capitalistic postmodernism

Abstract: this short linguistic overview on Death Note is going to include Hebrew and Japanese, in an attempt to prove a point. It is also going to include IPA, so, if your device can't show IPA symbols, it's a You problem.

Introduction

Death Note is a Manga series, on which an Anime was based. The anime series has one season, and just under 40 episodes. To those unfamiliar, here's a recap: Raito Yagami (or Light Yagami in English) is a gifted child who grew up to be more successful in high school than you, is smart as fuck, and also athletic. He's Toni Kroos with a complete Abitur and parents who aren't athletes, and he also was born in Japan, and not Eastern Germany. But they're both Ugly But Some People Find Them Hot. Light is bored af because he's still got that gifted shit going well for him in high school, and he's very clean, and doesn't like to see people (or beings, which soon will be explained) littering.

Ryuk is a Shinigami (death god in Japanese lore) who does like littering. He's also very bored of doing shifts and killing people. Both Light and Ryuk are really bored. Completely unfittingly, the first chapter/episode (i don't remember tbh) is titled "Boredom".

In the anime, death is done by shinigamis, but instead of like, reaping or whatever death is doing in some beliefs, they write names in their notebooks called "Death Note". This is a clear reference to people writing names in notebooks and circling them with hearts, as i have demonstrated in another article.²

Back to Ryuk, the littering Shinigami. Ryuk, in his deep and painful boredom, decides to sow some wind, and thinks, that since he's not your conventional reaper, he won't reap storms.

Thus, Ryuk, while sitting on a cloud like some angel in these ugly stickers that would stand for lots of copyright lawsuits had the renaissance ninja turtles were alive, lets go of his Death Note and litters the Earth.

It falls in Light's school grounds, he even sees it from the window (he apparently doesn't have my dad's 10-6 eyesight and can't read or see what exactly is ht e thing that falls. In true Non-ADHD fashion, he proceeds to listen in class, and waits patiently until he has time, goes downstairs, and picks up the litter, aka the Death Note. Light, unaware this is s Death Note, understands that the sky can't litter, and decides to look inside, in case someone wrote his name and circled it with hearts. It is not the case, as it is, as mentioned, a Death Note.

fig. 1 – the Death Note user's manual

Light is quite curious. First of all, why doesn't it have his name with hearts? (Because he's narcissist). He takes it home to take better look at that black elementary school-like notebook.

In his Man-cave, he takes this better look he was planning on taking. and sees the user's manual in fig. 1.

He, of course, thinks it's a joke. Because he's very Smart, he thinks it's a dumb joke.

This doesn't, however, prevent him from trying it anyhow. While he is very curious, and Very Atheist and shit, he still doesn't take unnecessary risks, and writes the name of a criminal who appears on the news.

And, surprise! The criminal dies and Light is sure it's a coincidence, but Ryuk, the Littering Shinigami, visits Light and says, "Aye, it's the real deal m'dude. M'ma'am, with great power comes great responsibility, don't forget that" and eats Light's apple whole. No one but Light can see Ryuk because of something something.

fig. 2 — light and ryuk walking (and flying but very low) down the street.³

Light, the Good (non) Samaritan he is, uses it on other criminals, with some weird muscle seizures while writing. His second use of the Death Note is also noteworthy, when he saves a woman being harassed and assaulted by a biker, whose name he already heard before.

After that, Light begins looking up all criminal databases, and writes criminals' names that he finds in the Death Note. He does that without adding a CoD⁴, so it'll be clear someone is behind all these deaths; in my article,² i mention how i believe he does it both as a plot device, but also because he's very uncreative.

This gets into his head, however, and he proclaims he's gonna be God of that world. A perfect world with no crime and all that. He calls himself Kira (basically pronuncing Killer in Japanese, where there's no L sound). He says he's justice, god, blah blah blah idc.

Enter L. L is a detective like Sherlock but smarter, better, and not as Gary Stu as Sherlock. Also not British and doesn't look like a dead groundhog covered in vegemite.

L doesn't show his face, but only a letter. L. But he kinda seduces light to kill a killer Lindon B. johnson but only with Ls (Lindon Lee Lindman?) whose been captured but nothing about him was published. Very secret, much undercover. L knows now where Kira (Light) is, which is, well, in some areas in Japan (as in, he knows which area, idr which).

L is the second main character, with Light. Because if this, we will not cover Light's girlfriend who's all misogynistic stereotypes into a character, Makami GodFetish who nuts when someone says Kira; Near and Melo who are like L but kids.

This article is my attempt of explaining why, in my opinion, L is God, and not Light.

Death Note and Godliness, or, Who's the Real God — Kira (Raito), or L Lawliet? A Cross-Linguistic Overview.

Shinigamis are sort of gods. They're Death Gods, and can't be killed.

Light is killed at some point. In the manga it's pretty saddening and like, dramatic. L also dies (:sadyeehaw:), but I still think he's the God in the story.

While others might give the canon and use quotes, I'm using my preferred method of, as you might've guessed from the title, linguistics. Now, i don't have Linguistics degree nor do I know Japanese, but for this article, i use Hebrew and English with simple Japanese to explain my theory of why L is God.

I shall start with the Japanese name, Eru. Eru is the Japanese pronunciation of the name of the letter L (ʔell→ʔeɾɯ̥). It is canonically translated in English to ell, and his symbol, L, is depicted in both manga and anime afaik.

If so, L's name is El, which, coincidentally, is the romanization of the Hebrew word אֵל (ʔel) , meaning God.

And so, L = El = אל = god.

Conclusion

In this article, I have attempted to prove, through linguistic comparison, how L is God. I find myself to be very correct and I hope you too. If not, it's okay, it's not like i can relate to it, idk what it's like to be a dumdum.

I hope you liked it and that it'll help y'all when in academia.

Yours,

Me.

¹ this article was written after exchanges with a colleague of mine with Linguistics degree who's watched Death Note, in which i have expressed how i believe L was God all along because of his name. I then proceeded to write this article and ignored her for more than an hour. Sorry sis, ily.

² lmaoo never written that article. Will do if somebody asked me to tho.

³ fig. 2 was edited by me on my phone with an outdated system, and i couldn't change the direction of the labels. Not ashamed to admit it is a Me problem.