Death Note Literary Essay!

I'm sorry I didn't publish a review in March, and the one I gave you was...kind of bad. So, to make it up, here's something I wrote for my English class. FUN STORY: We had a student teacher for a term, and HE IS A FANDOM PERSON \(*^*)/. So, wen he told us to write a literary essay on anything, I chose one of my favorite animes. So, here it is!

Selena H. C(Not giving away my last name)

Mr. Lucas Jordan

Pre-IB Literature and Composition I

Wed. 12 March 2014

Death Note Literary Analysis

The manga/anime series Death Note has many themes among its intense, complex story. Some of these themes may be controversial, but one looms taller than the rest. And that is absolute power corrupts even those with the most noble of ambitions. In the story, Light’s main goal and primary focus of the story shifted from killing criminals and “cleaning up this rotten world”, to finishing off those who got in his way. He manipulated women and their feelings to his advantage, only to dispose of them like broken dolls in the end. Eventually, power corrupted Light so much he was willing to sacrifice his family for his own ends. The (almost) absolute power of the Death Note crafted Light into the anti-hero we all know and (love or hate, you pick).

Part of how Light became corrupted is how much he focused on killing criminals. At the start of the rising action, Light realizes his goal of killing criminals and becoming “God.” But once his foe, L was introduced, Light vows to eliminate him. As more and more of Light’s adversaries are introduced to the story, Light decides to kill anyone who gets in his way, seeing them as no better than the criminals he targets. From then on, the story is less focused on killing criminals and more focused on the cat-and-mouse chase between the two ideals of justice. The whole “cleansing the world” idea sort of got tossed out of the window and was only used as a means so Light wouldn’t get caught. His “duty” went on the back burner, so to say. First, Light had to use Raye Penber to kill the FBI agents in Japan, and then finish off Raye himself. Then Light killed Naomi, Raye’s fiancé, because she was too close to the truth. Light was even considering killing Misa, because he thought of her as a nuisance. Slowly, Light’s standards for killing people with the Death Note changed as the stakes got higher and higher. The absolute power of the Death Note corrupted his morals. That includes manipulating women in particular, and their hearts.

Another way Light became corrupted was how he manipulated many women and their hearts, only to use them or finish them off. First, a whole episode was spent seeing how Light manipulated Naomi Misora, the woman looking for her fiancé’s killer. He built her trust, only so he could find out her name to write in the Death Note, because she was too close to the truth. Then we have Misa Amane, driven by love/infatuation for Kira, because he brought justice to her parents’ killer. Light realized he could use her, so he took advantage of her pure, undying love for Kira. But as useful as Misa was to Light, he still found her annoying, and treated her badly. In fact, Misa was so in love with Light, when she found out about his death, she committed suicide the same day. And lastly, we have Kiyomi Takada, a former girlfriend of Light's. He promised her to be his goddess, once he conquered the world as Kira. She was willing to do almost anything for him, like Misa was. But in the end, after she killed Mello, Light used the Death Note to have her commit suicide. She was no longer useful to him, and he needed to destroy the evidence pointing to him. And if manipulating women’s trust and romantic feelings weren’t enough, he was willing to sacrifice his family to not get caught.

Lastly, power corrupted Light so much, his goal was more important than his family. When his younger sister Sayu was kidnapped by Mello and his gang, Mello demanded the Death Note that was in the possession of the task force. Light’s father, Soichiro, agreed to make the deal, but Light wasn’t as eager. He briefly considered using the Death Note to kill his younger sister so the deal couldn’t be made. But, whatever left of his morals kicked in, and Light let Mello have his victory. It was because of the deal that the operation to catch Mello and retrieve the Death Note happened. And it was because of this operation that Soichiro died. Light only wanted his father to write Mello’s real name in the Death Note while he still had the Shinigami eyes. It is clear that Light was willing to do anything if it meant his success in the end.

In conclusion, The Death Note corrupted Light in many ways, and really drove the plot into interesting directions. It went in a cycle, see. Light initially decided to kill criminals, but soon focused on eliminating whoever was against Kira. Then, Light thought of ways to manipulate women to his advantage. Finally, he was willing to sacrifice his family, so no one would be safe from Kira’s justice. This anime, without a doubt, proves that absolute power can corrupt anybody, no matter how intelligent or what their goals are.

Source:

Death Note. Dir. Tetsuro Araki. Perf. Brad Swaile, Alessandro Juliani, Shannon Chan-Kent, Cathy Weseluck. VIZ media, 2006. DVD.

Comments correcting my grammar are welcome. Yes, I will eventually do a full Death Note anime review.

Also, I am planing to do "Fandom Tops", Top 5,10,25, you name it, lists relating to fandoms. So far, I have 2 lists planned out. Which would you like to see first: Top 10 books/book series that deserve a (bigger) fandom, or Top 10 ridiculously sweet and kind male characters in anime? PLEASE comment which one!

And that's all from me! You are also welcome to suggest Fandom Tops, but I will say I have limited firsthand knowledge.

Cheers,

~Selena