Death+Note

Tom Geronimo

**// Death Note //** is a manga and anime series created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. The protagonist of the story is high school student called Light Yagami. One day, he comes across a supernatural notebook titled, "Death Note". This note was dropped on Earth by a supernatural being shinigami named Ryuk. The notebook has the power to kill anyone who the user has seen by writing their name down in the notebook. The story revolves around Light trying to create a new world free of crime. Throughout the series he makes it abundantly obvious that he wishes to create an ideal world for good and honest people.



**__ RULES OF THE NOTE __** 1. The human whose name is written in this note shall die. 2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people  sharing the same name will not be affected. 3. If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen. 4. If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack. 5. After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

[|Light Yagami] is a genius high school student that hates the crime-ridden world around him. His life goes down a completely different road when he comes across a mysterious notebook, known simply as the "Death Note". The rules in the Death Note explain that it has the power to kill anyone who’s name is written in it. Light is skeptical about it at first, but after testing, he becomes enamored with it. He uses it to cleanse the world of crime and people he does not deem fit to live in society.

Soon, these killings grab the attention of several people, most notably, a detective by the name of L attempts to capture Light but is killed by Light in the process. In his place, his two proteges go after Light and the result is Light's death.

The story revolves around the concept of a killer trying to make the world a better place. It is at this point where we must question Light's tactics. Is he justified in doing this? Where do we draw the line between what is right and what is wrong? The anime revolves around this concept and toys with the audience's emotions by making them feel sympathy and even root for a mass murderer under the pretense that he is the protagonist of the story and what he is doing is right.

Throughout the story, Light is met with many different adversaries all claiming to be justice. They want Light dead because the power he wields is too much for a mere human to hold onto. This indicates the central theme of Death Note in that power corrupts. In the beginning of the series, Light is seen as a bored and disappointed teenager. However, he was pure and innocent. He led a lawful life and was free of all evil. As the story progresses, Light becomes darker and darker because of the power he has gained. He becomes an arrogant murderer with a god-complex. This becomes a gigantic flaw that ultimately leads to his demise.

There are a lot of biblical references in //Death Note.// They uses the symbolism of an apple to quietly represent and somewhat foreshadow Light's slow progression into his murderous alter ego, Kira. This is pointing at the story of Adam & Eve in the Bible and paying homage to it. The apple represented what turned Adam and Eve away from God and even evil, one could say. Here, this is almost exactly what happens to Light Yagami.

In the beginning, Light sets out to punish criminals and cleanse the world of evil people. In the end, however, Light //becomes// one of those evil people by ruthlessly killing anyone who gets in his way. This is shown when at one point, he loses his memories of being Kira and tries to catch Kira. He repeatedly says that he would never support the types of things Kira does even though he stands for the same ideals. He understands that the world would simply be better off without some people, but states that what Kira is doing and the way he is doing it is evil and corrupt. media type="youtube" key="5BDBKhLZ4K0" height="349" width="560"media type="youtube" key="AsJhhwiPW9Y" height="349" width="560"

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