WK7

Light Yagami is the main character of an anime series called “Death Note”. In the beginning of the series Light is portrayed as a perfect son, perfect older brother and a borderline genius student. However, Light is dissatisfied with the status quo of the world he lives in and he wants to change it for the better. One day, he finds a “Death Note” which is a notebook that allows the user to kill anyone by knowing their name and face, after it is dropped by a shinigami(death spirit/god). Light's main motivation is to create a perfect world, which for him is a world devoid of crime. That is why he starts killing them using the death note. Of course, this is sort of contradictory since killing all the criminals would make him the only criminal left, but he fails to understand this. As the storyline progresses we see Light, or his alter ego Kira, kill not only criminals but innocent people who simply got in his way which makes him a sort of Machiavellian anti(super)hero with a god complex.

This show gained immense popularity not only in Japan, but in the West as well, becoming one of the best philosophical anime. It raises numerous questions about morality, justice, society, human psyche and nature. It perfectly depicts the ways in which power corrupts people (similarly to the Ancient Greek story The Ring of Gyges). It is obvious that Light Yagami, or Kira, is not a “good” person (however he is not inherently bad, or at least we see that in the beginning), but why is he such a popular character? Why do people like him? 

The first possible reason, unfortunately, is his looks. He is represented as a tall, slim, highly intelligent student with whom all the girls fall in love easily. He is a sociopath but he is cool and charming which makes it easy for him to manipulate not only other characters but many viewers as well. This shows how, in our society, existence precedes essence, since we value what is on the outside much more than what is on the inside.

The second thing is the fact that he is painted as a relatable high school senior who has his own views of the world. He is smart but rebellious, as most teens are, after gaining his “superpower” he becomes corrupt and gradually descends into his god-complex. For a lot of characters in the series, as well as some of his fans, his view of the world is correct and eliminating criminals seems like a way to a "perfect world", although this does not necessarily have to be true. Most humans would like to make the world a “better” place but they do not ask the question: “What does a better world mean? What does it look like?” The tragedy of Light Yagami lies in the fact that he actually got the chance to change the world. However, not being able to define “good”, he convinced himself that it is simply the absence of “bad”, he simply chose the wrong path and ended up in his own logical fallacy. It is true that this path is the path that most people would have taken if they got the means to do it, however no one wants to really admit that. In this anime we see how he has an immense number of followers online (where they all have "masks") but no one wants to admit that they support him in "real life". They are scared. It is easy to judge this character but still it is true that his intentions were not bad in the beginning, things just got out of control and none of us can be certain of what we would have done if we got any power to "change" this world. Light is a constant remainder of the easily corrupt human nature and depravity of human beings. He is a reminder of how hard it is for us to give up ideals even when they turn out to be wrong.

 As I have previously stated, Light Yagami is a complex character. He is relatable more than anything, and the thing that makes him especially relatable are his lies. Lies are always present in our lives; we all lie. We all invented our own personalities and we all play the roles of ourselves every day. Light assumes different roles in this series and shows how multidimensional every one of us is. He is an amazing student, a caring son, a good brother but also a sociopath with a god-complex. He is both Light Yagami and Kira (the killer of criminals, the embodiment of “justice”,  a self-proclaimed god). It is truly intimidating to observe the ease with which he switches between one "role" to the other, but perhaps, we do exactly the same (although we are not really mass murderers).

Light is an individual who took upon himself to change the whole world. In the Western society, individual power is something that is highly celebrated. We believe that we can do everything ourselves and that we are capable of anything with the right means. Although this might be the reason why he is such an intriguing character, the ending of the series proves that sometimes this individualism is not the best solution and that perhaps a perfect society does not even exist. It is exactly this individualism that lead Light Yagami to his fall, he failed to recognized his "smallness". He failed to see that in the eyes of a shinigami he was just a puppet.