Death Note Notes
When I finished my Master's degree in English in 2005, I sincerely believed I'd never want to do literary analysis, ever again. Then I happened across Death Note, and changed my mind. However, what with one thing and another, I don't have the mental capacity to write a neat and pretty article/essay on it right now, so the following are basically fragments of a potential future essay, or, quite simply, notes.
I try to identify and to some extent discuss some themes, patterns and other subtext in Death Note, purely for my own satisfaction. I hope others might find something of interest here, too. Unless otherwise specified, all quotes are from the Viz official translation of the manga, and the following is obviously full to the brim with spoilers.
My main point in writing this is to identify what I believe is the main world view presented in the manga. Unlike the characters - who, as we'll see, all follow different if uncertain moral frameworks - the narrative itself is nihilist. The moral lesson presented in Death Note (if such it may be called) is that all human endeavour is futile, no change is possible, no matter what you do, it amounts to the same thing in the end. This lesson is drummed in, repeatedly. The first instance is at the beginning of the story, when Light discusses the Death Note with Ryuk:
Light: Why did you choose me?
Ryuk: All I did was drop the notebook, that's all. You thought I chose you? 'Cuz you're so smart or something? It just happened to land somewhere around here… and you just happened to pick it up.
This sets the tone for the entire story. There is no inherent meaning in what has happened. There is no plan, no overarching capital-P Purpose. Ryuk just dropped his notebook; Light just picked it up.
Light, however, does not believe that the events of his life are casual or random. On the contrary, he later comments to Ryuk on the "significance" of the realm of the Death Gods. He talks about the massive impact that a visit from that realm has on the human world, even if such a visit only occurs every hundred or thousand years. But the last chapter of manga proves him wrong. In chapter 108, we see two police officers walking along a street scene that is clearly intended to mirror the scenes witnessed by Light just after he got the notebook; the scenes which made him start using the notebook in the first place, because the world needed "cleaning up": there are bored students deciding that they're going to be drinking rather than studying, and a group of motorcyclists tear through the streets. One of the policemen comment: "The world is back to the way it used to be before Kira." No improvement is possible, no change for the better can last. Human nature is flawed and only fear can force people to behave in non-egoistical ways. There is no significance in the realm of the Death Gods any more than there was a significance in Light's actions.
This hopelessness extends even to the afterlife. Ryuk, rather surprised at Light's lack of belief in an afterlife, admits that there is none:
Ryuk: There is no heaven or hell. No matter what you do while you're alive, everybody goes to the same place once you die. Death is equal.
In case we, the readers, thought he was exaggerating or lying, the exact same information is given us in the last three "rules" of the manga. First, we get two pieces of information:
All humans will, without exception, eventually die.
After they die, the place they go to is MU (Nothingness).
As if that wasn't enough, all traces of hope are removed, firmly, on the last page:
Once dead, they can never come back to life.
The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable and utterly devoid of hope. According to Death Note, we lead meaningless lives, without purpose, since all actions lead to the same conclusion in the end. It is an extremely bleak and pessimistic world view, and is probably the main reason why Death Note comes across as such a very, very dark narrative.
Morality and the lack thereof
Morality is a recurrent theme in Death Note, as represented by several different characters. As already stated, however, the underlying world view is one of utter nihilism and hopelessness. None of the characters share this view.
Yagami-san, Light's father, is perhaps the only person in the story with a true, internalised sense of morality. It is tempting, initially, to believe that his straight-lacedness is due to his job as a policeman - for instance, when he is not longer formally a policeman, he refuses to carry a gun because it is illegal. However, it is clear that not only is he prepared to risk his life, he is willing to break the law for the sake of what he believes is morally right. He allows L to install cameras in his home, and he crashes into a building with and armoured police car in order to stop Kira's broadcast. Light's father is a man of very certain morality; he doesn't waver, doesn't hesitate, doesn't doubt. I would describe his morality as idealistic.
Light, by contrast, has a morality without core, without limits. But he is not amoral; at any rate, he is not amoral initially. His attempt at cleaning up the world, however misguided, is at least genuinely unselfish. His flawed attempt at improving humanity is megalomaniac, arrogant, and devoid of compassion, but he does not do it for own profit or status, godlike self-perception or not. In the anime, he declares himself willing and prepared to sacrifice his life and soul to improve the world - and, of course, that is exactly what he ends up sacrificing.
However, he does not manage to be consistent. Whatever one might think about his decision to hand out the death sentence to serious criminals, it must be admitted that had he stuck to doing so, he would have been in a position of greater moral strength. But he does not stick to killing one identifiable group: he kills serious criminals, the people who pursue him, minor suspected criminals to throw the people who pursue him off, women who are in love with him, death gods who get in his way; he considers everyone expendable in his pursuit of the greater good, to the extent that he seriously considers killing members of his own family. In other words, Light lacks a definable personal morality; his ideologies are theoretical and do not stand up to practice. His major moral flaw is his utter lack of compassion.
L is similar, though his personal morals do not deteriorate to quite the extent that Light's do. However, it does become obvious that far from a desire to save criminals from ad-hoc executions, his true desire is to catch Kira for the sake of his own personal satisfaction, to gratify his own sense of pride. Moreover, L is morally paralysed; he is unable to act without proof - certainty is not enough. He spends large sections of the narrative being certain, in practice, that Light is Kira, but since he is unable to nail down actual proof, he is unwilling to do something to stop him. And he does consider people expendable, in much the same way that Light does: he sacrifices Lind L Tailor, and he insists that the task force should not arrest the Yotsuba group until the people they have decided to kill actually die, thus providing the task force with actual proof. He may not be amoral, but he is pragmatic to the point of amorality.
No matter what their morals are like, though, the narrative demonstrates yet again that there is no point to anything: all three characters come to the same end. They die pointless, violent deaths, without achieving what they want to achieve.
Identifiers and identity
Nearly everyone in the narrative has at least one alias. In most cases, this makes sense as soon as it becomes apparent that Kira needs a name in order to kill. Yet the use of aliases is not as straightforward and rational as it might seem; people switch names (and with them, identities) at an alarming rate and with surprising ease, throughout the story.
The name of L is an example: it is used by at least Watari, Light, and Near as well as by L himself in the course of the story. L - the black-haired, sweet-loving detective - becomes in a sense identity-less, as he cannot claim his name for himself. The same is true of Kira: like L, the name becomes an entity in its own right, one that can switch 'host' as and when the need arises. In some cases this is entirely conscious on the part of the host, in others not. The most extreme example of the former is Near and Mello's desire to become L, to assume that identity.
The use of names and identities is particularly fascinating when it comes to L and Light. Both of them have several identities: Light is Light, Kira, L and God. L is L, Ryuzaki, Ryuga, Coil, Deneuve, Asahi and Suzuki. L in particular assumes and discards names without hesitation or awkwardness; with his calm assumption of three multiple detective characters, one could say identity-switching seems central to and inherent to who he is.
Light's attitude to naming, and with it identity, is more problematic. His division of himself into 'Light' and 'Kira' starts very early on. In chapter 3, Light is relaxing and reading about the Kira case, remarking to Ryuk that "I guess it might be pretty interesting if I wasn't Kira". But shortly afterwards, he distances himself from his Kira-self by suddenly using the third person: "If Kira pays too much attention to this stuff, it just stresses him out. Gotta give his mind a rest, once in a while". This division remains conscious, and is crucial to his decision to attempt to kill L: "Ryuga is Light Yagami's friend. But L is Kira's enemy. [...] All right, tomorrow is L's... Well, at least Ryuzaki/Ryuga's final day." In this comment, he is fully aware of the distinction that exists between Light and Kira, and between L's 'detective' self and his 'Light's friend' self. He is even aware that the 'L' identity is not specific to one individual, but rather exists as a separate entity.
The distinction between Light and Kira is still not absolute in his mind. When Light loses his Kira-identity, he loses a part of himself. In L's words: "Something's odd here... It's like his personality has changed..." which of course it has. Treating the identities as entirely separate doesn't quite work, however: Light himself spends considerable time pondering the fact that Kira's thought patterns and choices are similar to his own. In the end, he doesn't even balk at the idea that he might have killed thousands of people, he balks at the idea that he might have forgotten it. Moreover, he proves himself willing to hypothesise with L based on the assumption that he was, indeed, Kira.
In one of the earlier chapters, he chastises Ryuk for comparing him to a Shinigami, saying: 'I'm using the death note as a human being, for human beings.' (Chapter 6) Yet his desire to 'reign the world like a god' soon becomes the desire to be God - and by the time his disciple Mikami calls him and asks if he's talking to God, he can answer in the affirmative without hesitation. His identity as God develops gradually, and loosely follows his descent into insanity and suicidal arrogance. In short, his deification of himself is his ultimate downfall, a degree of hubris that inevitably leads to his ultimate loss of himself, and death.
This Light/Kira/God identities are, to some extent, in conflict. When Near finally unmasks him as Kira, there is a moment when Light is portrayed as completely naked, and completely traumatised. However, immediately afterwards his Kira personality takes over completely and declares 'I am Kira and the God of this new world.' (Chapter 105) This acknowledgement of who and what he is is the final loss of his 'Light' self - on some occasions previously he has allowed others to know that Light is Kira, but only when he knew the people who gained this knowledge were about to die, or were firm Kira supporters. In other words, he has always retained his 'Light' mask, always wanted to be able to slip back into the - increasingly artificial - role that is the brilliant, modest young man that is Light. As soon as he loses the ability to do so, he also loses control of the situation, and he shortly afterwards loses his life.
All these names and identites contribute to a sense that nothing in this universe is reliable or permanent; there is a constant shift and change that cannot be predicted. In the case of Light and L this is particularly fascinating: they both, on one occasion each, assume the other's identity. In chapter 42, L calls himself 'Asahi' on the phone to Matsuda; Asahi is the name that Light has assumed to protect himself from Kira. In chapter 50, Light presents himself as 'L' on the phone to Yotsuba. Since they are chained together at this point, they witness the other using this identity, and do not protest this assumption on the other's part. To borrow a question from Matsuda: "What's up with those two...?"
Several people (Rem, Naomi) remark on their similarities: they think alike and are able to follow each other's reasoning processes exactly. They are evenly matched in several areas: the tennis match springs to mind, as do their physical fights. They spend several months chained together, sharing every moment and aspect of their lives, and unable to escape the same fate; they both remark that if one dies, the other will die as well. And as just mentioned, they even share each other's names.
The effect is to blur the distinction between them, and between their moral stances. L and Light become one, inseparable. Their battle, their constant contest, is to know the other, to get past their opponent's defenses, to find their true identity: Light - or rather, Kira - wants to find L's real name. L wants Light to be Kira, and wants to be able to prove it. In the end, neither truly succeeds: Kira is able to kill L without ever finding out his name, and L is only certain of Light's identity a brief moment before his death. Indeed, it could be argued that Light deliberately showed L his Kira-side when L was dying, knowing as he did that L would be unable to act on the information.
L remains nameless throughout the narrative. As readers we never find out his name, nor do the other characters. Instead, we are left with a succession of Ls, all of whom intend to emulate or copy the 'original' L.
Oddly enough, the only character groups that by and large stick to their true names, their honest identities, are the criminals and the Shinigami.
Light's name has been the subject of much discussion. As most people know, his name is written with the kanji for "night," "god," and "moon". This spelling is evidently a careful choice on the part of the author: shortly before Light loses his memories and joins the task force to find Kira, he assumes the name "Asahi" - which means "morning sun." In other words, as a member of the task force, he is a different person than when he is being Kira; there is a notable degree of implied difference between a "morning sun" and a "night god".
The kanji - night, god, and moon - combined with the name "Light," makes it terribly tempting to believe that the author intended for them to be read in a slightly inverted sense, as "Lucifer Morningstar" - Lucifer, of course, means bringer of light, and as the narrative demonstrates, the differences between gods and demons might be less than one would like to believe.
Anime-specific elements
Light and darkness are used extensively for effect. This is especially true of the first episode. In order to pick up the Death Note, Light has to go into the shadows. He picks it up, reads it, puts it down again and leaves. Just as he steps into the sunlight, he stops and looks back; as we know, he returned to the darkness to pick the note up. When he later decides to use the note to clean up the world, the sun emerges from behind clouds, flooding him with light.
Black and white is used a lot, too, especially in Light's clothing. He does wear a lot of both black and white; presumably this is a visual version of L's comment about Light being neither in the black or white, morally speaking?
Division of identities - the distinct differences between Kira and Light, and L and Ryuuzaki, are emphasised by the use of colour.
The fragmentation of Light - in addition to making the division between Light and Kira very visual, the anime adds another layer by repeated images in which Light is fragmented and broken like glass. There are several of these images in both intros, and some in the anime itself, such as the uniquely creepy scene in which L looks at Light as the latter stands by a glass staircase. L sees one of Light's eyes through the stairs, and another directly. The effect is Picasso-esque in style, and somehow highly unsettling. I believe these images reflect Light's character well - he truly does not have a central core, he is broken and scattered into several selves. Pre-note!Light, early!noteLight, amnesia!Light and later!noteLight are fundamentally different. (I can't, off the top of my head, remember any other fictional character who has changed this much, and this drastically).
Yet another anime addition are repeated camera pans to the moon; presumably a nod to the "night-god-moon" meaning of Light's name. The moon, and moonlight, is used repeatedly for effect; the full moon appears from behind clouds on several important occasions, the moonlight gets in through a gap in the curtains and falls across Light's chest as he lies on the bed; it is surely not by coincidence that it lies across his heart. The last image in the anime, just after Light's death, is a final pan to the moon; it is no longer shown to be full, rather it is a thin crescent. The camera is also used to create tension. There's the shaky-camera effect, most notable during Light's first killing spree, there are sudden zoom-ins and zoom-outs (like when Light stops, on discovering he is being followed by Ray Penber), and occasional odd angles.
The religious themes are played up: in the opening and closing sequences, there are several religious motifs (such as a white-winged Light offering an apple to a black-winged Ryuk, and a white-shirted Light spreading his arms in benediction as he stands before a religious painting, superimposing himself on an image of God). The music, too emphasises the religious themes. The soundtrack contains a Kyrie, a Requiem as well as the finely-named Domine Kira. Appropriately, and sadly, there is no Resurrexit.
Light's two deaths
In The nobility of failure, tragic heroes in the history of Japan by Ivan Morris, the following is stated about the heroic way of death and dying in Japan:
The Western hero, too, is fearless in death; indeed, in any part of the world and at any time in history a hero who was scared of dying would be a somewhat absurd anomaly. For the Japanese warrior, however, death has a particular psychological significance, since it eptomises the very sense of his existence. "One's way of dying," writes a famous samurai scholar, "can validate one's entire life." Nobility in the face of certain defeat proclaims the magnificent tragedy of life, and the ultimate criterion of heroic sincerity is the way in which a man confronts his end. (p 14)
Yagami Light dies twice: once as Light, and once as Kira. When his father tells him he is about to execute him, Light does show considerable signs of fear and distress, but he is still capable of thinking rationally, of arguing, and of facing death with more of a semblance of dignity than he does during his second death scene. There are two reasons why this may be the case; in his first death scene, he is Light, whose relationship with death is relatively uncomplicated; it's the same as most other people's - something to fear and avoid. In his second death scene, he is Kira, for whom death has always been about power, a special power that he holds over other people, and which he somehow believes does not apply to himself. To a large degree, he has romanticised death, and has enjoyed killing. Secondly, during his second death scene, he knows that death is inevitable; he is too familiar with how the Death Note works to imagine that he can get away from it, unlike in his first death scene, where he tries to convince his father right up to the last minute.
Kira-Light's death scene is horrifying. At the prospect of death, he panics, utterly and completely; he fights in vain against his end, he pleads and curses and acts truly human, for the first and last time in his life. The sheer impact of his emotional reaction is what makes his death scene so painful to read; it's clear he has never truly considered what death means. He has never understood his own mortality, and he has, quite clearly, had no idea whatsoever what he has done to his victims. This does not exonerate him, of course, it merely shows that his lack of compassion, and lack of empathy, is what has turned him into the killer he is. It is only by lived experience that he understands; unfortunately for him, the experience is the last one of his life. From being in control and being powerful, he becomes a victim, and tastes the horror that that entails.
How does this tie into the quote above? For one thing, it suggests that Light is no hero, in a traditional Japanese sense. He faces his death with nothing like dignity and calm, he is terrified and reduced to pleading. Furthermore, if Morris is right in asserting that "death has a particular psychological significance, since it eptomises the very sense of his existence," Light/Kira's death might be said to affirm and support my reading of the text, i.e. that it presents a world view that emphasises the sheer futility of all human endeavor: if a noble death validates one's existence, an ignoble, fearful death perhaps invalidates it. Light's death is unheroic; so, by the particular logic that Morris refers to, his existence up to his death is unheroic, ignoble, worthless. In this, it ties in with the general hopeless, nihilistic mood of the narrative.
Light the God?
To what extent does Light - or rather Kira - actually become God? From a western perspective, this is an almost meaningless question. To those of us used to a monotheistic religion, God is a singularity, and one that has very specific traits: benevolence, omniscience and, crucially, unlimited power. Light is human, and he is mortal. Compared to the western God-concept he is too frail, too evil, and too powerless to be taken seriously as a god.
Yet Shintoism allows of multiple gods, none of whom are all-powerful. There are gods that are tied to a specific place, or a specific ability. The concept of Gods that specialise in death, as the manga shows, is not an alien one. Ryuk, of course, thinks that Light is a "fine Shinigami", as indeed he is - he objects to the idea initially, but his ability to kill is what makes him different from other people, it's what makes him god-like. This ability is what he shares with the real Shinigami. They are no more powerful than Light; they do not have the ability to heal, to perform miracles, to influence human events beyond bringing death. The last thoughts of Rem, in fact, are that Light has exceeded the Shinigami; he is able to kill the death gods as well as humans.
The manga also shows that after his death, Kira gets worshippers. This is a fairly central scene when discussing Light-as-God, and it's rather a pity it's not in the anime. The last images of the manga are of a procession of people, candles in hand, evidently in the midst of a religious ritual. These are no romanticisers of death, or fans of a serial killer: the very last image is of an innocent-looking girl with a wistful look on her face. These, then, are the 'innocents' that Kira killed to protect. After the world returned to its lawless state, they pray to the God that had no choice but to leave them. In spite of his self-perception, and his supernatural abilities, Kira was ultimately human, and therefore mortal. His reign was finite, and the narrative goes out of its way to show that his actions were futile.
A Queer Reading
...Will have to wait, since there's too much to play with; it deserves an entry of its own. For now, I'll just point out that I'm highly amused by the sheer pains to which the author went in order to point out that Light Does Not Like Girls...
I try to identify and to some extent discuss some themes, patterns and other subtext in Death Note, purely for my own satisfaction. I hope others might find something of interest here, too. Unless otherwise specified, all quotes are from the Viz official translation of the manga, and the following is obviously full to the brim with spoilers.
My main point in writing this is to identify what I believe is the main world view presented in the manga. Unlike the characters - who, as we'll see, all follow different if uncertain moral frameworks - the narrative itself is nihilist. The moral lesson presented in Death Note (if such it may be called) is that all human endeavour is futile, no change is possible, no matter what you do, it amounts to the same thing in the end. This lesson is drummed in, repeatedly. The first instance is at the beginning of the story, when Light discusses the Death Note with Ryuk:
Light: Why did you choose me?
Ryuk: All I did was drop the notebook, that's all. You thought I chose you? 'Cuz you're so smart or something? It just happened to land somewhere around here… and you just happened to pick it up.
This sets the tone for the entire story. There is no inherent meaning in what has happened. There is no plan, no overarching capital-P Purpose. Ryuk just dropped his notebook; Light just picked it up.
Light, however, does not believe that the events of his life are casual or random. On the contrary, he later comments to Ryuk on the "significance" of the realm of the Death Gods. He talks about the massive impact that a visit from that realm has on the human world, even if such a visit only occurs every hundred or thousand years. But the last chapter of manga proves him wrong. In chapter 108, we see two police officers walking along a street scene that is clearly intended to mirror the scenes witnessed by Light just after he got the notebook; the scenes which made him start using the notebook in the first place, because the world needed "cleaning up": there are bored students deciding that they're going to be drinking rather than studying, and a group of motorcyclists tear through the streets. One of the policemen comment: "The world is back to the way it used to be before Kira." No improvement is possible, no change for the better can last. Human nature is flawed and only fear can force people to behave in non-egoistical ways. There is no significance in the realm of the Death Gods any more than there was a significance in Light's actions.
This hopelessness extends even to the afterlife. Ryuk, rather surprised at Light's lack of belief in an afterlife, admits that there is none:
Ryuk: There is no heaven or hell. No matter what you do while you're alive, everybody goes to the same place once you die. Death is equal.
In case we, the readers, thought he was exaggerating or lying, the exact same information is given us in the last three "rules" of the manga. First, we get two pieces of information:
All humans will, without exception, eventually die.
After they die, the place they go to is MU (Nothingness).
As if that wasn't enough, all traces of hope are removed, firmly, on the last page:
Once dead, they can never come back to life.
The conclusion, therefore, is inevitable and utterly devoid of hope. According to Death Note, we lead meaningless lives, without purpose, since all actions lead to the same conclusion in the end. It is an extremely bleak and pessimistic world view, and is probably the main reason why Death Note comes across as such a very, very dark narrative.
Morality and the lack thereof
Morality is a recurrent theme in Death Note, as represented by several different characters. As already stated, however, the underlying world view is one of utter nihilism and hopelessness. None of the characters share this view.
Yagami-san, Light's father, is perhaps the only person in the story with a true, internalised sense of morality. It is tempting, initially, to believe that his straight-lacedness is due to his job as a policeman - for instance, when he is not longer formally a policeman, he refuses to carry a gun because it is illegal. However, it is clear that not only is he prepared to risk his life, he is willing to break the law for the sake of what he believes is morally right. He allows L to install cameras in his home, and he crashes into a building with and armoured police car in order to stop Kira's broadcast. Light's father is a man of very certain morality; he doesn't waver, doesn't hesitate, doesn't doubt. I would describe his morality as idealistic.
Light, by contrast, has a morality without core, without limits. But he is not amoral; at any rate, he is not amoral initially. His attempt at cleaning up the world, however misguided, is at least genuinely unselfish. His flawed attempt at improving humanity is megalomaniac, arrogant, and devoid of compassion, but he does not do it for own profit or status, godlike self-perception or not. In the anime, he declares himself willing and prepared to sacrifice his life and soul to improve the world - and, of course, that is exactly what he ends up sacrificing.
However, he does not manage to be consistent. Whatever one might think about his decision to hand out the death sentence to serious criminals, it must be admitted that had he stuck to doing so, he would have been in a position of greater moral strength. But he does not stick to killing one identifiable group: he kills serious criminals, the people who pursue him, minor suspected criminals to throw the people who pursue him off, women who are in love with him, death gods who get in his way; he considers everyone expendable in his pursuit of the greater good, to the extent that he seriously considers killing members of his own family. In other words, Light lacks a definable personal morality; his ideologies are theoretical and do not stand up to practice. His major moral flaw is his utter lack of compassion.
L is similar, though his personal morals do not deteriorate to quite the extent that Light's do. However, it does become obvious that far from a desire to save criminals from ad-hoc executions, his true desire is to catch Kira for the sake of his own personal satisfaction, to gratify his own sense of pride. Moreover, L is morally paralysed; he is unable to act without proof - certainty is not enough. He spends large sections of the narrative being certain, in practice, that Light is Kira, but since he is unable to nail down actual proof, he is unwilling to do something to stop him. And he does consider people expendable, in much the same way that Light does: he sacrifices Lind L Tailor, and he insists that the task force should not arrest the Yotsuba group until the people they have decided to kill actually die, thus providing the task force with actual proof. He may not be amoral, but he is pragmatic to the point of amorality.
No matter what their morals are like, though, the narrative demonstrates yet again that there is no point to anything: all three characters come to the same end. They die pointless, violent deaths, without achieving what they want to achieve.
Identifiers and identity
Nearly everyone in the narrative has at least one alias. In most cases, this makes sense as soon as it becomes apparent that Kira needs a name in order to kill. Yet the use of aliases is not as straightforward and rational as it might seem; people switch names (and with them, identities) at an alarming rate and with surprising ease, throughout the story.
The name of L is an example: it is used by at least Watari, Light, and Near as well as by L himself in the course of the story. L - the black-haired, sweet-loving detective - becomes in a sense identity-less, as he cannot claim his name for himself. The same is true of Kira: like L, the name becomes an entity in its own right, one that can switch 'host' as and when the need arises. In some cases this is entirely conscious on the part of the host, in others not. The most extreme example of the former is Near and Mello's desire to become L, to assume that identity.
The use of names and identities is particularly fascinating when it comes to L and Light. Both of them have several identities: Light is Light, Kira, L and God. L is L, Ryuzaki, Ryuga, Coil, Deneuve, Asahi and Suzuki. L in particular assumes and discards names without hesitation or awkwardness; with his calm assumption of three multiple detective characters, one could say identity-switching seems central to and inherent to who he is.
Light's attitude to naming, and with it identity, is more problematic. His division of himself into 'Light' and 'Kira' starts very early on. In chapter 3, Light is relaxing and reading about the Kira case, remarking to Ryuk that "I guess it might be pretty interesting if I wasn't Kira". But shortly afterwards, he distances himself from his Kira-self by suddenly using the third person: "If Kira pays too much attention to this stuff, it just stresses him out. Gotta give his mind a rest, once in a while". This division remains conscious, and is crucial to his decision to attempt to kill L: "Ryuga is Light Yagami's friend. But L is Kira's enemy. [...] All right, tomorrow is L's... Well, at least Ryuzaki/Ryuga's final day." In this comment, he is fully aware of the distinction that exists between Light and Kira, and between L's 'detective' self and his 'Light's friend' self. He is even aware that the 'L' identity is not specific to one individual, but rather exists as a separate entity.
The distinction between Light and Kira is still not absolute in his mind. When Light loses his Kira-identity, he loses a part of himself. In L's words: "Something's odd here... It's like his personality has changed..." which of course it has. Treating the identities as entirely separate doesn't quite work, however: Light himself spends considerable time pondering the fact that Kira's thought patterns and choices are similar to his own. In the end, he doesn't even balk at the idea that he might have killed thousands of people, he balks at the idea that he might have forgotten it. Moreover, he proves himself willing to hypothesise with L based on the assumption that he was, indeed, Kira.
In one of the earlier chapters, he chastises Ryuk for comparing him to a Shinigami, saying: 'I'm using the death note as a human being, for human beings.' (Chapter 6) Yet his desire to 'reign the world like a god' soon becomes the desire to be God - and by the time his disciple Mikami calls him and asks if he's talking to God, he can answer in the affirmative without hesitation. His identity as God develops gradually, and loosely follows his descent into insanity and suicidal arrogance. In short, his deification of himself is his ultimate downfall, a degree of hubris that inevitably leads to his ultimate loss of himself, and death.
This Light/Kira/God identities are, to some extent, in conflict. When Near finally unmasks him as Kira, there is a moment when Light is portrayed as completely naked, and completely traumatised. However, immediately afterwards his Kira personality takes over completely and declares 'I am Kira and the God of this new world.' (Chapter 105) This acknowledgement of who and what he is is the final loss of his 'Light' self - on some occasions previously he has allowed others to know that Light is Kira, but only when he knew the people who gained this knowledge were about to die, or were firm Kira supporters. In other words, he has always retained his 'Light' mask, always wanted to be able to slip back into the - increasingly artificial - role that is the brilliant, modest young man that is Light. As soon as he loses the ability to do so, he also loses control of the situation, and he shortly afterwards loses his life.
All these names and identites contribute to a sense that nothing in this universe is reliable or permanent; there is a constant shift and change that cannot be predicted. In the case of Light and L this is particularly fascinating: they both, on one occasion each, assume the other's identity. In chapter 42, L calls himself 'Asahi' on the phone to Matsuda; Asahi is the name that Light has assumed to protect himself from Kira. In chapter 50, Light presents himself as 'L' on the phone to Yotsuba. Since they are chained together at this point, they witness the other using this identity, and do not protest this assumption on the other's part. To borrow a question from Matsuda: "What's up with those two...?"
Several people (Rem, Naomi) remark on their similarities: they think alike and are able to follow each other's reasoning processes exactly. They are evenly matched in several areas: the tennis match springs to mind, as do their physical fights. They spend several months chained together, sharing every moment and aspect of their lives, and unable to escape the same fate; they both remark that if one dies, the other will die as well. And as just mentioned, they even share each other's names.
The effect is to blur the distinction between them, and between their moral stances. L and Light become one, inseparable. Their battle, their constant contest, is to know the other, to get past their opponent's defenses, to find their true identity: Light - or rather, Kira - wants to find L's real name. L wants Light to be Kira, and wants to be able to prove it. In the end, neither truly succeeds: Kira is able to kill L without ever finding out his name, and L is only certain of Light's identity a brief moment before his death. Indeed, it could be argued that Light deliberately showed L his Kira-side when L was dying, knowing as he did that L would be unable to act on the information.
L remains nameless throughout the narrative. As readers we never find out his name, nor do the other characters. Instead, we are left with a succession of Ls, all of whom intend to emulate or copy the 'original' L.
Oddly enough, the only character groups that by and large stick to their true names, their honest identities, are the criminals and the Shinigami.
Light's name has been the subject of much discussion. As most people know, his name is written with the kanji for "night," "god," and "moon". This spelling is evidently a careful choice on the part of the author: shortly before Light loses his memories and joins the task force to find Kira, he assumes the name "Asahi" - which means "morning sun." In other words, as a member of the task force, he is a different person than when he is being Kira; there is a notable degree of implied difference between a "morning sun" and a "night god".
The kanji - night, god, and moon - combined with the name "Light," makes it terribly tempting to believe that the author intended for them to be read in a slightly inverted sense, as "Lucifer Morningstar" - Lucifer, of course, means bringer of light, and as the narrative demonstrates, the differences between gods and demons might be less than one would like to believe.
Anime-specific elements
Light and darkness are used extensively for effect. This is especially true of the first episode. In order to pick up the Death Note, Light has to go into the shadows. He picks it up, reads it, puts it down again and leaves. Just as he steps into the sunlight, he stops and looks back; as we know, he returned to the darkness to pick the note up. When he later decides to use the note to clean up the world, the sun emerges from behind clouds, flooding him with light.
Black and white is used a lot, too, especially in Light's clothing. He does wear a lot of both black and white; presumably this is a visual version of L's comment about Light being neither in the black or white, morally speaking?
Division of identities - the distinct differences between Kira and Light, and L and Ryuuzaki, are emphasised by the use of colour.
The fragmentation of Light - in addition to making the division between Light and Kira very visual, the anime adds another layer by repeated images in which Light is fragmented and broken like glass. There are several of these images in both intros, and some in the anime itself, such as the uniquely creepy scene in which L looks at Light as the latter stands by a glass staircase. L sees one of Light's eyes through the stairs, and another directly. The effect is Picasso-esque in style, and somehow highly unsettling. I believe these images reflect Light's character well - he truly does not have a central core, he is broken and scattered into several selves. Pre-note!Light, early!noteLight, amnesia!Light and later!noteLight are fundamentally different. (I can't, off the top of my head, remember any other fictional character who has changed this much, and this drastically).
Yet another anime addition are repeated camera pans to the moon; presumably a nod to the "night-god-moon" meaning of Light's name. The moon, and moonlight, is used repeatedly for effect; the full moon appears from behind clouds on several important occasions, the moonlight gets in through a gap in the curtains and falls across Light's chest as he lies on the bed; it is surely not by coincidence that it lies across his heart. The last image in the anime, just after Light's death, is a final pan to the moon; it is no longer shown to be full, rather it is a thin crescent. The camera is also used to create tension. There's the shaky-camera effect, most notable during Light's first killing spree, there are sudden zoom-ins and zoom-outs (like when Light stops, on discovering he is being followed by Ray Penber), and occasional odd angles.
The religious themes are played up: in the opening and closing sequences, there are several religious motifs (such as a white-winged Light offering an apple to a black-winged Ryuk, and a white-shirted Light spreading his arms in benediction as he stands before a religious painting, superimposing himself on an image of God). The music, too emphasises the religious themes. The soundtrack contains a Kyrie, a Requiem as well as the finely-named Domine Kira. Appropriately, and sadly, there is no Resurrexit.
Light's two deaths
In The nobility of failure, tragic heroes in the history of Japan by Ivan Morris, the following is stated about the heroic way of death and dying in Japan:
The Western hero, too, is fearless in death; indeed, in any part of the world and at any time in history a hero who was scared of dying would be a somewhat absurd anomaly. For the Japanese warrior, however, death has a particular psychological significance, since it eptomises the very sense of his existence. "One's way of dying," writes a famous samurai scholar, "can validate one's entire life." Nobility in the face of certain defeat proclaims the magnificent tragedy of life, and the ultimate criterion of heroic sincerity is the way in which a man confronts his end. (p 14)
Yagami Light dies twice: once as Light, and once as Kira. When his father tells him he is about to execute him, Light does show considerable signs of fear and distress, but he is still capable of thinking rationally, of arguing, and of facing death with more of a semblance of dignity than he does during his second death scene. There are two reasons why this may be the case; in his first death scene, he is Light, whose relationship with death is relatively uncomplicated; it's the same as most other people's - something to fear and avoid. In his second death scene, he is Kira, for whom death has always been about power, a special power that he holds over other people, and which he somehow believes does not apply to himself. To a large degree, he has romanticised death, and has enjoyed killing. Secondly, during his second death scene, he knows that death is inevitable; he is too familiar with how the Death Note works to imagine that he can get away from it, unlike in his first death scene, where he tries to convince his father right up to the last minute.
Kira-Light's death scene is horrifying. At the prospect of death, he panics, utterly and completely; he fights in vain against his end, he pleads and curses and acts truly human, for the first and last time in his life. The sheer impact of his emotional reaction is what makes his death scene so painful to read; it's clear he has never truly considered what death means. He has never understood his own mortality, and he has, quite clearly, had no idea whatsoever what he has done to his victims. This does not exonerate him, of course, it merely shows that his lack of compassion, and lack of empathy, is what has turned him into the killer he is. It is only by lived experience that he understands; unfortunately for him, the experience is the last one of his life. From being in control and being powerful, he becomes a victim, and tastes the horror that that entails.
How does this tie into the quote above? For one thing, it suggests that Light is no hero, in a traditional Japanese sense. He faces his death with nothing like dignity and calm, he is terrified and reduced to pleading. Furthermore, if Morris is right in asserting that "death has a particular psychological significance, since it eptomises the very sense of his existence," Light/Kira's death might be said to affirm and support my reading of the text, i.e. that it presents a world view that emphasises the sheer futility of all human endeavor: if a noble death validates one's existence, an ignoble, fearful death perhaps invalidates it. Light's death is unheroic; so, by the particular logic that Morris refers to, his existence up to his death is unheroic, ignoble, worthless. In this, it ties in with the general hopeless, nihilistic mood of the narrative.
Light the God?
To what extent does Light - or rather Kira - actually become God? From a western perspective, this is an almost meaningless question. To those of us used to a monotheistic religion, God is a singularity, and one that has very specific traits: benevolence, omniscience and, crucially, unlimited power. Light is human, and he is mortal. Compared to the western God-concept he is too frail, too evil, and too powerless to be taken seriously as a god.
Yet Shintoism allows of multiple gods, none of whom are all-powerful. There are gods that are tied to a specific place, or a specific ability. The concept of Gods that specialise in death, as the manga shows, is not an alien one. Ryuk, of course, thinks that Light is a "fine Shinigami", as indeed he is - he objects to the idea initially, but his ability to kill is what makes him different from other people, it's what makes him god-like. This ability is what he shares with the real Shinigami. They are no more powerful than Light; they do not have the ability to heal, to perform miracles, to influence human events beyond bringing death. The last thoughts of Rem, in fact, are that Light has exceeded the Shinigami; he is able to kill the death gods as well as humans.
The manga also shows that after his death, Kira gets worshippers. This is a fairly central scene when discussing Light-as-God, and it's rather a pity it's not in the anime. The last images of the manga are of a procession of people, candles in hand, evidently in the midst of a religious ritual. These are no romanticisers of death, or fans of a serial killer: the very last image is of an innocent-looking girl with a wistful look on her face. These, then, are the 'innocents' that Kira killed to protect. After the world returned to its lawless state, they pray to the God that had no choice but to leave them. In spite of his self-perception, and his supernatural abilities, Kira was ultimately human, and therefore mortal. His reign was finite, and the narrative goes out of its way to show that his actions were futile.
A Queer Reading
...Will have to wait, since there's too much to play with; it deserves an entry of its own. For now, I'll just point out that I'm highly amused by the sheer pains to which the author went in order to point out that Light Does Not Like Girls...