does not exist, it's a myth. Stop talking as if it's somehow an objective or mainstream observable phenomena, it's just a lefty fringe theory that grew out of lit. criticism that the rest of the world ridicules at America's expense. TH-cam is Global, not your American Liberal echo chamber.
Yeah, unfortunately it you look at Ohba's other mangas/works, he's awful at writing female characters. They're usually flat characters, that have little more purpose than being plot tools for male characters.
So while I like your interpretation, it's almost definitely not the case for this writer at least.
@@xanaviii yeah. The female characters just exist to be obsessed with a dude and its super annoying to watch
I mean that's a generous interpretation and I really like it thematically but you have to imagine that the show would be much different and better if they'd had that in mind when making it.
Doesn't she like him cuz he death noted the ppl who killed her parents or smthng, that's quite a bit more sympathetic of a reason for her to like him than these weirdo serial killer fangirls have
Oddly enough I only just finished watching Death Note for the first time the other day. And I more or less agree with your assessment. When a writer doesn't put much thought into the moral/philosophical themes of their story, I find they tend to leave behind a lot of signs that indicate that. In this case the biggest one is how they overwhelmingly prioritize showing off how Light gets away with his actions rather than exploring their actual implications
hmm but i do thing showing off how light get away have to be at the limelight. the themes and implication always get applied in a subtle way in any story. the themes not getting explored enough is fair tho...
the failure to explore themes is intentional. Death Note is a show for people who can think for their selves.
@@arogueburritoim curious what led you to that conclusion
@@dontstealmydiamondsv3156 I've spent hours taking about Death Note, enough material is there to explore the themes on your own
if you don't want to elaborate on your vague statement that's fair. But the material of Death Note _is_ Death Note. Fan speculation may have a fair amount of insight but in the end anything that isn't explicitly the intent of the show is just interpretation, my own take included. I did enjoy the show, just not enough to dive into that space of diminishing returns
I find it remarkable how a show that didn’t set out to deliver a message ended up delivering a big one. L didn’t care about ethics or justice, he just enjoyed the cat and mouse chase of capturing criminals. Why? Just because. Light took it upon himself to remake the world in his image. Why? Just because. He’s good looking, brilliant, and to some extent famous in Japan. He already has everything anyone could ever want, yet he’s bored of it all when the “why” emerges. He even said it himself at the start of the show that he was just bored. The maker of this show didn’t want to deliver a message or anything like that, he just wanted to make an entertaining show. Why? Because he was probably bored.
Ryuk takes interest in watching the affairs of humans. He sees how it is all pointless because there is nothing waiting for them on the other side in their endless quest to become good people. The shinigami realm is so interesting (no pun intended) because it in some sense mocks the idea of the afterlife. Various religions and belief systems stress how there is a “better” world than the one they live in, but no one ever asks how the other world would be any better than this one. No ever asks why a god would have us live through a world as we know it if there would just be another one waiting for them. Plus, if the afterworld was so idealized and perfect, even a god would get bored of it all. When we think of god in our anthropomorphizing way, we see him as benevolent, powerful, and all knowing. Shinigami are gods, yet they are not particularly kind and the world they live in is dull and meaningless, so much so that one of them (Ryuk) has to leave his “heaven” just to feel something. I feel like the creator of this show is with an atheist, nihilist, or both, and has strong feelings against notions of god and the after life. You can tell this from his comments and interviews and his choice to end the anime with the quote that nothingness awaits us after death.
This show shares a low of themes and premises from with a beach of philosophy called Existentialism. If anyone is infested, I highly recommended checking out a guy named Albert Camu and his concept of “absurdism.” Afterwards, come back to the video you just watched and it will make a whole lot more sense.
Yeah, it's not coincidental, read the manga, there's no afterlife in Death Note
I don't get why people refuse to accept any meaning out of media just because the authors may not have expliciteky set out to bring one out. The themes or messages it delivers solely depends on the actual piece of art.
the thing you need to understand about misa is that her parents were murdered and when the justice system couldn't help her,kira DID. misa treats light as a god because to her,he IS a god and she feels she owes him his undying loyalty and love as a thank you for what he did for her. she was also just as morally questionable as anyone else in the series: willing to kill anyone her god told her to kill (or simply to get his attention) and even going so far as to state that if light were to fall in love with anyone else,she would kill whoever he was with. misa is just as complex as light and L,but her personality makes people underestimate her.
True points. Misa is easily dismissed and ignored bc of how “annoying” she is coded to be - but we ought to be cautious and scrutinous about what annoys us and why. I personally feel upon reflection I disliked her more because of her over the top femininity - associating feminine with “cringe”. Your point shows that this cringe reaction made me miss out on a cool moment of interpretation, so thanks for that :)
@@timisontube another important thing to keep in mind is that japan as a whole is very big on the concept of "cute" so misa's personality was intended to be cute (no idea if it hit it's mark in japan but clearly not outside it.XD). her personality is very much a product of japanese ideals about women just with a serial killer twist.
but glad i could get you to think a little deeper about her,though. she really is more complicated than people give her credit for (as is sadly the case with a lot of characters) and it's good for people to actually think about the things they read/watch/play rather than to simply take it at face value.
@@timisontube nah. Ur reading into think too much. She's just horny and wants that serial killer d
@@timisontube Femininity is cringe? There is a lot to unpack here.
I feel like the AUTHOR underestimated Misa. She had her own death note and she sacrificed her own eyeball to gain a true sight ability to see anyone's real name above their head to write in the death note. She was better equipped than Light to kill her father's murderer, yet she just didn't. If the author was going to make her willingly suffer so much out of loyalty to the hero that delivered her justice, he shouldn't have given her so many advantages that she handed over to Light. I makes her look even more passive and weak and it makes the story worse over all.
I'm so glad ppl are still talking about death note! I agree I wanted L to win but he was just as twisted, I think I like him more because he's self-aware about it. Great video
nah,fuck L: team kira FTW.>:3
They were both capable of doing monstrous actions for the sake of justice but Light saw himself as a god above others passing judgement on who he deems unworthy, parasitic, or obtrusive.
L saw his team members with respect and valued their contributions even when he needed to take precaution with them. He wasnt the god among man but the only one who had the capability and resolve to fight one. And he chose two proteges with fundamentally different approaches and beliefs about justice to carry the torch.
I think ppl want L to win because he outplays light every single time nearly and light just asks shinigami to kill him because he can’t outsmart him and shinigami just kills him. Very cheap plot, Ruins whole show
@@AnnaKuznetzova88 not at all how it happens.
@@AnnaKuznetzova88 k
I like how death note did away with the basic done before morality argument instead it focused on the battle of pride and ego. To me it was a mostly a study of lights and other characters corrupt mental state
I also like when morality is brought up it's used as a cover for deeper motives made it a lot more interesting for me.
I was OBSESSED with this show in middle school. I've never been more obsessed with anything else since, and it had a massive part in shaping my life and thought process--just as every preteen fixation does for everyone.
I grew up going to a Catholic school. I was not baptized, from a family that was loosely Orthadox. In my many years at this catholic school, I bounced around between beliefs, culminating in the crushing fear of hell that the school preaches. By 6th grade, I thought I wanted to be baptized, "just in case." and over the next three years, I came to resent Catholicism, and every Christian religion, with a burning intensity.
How do these things connect? Death Note played perfectly into that supposed binary between good and evil for me. It explored many of the big questions I had at the time, and all the confusing feelings. I didn't understand why God would condemn those who didn't know him to eternal hell. I didn't understand why just talking to a priest could absolve someone of any crime. I didn't see how an omniscient and all-powerful and supposedly pure good being could condemn so many people to eternal torture. I didn't see how there could be multiple versions of Christianity that each thought they were the "correct" ones. Death Note questioned all of that, and painted a world that made much more sense to me. Horrible things happen, and nobody is pulling the strings to make it happen. Narcissistic dictators come into power all the time, from the ones that rule countries to the small ones running cults. Authoritarianism is easy to fall into. In those years, I was beginning to think like Light (before seeing the series) and wondering why God doesn't just smite all the terrible people in the world. Seeing Light's further widening of who became prey to the notebook showed me how impossible it can be to draw those lines on who should die. If the catholic god exists, he is indeed like Light, and that sucks. Killing and torturing people doesn't solve the cycle of violence.
I came to idolize L, and I remember spending a week being immensely lifeless and upset after seeing him die in the show. At the time, I wanted to be in the FBI when I grew up, to also help find the evil in the world and put a stop to it. Because I came from a mindset of initially agreeing with Light, it didn't matter to me that L was doing bad things to stop Light. There was a regular human narcissist with the power to kill whoever he wants, and just as I think dictators need to be brought down, he needed to be stopped. I agreed that killing anybody is wrong. But now, I think it's much more complicated than that. Yes, humans have their own personal morals, but how can anyone equate murdering hundreds of thousands of people to killing a handful, or to wrongfully imprisoning a couple people? It is simply not the same. There is no line where all sins become equally bad. I still think that it is more just to kill one person if that will lead to stopping the deaths of millions. Morality is not black and white, and is entirely dependent on individual perspective. We are surely evil in the eyes of the cows we use for factory farming. Mainly, what this show taught me is that morality is a mess of a spectrum and we decide the consequences we want to impose on the world.
In the end though, Ryuk was, to me, the only relatable one. Life only has the meaning we give to it. The show gave me space to explore a world without heaven and hell, and it made sense. Humans will endlessly find reasons to change the world in our image, and there will be endless reasons why that is wrong. It taught me to be wary of narcissism, and of anyone who claims to have all the answers. It lead me on the path of seeing that simply eliminating suspected problems does not actually solve the root. Neither L nor Light sought out the actual cause of crime. They didn't spend time thinking about what leads people to commit crime, what global circumstances lead to poverty and violence over generations. Light didn't seek to understanding systems of power, or politics, or what would actually improve the conditions of the world. Why wasn't Light taking out billionaires? Is revolution against fascism wrong if it kills those oligarchs in power, because killing is bad? Why do some stick to "thou shalt not kill" morals, but it leads to significant misuse of power by others?
Humans are indeed interesting, and we sure think we're the center of everything all the time. This show is sure full of flaws, and does indeed lack a solid mission statement, but regardless it really shaped my life and helped me break out of the binaries that it constructs. Of course there were many other factors in my life that lead me to being an agnostic-leaning atheist, but this show was the first thing that made me feel normal for thinking that. Biggest of all, and while not a direct conclusion made by the show, it showed me that the only "just" answer to anything is collective action and collective decisions. No one person, and no small elite group of people, should get to decide how everything works. We are all in this together and we all need equal say in what we want human impact to be.
So uh, thanks for making this video and giving me a chance to think about this all again! And write my own little essay in your comments, lol.
Thanks for giving your perspective! I really appreciate your story because it reflects the whirlwind of ideas the series juggles and how we can connect to any one of them depending on our own unique experiences
I must recommend you watching "Marvel's Daredevil", a TV series (brilliant, imo). Don't ask why but you must watch it.
@@TheManOfTomorrow Ooooh that has been on my list for awhile, I'll have to get to it sooner! Thank you for the mysterious suggestion.
@@DracowolfieDen I think you may also enjoy watching the anime “monster”, it has a quite slow peace but if you don’t mind it then give it a shot.
Bro. Make a video.
Misa is such a tragic, intelligent and strong character with the facade of an airhead.
She isn't strong but a damaged and traumatised character. Atleast her actions unlike light's are understandable
@@bhavya5692 emotionally strong, which she is. As she is everything else you said.
@@alcyonae maybe , being able to lie after getting her memories back might make her emotionally strong, but she has to otherwise light would be caught or rem would kill light. She was also easilly susceptible to his manipulation, like she killed herself for a man who never really loved her.
Her introduction of being stronger than light since she has the eyes, plus the fact she manages to find Light be essentially manipulating him shows her high intelligence.
@@alcyonae emotionally strong xD she literally allows Light to do anything he wants with her and live in a toxic relationship
A lot of manga creators talk about how, when creating manga, the characters are the absolute most important element. Araki talks about it in his book, explaining how you can have success without plot, without a setting, and without theme, or with any mix of these, but if the work has uninteresting characters it's doomed to fail. I think Death Note is a great example of this, where the work is uninterested in exploring much of the setting or developing depth in the theme in favor of making its characters as memorable as possible.
Also, many studies have shown that death penalty does not reduce crime - as opposed to the drop in crime consequential of Kira's actions presented in the show.
Well it’s completely different because of how it is a “divine” judgement, and not based on a committee.
very different situation though, in kira's case you drop dead the moment you gain popularity. while to be sentenced to death you need to be caught.
@@thephoenix4093 good point - all the worse as notoriety may be an unfairer measure of whether one should die or not than the justice system.
I don't think Death Note was ever intended to preach what is right and wrong. I see it as an exploration of the grey area between right and wrong, the series starts off by showing you Light experimenting with the book on criminals committing violent crimes in that moment(ie. the hostage situation, the men attempting to rape that lady walking by) while it is great that those crimes were prevented from carrying on, the means are morally wrong. Which is the overarching theme of this show, characters focusing on the outcome over the means, L does this several times too, having a stand-in die in episode 2, arranging illegal home surveillance of his suspects, torturing Misa. Personally I appreciate the fact that the supposedly "good" characters - L, Near, Mello, aren't actually good people. That ambiguity is more true to life than having a definitive good side and bad side. So I think the anime really asks you whether the end really justifies the means without telling you the answer to that question.
He got cold methods, but Misa was literally Kira number 2, L is good, just a good guy who's not afraid to do cruel things, he's practical
Misa wasn’t tortured . Why ppl keep saying that she was? She cried wolf because she was in deep doodoo. Then her toned changed once she gave up her memory.
I just spent the last 3 or so days consuming a 10 hour recap of the entirety of the Death Note franchise (the light novels, the extra chapters, the musical etc) and yet was so excited to see this pop up in my subscriptions. Y'all have become one of the channels I most look forward to seeing uploads from, so thanks for putting out another 21 minutes of Death Note analysis for me to chew on 😗👌
Thanks so much for the love!
Great perspective.
I agree that the entire thing had a very nihilistic tone. The world of the death gods was complete nihilism. It didn't portray anything as inherently good, or bad, but really just morally gray.
I don't think it only matters what the artist tried to portray but how the audience receives it.
While watching it, I felt that I didn't care if either succeeded. The world is unjust. It will remain so, except the way justice is perceived will be different. The story reminds me that justice is something that we made up. It's the pursuit of justice which gives it value. It's the miscarriage of justice which gives us despair. I think the show also shows the limit to what we can pursue while respecting rights, and how, while it is frustrating to see the guilty walk free, it is part of the reality of a justice system.
There is no justice. There is only retribution, or shared pain. There is no way to erase the crimes we were victim to. Still, there is value in the journey.
Yeah! That's what people miss with Death Note: it's *just* entertainment. The author has no greater philosophy or ideology to their ideas, it's all psychology and great pacing with great character stories. Any interrogating of right and wrong is solely important for the character drama. And that's kinda disappointing to me personally. For a series this good, it deserves to have something to say.
I felt the same way, but I guess I figured its okay and that everything doesn't have to 'say' something. We can just enjoy it for what it is
@@QualityCulture I agree! It's one hell of a Shonen!
See I disagree that Death Note not trying to say something was disappointing. imo in the best stories every written, the authors main goal isn't to say something about society or humanity, its to tell a good story. Yet because the author was true to the story, they usually end up saying something, usually a lot of things to a lot of different people. When you write a story with the message at the forefront you are no longer writing a story, you are writing propaganda and people can usually tell, and are usually turned off, unless they are simpletons who like being pandered to.
@@CraigJS91 Fair enough! I mean I really like good stories with messages about the world I live in or the human condition, mostly because society is what I live in and as far as I can tell, am human. But I agree that if your story isn't all there, you're gonna have trouble getting any message across. It's not propaganda if I learned something! I like learnin' stuff! If a work does lean a little hard on an idea without explaining it well, I do kinda go, c'mon man.
@@Guruc13 right, I guess to me it's all about honesty and exploring an idea or concept rather than saying "this is the right way to think about a thing". And I think that's what was so great about death note. It explored justice and the corruptive influence of power without saying "this is the right answer".
Agree. I kept looking for deeper meaning in the show, and still enjoyed it because it made ME think about deeper things like Justice but the show itself doesn't go there. And because I still like the dark humor. When I re-watched, I quit watching when L died. I think the show is better without the last several episodes.
Yeah the stuff with near and Mello felt kinda weak to me. Like it was tacked on. I think honestly if obata was going to also kill light at the end he should have done what the musical did and have ryuuk do it because the game is over and he would be bored with no challenge left for light to face and entertain him.
Ironically, even if Obata sucks at writing women, I think that Misa is one of the most interesting characters in the manga.
I mean, yeah, Light and L are the focus and after L's death the manga goes downhill fast, but she remains an interesting addition to the mix.
She isn't just a "Chaotic wild card and on the side of Light", she is her own type of selfish and egocentric person, it just so happens that she does so while putting Light (or better, the Ideal of a relationship with Light) above herself.
Just look at how Misa costantly does her own thing even if Light says something else.
Probably a lucky chance even given his attempt at writing an obsessed girlfriend? Yeah, probably, but it worked nonetheless.
Also it's interesting that Misa technically survives the story. Not much longer after it, but she does. I was 100% ready to see her sacrificed as a pawn
Yeah, it’s honestly not that bad in Death Note. Probably because there’s not enough women to be written terribly which is probably an issue with the story as well
Just here to clarify that Obata didn’t write the story, he only did the illustration. The author is someone else (Tsugumi Oba).
I really liked naomi misora's character especially when i read "Los angeles BB murder cases" where shes pretty much the main character.
If you were to analyze most people’s ideology you would find that they are quite flimsy. Art generally reflects life, it’s that we continually try to find meaning where often there just isn’t any.
This analysis was rationality at its finest. Recently I also realised the series was not intended to hype morality or ethical values. I also realised Lawliet and Light were quite the same. The only difference between them was that Lawliet openly admitted that he was a monster too. If we consider Ryuk as a passive observer, he is like the "last man" Nietzsche described. He was depressed in the Shinigami realm and simply wanted some "entertainment", and I have always wondered why was he so hung up on human world apples. I interpreted it as "little pleasures" or "indulgences" we all do while watching our lives pass us by. Now, as a fan, I have always rooted for L. And I also think L was intelligent but his loneliness made him susceptible to Light's manipulations. L didn't want Light to be Kira. He probably thought no one will be on his intelligence level and be his friend. Light also could not believe when L said that he was his first-ever friend. Both of them believed they were not capable of being loved. They were indeed the same. The only difference I can point out right now is that Light manipulated L knowing this "information". And just a wild guess that Ohba killed off L's character to make a point that there should be a balance between head and heart (no I am not a shipper) when it comes to making friends. As for Light, he was an exploitative narcissist with a grandiose and unrealistic worldview considering only himself that was not meant to be worked out.
Light and L are two highly manipulative psychopaths with different loose principles and goals to justify their actions who get depressed when they're bored and would die for a sense of purpose. That's why I didn't feel sad when they both died, they died doing what they enjoy the most, facing death for a sweet addictive adrenaline rush. Light was vigilante and as the first OP song lyrics imply, has a revolutionary sense of justice which is often chaotic, swift and brutal while L represents the authorities fighting to be the exclusive enforcers of violence. They both strive to be leaders of both opposite sides of the battle and take the challenge very personally.
The message of Death Note is that your anxiety is right - if you choose the wrong option in conversation, your friends will think it's more likely you're a serial killer
Nice essay, man. Really good work.
As for Mysa Amane, well to be blunt: I've always viewed her as a male fantasy inserted by the author... for his own pleasure, and that of the readers/viewers who would share is fantasy. Hence why she's so flat.
In L’s defense, he gave Misa food and bathroom breaks while she was being tortured 🤷🏽♀️ lol no I know it’s still torture and he was morally questionable the whole time
"morally questionable" doesn't even begin to cut it for what he did to her (he tortured her to the point of her *TRYING TO KILL HERSELF* and still didn't so much as ease up a bit) and he didn't even come close to treating light the same way when light wanted to "prove" he wasn't kira. even if you factor in that L (and the cops) didn't know HOW kira kills and were simply taking every precaution,that doesn't excuse him torturing misa into attempted suicide while all he did to light was throw him handcuffed into a cell and have him on 24 hour watch (not even REMOTELY strapped up like misa was or even with a blindfold). what L did was unforgiveable in my books (far more than light killing a bunch of criminals...though pretty close to light killing off anyone that was either in his way or he deem no longer useful like he did when takada was kidnapped by mello) and if i had to choose a side,i'd pick team kira over team L any day without question.
@@JT5555
Tbf, both of them are morally messed-up, they're just opposite sides of the same coin of morally messed-up. Imo, I'd be on neither side, Kira's philosophy of justice is a little too "guilty until proven innocent" when it comes to criminals, and is a little too witch trials-like.
For all we know, since some of his early Kira actions are based on what he saw on TV, some of the criminals he killed could easily be innocent people that were sensationalized by the news before their trials could prove them innocent...
@@Scarshadow666 oh,both of them are just awful people: i don't think anyone is debating that (even the creator himself said that light's dad was the only good person in the series...or at least involved with the kira case). i'm just saying that L took it too far when his goal was just to catch a serial killer and even the cops thought it was going too far. light was no angel but at least his god complex DID lead to SOME good (example: killing the guy that killed misa's parents after the courts failed to punish him) and kira had followers that believed fully in what he was doing (even though they didn't know why he was doing it).
point is that both of them did some pretty bad things but at least kira only killed people while L was willing to torture a suspect to the point of attempted suicide just to find kira and in my books,that one act was far worse than simply killing even just people that are no longer useful (aka: light's worst acts).
@@JT5555 wasn’t she just strapped up for a long ass time? I’m not saying that’s not torture but I don’t remember her being physically abused besides being constantly constrained. Don’t take it as me saying it’s not that bad, I said already that it is still torture, but compared to killing hundreds of people I don’t see how anyone could believe Lights atrocities are more justified. Just because someone is a “criminal” doesn’t necessarily mean their life Is worth less than another person’s.
@@YourName-um6sb she wasn't just strapped up: she was basically kidnapped (blindfold,hand gag and handcuffs included) by people she didn't know,was tightly strapped upright with both a straightjacket and another blindfold while being watched 24/7 but,again people she didn't know (keep in mind that this wouldn't have been the FIRST time a crazy stalker had come at her and she was blindfolded so she had no idea if they were telling the truth about being cops or not) for weeks,only being allowed some relief for the odd bathroom break. sure she wasn't being put under various levels of shocks or being whipped or anything,but the psychological torture was just as bad as any of that and,again it was to the point of attempted suicide (and the cops response to it? gag her so she couldn't). it was beyond fucked up and i have no doubt in my mind that L was holding back simply because the cops would have never allowed him to do anything worse.
light,however simply killed people and the people that he killed tended to die fairly quickly without much pain (mostly via heart attack) and then it stopped because they were dead. that far better in my books than torturing someone for weeks to the point of attempted suicide.
I’ve never found the philosophy “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” to be accurate. I think power can do two things: reveal and enhance.
When someone gains power, you often find out what that person always wanted to do. Power doesn’t corrupt you, it makes you MORE YOU. More angry, more ambitious, more kind, more human.
Light always wanted to do it, the Death Note just took away his restraints and revealed him for what was.
15:26 That is just not true, respectfully
*Spoiler Alert*
If you read the recent-ish one-shot manga, Near mentions "I don't condone what Kira did, but he managed to reduce the world's crime rate by 70% and bring a halt to wars"
I think Ohba is referring to L with the theme, he managed to outsmart Light even in death, if that's not giving life your all what is
I have the biggest smile on my face right now! I was going to write a mini essay ranting about the Stanford experiment and how it's bullshit but you beat me to it😂 Thank you for talking about it so more people can learn about its inaccuracies as it's been held up as an example of intrinsic human nature when it's really just a shitty experiment that gained popularity.
🤝
^ Exactly! It's one of some of the social psychology experiments getting scientifically disproven due to the Replication Crisises most of the studies go through.
Unfortunately with these kinds of scientific studies, it's hard for the same kind of info to be easily accessible for everyone and it makes it harder for people to adapt to new updates on scientific studies. I remember being taught about the Stanford Experiment just a couple years ago in college and they were slow to update that parts of the study wasn't scientific fact yet (though I think they've updated it since then, but the change process was bureaucratic and slow).
I think the biggest failure of Death Note (other than not having anything ready after L's exit) is that it did not put any sort of perspective on death itself. We literally have Death Gods in the picture and death is not really innerstood, even by them.
The biggest success is the thrill of the chase, but that is inherently going to run out, and it did. Still a great show. Like Seinfeld. ;D
death note was one of the first anime ive seen, great vid on it, i think misa is interesting, back then i dont think i paid her too much attention but my 2nd rewatch i did, one of those characters where her entire commitment is for one purpose in light, which makes the manga ending of her hit a bit harder and kinda made me like her as a character, i enjoyed death note though for what it is 🙏🏾
Thank you for explaining that the Stanford Prison experiment doesn't actually hold up.
I feel like the audience is somewhat in the role of ryuk. We watch the entertainment that light puts on for us and we see the things he chooses to fill his life with, this pointless battle between ego/ideology. Sure he has a cult following but was the whole thing really a worthwhile endeavor? Light was excited, passionate, and triumphant in moments but was he happy? Was it a life he was happy with at the end?
Great video! Although, I don’t really think that L necessarily represents the status quo, he is somewhat controlled opposition to Light’s fascist outlook on crime. In my opinion, light is a representation of how most people and our prison industrial complex see “criminals” disposable, not worthy of life, etc, and how some people that are pushed over the edge just enough, can easily become monsters in the name of vigilante justice.
You missed the point. It's not about making a definitive statement about morality, it's about showing how humans deal with those conflicting beliefs.
I think Misa represent the idea of purpose, holding on to her purpose for as long as she could, doing things blindly for that very purpose, opposed to light and L, who had goals, but accepted the no purpose nature of life. Maybe...
As an avid Kira supporter, in my youth, the only truly vile thing light yagami did was not love Misa😂
If anything she existed as irrefutable proof this man was a menace 😂
If I was giving the death note I would be the most harmeless person, not because I'm a better person than anyone else, but because I have a really hard time remembering faces and names, so I wouldn't be able to use all that power
Lol 😂😂😂💀💀💀
Death Note isn't supposed to say anything or have a deeper message, and that was 100% intentional on the authors part. He just wanted to entertain people.
This is really part of the reason why I’m writing my own Death Note based fanfic with a new set of characters, focused on the morality of the characters and how messed up things can become when it comes to greed, power, and a twisted sense of love.
Aww i'd like to read it...😮
I hope you will talk about Attack on titan and probably it’s my favorite story of all time. Aot shows about perspective of the conflict enemies, freedom and shows there’s no actually a villain, it’s just endless cycle of hated
You're saying having an (spoiler) inborn impulse to create a blank world even if at the expense of the lives of billions is not villiany? And then y'all say this story doesn't glorify genocide
L is obviously lawful neutral, but I wonder if Light is chaotic good or neutral... Maybe he started off with genuine intentions of doing good but then he became completely self interested in his fight with L. Or was it self interest the whole time? I've always found that uncertainty the most interesting part of Light. Because I want to be on his side but also am disgusted by him at the same time.
I think of both Light and L are lawful evil tbh. They're just on opposite sides of the same coin. Both are obsessed with their own self-righteous code of justice/law and will do anything to uphold it. They're far too methodical to be chaotic, neither is good, which the manga/anime both make relatively clear. Nor are they neutral with regards to anything they do because of how ruthlessly driven they both are, and how willingly they sacrifice others to get to their own goal.
And in one of the DVD cuts, that's from Ryuk's POV, it's implied that the Shinigami he's talking too, is Light, but now he's a Shinigami.
Dang it! I've been taking so long in making my own video essay that now you've touched on a lot of what I wanted to say, at least in regards to the lack of any actual commentary on what is or isn't justice given that L doesn't really provide an ideological counterargument and focusing much more on the battle of the minds. I even picked out the same Ohba quote from the volume 13 interview. Granted, I suppose I still have my own stuff to say in relating this lack of ideology to fascism and interpreting the story through the lens of Light as a fascist dictator to find an upliftinf political message, but still, you got to a fair bit of what I wanted to talk about first. Regardless, great video! I never considered Ryuk as a major player in the formation of the story's themes.
This is an amazing breakdown of a number of interesting points. I personally think that it would have been elevated using the subtitled version as opposed to the dubbed but maybe that's just a personal choice. Either way, good job.
I fully disagree, The message of Death Note is that intelligence isn't the end-all determinator of quality leadership, and that logic doesn't dictate justice. Just because it seemed "logical" to Light to murder those who broke the law, didn't do anything materially to eradicate the conditions that created the environment that encouraged those individuals to break the law. Kira didn't solve poverty or create an environment where the mentally ill could seek out counseling, likewise L's hunt for Kira didn't solve systemic issues either, and while the audience is made to sit and judge who is smarter chess player, the world suffers, just as it does in real life. Intelligence != Good Leadership, as logic and reason must be balanced with empathy and systemic wholistic understanding of the socio-economic issues that create the conditions for violent and petty crime to take place.
Your essay overlooks this.
I interpreted Misa as the consequence of someone defying fate. Misa was supposed to be murdered by a demented fan of hers, but Gelus saved her. Her being granted that extension sort of 'broke' her soul, as she was living past her expiry date. Her unhealthy obsession with Kira/Light was, spiritually, her way of coping with that fact.
Ngl....it's kinda cool the dude just made Deathnote for just entertainment rather than trying to push some meaningful message or a something. Not saying it's bad to have deep meaning to a story or work but being entertaining is kind of a meaning too lol.
I love Deathnote and i want to watch thru it again.
The connection between us(the viewer) and Ryuk is really interesting ngl
The biggest question that I had is why didn't Light start killing really famous killers all around the world rather than just in Japan? Just killing Japanese killers at first really set himself up for failure honestly.
this was early 2000's so maybe it would have been harder for him to kill anyone outside of japan both due to lack of proper info access and the simple fact that he mostly speaks japanese so other languages might have been too much to figure out (most of all while he's being cased down by the world's greatest detective). plus his dad was a cop (on the kira case no less) so if he ever caught him looking up news stories about criminals from all over the world (most of all the one's that soon end up dead) then that would look pretty bad for light.
@@JT5555 I feel like there is a HUGE misconception with the younger generations (especially gen z) on how much information was on the internet in the 90s and 2000s and it was actually quite a lot. The biggest newspapers had online publications in 1994 and by 2001 more than 3400 newspapers were available online to be read. That is just official newspaper publications; there were many websites that were dedicated to the collection of various different types of information and murderers were very popular in the 1990s till today. Most of these information pieces (which a lot had scanned pictures of printed newspaper articles) were posted on online web forums or some dedicated internet sleuths created their own websites that had a huge lists of information available to anyone who knew how to make online searches prior to the invention of mass search engines. So in actuality, Light could have very easily found information on murderers from all around the world. This isn't even taking into account that Light could have simply went to a local library and looked up various books and taken out to watch documentaries about famous serial killers from around the world on both VHS and DVD. Yes, the ease of getting "quick and current" (aka knowing right after a big case the conviction) information was lacking in the 2000s, however books are generally written about serial killers within the year of them being arrested and convicted. That doesn't even comment on how tons of paparazzi pieces were much more often found online than they were in printed media. So their would have been lots of speculation pieces on different murders posted online by amateur journalists all over the internet since the 1990s.
Light's Dad is a cop so that gave him way more of an excuse to be interested in understanding criminals; especially if he played up that he wanted to be a cop like his dad. As soon as criminals started dying it would have been very easy for Light to excuse the Death Note as his personal predictions of future deaths or deaths that haven't been published in traditional media yet.
I'm assuming you are either very young in comparison to myself (you might have been born in the late 90s or 2000s) or you were too poor to have access to the internet during the 1990s if you don't really have an understanding of how much information was already on the internet during Light's time with the Death Note. However, even in the show, it showed how Light was able to get lots of information on killers via his computer at home. So there really is no excuse for Light to not start killing foreign murderers before killing closer to home in Japan. Light was very smart and he could read English and most internet postings for collection information was written in English.
@@WildKat25 i'm 30.
@@JT5555 Then you were too poor to have a personal computer in the 2000s or you weren't allowed unfettered access to it and the internet during that time due to your age/parents.
@@WildKat25 or i had a life.
I wish they had shown more of the turmoil light felt after killing the first person inthe manga, he acted more desperate to believe he wasnt a killer so it made his doubling down on the notebook feel more tragic. Dudes ego and police dad morality complex rlly was so fragile that hed rather try to justify a billion murders than admit to 1 murder he regrets. Its still there in the anime a little, but it paints him as more power hungry than desperate in the beginning.
I dunno if this was intended, but the modern retroactive subtext is wild of thinking of Light becoming “God” is the reconstruction of Christianity. So much becomes this cult of punishment, and even when given so much dominant power doesn’t care about fixing the problems or injustices from the roots. Christianity becomes so rooted in this perception of dominance and superiority. Many many of the grossest want to spend their time being alive being the worst, punishing the innocent and performing pure hatred against others who wish to live freely.
It stands even stronger when thinking of Light’s privilege. He’s a handsome, able, educated, and well off guy who’s the son of a cop.
Great video! Glad to see the Stanford Prison Experiment being treated correctly!
I think the idea is - the ideal life for a person is to create a goal, a drive force that you like and want to do and go for it with full force. It doesn't matter that you never achieve - the fun of the proxess is more important. This hunt was a great joy and main goal for L and Light, like Light was everything to Misa. Thats why shinigami were so found of them. They were opposite of shinigami and lived to its fullest
Inspiring
Really cool video. I appreciate your writing style and really love your takeaway on the series. Insofar as I have a choice about my life, I will choose to desire a better one.
Bro. Light has the same sense of Justice as the average American.
Please don't let up love this from your perspective and partly having my own theories and opinions either validated or improved upon
I imagine Misa was largely added for fanservice/comedy relief, however she does also work well with the themes of the story if you consider it to be about an attempt to find meaning in existence that might ultimately be meaningless... like Light and L, she throws herself into her obsession, but whereas Light and L are more cerebral, Misa works as a more "passionate" character in contrast -- even though her feelings for Light as largely counterfeit (as Rem tells her in the musical -- yes, that's a thing, and it does make Misa into more of an idealistic ingenue than she really was in the manga or anime, but regardless) it gives her a sense of purpose in light of the loss she suffered.
I think Death Note is pseudo-intellectual show. Great video though 👍
The meaning of Death Note is extremely obvious, but it's also extremely nihilistic, which most people are very uncomfortable with, so they prefer to come up with their own ideas of what its about.
But Ryuk (and Oba's interview) have made it very clear what the message was:
Life is short and meaningless and then you die and that's it. There's no good or evil, there's no point to anything that happens. Nothing matters.
The Shinigami realm represents the people who look at that view of life, and think "well, if everything is meaningless, then why do anything?"
And Ryuk provides the counterpoint: Because that would be incredibly boring and unfulfilling. Even if nothing you do matters, you're going to be stuck here for a while.
So find something to do. Not because your time is too short and precious to waste, but the opposite. Your time here is way too long to just do nothing and feel terrible the entire time. So find something that will have made it good while it lasted, even if none of it means anything.
**SPOILERS**
Great video! Though I have to disagree with the statement because I don't think the primary meaning DN wants to put out is justice. Sure justice is all we hear about in the series but I think that the main argument the series is trying to present is whether the end justifies the means. It's just that justice happens to be the theme through which this argument is carried out. Light represents the side that supports that the actions taken to accomplish a certain goal do not have a significant moral meaning and do not matter if the ultimate goal has an overall positive effect or value. L on the other hand represents the exact opposite. He suggests that negative actions are not justified even if they result to something as positive as a 60% drop in global crime. It's also interesting to note that both sides of this argument reach a point where to them, the initial argument is buried underneath their excessive need to prevail over the other in a fiercely competitive manner and that results to them breaking their own moral positions. An example for Light is when he started killing innocent people that just got in his way and for L is going as far as to abduct and imprison Misa or sexually harassing her to steal her cellphone. This sounds a lot how people argue nowadays both on a personal level but as well as in groups (take political parties for example). Notice how the creator did not give a clear "answer" as to who won. You could say Light won because he killed L or you could say L did because he led Kira to his death, but it is not clear who was the real victor, and it doesn't even matter. So to conclude, I believe DN is not necessarily a heavy plot animated examination of what justice is but rather a very interesting and well thought representation of the corruption people have by nature and also a presentation of the argument of whether or not the end justifies the means.
Neither interpretation of justice was valid because both parties accepted justice as a consequence of their own rationality (which is why someone like L can justify holding Misa prisoner illegally).
Neither one bothered to subordinate their own ego or rationality to a higher sense of justice. So there were no winners. I think that's the takeaway.
I think what the show was really missing was a look on the institutional nature of evil. It's a touchy subject, that I think it kinda dips its toes in by having L be replaced, but the battle of wits kind of works against it. Totally agree with you on the perspective of Ryuk.
I think they could've made it better by having Light be replaced like L was. As to show that these roles of justice vs justice are eternal and transcend the humans that play them out and die. But they'd have to be careful to sell it in a way that doesn't seem nihilistic. To show that life is capable to be made better even if some of these problems are human nature. But that'd also be challenging to write as character drama was what was driving sales, so no wonder the 2nd half had so many challenges without half of that.
As for Misa I think she's a product of her time. Women were more marginalized in media in the 2000s than today, but there was a strong desire by writes and fans both to write women in better roles, which manifested in a fascination and empathy toward her on many different levels, even though her character and messages are not great. Like collective trauma processing maybe.
The Stanford Prison Experiment has been pretty debunked at this point - it was a very poorly done study and it's become clear that students intentionally took on certain behaviors and became more brutal because they thought that was what was expected of them, as they though the purpose behind the study was to show how bad the prison system is.
5:59 That’s actually brought up at this point in the video.
Yeah I felt off about the ending not only bc I started questioning my own moral compass, as sometimes I genuinely wanted Light to win, but the last part was lazy. Its like they made him too OP and had to just make him mess up in ways I don't think Light would have or at least not so quickly. I always thought his ego would be his downfall, but it was so sloppy. But the series does make you think and does entertain.
I just believe people have just have Their own interpretations of what the series my view is both entertainment and as a commentary on the justice system and religion
no, because every time I see that Quality Culture has a new video my heart skips a beat. I love you guys
Death note more or less was about two bored guys trying to win a game.
15:06 i feel like this quote applies more to his other work, Platinum End than Death Note
I actually realized that a long time ago, the writer just wanted a thriller and didn't care about the moral dilemma it could create which would have been great plot points BTW
sometimes it takes away from the story to me and sometimes the game is just a game
Hi guys I really love your content and I watched every video that you've uploaded numerous times. Watching your videos on Hey Arnold is actually my go to relaxation.
Can you guys make an essay on Full Metal Alchemist (2003) and it's movie (2008). I think there's something to say about it's dark and brooding story arch's vs that of the original Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood which was based on the original manga
Hope you'll consider my request. Keep up the great work guys, you two make a great team 💪♥️
Great video! An analysis of the lack of moral meaning in Death Note was a really good take, very interesting.
Part of it is that this anime has been picked to death for meaning. I think it's honestly just a meditation on what it means to be just and what kind of person would even want to do that job. Even the cops in the story don't lead all that happy lives. I like that the normal police catch him in the end.
I always wanted light to win
I was hoping you'd talk about Misa, because I always thought I was missing something... I guess not. 😆
I feel like I overestimated Death Note. Its got so much imagery but it doesn't really deliver on the themes. What was the point, what mistake did L make? He just loses because of element out of his hand.
I wanted L to win but I would've been fine if the death would have been deserved
My head cannon is that at the end it's all actually happening in Light's head as he reads his book that he has at the beginning of the show. Replacing the character in it with himself due to being an incredibly smart but bored teenager looking for an escape from his dull life.
That would be a horrible and sour tasting ending, I didn't like the real ending because light died but this would devalue all the moments in the show, but creative idea tbh
That would be an absolute WASTEFUL ending. Not worth it.
Fair enough. The tragedy of it all hits harder with the finality of it. More of a personal preference because I prefer happy endings and much of the tragedy of Death Note is delusional and the only happy ending to possibly be had is if it all never had happened
Said it had nothing to say but had a lot to say about it
I absolutely hated Misa's character. I remember getting angry every time I saw her on screen. She always got her self into some kind of trouble.
finally, I'm so tired of people praising death for no reason
I find it falls into a thing where, sometimes when the interpersonal reactions, become so detailed and engaging, you end up reading for hours, on to realize nearly nothing happened.
i cant belive it has been 1 year since i watched this, i love it so much.
THAT BOOK BROUGHT OUT SOMETHING THAT WAS ALREADY THERE
Actually, at the end of the manga we see a woman leading a group of Kira worshipers. So even if Light lost and died at the end, Kira did made an impact on society in the long term.
Regarding Misa, I think she’s an interesting character. She introduced some lightheartedness that, in my opinion, was needed in a show so full of (for a lack of a better word) pretentious characters. She was extremely powerful and dangerous given that she had the Shinigami eyes AND a Shinigami companion who was willing to die for her. When she is introduced, she gives both an advantage and a headache to Light, which made things more interesting in my opinion. Also, totally unrelated to the script itself, but Misa is one of my favorite art designs in any anime. Her aesthetic is too iconic and she is the human character that embodies the spirit of Death Note.
I liked that Death Note didn't spend an insufferably long time wistfully making the reader ponder whether Light's actions are just or not-- he's immediately framed as the antagonist, a sociopath who needs to be stopped. The story is immediately clear that it thinks what Light is doing is fucked up. The anime spends significantly more time on this fruitless navel-gazing about morality when I was initially hooked by the manga for it's willingness to discard base themes about good versus evil and instead treat us immediately to a back-and-forth, a literal tennis match between two highly motivated individuals using what means they were willing to get the upperhand.
But as an aside on themes of good vs. evil, because I think it's disingenuous to reframe Death Note as nothing but a psychological thriller: Regarding L not wanting to resort to illegal detention or torture to try and solve the case, remember that despite Light's self-glorifying claims about being the one to make the hard decisions for a better society, he still refused to make the bargain for the eyes of the Shinigami. Like real people both L and Light's code of conduct was at times arbitrary and self-serving, but I think it's still fair to say that L still represented rule of law even if he wasn't a paragon of it.
In my opinion, L and Light both were psychopaths in their own ways...I feel like if enough time was given to L, he would've turned into something evil for sure
It was more important what the series didn't say than what it did.
Honestly putting everything aside because you do spit some facts I think the whole I took out all the pages and just left the spine was a lazy contrivance because the book generates more pages as an empties and the spine is more integral to structure of a book than the pages. Considering that the books seem to be semi-sentient I think that it would have rejected or replaced the fake pages because they didn't qualify as part of the death note.
I mean what is a criminal in one country it's a murderer in another it's being gay it's beating someone brutally and speaking out against people in power. If you judge everyone in jail the same which light seems to do you have a very terrible sense of mortality with 0 nuance. What about innocent people what about laws that you and many others find unjust? Anyone who sided with light while watching deathnote must have very bad critical thinking to not come up with basic questions like what if they're innocent or the law is unjust?
I picked up the full manga ast year and I highly suggest to anyone that likes print media. It's not so much that it's better, it's that it's more.
Thank you for this video. I wonder if I'll agree with you.
"I'll take a potato chip and eat it"
"That boy ain't right"
Misa is a typical empty shell that wants to find purpose in serving a cause or a movement. Perfect sect material like the Manson girls.
i was kinda disappointed with anime&manga cause there are a lot of countries with death punishment and practically non overthrown convictions. this approach isn't working irl. why kira never made corrupt leaders to confess publicly in their crimes, kill dictators, kill invaders, make billionairs donate their wealth and politicians to get laws what help people and then die?
I think I was just a psychopath like Light because for years after watching death note I was one of the few watchers who actually genuinely wanted light to win. It wasn’t until I watched a few videos like this before I realized wait light was actually kinda bad. I agree with all of us having some evil in us just waiting for the opportunity to come out.
i also found him evil but like at the end when he ended up not winning i did feel lost coz in one way or another i wanted him to kinda win
This was so good. I would love a bullet club video !!
10:39 that part got me laughing out loud 😂 just the idea of Light playing chess and he makes a simple mistake like idk, using a Knight to put L's King in Check, but L just takes Light's piece using his Queen which Light forgot about 😂 then in his mind, slamming his hands on the table and acting out the scene at 10:49
2:47 I started rewatching the show a few weeks ago and had the same moment of realization lol
This a bold take, I can't wait to see how this goes
I disagree but it’s a well made video with solid points
L's care for humanity was demonstrated constantly? I'm surprised with that interpretation. L and Light both speak lies when they discuss their feelings on humanity, it's meant to be an interesting juxtaposition. Light says he cares about humanity and he finds killing under any circumstances wrong (a lie), L says he really doesn't care and it's all just an interesting puzzle to him (also a lie). Example: When L tells the team that they have to be willing to leave the tokyo police department and give everything up to work with him, it at first seemed cruel because he secretly was going to offer them full pay, protection, and housing if needed. So when Shuichi Aizawa falters because he technically has a family he needs to think of, he gets cut. L reveals that he did it NOT because he only wanted people who were willing to risk it all, but he knew Aizawa's priorities were somewhere else and he can't be left responsible answering to his family on why their dad/husband is dead. If he didn't care at all, he really wouldn't care if he risked his life with a family in the wing. When aizawa leaves and cusses L out, L says "well that's too bad, I've always liked you" and he continues to thank him genuinely. He kept him out because he didn't want anyone getting into something they couldn't handle.
Which is why the author's statement completely makes sense. It applies to L! L is trying his all, and when he dies, the testaments of his legacy (near and matt) are completing his will by not taking his route (solo, and assuming other's incapabilities in the fear of letting them down) but they do it together. The author's statement is a direct ode to L.
Love jow Death note was released in 2006 and people still talk about it
I think i can say that Death note is timeless
To be honest, I was more of a fan of the original Live action movies, rather than the anime or the manga.
9:45 No way, killing people and restraining suspected serial killers are way different. L was always in the right.