Anime and nerd fans often call Light Yagami “evil” because of his lies, manipulation, and gaslighting, but rarely apply that same criticism to superheroes—especially Superman. Clark Kent does the same things Light does, just less skillfully. Maintaining a secret identity means constantly lying and manipulating people. Superman justifies it by claiming moral superiority, but if his son Jonathan were a superhero who lied and manipulated his parents the same way Light Yagami does Clark would be furious—even though he’s guilty of the same thing.
I don’t think that’s out-of-place either for the story. Much like the difference between Light and his father, the story is illustrating “book smart” from “street smart”.
Like so much other modern fiction, Death Note is a variation on the Hero’s Journey trope. In this case, the hero is a composite between L, Near, and Mello.
who’s who? I thought Light and L were fairly similar in their types of intelligence and both felt book smart.
how? It just seemed like a typical “antagonist and protagonist are mirrors” with a villain protagonist in Light.
Light = Book Smart
Light’s Father = Street Smart
Hero’s Journey is so common, I too, would consider it “typical”.
Combine L, Near, and Mello all as one entity “the hero”. How that composite travels through the story I see it well mapping against the hero’s journey. Another portion of the variation is that the story primarily follows Light/Kira, which is the antagonist, not the hero.
Hero’s journey :
So, Light goes through call to adventure, supernatural aid, and threshold guardians? Ok.
All the characters go through “challenges and temptations” but aside from Light not going for the Shinigami’s eyes, they generally tend to cave to whatever temptations they’re presented with. I assume
spoiler
L’s literal death and replacement with Melo
Is the death & rebirth and transformation. I don’t see the atonement, return nor the gift of the goddess. Also, I thought the hero’s journey had “visit to the underworld” as part of the abyss, and also a voyage to a strange land which again, feels missing.
I appreciate you sharing your point of view though.
ah yeah, that makes sense