At it’s core, Death Note is a pretty traditional lamentation of a story, covering messages
that have been covered before and will be covered in the future ad infinitum.
But what matters just as much, or even more than the ideas covered by a story is how it
presents them, and the strength and hook of this series is how it conveys these messages
in such an interesting and powerful way.
In particular, one of the things that helps it distinguish itself is the addition of the
supernatural element - the Shinigami, grim reapers in the indolent purgatory of their
own realm, who write down the names of humans in their notebooks to end their lives, and
as a result, extend their own lifespan.
Shinigami are detached onlookers, sleepwalking through their lives with a sigh, doing whatever
they can to pass the time in this mundane place.
And the most important Shinigami in the story, Ryuk, dials that up to 11 - he is the most
bored, the most disillusioned with existence.
And in the beginning, he’s desperately looking for something to excite him and break him
out of this funk.
Some sort of diversion.
Ryuk is sort of like a passive version of a jester in this story.
He’s a bonafide hedonist - while he doesn’t need sustenance, he’s hooked on apples like
a junkie.
And while he doesn’t NEED entertainment, he latches on to Light Yagami in the hopes
that the latter will use the Death Note to provide him with some.
He’s a witness to events - sometimes partaking when it suits him or when things get interesting,
questioning Light, observing others, and most of all just having fun with this whole spectacle.
And that is the key here - it’s all spectacle.
While there is an amount of respect there, there is zero proper emotional investment
for Ryuk - he joined Light because he had nothing better to do, and determined that
he would leave once Light’s life was finished and the excitement was over.
That was their deal of sorts, and it never stopped being entirely transactional.
What better way to spend meaningless time than to watch the attempts of someone possessed
by powerlust trying to change the world?
But there was absolutely no sentiment involved here.
This detached nature and his increased lifespan help show us one of the symbolic and thematic
roles of Ryuk and the Shinigami as a concept, and how all of this comments upon the primary
ideas of the story.
I’ve said before that Death Note is an intriguingly energized tragedy of sorts; a rollercoaster
of a psychological thriller that grips the audience and doesn’t lets go until the very
end, but one that effectively contrasts that style with a deep profoundity when it comes
to the themes on display which is often felt in the moments of quiet contrast.
This story is all about the seemingly neverending and cyclical nature of power struggles, about
how the human ego is a bottomless pit that is often left unsatisfied no matter what happens,
about hubris and repetitious history and how humans will probably never stop fighting one
another due in part to this inner darkness.
It’s a somber sort of message saying something totally grand that sprawls outwards from the
timespan of the story, commenting upon the past and future and how humans will repeat
this - over and over and over.
It’s quite a sad concept, and through the nature of the Shinigami, and in particular,
the role of Ryuk, this is powered home.
It’s mentioned in the story that Shinigami don’t really have any purpose and continuously
write human’s names in their Death Notes to prolong their lives simply because they’re
afraid of death.
And in this sense, they mirror humans in a way - driven to commit actions with no real
end goal in sight due to fear.
While those in the human world cling on to power and pride to prevent relinquishing the
control they crave in whatever aspect of life that may apply to, those in the Shinigami
world simply dwindle the days away on repeat because they’re scared of losing what little
THEY have.
And ultimately, these instinctual impulses don’t end up benefitting either side, not
really.
But apart from narrative symmetry, it makes sense that there is this overlap between humans
and Shinigami, this innate drive to maintain authority.
There are some Shinigami that never enter the human realm, but those who do are keyed
into the true nature of the place.
And even those who never glimpse it are able to infer things through the ceaseless influx
of deaths.
They’ve been around for so incredibly long that the few years that Death Note takes place
in are presented as but a tiny pinprick of time in the vast expanse that was Ryuk’s
life.
And while he does frequently find joy in the humans in the story and find them interesting,
this is all an outlier from the normally dull human world.
Ryuk would later reflect on this time and conclude that their world was no more exciting
than his own.. with the exception of the events surrounding one man.
And as such, these years were nothing but a tiny diversion to save him from mundanity.
And once they were finished, he returned, as he always planned to do.
All of these elements combined make the striking scene of a silheoutted Ryuk at the end - chronicling
the life and death, the rise and fall of Light Yagami - the most powerful image in Death
Note for me.
It’s an encapsulation of these cyclical power struggles - in human history, at any
point in time, there will always be a rise, always be a fall, and it will all repeat itself
again.
All of the human characters in the story were deeply affected by everything that happened
- understandably so, as so many of them died and were deeply betrayed.
But in the eyes of a Shinigami, it was just another bout of spectacle.
While this was the greatest bit of excitement to make a stir in the Shinigami realm for
quite some time, it’s not like it was anything totally new or different when it came to humans.
Shinigami have seen or known this type of thing to happen so many times before.
Maybe not quite to the level of insanity shown in the story, but regardless, time is a flat
circle.
They’ve bore witness to the atrocities of man, of all of the tragic and exciting and
brutal sides of humanity, seen so many outcomes of death and taken note of them all, so much
that while a foolish soul initially set on changing the world may be fun to witness for
a few years, nothing truly stirs them anymore.
The story of Kira is obviously a contextually remarkable one, yet even that didn’t move
the cold Shinigami any more than a pretty decent comedy sitcom would.
This has all happened before, and it will all happen again, and the Shinigami will be
ever-present, constantly recording this, doomed to tedium and monotony.
Looking upon this sad world with a bored sigh as the humans repeat the mistakes that lead
them to destruction again and again, never learning a damn thing.
Nothing has ever changed, and nothing will.
And that’s why these reapers are living in an existential purgatory that never properly
excites.
The only one who was deeply emotionally invested, Rem, lived somewhat similar to how a human
would and was destroyed.
And the rest simply don’t care because they’ve either seen it all, heard about it, or are
disinterested in what they view as repetitive, petty squabbles.
Through everything about these Shinigami, we see what Death Note is saying - that there
is a seemingly unavoidable penchant for power and pride in humans that consistently leads
to conflict and destruction.
That that lust for power is unquenchable, and from the ashes of that downfall.. a new
conflict wil arise once the dust settles.
It’s like the story, through these creatures, is putting an arm around our shoulder and
wryly pointing out what sad idiots these people are.
The story of Kira was indeed spectacular, profound and bombastic, but in the grand scheme
of things, it was all just a drop in the ocean.
Just another entry in the book - An insignificance that would return back to the status quo for
the next rise and fall to take it’s place.
And that, the fact that these events were.. entertaining and notable, but nothing new..
that in itself is one of the most sobering things one can imagine, and it is a big part
of the reason that I’ll never stop viewing Death Note as a tragedy and indictment.
Many thanks for watching.