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EP.1.v0.1080p_V1.mp4In Death Note we are shown a spectrum of justice so why is that we are fascinated with self-justice instead of believing in the current justice system? How does this reflect on our own justice system?
Death Note is an anime released in 2003 that was created by Sugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, become one of the most popular animes of its time and is still considered a must-watch with modern anime fans. Within the anime, we follow Japanese high school senior, Light Yagami, a top student, popular, handsome, and the son of a police chief, in the eyes of everyone else he is the perfect everything. Although he has his perfect life he is constantly surrounded by the injustice of the world and in turn views the world as rotten, he has a very pessimistic view of the world and the justice system, even though he was raised to have a strong sense of justice he lacks faith in the rest of the world.
It isn't until he sees a book fall from the sky and decides to check it out, at first when he opens it and reads it, he laughs it off and views the book as some dumb email chain curse, but he still takes the book home. He decides to test it out and low and behold it works, at first, he doesn't believe it and decides to try again, and when he does he starts to freak.
He starts to have a moral dilemma in questioning if what he did was right or wrong, but he immediately composes himself and starts to have a realization that this is his calling. If no one is going to make the world better, then he will, he will the the “god of the new world”.
The rest of the show consists of Light facing off against different opponents with opposing ideas as him and one of the key moments is when Light is first confronted by L and he tells him directly that his understanding of justice is childish, claiming that he only sees things in black and white and assumes those who do bad should be punished and those who do good should be saved. Although it doesn't sound too bad at first, we have to acknowledge that the world isn't black and white, there is more beyond that and it isn't that simple. This is where most of the discussion occurs, although yes Lights views are a bit childish, it isn't completely wrong and that is what makes it so appealing.
When looking at the main discussion happening here, it's whether or not what Light did was justified. He does make the valid point that his killings have reduced crime incredibly quickly and he has also gathered a group of supporters online which help fuel his growth in the media. So the question is does the evil outweigh the good? And if it is immoral then why are there so many supporters? Well in most scholarly discussions they agree that his idealogy is flawed but it isn't completely off, more focused on the idea of why it is so appealing to us even if it is immoral. Many discuss how we, just like Light also carry the same feelings of having a lack of faith in the justice system and seeing a lot of injustice go without punishment. So when we see him commit these acts of self-justice we feel relieved and it allows us to fantasize about it, thinking that if we had that ability we wouldn't succumb to corruption and w
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