A Conversation on Death Note Pt. 1

Think about this for a moment; What if you had a way to eradicate crime? If you had a way to get rid of criminals once and for all, would you do it? Even if it involves death?

Death Note is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Released in the year 2003, it became super successful, selling over 30 million copies as of 2015 and becoming one of most popular manga of all time. The story follows a high school student, Light Yagami, an exceptionally brilliant teenager. Being the son of a police chief, he grew up being aware of the police department’s daily fight against crime. He also saw the consequences that ensued when the law enforcement failed to bring many a good number of criminals to justice due supposed lack of evidence, the protection of said criminals by “friends in high places”, etc. Thus, at some point in his life, Light Yagami developed a hatred for criminals; a very strong one as we would see shortly.

One day, in the middle of a classroom lecture, he sees through his window, a notebook seemingly fall from the sky to the ground. Out of curiosity, he goes looking for it after the end of school and sees a black book titled “Death Note”. He flips open the first page and sees these words:

• “The human whose name is written in this note shall die.”
• “This note will not take effect unless the writer has the subject’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.”
• “If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the subject’s name, it will happen. ”
• “If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack.”
• “After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds (400 seconds).”

He perceives it to be a cheap prank but still goes on to take the book home. That night, there was a hostage case. A robber had held people within a bank and threatened to kill them one after the other if his demands were not met. There was a live news coverage of the event, with the criminal and hostage identities displayed on the television. A thought occurs to Light; a harmless prank this might be but there was no harm in trying out this supposed death note. Thus, Light wrote down the name of the criminal within the book and waited. A few seconds after thirty had passed, there was a bustle of activity on the live tv, as hostages began pouring out of the bank. A correspondent questioned one of the escapees about what had happened. Apparently, their captor had clutched his chest and fell to the floor. Dead. Light was shocked. The notebook had worked. But how? He needed to be sure this wasn’t just a coincidence. Walking home one night, he sees a young lady assaulted by a gang of hoodlums. One of the gang members calls out the name of the boss. At this point, Light, observing from a hidden spot, takes out the notebook and writes the name of the leader within. The man dies within thirty seconds. This was definitely not a coincidence. On getting home, he is visited by an otherworldly being who calls himself a Shinigami (Japanese for “god of death”). The Shinigami tells Light that he intentionally dropped his notebook into the earth out of boredom. His role would be one of an observer, to see how Light would use the notebook. The wheels in Light’s mind turned. He had often envisioned a world where justice was swift and retribution inescapable; a world without crime. Finally! With the death note in his possession, that world could become a reality. And he, Light could be the Judge of this new world. Right?…