The film Death Note presents an excellent opportunity to understand and evaluate the contradictions of life in contemporary society; especially good vs. evil. The title of the film, Death Note, comes from a black notebook that has the power to kill anyone so long as the holder of the book knows the name and the face of the target. The black notebook first falls in the hands of an intelligent but disaffected high school student named Light Yagami (Hanna 40). The initial plans of Light are to eradicate crimes in the world over and starts by killing all criminals in Japan and proceeds to kill all criminals in the world over. The sudden death of criminals in the society attracts the attention of law enforcement officers that decide to pursue the person killing all the criminals in the community. The main aim of Light is to create a utopian world free of crime and make the society better and crime-free. Moreover, Light learns that the Death Note came from Ryuk, the Japanese god of death and that Ryuk threw away the Death Note into the world out of boredom (Mathews and Steena 494).
The sudden and inexplicable deaths of the top criminals in the world over attract the attention of global media where law enforcement officers set to find out the person responsible for the deaths; they designate the killer as “Kira.” The pursuance and plans to kill “Kira” is laid in the hands of an international top detective “L” who has been successful in cracking major criminal cases in the world over and brought sanity in the society (Reysen et al. 585). A keen follow-up of events and activities that follow the plans to kill “Kira” who is Light reveals numerous from the process and inception of Misa Amane, a model, and an actress, with a second Death Note, complicates the issue much further. Several people die in the process of hunting down “Kira” where ultimately Ryuk decides to kill Light by writing his name in the Death Note after realizing that Light will face life imprisonment and eventually die in prison. The central theme of the film is contradictions of life, especially good vs. evil. It is because of the plans of various characters in the book to eradicate evil in the society but end up committing several murders in the process. A keen examination of the film enlightens the audience about the central theme of the film and how it furthers the subject of good vs. evil and its impact on modern society.
Contradictions of Life: Good vs. Evil
The primary theme of good vs. evil is evident in the film in various ways. The first instance is where Light gets hold of Death Note. Initially, Light is afraid of the abilities of the Death Note because of its god-like abilities to kill anyone whom Light knows by name and by facial appearance. The theme is expressly presented in that as much as Light knows that the book is terrible and can cause massive death in the society, he plans to use it for the excellent reason; killing all criminals in the world and create a utopian world which is free from any form of crime. The light had to decide whether to further criminal activities in the society by killing people or use the Death Note for the good of the society by eradicating crime; he chose to use the book for the good of the society by eradicating criminals by killing all of them starting from Japan (Hanna 41). Light managed to kill high-profile Japanese criminals and international law offenders thereby making the society safer. From the actions and decisions of Light, it is evident that in the mental conflicts of good vs. evil in the mind of Light, the good won where he resorted to using the evil book to ‘clean’ the society.
The other evidence of the theme of good vs. evil is illustrated in the actions of Ryuk, the Japanese god of death. It is evident that Ryuk is an evil character for he is known for killing people. However, when he finds out how Light has made positive use of the Death Note
which he initially threw into the world after being bored with it, he decides to change his intentions and becomes a companion of Light to help him fight all criminals in the society (Mathews and Steena 496). In this manner, it is evident that Ryuk has crossed the boundary of good and evil and has moved from evil to good. Ryuk acknowledges the positive impacts of the good of killing criminals in society to create a peaceful society. The theme of good vs. evil is apparent in the change of tact of Ryuk who decides to work for the good of the human population by working with Light to eradicate any criminals; this proves that the good overwhelmed Ryuk.
The theme of good vs. evil is further evident after Light kills criminals in society after massive deaths of criminals both in Japan and the world over, attention shifts to "Kira” where law enforcement officers roll out a plan to hunt down and kill Light who is known to be “Kira” by international detectives and FBI. In this manner, the theme of good vs. evil is evident in that Light works for the good of the population but ends up being the hunted by detectives (Reysen et al. 586). Despite the positive actions that he has furthered in the society, he ends up being the ‘bad guy’ who is being sought by detectives for helping in eradicating criminal activities in the society. Even though L has succeeded in cracking criminal cases and helping to fight crime in the society, he is the one tasked with hunting down and killing the ‘good guy' Light who has helped in fighting crime. It shows the conflict in the roles of L in fighting crime as a high-flyer and decorated detective.
The other way in which the theme of good vs. evil is shown in the film is through conflicts between Light and detective L. This is after L humiliates Light thereby making Light to resort to killing L in revenge for the humiliation on national media and revealing his identity. In this part, the conflict between good vs. evil is evident and evil wins where Light resorts to killing the ‘good guy' detective L. The two engage in different forms of conflicts even though main aim of the two is to eradicate crime in the society (Hanna 42). They are unable to sort out their differences to join forces in fighting crime. Light outmaneuvers all the FBI officers tasked with hunting him down and kills them all for he feels that they are obstructing his plans of fighting criminals in the society which is another conflict of good vs. evil. The Light who has been known to a good person hunts down other law enforcement officers, the FBI agents and kills all of them. It is proof that evil wins in the contradictions of life of good vs. evil (Vie et al. 217). Detective L then proceeds to designate Light as the prime suspect with the view of grounding him to put to a stop all his plans.
Moreover, the theme of good vs. evil is also apparent after the duel between Light and detective L where both agree to work together to hunt down "Kira." It happens when L decides to recruit Light to Kira Task Force, the task force formed to eliminate the actions of “Kira” to put an end to all his actions and improve peaceful coexistence in the society (Mathews and Steena 497). In this manner, the two join forces to reveal crucial information surrounding the activities of “Kira” and have a better understanding of all his activities.
Another case of good vs. evil is evident in the inception of a model and an actress named Misa Amane who gets hold of the second Death Note but uses it for the wrong reasons contrary to the way. The light used his Death Note. Misa makes a deal with Shinigami for Shinigami eyes and uses the eyes to kill people massively. Additionally, Misa sends recordings of her killings to the police, an act which proves that he is hell-bent on furthering evils in the society. Such an action is disrespectful to the police force and humiliates the entire law enforcement department who in turn resort to hunting her down to make her pay for her actions (Reysen et al. 589). Additionally, Misa furthers her evil deeds by revealing the real identity of Light then proceeds to blackmail him to be her boyfriend in exchange for not revealing his true identity to the police. In this manner, Misa is presented as a very evil person in the society whose actions work to contradict the founding ingredients of good deeds in the society.
In this regard, Light agrees to the deal that Misa presents to him, and although he does not love her, he agrees to the deal with the goals of using the Shinigami eyes to reveal the L's real identity. In this manner, the theme of good vs. evil is presented, and the evil wins because Light agrees to collaborate with the evil-doer in the society, Misa (Vie et al. 221). Additionally, Light is presented as evil in that he manipulates Misa and agrees to be her boyfriend with the primary goal of exploiting the use of Shinigami eyes that Misa has. Besides, the other case of good vs. evil is apparent when L deduces that Misa is the second “Kira.” Upon such a revelation, detective L resorts to hunting her down with the view of killing her; this is in line with the significant police role of grounding criminals in the society and eliminating criminal actions (Hanna 43). It reveals that L performs the good deeds in society by working to eliminate criminals to ensure the safety of the population.
The fact the Rem has feelings for Misa proves that good vs. evil contest is on and this is evident when Rem threatens to kill Light should he fail to rescue her from the hands of the detective. It is a show of evil deeds collaborating to further evil deeds in the society and making it challenging for the police to contain them and put a stop to their actions in the contemporary world. The decision of Light and consequent actions to make him and Misa lose memory of Death Note serves a good deed in that it helps to eliminate criminal activities that Misa furthers in the population. There should be the acknowledgement of the fact that such a decision by Light is aimed at protecting the society and ensure the safety of the population by grounding Misa (Reysen et al. 602). The fact that Light manages to make Rem pass the Death Note to a less morally-driven individual, Kyosuke Higuchi helps to dispense with the spell of the Death Note with the aim of making the society safer and free from the effects of Misa and her second Death Note. Such a strategy works perfectly to maintain peace in the society and alleviate Misa from the evil effects of the Death Note. It is a success to improve peaceful coexistence in society.
Following the passing of the Death Note
to Higuchi, Light and Rem regain their memory of the book where Light proceeds to kill Higuchi; this helps in protecting the society by eliminating the number of people with knowledge of the Death Note to reduce the negative impacts of the book (Vie et al. 223). The other example of good vs. evil is apparent when L discovers the true identity of Misa which makes Rem ill L with the aim of saving her. The actions of Rem lead to his death because Shinigami are forbidden from protecting human beings. In this manner, the contest of good vs. evil is evident in that the death of Rem is a significant reprieve for the human race because the source of all evil doings is cut thereby making the society safer and protects them from the negative impacts of Death Note (Mathews and Steena 497). On the other hand, the killing of L by Rem is a significant setback for good in that it takes away an advocate of good in the society and a person who has greatly helped to end vices in the society.
Conclusion
Finally, as Light is picked as the replacement of L, crime rate drop significantly in the society, and this is a good show because it makes the population stay safe from the effects of the Death Note and related spell. There is a need to confirm that the film enlightens the population about good and evil in society and tells the factors affecting the good and evil deeds of members of the community. The modern society needs to acknowledge the lessons on maintaining good deeds and work towards keeping the virtuous lifestyle to enable every member of the society to live in harmony and stay free from adverse impacts of the same. The spiritual world exposes society to different forms of challenges which require the human race to have a good understanding of spiritual spells to stay safe from the same. As much as the film is educating, it provides unmatched entertainment to the audience and fits the needs of diverse groups of the population.
Works Cited
Hanna, Bridget. "'Death note'and morality." Screen Education78 (2015): 40.
Mathews, Steena J. "Study of Manga, Animation, and Anime as an Art Form." International Journal on Recent and Innovation Trends in Computing and Communication 4.6 (2016): 494-497.
Reysen, Stephen, et al. "Anime genre preferences and paranormal beliefs." Manuscript submitted for publication(2016).
Vie, Jill-Jênn, Camille Laıly, and Solene Pichereau. "Mangaki: an anime/manga recommender system with fast preference elicitation." ACM Conference on Recommender Systems. 2015.
