AHOYYYY

One of the most jarring moments of reading Storm Bringer was finding out that the Sheep are being used to indefinitely blackmail Chuuya into staying with the Port Mafia.

(pg. 115)

LIKE?????????

It seems like an unnecessary action on Mori's part. The use of trading the Sheep's lives for Chuuya to join the PM at the end of 15 worked out fine, ending with Chuuya realizing what he was missing as an important figure within the Sheep and swearing his loyalty to the PM.

The Sheep were disbanded, so Chuuya wouldn't be able to return to them even if he wanted to, continuing to keep tabs on them in case they need to be Strategically Killed (and especially using someone who they know was close to Chuuya as the first to die) feels excessive. So I am really wondering if there is a greater motive for these measures to be necessary.

Also, because there is no mention of this deal after this, (unless I missed something) it is very possible that this is still ongoing, which is wild considering the power he has in the organization.

Something that I found very striking about the high school scenes in the anime is that Light is almost always by himself. He doesn't walk to or from school with anyone and he eats lunch alone.

We know that making friends isn't something that is difficult for him, ( for example, he writes down his plan for the busjacking in the Death Note BEFORE asking a girl out, having no doubt that someone will go with him ) meaning that all this time alone is what he prefers and chooses.

This is significant because it is reflective of how he acts for the rest of the series, only getting to know people or surrounding himself with people when it is directly beneficial to him, rather than for any actual enjoyment.

( We never see any of these people before or after this episode lmao)

In the manga, however, even though they only appear in the first two chapters, Light has friends that he walks home with, an interaction that is lacking any visible ulterior motive.

Even if it is a pretty small difference, I think it arguably creates two alternate perspectives on Light's character.

Anime Light's pattern of interacting with people only when necessary is present from the beginning and seems to just be a part of his personality. Although having this ability is useful to him when acting as Kira, it wasn't created due to necessity.