Two Boys, One Post? Or Why Anime Light is Not The Same As Manga Light.

((This is casuistor again, reposting old meta from my old blog that tumblr keeps terminating because it can (??). Apologies for the reposts, this time the read mores should work)).

As there was some interest in an analysis comparing Light’s incarnations in the manga and the anime, and because I like having excuses to post pretty images and talking about Light in general, it really didn’t take much for me to decide this was a worthwhile use of time. I know what I like, dammit.

My personal opinion on the Death Note anime is that it’s overall a pretty decent adaptation of the manga, but obviously no adaptation can really be 100% faithful to its source material and I’ve observed that The anime does make some pretty subtle but significant changes to Light’s character. These changes don’t usually get discussed by the fandom, so hopefully this might get a conversation started! Light isn’t the only character whose personality gets changed after all. I’m going to focus on the differences between Pre-Kira Light in the anime and manga for inis post because this interests me the most. I might elaborate further on the rest of canon in the future, time permitting.

For the purpose of this post, I’m going to compare the manga and the anime from the perspective that they are standalone canons, ie. inferences drawn from the manga don’t necessarily carry over to the anime and vice versa. I don’t plan on talking about Relight (The OVAs) too much because, let’s face it, the OVAs aren’t even telling the same story anymore. I should also note that in discussing the anime, I’m referring specifically to Mamoru Miyano’s portrayal of Light as I haven’t watched the English dub.

Also! Before I go any further in this discussion, please note that this post will contain references to rape. I’ll repeat the warning as I get to that specific section.

With all that preamble aside, ONWARDS.

So before reading any of this, you may be thinking that manga-Light and anime-Light are fairly similar and they are at least superficially. Otherwise, their respective characterizations are quite different. This, unsurprisingly, gets established right from the beginning of both the anime and manga when you look at Pre-Kira Light.

See if you can spot the difference.

Here we have our first introduction to Light in the manga. I’ve said a lot about this panel in my analysis of manga-Light at the start of canon (here), but let’s recap the salient points as well as talk about visual cues. This is the panel that I’ve said establishes three very crucial points.

The art really captures this nicely by showing us the way in which Light is physically blocking out the rest of the class. The look on his face, too, is consistent with his internal monologue. He looks disengaged and unimpressed - bored, in other words. I made the comment that based on this panel alone, it’d be a pretty reasonable assumption to make that Light is a loner type character. The manga subverts this by showing us that Light actually tends to walk home with friends and is generally popular in school.

Contrast this to our first introduced to Light in the anime.

Well hello to you too, Light.

The anime introduces us to Light with this close up of his right eye. There are a bunch of things to discuss about this screencap. First, notice how there’s more than just boredom going on here. Of course, this is a largely subjective interpretation, but there’s a hint of festering resentment brewing here. He looks like he’s biding his time. It’s the pupil-less eye that’s causing this effect, and you’ll note that it’s not a visual cue present in the manga.

Actually, it’s more than just the pupil-less eye that makes Light look like a ticking time bomb here. Observe how his iris is reddish in hue. This is significant because the anime closely associates the color red with Light. Or more specifically with Kira-Light. So why is that cue present when Light is currently pre-Kira at this point in the anime? Good question. It’s a subtle nod to the fact that ‘Kira’ is something inherent in Light’s mentality. There’s something toxic going on in anime-Light’s mind, even prior to finding a death note, and because the anime chooses not to open with Light’s internal monologue, we have to examine the context more closely.

The view pans out and it turns out we’re actually being shown what is meant to be a typical day in Light’s English class. Like in the manga panel, people are clearly not paying attention and chattering amongst themselves, but there’s a key difference here and it’s, again, in Light’s expression.

It could not be more apparent that Light is disgusted with his classmates. You still haven’t heard a word of his own internal monologue yet, but the face he makes when he overhears his gossiping peers is unmistakably that of disdain. He isn’t even trying to mask his feelings. He detests these kids, he thinks their priorities are dumb - all again, pointing to how much he doesn’t relate to others.

But notice how there’s a subtle but crucial difference in attitudes here. Where manga-Light clearly doesn’t care what the others in his class are doing, anime-Light is watching and listening with utmost contempt. It isn’t apathy at play here, it’s more corrosive than that. Again, think back to that first close up of his eye. Both incarnations of Light obviously believe they’re smarter than the people around them, but it’s only anime-Light that gives off the distinctly misanthropic air. Even when his teacher calls on him to translate the text into Japanese, Light only does it after issuing an audible and audibly loud sigh.

“Fine. Make me get up then” may as well be the caption here given what we’ve seen of Light’s attitude.

Also, you’ll note that the anime has Light reading an excerpt from the bible - a not so subtle piece of foreshadowing of his eventual god complex. I’m going to stop here for a second to point something out. The anime really likes to emphasize certain traits of Light’s while downplaying others, and this is just one example of it. It really likes to push the idea that Light has a god complex. This particular message is additionally reinforced in the same scene by the fact that “Kyrie” (a Christian liturgy) is the track that’s playing in the background - which I found an interesting choice considering Light technically does have his own theme (cleverly entitled “Light’s theme” and is also free of religious overtone). that could have been used instead. The cumulative effect of these choices is, naturally, to couple religious themes with Light from the moment we lay eyes on him. Again, the anime wants you to see Light through a very specific lens.

But let’s contrast anime-Light’s feelings about his peers with manga-Light’s feelings on the same subject. I’ve discussed previously (ad nauseam) how manga-Light is incredibly bored due to is high intellect and that it’s his intellect that keeps him emotionally distanced from other people. But while he obviously doesn’t relate to most people, it’s clear he is quite a social person. Moreover, and this is a point I only skimmed the surface of in my Pre-Kira Light analysis, Light actually likes flaunting his own cleverness. He does this most obviously with Sayu and his mother in scenes like this:

does a similar kind of intellectual exhibitionism around his friends as well.

Ah yes, being pedantic. But you’ll note his friends aren’t annoyed by it. They’re impressed and they defer to Light! Of course, there’s absolutely no question that Light doesn’t think highly of his company’s intelligence, but they, at a minimum, know to be dazzled by his brilliance. This is a position that manga-Light derives some minor amusement from. Light accepts the company of his peers because he likes being on his pedestal. He’s the star that outshines the rest, and he’s quite okay with being admired.

Anime-Light doesn’t seem to share this trait at all. Remember, he just straight up shuns and judges his peers. In other words, it seems a lot like anime-Light doesn’t have quite as straightforward as relationship with his pedestal as manga-Light does. In fact, it almost seems more like an annoyance to him than anything else. Again, it’s a subtle point to pick up on, but look at how it completely alters Light’s characterization.

In any case, let’s keep going and discuss the rest of anime-Light’s first appearance. Shortly after this scene in class, we see him walking home.

Two points to make about this scene. First, it is a divergence from the manga. Manga-Light does not walk home alone; he walks home with two friends. The discrepancy here is superficially not a big deal, except that it dramatically changes how you approach profiling Light. While it is unquestionably true that Light doesn’t relate to his peers on any meaningful level, in the manga this is well masked and hidden from public view. The anime, however, chooses to make this a transparent, overt trait and the implications of this are markedly different. Manga-Light, for all intents and purposes, comes off like a relatively ordinary guy who jokes around with friends. Anime-Light IS the stereotypical loner character who shuns the company of other people. The anime even gives us a montage in Episode 3 to demonstrate exactly this point.

Here’s Light walking to school alone.

Here’s Light eating lunch at school by himself.

Here’s Light being too good to be a team player in a team sport.

Anime-Light well and truly physically distances himself from other people. It isn’t just emotional distance. None of these shots above are consistent with the friendly social mask manga-Light clearly puts on for the public.

So what? You could certainly make the argument that perhaps anime-Light is just more introverted than his manga counterpart, but that isn’t consistent with the contemptuous looks he gave his classmates. It’s misanthropy that keeps him uninterested in interacting with others. It’s for this reason that his parents’ apparent obliviousness to Light’s state of mind is especially concerning in the anime because the signs that all is not well are much more prominent.

But notice also that the dark expression Light wears when he’s surrounded by people he interacts with immediately metamorphoses into something else the second he’s not expected to engage with anyone. And just in case his expression wasn’t clear enough, the anime even zooms in on Light’s eyes. It wants you to pick up on this.

This is not the face of someone who is just jaded and bored. I don’t often say things like this, but there is no other way to describe Light’s expression here. He looks profoundly depressed. Excuse the somewhat inevitable pun here, but there’s no light in his eyes. They’re dull and lack any joie d'vivre. Also, notice how his irises have completely lost that red color that we saw when he was surrounded by his classmates? This is a subtle but dramatic change and it’s interesting that the unsettling red-eye cue disappears when he’s brooding alone. In other words, this emptiness is how anime-Light really feels underneath all of his facades and masks.

So what is Light even thinking about? The anime provides some context in the form of the background narrative. As Light walks home through Shibuya, a news report announces the murders of two people: a man from the Kanagawa prefecture and a woman from Shibuya. And then finally, we get to hear anime-Light’s internal monologue in reaction to that news.

”毎日毎日　同じことの繰り返し。この世は腐っている.“ (mainichi mainichi onaji koto no kurikaeshi. kono yo wa kusatteiru. trans: Day after day, it’s the same thing over and over. This world is rotten.)

Monotony, human filth, crime - in other words are the reasons why anime-Light thinks the world is rotting. But the reason for that emptiness I’ve highlighted is more than likely the futility of it all. The fact that Light is powerless to change reality is deeply upsetting to him. He feels impotent and aimless.

It’s a sentiment that would resonate quite well with manga-Light, but it’s only anime-Light that is overtly depicted as being the misanthropic, dead-on-the-inside loner. You’ll recall that I pointed out that in class, anime-Light looked like he was biding his time while wading in a sea of mediocrity? This is not a characterization point that can be extrapolated from the manga panels we see that feature a pre-Kira Light. Instead manga-Light, I’ve argued, has a predominant emotional landscape of apathy. He’s detached and certainly disillusioned but the narrative itself does not portray him as being a depressed and resentful boy. That is purely an interpretative choice that the anime choses to make of Light’s character.

Anime-Light, in other words, is established early on as something of a broken figure. Underneath his apparent perfection, there’s a kid who is beating his head in powerless frustration against the walls of his metaphorical cage.

This basically sets up the way the anime frames the narrative. In the anime, the death note is depicted as a magic bullet that fixes Light’s outlooks by giving him the power the create change in the world. Contrast this to the manga which tells the story of a boy whose life is utterly destroyed by the note.

In case you think I’m exaggerating, take a look at this moment in which anime-Light first picks up the death note.

It’s a very subtle cue, but look at Light’s eyes. Look how his eyes have literally brightened in vague amusement the second he reads the cover on the note. The dead-eyeing from earlier has vanished completely. Of course, manga-Light has a similar sort of reaction to seeing the note. Observe:

But given the amount of effort the anime specifically spends to show us exactly how dead on the inside anime-Light is, this casual sign of life is a notable change in his usual demeanor. Manga-Light, on the other hand, does a lot of light-hearted joking around - it’s not unusual to see him smiling in public.

Interestingly, there’s a small difference between the manga and anime that happens at this point. Anime-Light puts the note back down after denouncing it as utterly pointless. He’s above the kind of stupidity his classmates might be susceptible to. And most importantly?

Obviously a screencap can’t convey the tone in which a line is delivered, but Light is dead serious when he’s thinking about the note. (Also, look at the way these two girls are fawning over Light who just completely ignores the fact that they exist, and is walking around school without any sign of having friends).

Manga-Light thinks the note is hilarious. He actually looks at the thing with a sense of humor right away. Anime-Light cracks a vague smile, then not so much. He does double back to grab the note, though.

Another interesting difference to note is the way manga-Light is actually talking out loud when he’s chattering about the death note. It isn’t part of his internal monologue because it isn’t a secret. Anime-Light on the other hand examines the note and his thoughts stay internalized.

This is a subtle, but interesting difference (at least in my opinion) because naturally, what a person chooses to physically say out loud and keep within the privacy of their own thoughts says a considerable amount about them as people. I’ll highlight this point with another example.

Both Lights end up taking their death notes home, and then they sit down at their desks to read over the rules. Cue yet another weirdly sinister difference, and it’s in this scene below.

Anime-Light’s first sign of finding the note genuinely amusing happens when he picks up on this potential application of the note.

Taking into context anime-Light’s misanthropy, already eyebrow raising humor like this becomes even more alarming. Think back to all those classmates anime-Light is disgusted with. You can very easily picture a list of people anime-Light would consider toying with.

But if that weren’t weird enough, anime-Light has this inexplicable need to say this particular thought out loud. He’s within the privacy of his own room, of course, but it strikes me as unusual that he reads all of the rules in silence, and then feels the need to physically announce that he could theoretically make someone suffer.

Contrast this with manga-Light.

You’ll note that manga-Light keeps the same thought to himself. His dark humor (because that’s what it is) is for his own amusement alone and stays private and separated from the casual sense of humor that he would verbalize and share with the world. This is a distinction that isn’t present with anime-Light.

In any case, moving away from subtleties, let’s go back to a more global picture. At this point, neither the anime nor the manga have gone into what Light’s moral compass is. Even so, you have a distinct intuitive sense of knowing exactly who anime-Light wouldn’t mind testing the note on before he makes the decision to try the note. Manga-Light’s potential victim pool isn’t as clear yet which is why the manga elaborates on his thinking process in the flashback scene.

In the interest of not screencapping that entire scene, I’ll summarize. In the manga, Light outlines a process by which he thinks it would be best to test the note on someone whose life would not be missed by society and whose death could be readily confirmed. It’s at this point that he decides to turn to the news.

The anime never goes into how Light chooses a victim. In fact, he just turns on the TV and conveniently spots Kurou Otoharada’s name and picture on the news. Not only does that make anime-Light seem extremely capricious and random in his choice of victim, Light goes onto say this:

Original Japanese line is “まあ、当たり前か” (“Maa, atarimae ka” Trans: Well, just as expected, huh.)

At first glance that doesn’t sound too off, but the tone of Light’s voice here when he delivers the line suggests that he’s vaguely disappointed by the outcome that nobody died after all. When you take into account that Light’s whole purpose in writing a name into the note was to prove the note was just a dumb joke, that again leads to raised eyebrows.

After Kurou Otoharada does die, however and both anime and manga Light react identically with shock and horror. Both of them are forced to go to cram school and are both frantic to test the death note again. There aren’t any significant divergences here, except at the point where Light decides to test the note on a second person. This is where I have to put up a warning as the following section will mention rape.

As manga-Light walks into a convenience store, he passes this scene as it unfolds.

He spots this poor woman minding her own business getting sexually harassed by a group of thugs. It’s gross, and Light just stops to stare for a moment and walks right on by.

There’s obviously more going on than indifference. Few people, if anyone really, will pick fights with thugs when outnumbered. In any case, Light does rationalize walking away on the grounds that testing the note on Shibuimaru is not doing nothing. If it works, then he’s done the woman a favor and if it doesn’t, well, that’s a problem he’ll deal with then. But notice this curious line that Light says later in canon.

As disgusting as it is, sexual harassment isn’t a crime that deserves death as punishment. As he clearly didn’t think Takuo Shibuimaru deserved to die, the obvious inference to draw is that Light well and truly didn’t expect the note to work- and didn’twant the note to work either. In other words, if all went according to plan, the note was meant to fail. But note that the situation was such that even if the note did fail, the situation was still salvageable.

Now take a look at what the anime does because it’s about a thousand times more disturbing.

This is the Bad Outcome situation that could have happened in the manga happening right in front of Light’s eyes and all he does is stand there waiting to see if the death note will work or not, even while the woman is literally screaming for help. It’s one thing to play bystander to sexual harassment, but it’s an entirely different thing to play bystander to rape. And recall, if things go according to plan, the death note is not supposed to work. You can see that this is his expectation from his shock over the fact that the note does kill Shibuimaru. Remember, if the note works, Light would be a murderer. This is not a happy prospect.

This is not the face of someone who is thrilled about having killed people.

But that attitude raises some pretty concerning questions. One wonders what exactly anime-Light was planning on doing about that situation if the death note didn’t work. Was he just going to stand there and watch as this woman was sexually assaulted? Did he even have a plan?

Perhaps the anime was trying to make Light’s actions here seem more reasonable by having him kill a rapist rather than a random creep in this scene, but it achieves the opposite effect since Light does not necessarily want Shibuimaru to die because that would make him a murderer. These are the things that make pre-Kira anime-Light come off distinctly off in a way that pre-Kira Light in the manga does not.

Unsurprisingly, anime-Light adopts a god complex based rhetoric much faster than manga-Light. Just look at his monologue as he stumbles away from the scene in horror. In the interest of not capping the scene line by line, here’s a transcript of his monologue.

”殺してしまった。二人も。この僕が。命だ。軽いはずがない。僕にかってに人裁き権利があるのか？　いいえ。違う。いつも思ってでことじゃないか？　　世の中腐っている。腐ってる奴ら輪死んだ方がいい。”

”I killed them. I killed two of them. It’s life. The consequences of this can’t be light. Do I really have the right to pass judgment on people? No, this is how I’ve always felt, isn’t it? This world is rotten. It should be good that rotten people die.“

Anime-Light isn’t done monologuing here, but I want to contrast this with manga-Light because this already illustrates an interesting point.

Notice something? It literally never crosses anime-Light’s mind to throw the note away. Almost immediately after killing people, anime-Light’s instinct is to question whether he has the right to judge people or not. He is horrified by the fact that he has killed people on the basis that they are still human lives, but the way he immediately frames it euphemistically as ”judgment" is striking and alarming. But it makes sense for anime-Light to think that way doesn’t it? He’s always kept himself at a distance from those he perceives as being beneath him and very clearly feels superior to most people. Judgment is what he does, day in and day out - at least in his head.

There’s zero question in anime-Light’s mind that what he did was correct from a moral standpoint. This is probably due to the fact that, yes, it is much easier to forgive yourself for accidentally offing an actual rapist rather than some sleazy dude. So in the end, anime-Light does not think of the notebook as an evil thing at all; he sees it as something he is entitled to have and use. Y'know, to pass more of that judgment he’s so good at.

Of course manga-Light comes to share this perspective as well, but the mentality seems to come near instantaneously with anime-Light. Unlike manga-Light, anime-Light does not have to work very hard to convince himself that he should use the note to murder. In fact, he doesn’t seem to have a problem with it at all.

Of course, to suggest that anime-Light doesn’t struggle period would be a mistake.

He, too, uses martyr complex rhetoric to ease him into his new role in the world. But you’ll note he stops needing that rhetoric as justification very quickly.

While we know that manga-Light spent five days dropping weight, losing sleep and generally losing his mind in his room before Ryuk shows up in the human world, we can infer that this was not the case for anime-Light. See below:

The two scenes are meant to correspond to one another, but notice how these expressions are not at all equivalent. Manga-Light is clearly stressed the hell out about his life while anime-Light is pretty relaxed. He’s grinning here and it’s the happiest we’ve seen him in all of canon so far. When anime-Light tells Sachiko, “I already have everything I need,” he seems to genuinely mean that. There’s absolutely no evidence whatsoever that killing people has taken a serious hit on his mental well being.

Why? Think back to how frustrated and depressed anime-Light seemed at the beginning of canon. Remember what I said about anime-Light treating the death note differently than manga-Light This is exactly what’s in play here. Anime-Light finally has the power he’s wanted all this time to make things better. Just look at his face when he’s looking at the note.

If that isn’t an “I love you” face, I don’t know what is.

Anime-Light is unambiguously pleased. He is thrilled to be doing what he’s doing. To drive that point home, his laughter in the anime is also qualitatively different from the nervous, shaky laughter Light bursts into in the manga. His laughter is self-congratulatory and smug. He gets to judge the scourge of humanity from his bedroom. He no longer feels powerless as he once did. The conclusion we are left to draw, then, is that anime-Light has absolutely no compunction with murdering over that time period. Also, note that red hue in his eye along with how much life is in them. That miserable looking kid walking home? Completely gone. The death note has, for all intents and purposes, “cured” him. Light may not have said it out loud at this point of the anime yet, but he absolutely has a god complex. He’s high with power.

Contrast this with the troubled look Light gives the note in the manga.

This is not an “I love you” face. This isn’t even the face of someone who seems remotely pleased. He’s sweating and looks to be on edge. Manga-Light is conflicted and troubled by his actions. He has not managed to reconcile his actions and beliefs at this point.There is a genuine conflict here between what he knows is right and what he has convinced himself that he must do for the betterment of society. He takes no pleasure in needing to be the martyr - it’s a burden and a responsibility that he has to carry out at the expense of his own health. In other words, it’s nothing to laugh about.

While it’s obviously true that manga-Light, too, develops a god complex, it’s much more gradual in the manga and is catalyzed by Ryuk’s arrival The anime completely glosses over the gradation. The net result of this is that anime-Light comes off as distinctly less complex and less layered than his manga counterpart and appears to be driven largely by the desire for power.

Truth be told, I fully suspect that the anime is why so many people have misconceptions over why Light does what he does because when anime-Light delivers this line….

….it’s actually believable. Because we don’t see him struggling to come to terms with his actions. We go straight into overly dramatic name writing scenes with Latin chanting playing in the background for ambience.

In short then, the two iterations of Light Yagami are fundamentally different in their psychological make up. To use a glass analogy, at the start of canon, manga-Light is a perfect sheet of glass that shatters into pieces once he finds the death note. Anime-Light however, is characterized as broken fragments at the start of canon that are put back together when he finds the death note. This difference is even highlighted by the titles.The manga’s first chapter is entitled “Boredom,” Boredom is what compels Light to write in the note initially and boredom is what destroys Light’s personal mythos.

In contrast the first episode of the anime is called “Rebirth.” From the chaos that the death note introduces into Light’s life, we have a metaphorical rebirth. The glass fragments stitch back together to re-create an imperfect but unbroken sheet of glass as Light discovers his true purpose and embarks on his destiny.

Subtle, as I said, but fascinating.

On a final note, I would like to make the comment that while I do personally find anime-Light raises more concern as a character than manga-Light, it’s just that. As I suspect the term “sociopath” will come up in discussion I wanted to clarify that I don’t think either version of Light Yagami is a sociopath. Sociopaths have very specific neurocognitive differences in both the frontal and medial temporal lobes of the brain that cause an impaired capacity for long term planning and an absent capacity for certain emotions such as empathy, fear and guilt. While I certainly agree that Light is not overflowing with empathy or guilt, I think it’s a huge stretch to say that he is literally incapable of feeling those emotions and I don’t see canon evidence to support it in either the anime or the manga. You don’t have to be a sociopath in order to be messed up, in the end.

Also just to clarify,I don’t mean any of this disparagingly. I think Anime-Light, viewed as his own character, is actually quite enjoyable and ought to be appreciated as well.

Thanks for reading this all the way through if you’re still here, guys! As always, feel free to send me asks if you have any questions or would like to discuss what I’ve outlined in this analysis. Special thanks goes to @mikami for her feedback on this <3