#dn analysis

i came to rewatch death note not long ago, and going on forums and tumblr, people pointed out that, for some reason, light is wearing a red-ish butterfly belt in the first opening of the anime, and of course i first found it hilarious because that’s such a fashion faux-pas, but i also found it quite interesting and since i could not find any explanation for it, i decided to dig (a little) and come up with my own, though very influenced by western/christian culture more than japanese/shintoist culture (which still have a MASSIVE role in death note, esp in how light comes to see himself as a god).

so, this is the shot in question:

matter of factly, this picture can be described as light, progressing towards the light, wearing a blue pair of jeans, a white t-shirt, and a red butterfly belt.

now obviously, the light symbolizes righteousness, heaven (christian), wisdom, good, etc. in my opinion, the rest of his clothing does not hold that much meaning, except perhaps the colors, blue for eternity and white for purity, which would make the picture a representation of his path towards shintoist!godhood, which is obtained through leadership, good deeds, etc (人神（ひとがみ)

now as for the belt, i found it a bit more interesting. the belt HAS to have a purpose to be so blatant and that people took the time to actually draw it and integrate it, more than “fashion”, because light yagami would actually never wear that. 

while doing researches on belt in history and in the arts, i mostly came upon blogs focusing on biblical and western symbolism. there were many, but the most prevalent were always the same: a symbol of authority, protection, strength, chastity, obedience, connection. as for butterflies, they are mostly a symbol of death, hope, change/transformation. red is of course a passionate color, representing courage, vigor, vibrance, radiance, and determination, but can represent danger, wrath, anger as well.

thus, for me, this belt can represent a lot of things in the death note universe:

- foreshadowing light’s ultimate defeat at the very end of the anime, which would make the butterfly a symbol of death, red danger and the belt the connection and the end. the light towards which he walks represents the afterlife, then. 

- as kira, he acts as the bringer of death (’killer’) represented by the butterfly, with a passion (red color) for justice (red color, as seen on tarot cards), and the belt is there to be a reminder that to be a god (to advance, reach the light), he has to “obey” a great destiny. the belt is religiously a symbol of destiny and of playing a role in a greater cause than oneself. light does have grand goals, and is active in the destiny he forged for himself.

- during his ascension to godhood through the killings of criminals to achieve his “new world”, light sees (and acts in a certain measure) as a “protector”. in ep2, he says so himself: “those who have nothing on their conscious are free and protected”. the belt would represent protection and security, from dangers (red), through death (butterfly) and bringing hope (butterfly) to innocent people (kira worshippers mostly).

- if he achieves his new world (the butterfly a symbol of transition), light achieves godhood, and through his type of shintoist godhood, determined by good governing, a figure of authority and strength.

-  lastly, as a symbol of chastity, it shows light’s “pure” morality and intentions. light keeps a moral line and draws himself certain limits (such as no killing his family), and in an attempt to rationalize his first two murders, he classifies them as “justice” which to him equals “righteousness”. with ryuk coming to be entertained and kira worshippers relaying on him, he continues to kill and to rationalize everything under “justice” and “morally good”. the butterfly on his belt is silvery, white, which also conveys the idea of “pure” and “chaste”. the red would be the courage it took for him to act as he did (”i was the only one who could do it”), as well as a thematic color for light/kira. 

Empathetic, wise, beautiful, idealist, imaginative, creative.

Hiya~

I just read the first volume of Platinum End, and I was struck with how different the protagonists of Death Note and Platinum End were. But the similarities also gave me pause that I just had to talk about it!

Platinum End are made by the same people who made Death Note by the way so~

I'll only be using the first two chapters of both manga at the most as references. I don't want you guys to get spoiled after all~

Heck, by the end of this, the protagonist of Platinum End might make an appearance in my DN fic since he grabbed my attention so easily.

~~~SPOILERS AHEAD OF FIRST TWO CHAPTERS!!~~~

Meet Mirai Kakehashi. A boy burdened with years of abuse from his aunt and uncle that he decided he wanted to die.

An angel, as you can see, stops him from dying and offers him power that basically make him GOD. Anyone would love to have wings right? Wings are the key to freedom. *nudge*nudge*to DN fans who know who wanted wings*

Not only wings, the power to make someone fall in love with you in a period of time. That can make Mirai want to live now right?

WRONG.

He can care less about BOTH of these powers, he just wants to die. That's all. He's happy to die and that's that. His life has been horrible, and at the chance of flying away from his problems or trying to find love, he doesn't take it.

Those two things won't help him be happy.

DYING WOULD.

Everything about living, he does not find pleasure in it. His whole life has been pain, constantly. He doesn't care about these powers, nor does he care that he's an actual SMART kid for a middle schooler.

Despite that, he says there's no hope for him. No future.

It's just so interesting...understandable but interesting.

"Humans are so interesting."-Ryuk

Despite his initial refusal, he said yes as a joke to probably make the angel stop joking and go away, only to actually get BOTH of the powers instead of just one of them.

Later, he finds out the truth about his aunt and uncle's wicked ways by using the Arrow Of Love, the one that makes a person fall in love with you and willing to do anything for you. He accidentally wishes the aunt to die and his reaction-

Pure HORROR. Which makes sense of course*waves hands carelessly* ANYBODY would be horrified that they just commanded someone to die, while seeing it happen in front of them no less.

He feels disgusted with himself as well as the angel that she's taking it all in stride with a smile. Saying his aunt deserved it and she should kill his uncle too.

Mirai didn't like it, he was bewildered that an angel would speak of death so casually and that she seems to WANT him to kill, under the farce that the angel just wants him to be happy.

Mirai though, does not wish to be happy by using his powers. He wants NORMAL happiness, not happiness that he has to get by killing and lying and using others with the Arrow of Love.

He still states this after the angel says he's one of 13 people able to become GOD. He has the power to become the New God of the World by competing with the others, and he doesn't WANT IT.

He does not wish to compete at all to become the New God, he just wishes to be happy. He even states repeatedly for the angel to take back the powers, not interested in having them.

He got chosen apparently BECAUSE of his lack of happiness and hopelessness. CHOSEN. SPECIFICALLY.

Because he was unhappy. Like...what?

While the other candidates probably got chosen because they wanted to change the world or something since that's also a viable option to become God.

Despite this, it seems he's going to try to leave peacefully until the other candidates decide to speed things up...and doing their own wicked dark ways to become God.

Even if Mirai wishes simply to be 'happy', to live, he's going to have to use that smart brain of his to stay alive.

But that's just a theory~ Next post will be my observations about Light~ ^.^

Let me just start by saying, this is not an in depth analysis of Death Note, nor is it some crazy theory. Really this is just something I noticed about viewers of Death Note who I personally know.

And let me tell you something I noticed about how viewers perceived the show, their social class did seem to take a large part of how they perceived Light and his quest to become the “God of the New World”

Okay, let me just state this. Light and I grew up in the same social class. We both grew up in higher middle class, healthy households. Despite all this, I disagreed with Light the moment he chose to use the Death Note after his first victim died. I was very strongly on L’s side from before he even appeared!

Provided, I ended up making all my friends watch it, and two in particular really helped me bring light to the realization how much a persons upbringing affected their stance on Death Note.

The first person I showed the show to was my best friend. She grew up in a broken working class family. Upon watching the show, she initially agreed with what Light was doing. Cheering him on to kill all the criminals. It was only when Light killed Raye did she change sides and began to cheer on L.

The second person I showed the show to was, like me, someone from the higher middle class. Much like me, she very quickly began to route for L to bring down Light, but that want until the very end of the first episode she she disagree with Light’s actions.  She disagreed with everyone Light killed accept for one. Takuo Shibuimaru.

For those who don’t remember his name since it was so passing. In the anime he is Light’s second victim, who was very clearly attempting a rape a woman.

When I asked about why she didn’t think Light was wrong to kill him, she simply said he was the only one who deserved to die. From this I concluded two things.

1. Those who’ve grown up in lower classes, and have seen more shit then anyone should, more often then not, seemed to agree with Light’s actions. They supported the death’s or criminals, because they have seem the true injustice of the world. Really, of all my friends to watch it, higher classes tented to frown more on Light’s actions then those from lower classes. Does this mean that the lower classes are more violent? Not at all. What I’m trying to say is that due to shelter upbringings, higher classes tend to have more black and white morals then those from lower classes.

2. I noticed that the only time really someone from the upper middle class/high class really agreed with Light’s actions was when they saw the violent nature of the crime themselves. It is easier to simply hear about crimes rather then to watch it. Provided, had my friend grown up seeing such violent crime, I think it was have taken her much longer then one episode to change over to L’s side, if she did show at all.