Erika Toda, who plays as Misa Amane in the live-action movie, is pictured holding a Death Note
Yagami Light is a high school student and son of the Chief Detective of the National Police Agency. Influenced by his father, Light resents the crime and corruption present in the world. He is extremely intelligent and in the past, he has helped his father solve several cases that puzzled even the police. One day, while walking between campus buildings, he discovers a mysterious black notebook lying on the ground in the courtyard. Picking it up and turning it over, he discovers that the cover has slanted white Gothic letters that spell out the words: “Death Note.” The inside cover of the Death Note has a set of rules written in the same scribble, the first of which claims:
- The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
Light is initially skeptical about the notebook’s ability, but after taking it home and testing it on a hostage-taker that he is watching on live television, he realizes that the Death Note is real. Exactly 40 seconds after Light writes the hostage-taker’s name in the Death Note, the criminal suffers a fatal heart attack and all of the hostages are rescued successfully. After that, Light begins his quest to purge the world of evil using the notebook, seeking to create a utopia free of crime and to become “the God of the new world.”
After a month, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) takes notice of the numerous inexplicable deaths of reported criminals, and a mysterious detective called “L” declares that the unknown person behind the Death Note, nicknamed “Kira” by the public, is a serial killer. A massive psychological game ensues, in which “L” and “Kira” try to discover each other’s identities. Kira’s relentless judgment of evil criminals leads to drastically lowered crime rates throughout the world. However, popular opinion is split between those who support Kira for making the world safer and those who detest him for inflicting mass murder, albeit on criminals. Law enforcement tries to uncover Kira’s identity to arrest him, but Light declares that he will punish all those who try to interfere with his ultimate justice.
The main philosophical debate that Death Note presents is whether Light’s ethical views are more or less proper than current institutionalized law. Is it the “right thing” to kill off hardened criminals so that they do not strike again, or is it better if they stay in jail for life? Is it right to reduce crime through fear of certain death?
Based on academic articles on the ethics of capital punishment, there are three common justifications of punishment by an institution: retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation. Retributivism is the viewpoint of “an eye for an eye,” or that the offender should suffer at least equally to the victim. Deterrence deters the criminal from committing the same crime again, while also deterring others from committing a similar crime. Rehabilitation attempts to reform a criminal into a good person.
Kira’s punishment is similar to punishment by an institution, but there are some important differences. Unlike a judge, Kira is above the law, using his own sense of justice as the highest truth. Therefore, his justice is swift and not subject to legal and bureaucratic loopholes such as “illegitimacy of evidence” that allow obvious criminals to escape from punishment. Also, due to his inaccessibility, Kira takes away the moral conundrum of the citizens and lawmakers who decide to allow or disallow capital punishment.
Unlike an institution, Kira’s overwatch is not stifling, because he is only one human. He’s not the “Big Brother” of George Orwell’s 1984, a totalitarian dictator that keeps his people under complete surveillance by the authorities. He’s not the “Thought Police” either. Instead, Kira resembles an extension of the Grim Reaper’s scythe. As the Grim Reaper takes away those people whose fated time has run out, Kira takes away the time of those who he believes “deserve to die.”
Kira’s method of punishment offers no chance of rehabilitation. However, Kira only kills humanitarian-style. He chooses criminals that have performed major crimes, forgiving some based on whether they were coerced into doing so and taking into account other conditions, and it is questionable whether these people can be rehabilitated, or in the eyes of taxpayers, whether they are even worth rehabilitating. Therefore, the main opponents against Kira are legalists and certain religious factions that practice strict adherence to laws, and those people who feel a subconscious discomfort when they hear about a massive number of people dying.
Kira is not concerned with retribution, though his judgments may end up having that affect. His only goal is to create a new world without crime, maintaining and watching over it as if a God. However, Kira grew up in a modern first-world culture, and what he sees as crime another person might think of as a “jihad.” Kira’s ethics are not compatible with all cultures. His new world may eventually manifest as a globalization of his modern ethics. Though such a world would be welcome to those who share his ethics, a world free of crime is still not a utopia.
The major ethical issue is whether criminals in prison for life deserve to live. Though they will never come back out into the “real world,” prisons become worlds unto themselves, and they can continue to ravage temporary neighbors who will eventually return to society. Also, by leaving the criminal alive, the family of the victim can be hurt in a way by not receiving closure.
Interestingly, in the recent Edison Chen photo scandal, in which the pop icon had photos of him having sex with various female stars leaked, the person who leaked the photos onto the Internet was nicknamed Kira. This Kira wanted to show the world what he saw as the hypocritical truth behind Edison Chen, who had maintained an idealistic image until then. Kira also mentioned that he/she was not in it for the money.
In this battle between justice and the letter of the law, which side do you take? If you gained possession of a Death Note, what would you do with it?
Death Note was a popular anime adaptation of a manga aired in Japan from October 3, 2006 to June 26, 2007.
