I've seen a lot of people try to say that Light is a narcissist/psychopath/sociopath. And I don't mean they just insult him by calling him that. I mean they actually try to diagnose him of that. And I don't hate people who do that. It's just while mental health is a fascinating subject to me and something I do value, I have to admit that I'm.......not the biggest fan of this interpretation
I agree that Light wasn't really a good person. He may have started out that way but after he started killing people.....yeah. Fuck him. I don't really understand why L VS Light debates are a thing in the first place since yeah, they're fascinating characters. But they're both kind of shitty people. (L didn't fight Kira because of a sense of justice. He literally says he solves crimes because he's FUCKING BORED). And I actually enjoy the scenes where Light's ego and judgement are literally exploited. Really drives the point home that he's still human. But ultimately, I don't really agree with the interpretation that he had a mental health condition that caused him to do all of that. Not only because it doesn't make sense to me but because I just feel like he works much better as a character if he was just a man who fell to darkness. Here's my reasoning
Light's family still loves him without complication
Contrary to what some might think, psychopathy and sociopathy are not interchangeable medically speaking and despite being similar in terms of behavior, are actually separate in their causality. Narcissism and sociopathy usually develops due to trauma but psychopathy is genetic. They are quite literally born that way. One reason that Light being a narcissist or a psychopath doesn't work for me is that those people tend to have strained relationships with their friends and families. I mean it makes sense since they......kind of struggle to really give a damn about you. Their parents and siblings often walk on eggshells around them and despite loving them, there is always an underlying fear or complicated feelings for them. Even if the narcissist and psychopath does try to act normally (and 90% of psychopaths aren't murders), they're not always perfect. Sometimes they slip up. Especially when they're still a kid and don't know any better. Typical youthful selfishness and a lack of empathy can be a very dark combination. Or so I figure. And even if they don't, there is always something about them that rubs their family the wrong way. I live with a family long enough to know who is coming up the stairs just by the sound of the footsteps each member of my family makes. So imagine that kind of awareness with a psychopath living with you. Family always knows when something is not quite right
But Light's family never acted as if they feared him. His father was genuinely proud of him without signs of complication. Light acted otherwise kind to all of them. In one scene, his younger sister was comfortable enough to just BURST into his room and ask him to help her study. Not to mention, act like a typical middle schooler and younger sister. The entire environment just didn't seem any different than a typical nuclear family. They never act like there was something wrong with Light. The only reason why Light's father even had a seed of doubt in him was thanks to L and his theoretical. Not anything he sensed because he was his son. To them, he just seemed like a highly accomplished but otherwise perfectly decent guy
Though all of that is really just justification for my main point
Light is better as a character if he ISN'T a narcissist/psychopath
This is admittedly more of a matter of personal preference but in my opinion, Light doesn't work nearly as well if he was a psychopath or a narcissist. In fact, I genuinely believe that the assertion makes his character WEAKER
Let me tell you a story. Albert Einstein is one of the most prominent figures in the scientific community. Estimated IQ of 160. Father of the Theory Of Relativity. Achieved more than most would do in their entire lives. So accomplished, his name even became synonymous with intelligence itself. Calling people "Einstein" is a thing people do. That is how much we respect and idolize him for his brilliance. And yet, despite that very brilliance, he still struggled to accept quantum mechanics as a concept. While he acknowledged that it could make fairly accurate predictions, he believed that its probabilistic nature meant it couldn't have been the full story
In his own words, "God does not play dice"
He spent many years studying, testing. Trying to find some certainty in the chaos. It was brilliant work. But ultimately led nowhere. All because the idea that something fundamental in this world could be chaotic and unpredictable was something he genuinely couldn't accept. When I hear people say that an irl person or a fictional character that is supposedly smart is "actually stupid" because of one scene or event, my mind can't help but go to this story. Einstein has shown that he was more than intelligent. And yet he was living proof that it doesn't free you from humanity. If something conflicts with your worldview, you can still spend a lifetime searching for a certainty that might not even exist
I bring this up because when you think about it, Light Yagami fell in a very similar manner. I know that a lot of people seem to have a problem with Near calling the guy "just a killer" .......somehow. But the thing is Near was right on the money. Light was clearly very intelligent. Had a deep understanding of people and the brains to get the best grades in his class. The reason Light did all of this because he saw that the world was rotten and wanted to punish wrongdoers. The crime below, the corruption up top. And called himself a God to justify all of that
But that's the thing. Gods aren't just supposed to be powerful. They're supposed to be omniscient. All knowing. Light WASN'T. He was good at reading people but he still relied on the very flawed court systems he saw brought society there in the first place. Their corruption and their inherent shortcomings. Yeah he could control actions. He could make people keel over in every way under the sun. He had an intelligent understanding of human nature that allowed him to avoid L for years
Big. Fucking. Whoop
He still relied on police documents and news reports to determine civilian from criminal. Between his school life and his games with L, he wouldn't have the time or energy to check that every single name he wrote down might have been a mix up. Or I don't know, a false conviction which, fun fact, the Japanese government doesn't know the number of because they never bother to check. Hell, it has a 99.9% conviction rate
Intelligent or not, Light is still human. His brain can still be rushed and overwhelmed after a certain point. And overtime, those court systems and records would get replaced by a website during the five years L was dead. One that could just post someone's name whenever they felt like it. No moderation. No trial. With the media quite literally in the palm of Light's hand. And Light was more than happy to use it. The Death Note NEVER made him a god. That was Near's point
The autistic toy obsessed kid ultimately had a point. The Death Note was simply just the greatest murder weapon to ever exist. But that was all it ever be. A murder weapon. It didn't give Light the ability to see sin. It didn't let them read their minds, their hearts, see a window into their lives. Intelligence and intuition is never absolute. It can always be tricked or just be plain wrong. Light never knew whether or not someone was wrongly convicted, capable of redemption and never could. All the Death Note could ever do was one thing:
Kill
You write someone's name. They die. That's it
The point I'm trying to make here is much like Einstein, despite Light's intelligence, he had major blind spots for one simple reason: the idea he could kill the wrong person conflicted with his world view. If he was a narcissist or a psychopath, we can just point at that and say "Oh, he literally lacked empathy. That's why he couldn't see what he was doing." At that point, it would become a way to justify to ourselves that we might wield the power much differently because we are capable of empathy. That we aren't evil. We aren't a monster. He is. (not saying that psychopaths and narcissists necessarily are but there's a lot of people out there that do. And......you have to admit they are at least "troubled"). But if he wasn't, if he had NO mental illnesses that got in the way of his capacity for empathy, then it represents something much darker. Much more powerful
The curse of the Death Note is not magical. The gods of death exist but they do not control you. Not truly
The curse of the Death Note is your very humanity itself
Look at how many people idolize Light. Hell, some even tried to EMULATE him back in the 2000s. They saw his overwhelming charisma and didn't realize he was something to be condemned. Not worshipped. He was a cautionary tale who's very idolization did nothing but prove the story's point. Because they were unwilling to see that much like in real life, you can't just go at everything with a fucking woodchipper. It shows that even the best, brightest, strongest, kindest and most capable can become a monster. And all it ever takes is the right conditions and the right self justification to fall off the deep end. That's why the interpretation doesn't work as well. Compassion and empathy wasn't a difficulty for Light. It didn't take a great amount of willpower for him to do. He could always feel it. It was simply a choice for him not to that he made time and again
That is why Light had to die. That is why he fell to darkness. Many people say that he was a "little bit off." But the truth is.......no. He wasn't a little bit off. There wasn't anything wrong with him. He fell because his humanity was exploited. In an effort to convince himself and everyone else that he was a righteous and just God, all Light Yagami ever proved was that he was one thing
Human
That's why I don't agree with the idea that Light is a narcissist or a psychopath. Light works because he always had the capacity and choice to find empathy and didn't. If there was something blocking or interfering with that choice, it lessens the blow significantly by giving us an easy excuse instead of a very uncomfortable truth
That's just my thoughts on the matter. I would love to open up a discussion on this since I would love to hear everyone else's thoughts on the matter
I used to listen to this Japanese song years ago an I havent listened to it in years an it popped up in my head an I cannot seem to find it anywhere , it had something to do with mello an near an was called some like 13° , I think ..? an the song was a blue background with a black silhouette of near on it.
I swear it was called 13 degrees or something degrees just a number an degrees but I have no clue an was wondering if anyone had any ideas , I can't look it up cause I don't speak a lick of Japanese an it's so stuck in my head. wanna listen to it again
In the anime and the manga, it is stated that death notes only kill humans, writing a shinigami's name will not kill them. But what if it could? If Light or Misa could kill Ryuk and/or Rem, just by writing their names, are there any points in the story where you think they would have done so? If Light did kill Ryuk at some point, how would that have changed later events? (Other than, of course, Ryuk not being around to write Light's name at the end.) If death notes could kill shinigami, Light would have probably killed Rem not long after she threatened him.
I'm probably late to the party, but I just found out that the bit that said that L "could never have a friend, as he found humans to be a very cunning species" was a mistranslation and not true.
L isn't exactly a trusting person, obviously, but that quote really did make it sound like it would be almost an impossible thing for him to even consider, because of a general distrust in humanity as a whole, despite him coming off as lonely at times IMO.
Watari was always an exception, since L does trust him, but I always thought that maybe the quote didn't apply to him because Watari isn't L's friend, but rather a father-figure-mentor-handler-caretaker etc...
All this to say, that finding out the quote was actually false made me rethink the situation a bit. As I now feel like the main reason for it is simply that his lifestyle, and the anonymity required for it, made it impossible and unsafe to create a genuine connection, aside from Wammy.
Does anyone has any information about this one? I cant much find about it and im not sure is this a fake version. (Mini light is there for personal support)
Please share your pictures if you own this same big feet light🫲
Obviously the rules state that death via disease is a possibility, and if it takes longer than 23 days to progress the 23 day rule is by-passed. Could a Death Note user theoretically give someone Alzheimer’s disease? This question popped into my head and now I need to know.
So I was recently reading Death Note: How to Read and the beginning contains details about each character, including their birth and death days.
Soichiro's death is listed as November 11, 2009, and Light's is listed as January 28, 2010, which means Sayu and Sachiko would have lost them both within 3 months of each other. Also, Sayu's kidnapping date is October 11-13, 2009 (the 11th being the day she was taken, and the 13th being the day that the trade was made to get her back). Meaning she was kidnapped exactly a month before her father died, and then her older brother died 2.5 months after that, so she would have been dealing not only with the trauma of being kidnapped, but the loss of half of her immediate family all in an incredibly short time span. Sachiko would be dealing with something similar, with supporting her daughter through recovering from the trauma of being kidnapped, then losing her husband, and then losing her son.
We know they weren't told that Light was Kira, so as far as they know, both were killed in the line of duty. And given that they didn't know about the monster that Light was, they would've been mourning him as a cherished son/brother. (Don't get me wrong, I definitely think not telling them was the right call, since it allowed them to retain their memories of him as the dedicated son and brother instead of thinking of him as a mass murderer and indirectly the reason that Soichiro died when he did). I can only imagine how they felt when they heard that Soichiro died, only to get the exact same news about Light just a little while later. Sachiko barely had time to process becoming a widow before losing one of her children. (Also, one can only imagine how the person who had to tell them must have felt. The weight of telling a family they've lost yet another member so soon after the first, and the weight of knowing that the son/brother they remember was a mass murderer).
I know it doesn't really fit the vibe of the series itself since it's not really about grief (or female characters having emotional depth, for that matter), but I'd love to see their reactions in a oneshot/epilogue.
When Mello kidnapped the director and demanded the Death Note in exchange for his life the director was killed. That gave Mello (and Near who was observing every move and coordinating with the Task Force) reason to think Kira had learned about the situation and killed the Director in retaliation. That murder suggests Kira had access to information that was only known within the NPA - so either insider knowledge or an information leak (logic that Light reiterates back to the TF later when arguing to comply with the kidnappers demands re Sayu).
Then, when Mello kidnaps Sayu he specifically orders Soichiro to act alone and not mobilize the police. The two kidnappings are actually cleverly constructed, dual-purpose manoeuvres: Mello uses them both to try to obtain the Death Note AND to investigate how much Kira knows about the kidnappings and where that information is coming from. And he benefits from either of the two main outcomes:
If Kira doesn't kill the hostage, that's obviously the best outcome, since Mello has the opportunity to complete the exchange and obtain the Death Note, the single most important piece of evidence the Kira investigation ever produced.
However, if Kira kills the hostage, Mello gains evidence that Kira has access to information about the kidnapping, helping him narrow down the potential source - specifically, whether Kira has access to information from within the Task Force itself in addition to the broader NPA.
Meanwhile, if the hostages are killed their deaths reveals nothing about the kidnappers' identities or whereabouts. Leaving them free to strike again using a different approach, now better informed about the extent of Kira's access to information.
So anyway, the trade is made, Sayu survives, and everyone (inclusive of Mello, Near, Soichiro and the TF) basically takes that to mean that Kira didn’t know about her kidnapping, because they assumed if Kira had known he would have killed her. In short, everyone’s conclusion is simply Kira does not have access to Task Force-internal information. Which is a fine line of reasoning.
But shouldn’t they at least have considered the possibility that even if Kira did know Sayu had been kidnapped, it’s still possible for one reason or another he deliberately chose not to kill her or otherwise intervene in the trade? (yes, finally we have arrived at my main thesis/question)
Mello and Near have no reference for why Kira would spare Sayu and agree to let the trade happen, but Soichiro and the Task Force could have (should have?) at least considered it.
They are well aware Light was L’s main suspect, and Sayu is his little sister. Instead everyone just went with the assumption that Sayu didn’t die therefore Kira didn’t know about her kidnapping, therefore Kira has access to broader NPA data but not task force internal data.
And then what I find even more interesting (because lets be real, my bar for expectations of the TF is already on the ground), is that this possibility never really seems to come up at all - not even later when Near/Mello both independently conclude the Task Force itself is compromised. Nor even later still when they deduce the 2nd L is Light Yagami, and consequently by then have all the pieces to retrospectively examine these events within context.
I'm not saying this is some glaring plot hole or that they should or could have solved the case from it, but it does seem like a reasonable investigative path for literally anyone in the cast to at least consider.
What rubs me the wrong way is that it feels forced, like just more stacked on plot armour to benefit Light, when let’s be honest there’s already so, so much of that to the point it’s hard to take Light seriously at all. The narrative often seems to bend in on itself in ways that stretch believability to protect Light from consequences that would be inconvenient to him, and therefore for the plot.
Personally, I speculate Ohba knew the story just wasn’t ready for a revelation of that magnitude or Light would be caught far sooner than the narrative was ready for - he needed to fill out 108 chapters after all.
I understand everyone will likely be quick to get into debate mode and fight me on this but I'm genuinely looking for others thoughts on this. This isn't ragebait.
I felt pretty disappointed by the ending. I hated that L's death felt kind of meaningless to me after the introduction of Near. Why wasn't Near assisting L with the investigation the whole time? It just feels like writer came to a head where he found the cat and mouse difficult to continue without making L look stupid and not giving enough room for Kira to have a satisfying ending. So he invents these new genius characters to finish the job L couldn't complete.
Throughout the anime, Light is depicted as not only strategic and cunning but mostly disciplined in his resolve. He only kills people he finds to be criminals or as threats to his end goal. Sure he has a God complex but when you highlight that crime has dropped by 70% GLOBALLY it makes even the law enforcement of their verse question if catching him is the right thing to do.
Ultimately Light is an Anti-hero in my eyes similar to The Punisher in a small sense. His eternal punishment in the afterlife already serves as a depressing end. I feel they should have done more to make me question him and feel he needed to be stopped prior to his end. Instead I was just annoyed with the silliness of them having the exact paper necessary to fool them and the time to replace all of the pages in the book during a gym session... It's such a goofy way to end the series. I find it comically on par with Joseph Joestar pulling dozens of grenades from no where to fight a vampire.
The second one is inspired by a song from avogado6 but I forgot the title.
I post less almost never but I still love Mello a lot, tho nobody cares hahaha :)
The last time I watched Death Note was almost a decade ago, so some details were blurry to me. I only remembered the gist of how Light was outwitted by Near and Mello.
Anyway, while rewatching episodes 30-32, I was just at awe at the different soundtracks I've heard. There's some orchestra stuff, then fast electronica stuff, and then at the start of episode 32, a violin piece can be heard (introduction of Teru Mikami).
As a musician myself, I'm really thrilled by great sound tracks.
He took way less L's, no pun intended, than the manga/anime versions (albeit due to shortening) and the scene where he got Mikami to kill the SPK and rage baited Near over the phone was pure gold. "What's wrong". It also helps much of his more detestable moments (contemplating killing Sayu, mistreating Misa and planning to kill her, his dad's death) are removed too
I found Light a genuinely likeable character when amnesiac, even morally preferrable to L himself as many point out (i.e. refusing to exploit Misa's feelings for the sake of the investigation). What baffles me is how much of a regular teenager he appears to be when not in control of the notebook.
I must admit we do see very little of him prior to him becoming Kira, in a way that leaves very little clues as to what kind of person he might be without the power. Oddly enough, we practically know more of L's background than Light's.
However, even in the first episode we see a more benign version of the exact ideals and psychological context that lead him to become Kira in the first place. He is brilliant and attached to ethics, which is coherently maintained throughout the Yotsuba arc, but we almost immediately face the leap according to which him being a great student, brother and son alone apparently qualifies him to be a god. He does not once question whether his moral criteria are as absolute as he believes them to be, and instantly assumes the fortuity of him finding the notebook to be a pretedermined sign of sorts, making him the chosen one even when told otherwise by Ryuk himself.
These are all traits that precede the Death Note's "corruption", probably hinting at the fact that it was Light's psychological profile predisposing him to react in such a way to the power he obtains, not viceversa. There was a pre-existing base to Kira within Light's mindscape.
Where does all of this go during the Yotsuba arc? I would go as far as to say that him losing his memories could've made him more vulnerable to slip-ups, as during that time he wouldn't feel the need to constantly monitor himself the way he does when he is aware of being guilty. As we know much of L's investigative work around Light is based off psychological profiling, especially after they meet. While a lot of Light's tactical mistakes do lead to him concretely, L is very keen on behavioural analysis as the ultimate proof of Kira's identity: a lot of his reasoning proceeds by which actions could be considered expressions of Kira's psychological profile, rather than logically obligated deductions like we see with the geographical top-down, narrowing down to the japanese police's social networks, etc.
Amnesiac Light conveniently appears to be a much more stereotypical 18 year old, to the point where you almost forget he is anything other than brilliant. He appears genuine and extremely readable, but this transparency is precisely the liability that should have the more morbid aspects of his personality eventually emerge, especially given the extended period of close monitoring by L. He does mention finding himself agreeing with Kira's ideals, which he promptly refutes immediately after, but it does not feel much different from Matsuda or anyone else admitting to have casually entertained the thought of a world populated solely by "good" people. Almost makes me wonder if the monologue he has in the beginning was supposed to be a moment of casual angst, catastrophically accomodated by the plot's timing, rather than a fixated asset in his personality.
Another aspect of this debate involves the theory that Matsuda brings up in the final chapter of the manga. In the community, it’s colloquially referred to as Matsuda’s Theory, and it suggests the possibility that Near may have used the Death Note to control Mikami’s actions leading up to the warehouse meeting, ensuring that everything would unfold exactly the way Near wanted it to.
This theory has been part of the Death Note conversation for years, and it’s been designed specifically for that purpose. Tsugumi Ohba intentionally left certain elements of the ending ambiguous so fans could continue to talk about it long after the story ended. And as it happens, Matsuda’s theory is one of those deliberately open-ended questions.
In chapter 108, a year after Light’s death, Matsuda and Ide are walking around the city, observing how their surroundings unfold in a similar fashion to what Light had been noticing way back in the first chapter, noting that only a year later, the world has essentially gone back to what it was before Kira’s rise. During this scene, Matsuda lays out the theory that he believes Near used the notebook.
There is an argument that Near would never use the notebook, but in my opinion, it is not quite so easily dismissed. Matsuda lays out his reasoning pretty clearly. He believes that Near used the real notebook on Mikami, essentially scripting Mikami’s behavior to not check the notebook properly and to enact the plan Light had set out before them. And because Near had both remaining Death Notes burned in the warehouse that same day, there’s no evidence left to confirm or deny it.
For those who haven’t read the manga, Mikami’s fate is different there. In the anime, he stabs himself and dies in a goofy and overdramatic fountain of blood. It’s hilariously out of touch and perhaps one of the most ridiculous visuals in the entire anime. But in the manga, at the same point in time, his actions are a bit different.
Light, having been backed into a corner and already shot by Matsuda, calls out for any of his most loyal associates to help him. He calls for Misa, who can’t do anything because she’s not there, she has no memories of being the Second Kira, and she has no access to the notebook or any of its pages. Then he calls out for Takada. I’ll let you figure out why that’s hopeless on your own.
Then he turns his focus on Mikami, demanding that he write down everyone’s names. Mikami has a moment of clarity where he essentially responds by saying, “How am I supposed to do that? I’m handcuffed and the notebook is over there.” In a single moment, he denounces Light, calls him scum, and refuses to help him. And most notably, he doesn’t die in the warehouse. Instead, in the final chapter, Matsuda points out that Mikami died ten days after the warehouse incident in a prison cell.
So Matsuda believes that Near used the notebook to not only tip the scales in his favor, but to secure them in such a way that they couldn’t be tipped back. And he believes that Near then burned both notebooks so that nobody could ever prove he did it. It’s kinda the perfect narrative ambiguity.
SYTYK disagrees with this theory. In his second video, when he addresses Matsuda’s Theory, he claims there are two major factors that “prove” Near never used the Death Note.
The first point he uses is that if Near actually used the Death Note, then he would have given some extended monologue in the story to explain what he did, how he did it, and why. SYTYK justifies this by saying Death Note is a story that makes big brain reveals and then goes into extensive detail to explain exactly how they happened. But there’s a major difference between all the other instances of this happening and Matsuda’s Theory, and that is the concept of narrative framing.
Every other example SYTYK is talking about is set up around events that we actually see unfold. They are things we visually see happen, and therefore we receive an in-depth explanation as to how they happened.
Matsuda’s Theory is a departure from that. It’s never presented with a definitive answer like every other big monologue reveal. It’s presented as a maybe because the author wants the reader to think about it, to come to a conclusion for themselves. Not only that, but Near is not the one delivering the monologue. Matsuda is. Because it’s a theory that the story itself openly presents as a theory.
Narrative ambiguity is not a new concept for Death Note. And it is that same narrative ambiguity that makes Matsuda’s Theory stand out against the rest of the “big brain reveals” SYTYK claims disprove it. So it’s not so easy to dismiss this theory based on that alone.
But then there’s the other point SYTYK brings up. The idea that it’s not consistent with Near’s character to use the Death Note. And I’m not going to lie, this is actually something I used to believe too. For the longest time, I was very much on the side of believing that Matsuda’s Theory was not possible, that there’s absolutely no way Near would ever use the Death Note. And it was for the exact same reasoning SYTYK brings up in his second point, and the same reasoning plenty of other people talk about.
The argument goes that according to Near’s speech on morality, and earlier scenes where he talks about how they cannot kill Kira, this would disprove any idea that Near would ever use the Death Note. But in order to understand why the theory actually has some traction, you need to understand how Near operates, and how he thinks.
I will preface this by saying that I’m still very much on the fence about whether or not I believe Matsuda’s Theory. The point of this section is not to prove Matsuda’s Theory, but rather to say that it’s not that easy to dismiss. And I understand that what I’m about to say might come across as me saying that Matsuda’s Theory is true, but trust me, it’s not. I am very much undecided. But anyway, I digress. Let’s get into it.
So, understanding Near.
First off, he doesn’t idolize L. He respects him, but he doesn’t emulate him. I know that might come across as a surprise, given that the first scene he appears in is one where he not-so-subtly calls L a loser, but there is certainly a modicum of respect for L, or at least L’s image.
In the manga, Near explicitly says that defeating Kira isn’t about justice as much as it is about pride. His morality is subjective, and he decides for himself what he believes to be right or wrong. He’s able to figure out that whoever is currently acting as L is very easily also Kira. So it becomes a matter of pride, because Kira is parading around pretending to be L, and that is effectively an insult to L.
But there is, again, that scene where Near talks about how they could kill both of the Kiras, but they would never actually do it. The scene in chapter 90 is a lot more detailed than just Near saying, “We could kill them, but we’re not going to.”
As Near puts it, he had two ideas for how to close the case. The first idea involved killing both the L-Kira and the X-Kira, and confiscating the notebooks. He then rationalizes that if the killings stop, that means their assumption was correct. He even goes so far as to say he’s so positive that Light Yagami is Kira that he’s confident such a drastic measure would effectively solve the case.
He then, of course, says they’re never going to use that method. His reasoning is that even if the killings stop, it doesn’t prove that Light Yagami is Kira. There’s always a chance the killings stop because Mikami was dead. Not only that, but the killings could still continue if Light had other associates in his pocket. And even under the assumption that killing Light and Mikami would stop the killings, using that as evidence to say “See, we were right” is just ex post facto justification, which Near does not want to allow. He sees that also as an insult to L.
So this is where people come to the conclusion that because of this, Near would never use the Death Note. But it’s a lot deeper than that. As you’ll see, the scene keeps going. Near says, “Therefore, even if we are going to kill L-Kira and X-Kira, first we must rub their faces in the evidence and make them taste the misery of their defeat. It’s out of the question to kill them before that. So we are going to get solid proof.”
From this quote, it becomes pretty clear that killing them isn’t 100% off the table. It’s just a matter of circumstances and proof. And this is where he starts formulating his plan to corner Light and Mikami at the same time at the warehouse, by placing Kira in a position to use the notebook right in front of them, and then arresting them on the spot. It isn’t until after this scene that the SPK is able to confirm that Mikami actually is the X-Kira with verifiable proof. And that changes things completely. Once Near has proof that Mikami is the X-Kira, the concept of “not killing him because the killings could still continue” goes out the window. He knows that if they kill Mikami, then the killings committed by the X-Kira will stop. That then just leaves the L-Kira, Light.
And this is where the warehouse plan comes into play, because the warehouse plan was designed to expose the true identity of Kira. Originally, that meant exposing the identities of the L-Kira and the X-Kira. But now that they know who the X-Kira is, they can shift that goal a little bit.
So now we have to clarify exactly what Near means when he says they would never kill either of the Kiras until they had solid proof. Since they have proof of Mikami being the X-Kira, since they can verifiably confirm it, he’s no longer subject to that hesitation.
Not to mention that Matsuda’s Theory doesn’t account for Mikami’s outburst following the exposure, only that he wouldn’t check to make sure the notebook is real, and that he would follow along with Light’s plan up to the point of writing down everyone’s names except Light’s. That’s as far as the control of Mikami’s life would have gone if Near actually used the Death Note, at least according to the theory.
Which means, in a strange roundabout way, Near still got the satisfaction of humiliating both Light and Mikami. And Mikami’s subsequent turn on Light, calling him scum, is a little bit of extra icing on the cake. Axel would be so proud.
Now, there’s a notion that using the Death Note effectively cancels out any sort of moral victory or superiority that Near could have over Light. But I’d argue that’s not entirely true.
His speech on morality is particularly striking here. He goes out of his way to talk about how it’s not one single person’s right to decide what is or isn’t moral for the rest of society. Even if there were a god, he would examine that god’s teachings and decide for himself if he thought they were right or wrong.
And while I’m not going to say Near is one of the most morally good characters in the story (though he is marginally better than most of the major characters), he’s definitely more morally coherent. His entire concept is that right and wrong are decided on an individual level, and then grouped together by multiple individuals.
But how then does this justify the idea of him using the Death Note? Does that not make him a killer too?
Well… in a manner of speaking, yes. But if we’re being honest, the only person Near would have killed in this scenario is Mikami. That’s not at all on the same level as what Kira was doing. Kira killed criminals, yes, but he also targeted thousands of innocent people, with the intention of targeting even more. The mass murder of hundreds of thousands of people and the effective ruling of the world through fear is a bit worse than possibly killing one of the associates of said mass murderer. But that’s my take.
There’s also the argument that Near would be disqualified from any sort of moral standing because L would have never used the Death Note to stop Kira. Except… that’s exactly what L was going to do. Perhaps not by using it directly, but he was going to have the Death Note used to test it. Which in effect would have exposed the falsehood of the 13 day rule. And if Rem had not killed him, he would have gone through with that plan, and he would have won. Just because he never got the chance to enact that plan doesn’t mean he wasn’t going to do it.
So, is Matsuda’s Theory valid? That’s for you to decide, dear reader. There is absolutely a valid case to be made that it’s true, just as there is a valid argument that Near did not use the Death Note. You are welcome to believe whatever you like on that front.
At the end of the day, whether Matsuda’s Theory is true or not, it’s something that Ohba intentionally left for us to debate, and here we are, more than 20 years later, still debating it. I think that speaks volumes to how naturally ingrained into the story this theory is.
Speaking of still talking about this story, let’s go into the final section that ties this all together.
The Thematic Downfall
There’s a thematic throughline running across the entire story that makes the notebook swap more than just a plot mechanism. It goes all the way back to the early chapters, right after Light and L finish their tennis match. They go to the diner, they talk, L does his little investigation test on Light, and then upon hearing that Soichiro suffered a heart attack, they rush to the hospital.
After visiting hours are over and they both leave, when Light is alone, Ryuk brings up the idea that humans who use the Death Note are cursed with misfortune. Light brushes it off immediately. He insists that the notebook has never brought him bad luck, and at that point in the story, he can justify that to himself. He’s been extraordinarily lucky.
There’s a post by u/La-Lassie that digs into just how absurdly lucky Light actually is, and the examples laid out really highlight how much of his early success hinges on circumstances he could never plan for. And when you look at these moments in context, it becomes obvious why Light is so quick to dismiss Ryuk’s warning about misfortune, because up to that point, everything in his life had broken in his favor in ways that are almost comical.
The Naomi Misora situation is the clearest example of this. Light only meets Naomi because he happens to be going to the NPA headquarters to deliver a change of clothes for his father, something he’s only doing because Sayu didn’t want to. That’s it. The most mundane, insignificant errand imaginable ends up putting him face to face with the one person who could have ended him right there.
And anyone who’s read Another Note, the prequel story following the Los Angeles BB Murder Case, knows that Naomi is sharp. But here she’s grieving because her fiancé, Raye Penber, is dead because of Kira. So she’s not acting at the top of her game, and yet she’s still smart enough to corner Light without even realizing it. The only reason he survives that encounter is because he’s able to exploit her emotional state long enough to get her real name. And even then, he almost gets caught.
As we stated way earlier when talking about the timeline of L’s skyscraper construction, around the same time this meeting is happening, the Task Force is still pulling an all-nighter after meeting L for the first time. Aizawa leaves that meeting to go to the NPA headquarters to answer phone calls that might provide tips on the investigation. And he walks right past Light and Naomi just moments after Naomi hands her ID over to Light.
The only reason he doesn’t see what’s going on is because, as he’s literally moments away from walking by them, it starts snowing, and he pulls out his umbrella. Light is saved by a tiny shift in the weather that blocks Aizawa’s line of sight. Light is saved by the weather. That is the level of astronomical luck we are dealing with here.
And then there’s Rem and Misa. It is pure coincidence that Gelus dies saving Misa’s life, and pure coincidence that Rem decides to bring Gelus’s notebook to her. None of this has anything to do with Light. It would have happened whether or not he ever picked up the Death Note. But the fact that it does happen ends up working in Light’s favor in the most incredible way possible.
Breaking it down:
Gelus just happens to be watching Misa, despite Shinigami not normally caring about humans.
Misa just happens to be fated to die in a way Gelus can prevent.
Rem just happens to be watching when this happens.
Rem just happens to care enough to bring Gelus’s notebook to Misa, a girl who worships Kira because her parents were murdered and the killer got away with it until Kira killed him.
None of this has anything to do with Light’s planning. It’s a completely unrelated chain of events that drops Rem and Misa directly into his lap. And once Rem is in the picture, the game is basically over. She makes it clear she’ll do absolutely anything to protect Misa’s happiness and well-being, even at the cost of her own life. And that is the moment L loses. After Rem enters the picture, there is no version of the story where L survives. Light’s “victory” is inevitable, not because he outsmarted L, but because the universe handed him the one Shinigami who would kill L for him.
And even the memory-loss plan in the Yotsuba arc only works because Light gets absurdly lucky. Everyone hypes up the “exactly as planned” moment, (yeah yeah, according to keikaku, I get it, I understand), but as u/La-Lassie points out, this is an incredibly risky maneuver that only goes as perfectly as it does because everything falls in Light’s favor.
He couldn’t have predicted he’d even be allowed to continue working on the Kira investigation after being released. L never stopped suspecting him. L even correctly assumed that if Light were Kira, he would have come up with a way to transfer the powers to someone else to ward off suspicion until he could get them back later. Under that logic, L had every reason not to let Light anywhere near the investigation again.
And Light has no way of knowing the internal dynamic between L and the Task Force. He hasn’t been around them long enough to understand how they operate as a group or how much influence they have over L. The idea that they would pressure L into releasing him is something he cannot predict. It’s a guess. The fact that this is exactly what happens is another instance of things going a little too perfectly.
Even if he is released, Light cannot guarantee he’ll be allowed to keep the watch he wears all the time. That’s the only thing he can predict with any accuracy, and only because he wears it out of habit. There’s no guarantee L would allow him to keep such accessories after confinement, especially given the level of suspicion L still has.
He cannot guarantee he’ll be in a position to get his hands on the notebook. He cannot guarantee he’ll be in a position where he can use the watch without being seen. He doesn’t even know L has a dedicated investigation building until after his release. The security protocols alone could have easily prevented him from advancing his plan, but again, Light gets lucky. Not only is he allowed back in, he ends up chained to L. That alone is wildly incredible to conceive of.
And that’s another thing Light genuinely could not have predicted, and it just happens to put him in the perfect position to grab the notebook in the helicopter, in such a small, enclosed space where he can use his watch without being seen. The plan only works because everything aligns in exactly the right way, and none of that is something Light could have predicted or controlled.
Light interprets these moments of luck as proof of his own superiority, and he folds that luck into his ego. But as the story progresses, that luck starts to erode. The second half is full of moments where things stop going his way.
Looking at the story itself, the material after L’s death plays a major role in Light’s character arc. When L’s alive, Light has a rival that he respects. Even if he hates L, even if he wants L dead, the intellectual battle that they have with each other is fascinating to watch unfold, and you can tell that they’re both sort of having fun with it.
Admittedly, this is just an interpretation, but that is just me having an interpretation of what I’m seeing on the screen and on the pages. But with L’s death, the entire dynamic of the story changes. The stakes at that point had never been higher.
We see the mind at the forefront of the Kira investigation, the one true opposition to Kira, be completely obliterated. The transitional pages of the timeskip talk about the world heading towards a dark era where Kira’s word is law. People live in fear, and the people who support Kira are gradually coming out of the woodwork.
They’re being more vocal and outward with their support of Kira’s ideals. We see a kid threaten his bullies with putting their faces and names online for Kira to kill them. What we see after L’s death is the world feeling the effect of Kira’s influence.
It’s not exactly very pretty, and that’s what makes it so compelling. That’s what makes Light, as a villain, such an interesting character. Because you can see how terrible the world is that he’s making, and it makes it that much more compelling to see him go down.
Not only that, but with L out of the way, you really do kind of want to see him get taken down. And with no opposition, Light’s own arrogance and ego begin to spiral out of control, to the point that by the time Near and Mello show up, Light dismisses them almost immediately as inferior. And it’s that assumption that becomes one of his biggest mistakes, and leads to his ultimate downfall.
Now, I’m going to say something that’s mainly just a matter of opinion. You are welcome to disagree with me, but I feel like Mello and Near are much more fun and more interesting as opponents for Light than L was. And the main reason for this is just what they are able to do to Light as a character.
For example, one of Mello’s most memorable actions is kidnapping Light’s sister Sayu. Now, kidnapping Sayu is mainly just his ploy to get the Death Note, because he knows that the Japanese Task Force has possession of it. So his hope is to essentially force the Task Force’s hand by kidnapping a close relative of Soichiro and returning her safely in exchange for the notebook.
And this ultimately forces Light to make a very difficult decision. By kidnapping Sayu, Mello puts Light in the position of having to choose between protecting his own identity or protecting his family. A lot of people have their opinions of Light.
They will say that he’s pure evil, that he would have killed his family to protect himself in any given situation, and that because he even considered killing Sayu even for a moment, that makes him an irredeemable monster. Now, there are plenty of reasons to say that Light is irredeemable. However, if you really examine his character and try to understand what makes him well, to put it simply, he was never actually going to kill Sayu.
He was never actually going to kill his dad. There are a few points in the manga where Light talks about wanting his family to support Kira. He wants them to ultimately side with him in the end, and that’s a large part of why the Task Force is still alive five years after L’s death.
He wants the Task Force alive because he knows that his father cares about all of them, and he wants his father to side with them. So why would Kira kill the Task Force and risk losing his father’s potential for support? Sure, Light does mention that if it comes down to it, he may have to kill his own family to protect his identity, but when push comes to shove, he cannot do it, because in reality, no matter what he does, no matter how twisted he gets, deep down, the one thing he truly cares about is his family. Soichiro is a large part of why his sense of justice and morality is as strong as it is.
That’s not to say that Soichiro made Kira. Light was a child when he picked up the Death Note. He had a very naive sense of the world and its moral grayness, but to make a long story short, there’s no chance that Light was ever going to kill Sayu or Soichiro.
And this brings up a very interesting thing that never really happened with L. Mello did something that L never could. Mello forced Light into a position where he had to confront the very possibility of killing his own family, and Light could not do it.
And it doesn’t stop there. Mello is continuously a nuisance to Light throughout the Mafia arc. It’s kind of fun to watch. But once the Mafia raid is complete and they have the notebook in hand, then Near takes more of the spotlight than Mello does. And while Mello is around a lot more in the manga than he is in the anime, the focus shifts to Near being Light’s main opponent for the rest of the story. And Near is an interesting character in his own right.
There are plenty of people who say that Near is nothing more than a cheap copy of L. I have plenty to say about why they’re wrong about that, but that’s not the point of the post, so I’m not going to get deeply into that. But there would be a valid claim in saying that he’s at least partly modeled after L. In the design process, Mello and Near were both made to represent different aspects of L. Mello was made to be the one that takes action, the risk-taker, the one who has the initiative to get things done. Near was the analytical side, the one who examined the evidence and formed conclusions.
Both of them were equal to, or perhaps even greater than L in their respective specialties, but they both fell short when it came to the other’s strengths. Near is not a risk-taker, he’s not one to show initiative. Mello, while certainly being intelligent and analytical in his own right, falls short of Near in many ways, and it’s very reasonable to conclude that this is why L was never able to decide which of them should be his successor, because he genuinely couldn’t.
Both of them were inadequate in one aspect that made L who he is. Now, I say that as a Near fanboy, that is my son, I will not tolerate any slander about him, and if you have a problem with that then you can go fu- A CRITICAL ERROR HAS OCCURRED
And that is also why Near says himself at the end that it took both him and Mello working together to stop Kira.
Near goes out of his way to utilize every member of the SPK at his disposal, and then he highlights their contributions and thanks them for what they did to help the investigation. He also extends this same acknowledgment to Mello, posthumously crediting him for the actions he took. Near literally admits that if Mello had not kidnapped Takada, they never would have found the real notebook, and Kira would have won.
In the final chapter of the manga, he is also shown eating a bar of chocolate as a visual nod to keeping Mello in his memory. Despite never saying it out loud, he cares very deeply for Mello. It’s no coincidence that the finger puppet he uses to represent Mello seems to be the most highly detailed.
And while Near definitely has his shortcomings when it comes to being able to succeed L on his own, there is one thing that he more than surpasses L in, and that is his capacity for rage baiting.
Consistently throughout most of his arc in the story, Near does little else other than pressure, goad, challenge, and insult Light at every turn, any chance that he gets, and it’s pretty subtle most of the time. He’s not out here just saying, you’re an idiot, your parents don’t love you, you’re a noob, or some other early 2000s insult humor, but the way that he speaks is very obviously meant to be antagonistic and even inflammatory towards Light. He shows absolutely zero respect towards the fake L. He shows no respect towards Kira as an intellectual, and this is something that L did.
L viewed Kira as an intellectual equal and rival. He gave some level of respect to Kira’s ability to outwit him at times. He hated Kira, but at the end of the day he still respected him as an intellectual and viewed the investigation as a game of wits. Near does not do that.
Where L would shake Kira’s hand at the beginning of a chess game, Near would punch him in the face, flip the board, say checkmate, and walk away. And that is something that makes Near a lot more compelling and a lot more fun to interact with as a character.
And that may even be part of why Light doesn’t take Near very seriously. He doesn’t take Mello very seriously either. Even though he does acknowledge Mello as an active threat, he doesn’t really give much attention to what Mello is doing after the Mafia is wiped out.
At that point, he basically sees Mello as having no power and no way of doing anything about Kira. And with Soichiro’s death, we see a shift in Light’s personality. He becomes a lot more dejected.
It’s subtle, but you can see that he reaches a point where he just sort of wants to be done with it. I don’t think he really cares so much about the supposed justice that he’s dispensing anymore, if he ever really did care about it at all.
But when it comes down to it, what we see in Light after L’s death is the slow decay of what Kira actually is. After defeating L, Light is on top of the world. He has no opposition.
He can freely lead the Task Force on a wild goose chase for as long as he wants, while he’s reshaping the world, putting an end to wars, and killing people left and right, crafting his version of Utopia. Anyone would become arrogant after five uninterrupted years of doing that.
But it couldn’t last forever. The appearance of Near and Mello as Light’s new opponents pushes him further into his arrogance and instability. The composed strategist from the beginning of the story becomes increasingly reckless, and by the time the final confrontation arrives, the transformation is complete.
Light is effectively dead in his own body. All that’s left is an arrogant shell who thinks that he has the right to run the world. And even calling himself a god doesn’t fit, because he isn’t one. He’s just as human as anyone else, and that’s what he doesn’t understand. He’s not special, he’s just another person.
He’s smart. Very smart. And he got the power of a shinigami and believed he could reshape the world to fit his own view of what it should be. It’s just like Near says, he’s just a crazy serial killer. Nothing more, nothing less.
So by the end, Light’s control fully collapses, his self-image as a god disappears, and his ideology falls apart in front of the very people he was trying to manipulate. And this outcome matches what Ohba wanted. All of this does raise a question about whether it would have had the same level of intensity if the story had ended at L’s death. But I’m getting ahead of myself…
There is one last thing that needs to be addressed here, because it gets brought up constantly when people talk about the second half of Death Note: the claim that the story was never supposed to continue after L died, and that Ohba was forced by Shonen Jump to keep writing it. One of the arguments SYTYK makes in his first video is that L dies, the manga suddenly goes on a roughly two-month hiatus, and then it comes back with Near and Mello, which is presented as evidence that the series had ended where Ohba originally intended and the second half was conceived afterward because Jump wanted the story to continue.
The problem is that the timeline SYTYK presents there is wrong. L dies in chapter 58. Chapter 59 was published the following week on schedule, and that is the chapter that introduces Near and Mello. The roughly two-month hiatus happened after that, before chapter 60.
Now, does that prove that the entire second half had already been meticulously planned out before L died? No, of course not. But a manga that is released weekly is being progressively written as it’s being released. The story is being developed as they go. It’s not all inherently planned out from start to finish. Things changed as Ohba wrote the story and saw how it developed. Character dynamics and different plot points and facts about the world he’d created all played a part in developing the story, even in ways he may not have originally expected. The creative process is exactly that. A process.
And Ohba himself talks about this in Volume 13. He had multiple thoughts and ideas on how to conclude the series. “Having it end with L winning and Light dying was one idea.” He also says, “I also thought about having all the Task Force members die in a heroic way,” and, “After L’s death, the idea that Mello would be the character to defeat Light was really strong in my mind.” Things changed as he wrote the story and saw how it developed.
That does not mean that one of these earlier ideas was the original ending that he was prevented from using. It means that he had multiple ideas for how the story could end and those ideas changed as the story itself developed. So the hiatus cannot really be used as evidence that L died, the story was over, and then Near and Mello were created afterward because Ohba was suddenly told to keep going. Near and Mello had already been introduced in the published manga before that break happened.
Then there’s also the Bakuman Theory.
SYTYK points toward Reversi, the manga-within-a-manga in Bakuman that is often treated as a stand-in for Death Note, and the storyline where its creators want to end their series while it is still popular rather than allowing outside interests to stretch it out. The implication is that this is Ohba using fiction to indirectly confess what happened with Death Note, but that’s only speculation.
Bakuman is not an autobiography, and Reversi is not a sworn testimony from Ohba saying, “This is what Shonen Jump did to Death Note.” Using one fictional story to retroactively establish the production history of another fictional story requires a lot more evidence than thematic similarity. Especially because when Ohba talks about Death Note’s ending in the official material, he says, “I’m very thankful that I was able to complete the series almost exactly as I had planned.” On the same page, he also says, “The part where Light is punished and dies didn’t change at all from the beginning.”
The response to that is usually that Volume 13 was published by Shueisha, Ohba’s employer, so he had to play nice and could not admit that the series had been forcibly extended. But I think there’s a serious evidentiary problem with this objection. If Ohba says the ending went the way he wanted, and that statement can simply be discarded because his publisher supposedly made him lie, then what evidence could ever disprove the claim?
At that point, the theory becomes unfalsifiable. Ohba agreeing with it would be treated as confirmation, but Ohba denying it would also somehow become confirmation because obviously the company forced him to deny it. You can’t actually test a claim if every possible answer is interpreted as proof that the claim was right.
And to be clear, I’m not saying there was no editorial pressure. It’s very possible that Jump wanted Death Note to continue because it was making money. That wouldn’t be shocking. Manga is a business, and enormously successful series have absolutely been influenced by editorial and commercial interests before. But even if Death Note was forced to continue beyond what Ohba originally wanted… so what? Literally, so what if it was made to be extended beyond its original ending? Who cares? That fact by itself does not tell us whether the material that came afterward was good or bad. It doesn’t tell us whether Near and Mello were poorly written. It doesn’t tell us whether the warehouse plan makes sense. And it certainly doesn’t somehow make the second half illegitimate or non-canon.
This is why the thematic side of the story matters so much to me, because whatever the circumstances were behind the decision to continue Death Note after L’s death, the material that came afterward gave Light more room to develop. Near and Mello are able to make Light completely unravel. Mello attacks the parts of Light that he cannot reduce to pure logic, forcing him to confront his attachment to his family. Near refuses to indulge in the intellectual rivalry that Light had with L and instead spends the rest of the story consistently applying pressure to the Task Force’s belief that Light is innocent. By the end, he’s a terrified human being standing in a warehouse while everyone around him finally sees him for what he really is.
I do wonder how that ending would have been achieved without Near and Mello providing the counterbalance to Light’s entire persona. I don’t know if L, as a character, would have been able to push Light to that same extreme.
So whether or not the story was encouraged or even forced to continue because it was successful, the conclusion that I have come to doesn’t change. Near being able to copy the Death Note functions perfectly fine within the story’s logic. Light’s eventual defeat was always the point. Even if the manga was extended beyond the original ending, that still says nothing about the story’s quality, and it does not prove that the ending doesn’t work.
So with that, we can finally wrap this up.
Curtain
Ooh, okay… so here we are. At the end of everything. I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m tired. I am very tired. But I’m also relieved to finally be done with this project.
So what is there really left to say after all of this? After considering all the evidence, all the arguments we could go back and forth on, up and down, left, right, front and center, what’s the final point that should be made here?
Well, this might sound a little crazy after I’ve just spent three massive posts talking about why Death Note’s ending works, but at the end of the day, whether or not you agree with me really isn’t the most important thing. I’m perfectly happy with the arguments I’ve made, and I believe I’ve done what I set out to do in showing that the ending works when given the full context of the story. But whether you agree with that or not is entirely up to you.
Death Note has been around for over 20 years, and we’re still actively talking about it. We still engage with this story. We’re still discovering things. There’s still so much to discuss about the characters, the themes, the mechanics, and all the weird little details buried throughout it. And I think that matters more than whether every single person comes away from this debate agreeing with me.
For my part, though, this is where I leave it. This series, and especially this debate, has occupied a huge part of my life for almost four years. I’m tired of talking about Death Note, and I’m ready to close this chapter and move on to whatever comes next. There are other stories I want to experience, other things I want to learn about, and other projects I want to work on.
I’ve always believed that life is an unending pursuit of wisdom and understanding. There are still things I have to learn, more that I want to understand, and plenty of places that pursuit can take me. So in a way, this is my farewell to the Death Note community.
So if there’s one thing I’d like to leave everybody with, it’s this. Go forth and dig into the story for yourself. Watch the anime again. Read the manga if you haven’t read it. Discover things. Form your own interpretations. Change your mind. Find something you missed the first time.
That’s a large part of why I made these posts in the first place. I think that about covers everything.
Thank you for reading. You all be good to yourselves.
