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"Mature Content Warning!"
‎This article contains some content involving a mature subject or situation which may not be suitable for younger viewers. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page, and if you’re underage, click off this page and find an another one.

NOTE: This page only covers information about the anime version of Light Yagami as his original manga and 2006 live action film series counterparts were voted Pure Evil, and thus, only the anime version of Light Yagami's crimes should be put here.


This world is rotten, and those who are making it rot deserve to die. Someone has to do it, so why not me? Even if it means sacrificing my own mind and soul, it's worth it. Because the world… can't go on like this. I wonder… what if someone else had picked up this notebook? Is there anyone out there other than me who'd be willing to eliminate the vermin from the world? If I don't do it, then who will? That's just it: there's no one. But I can do it. In fact, I'm the only one who can. I'll do it. Using the Death Note, I'll change the world.
~ Light Yagami explaining his goals.
L: Tell me, Light, from the moment you were born, has there ever been a point when you've actually told the truth?
Light: ...What are you saying? ...Certainly I lie every once in a while, but surely no one can be truthful throughout their entire life? People aren't that perfect. Everyone lies. But, even so, I've made a point of not telling lies that will hurt others. That's my answer.
~ L questioning Light after Light said most of L's words are lies.

Light Yagami, also reputed as Kira or God, is the main protagonist of the anime adaptation of the Death Note manga series.

He is a brilliant minded-student who finds a notebook called the Death Note, dropped to Earth by the Shinigami Ryuk. Anyone whose name is written in this notebook will die. At first skeptical of its power, Light tested its power on two criminals. After realizing the power of the notebook, Light went mad with power as he decided to use the notebook to rid the world of criminals and create a new world full of law abiding people he accepts. Light would then make himself the God of this new world.

The series charts his use of the notebook and his conflict with the Japanese police, including detectives L Lawliet, Mello, and Near, as well as his associations with other notebook users, such as Misa Amane and Teru Mikami. His online followers dubbed him "Kira", a Japanese pronunciation of the word "killer" in English.

He is voiced by Mamoru Miyano, who also voiced Doma in Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba in Japanese and Brad Swaile in English.

His Evil Ranking[]

What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]

In General[]

  • Though one could argue that his actions did manage to decrease crime and temporarily end wars, and that his ultimate goal was to eliminate everything rotten in the world to create a better world, his initial good intentions eventually warp into a lust for power to be worshipped by everyone as Kira, the god of the new world, to the point that he actually viewed himself as a god. He viewed himself as justice, scoffing at Ryuk's suggestion that he'd be the only criminal left if Light succeeded in his goals, and him killing Lind L Tailor for merely being called evil shows both his delusion and God complex as early as the second episode.
  • His method is flawed when using judgement, an example is when he proved his powers to Raye Penber by killing a man charged with sexual assaults, when Light said it himself that the evidence wasn't strong enough to confirm he was a rapist, meaning he could have murdered someone who never did any sexual abuse.
  • While his personality during his amnesiac period suggests that the Death Note has a corrupting influence over those who use it, there's no evidence that this is actually true, and it’s likely just the power of killing people itself that corrupts Light rather than the notebook itself.
    • And even if it was the notebook which corrupted him, Light's behavior is still unique among Death Note users, as according to Ryuk, while Light was not the first human to use a Death Note, he was the first to have written as many names as he did. Though this could be due to the internet making information accessible from anywhere in the world, Light's declaration during his first meeting with Ryuk of his intention to become God of a new world paints him outside the scope of what Near considers normal human reactions to the Death Note.
  • Though Light did show genuine care for his family (such as helping Sayu with her homework or her errands) his care for his family is eventually subverted:
    • When Sayu, his younger sister, was taken hostage by Mello, Mello demanded a ransom payment in the form of the Death Note. During the ransom exchange, Light considered writing Sayu's name - his own sister - in the Death Note to prevent his father from handing over the Death Note to Mello. Although Light didn't go through with it, it was revealed he didn't only because killing her would've raised suspicion towards himself. Contrasting the manga version, who seemed very reluctant to do so, he accepts that he may have to kill her after only a tense moment in the bathroom, disturbing even Misa. While he still seemed very reluctant to do so, he ultimately likely would've gone through with the action had it not put him under suspicion.
      • However, Light did kill Kanichi Takimura, who was kidnapped before Sayu, immediately and without consideration, which may suggest he harbored a bit of care for his sister.
      • Following Sayu's kidnapping, Light was not shown to comfort or check up on her even after she appeared in a state of shock from the trauma.
    • Early in the anime, Soichiro gets a heart attack due to the stress of the Kira case. Though Light and L do visit Soichiro at the hospital and Light is sincerely concerned, Light's thoughts and inner monologue also suggest he was prioritizing protecting his alibi above all else.
    • When his father was on the verge of death, he prioritized getting Mello's name from him over saying goodbye, and although he cried during his death - with Word of God confirming his tears were indeed genuine - he would definitively subvert it when he states his father was ‘made to be a fool’ in the finale.
    • In an exclusive scene, his mother, Sachiko Yagami, was shown falling into depression upon seeing Soichiro's ashes without Light present to comfort her. This scene, coupled with the fact that Light was never seen in the anime visiting his family after his father's death, emphasizes Light prioritizing his own goals as Kira over his family's emotional well-being
  • While he does have several comedic moments, such like his hammy facial expression, his crazy laugh and his final villainous breakdown, all of them only empathize how over-the-top narcissistic he is and do not detract him from his heinousness.

Part I[]

  • Using the Death Note, he killed many criminals, sometimes in painful ways, and unlike the manga where he was guilt-ridden over first using the notebook, he didn't show much of this in the anime.
  • He killed death row convict Lind L. Tailor (who he thought was L) when he threatened to capture Kira and then called him evil. Many see this as Light's first act of pettiness and the start of his descent into madness. Though Lind was indeed a criminal, Light wasn't aware of this at the time, and many see Light's primary reason for killing Lind was being called evil as opposed to Lind threatening to capture him.
  • He compels Kiichiro Osoreda to hijack a bus so he can learn Raye Penber's name which puts everyone on the bus in a traumatic situation even if they weren't at risk of significant harm.
  • He murdered the FBI agents recruited to investigate the Japanese police force by tricking Raye Penber into writing the names of his colleagues on pages from the Death Note, and later murdered Naomi Misora to stop her from revealing how Light figured out Raye Penber's name.
  • He mockingly asked Naomi Misora if she wanted his phone number to contact him, even though she'd already been sentenced to her death by the Death Note (While you could argue that he just did this to make sure that the name had worked, Light's slight grin and tone of voice suggest his enjoyment of this).
  • He psychologically manipulated and abused Misa Amane through her undying love for and loyalty to Kira, constantly feigning affection and using her love to make her submit to him. He even went out of his way to yell at her for simply questioning his orders during a mission and knocked a drink she offered him out of her hand.
  • He passed the notebook to an unsavory business executive to establish an alibi for being Kira, in the process tricking his amnesiac self into searching out the notebook through the executive's notebook-induced murders.
  • He then secretly killed Kyosuke Higuchi (although he deserved it) after he got his memories back and became Kira again by touching the Death Note, smiling at his death.
    • He also murdered the rest of the Yotsuba Group after the Yotsuba Kira was arrested, as well as two ex-convicts who L recruited to help investigate Yotsuba.
  • He manipulated Rem into forfeiting her own life by killing L by exploiting her love for Misa Amane.
  • Covertly delivered an evil smirk to L while L was having a heart attack, mockingly confirming to L that he was right about Light right before he died.
  • During the next 5 years after L's death, Light's judgments became fiercer and this era of history was described as "a dark age" where Kira was law.

Part II[]

  • He planned on killing his spokesman Hitoshi Demegawa when he outlived his usefulness, and had Mikami not killed him, Light would have likely done so when the opportunity arose. Admittedly, though, Demegawa was an incredibly vain and greedy man who often used Kira as a means to promote his own agenda, and everyone on the Kira task force believed he deserved it.
  • He manipulated Kiyomi Takada into working with him under the guise that she would be his "queen", but when Mello kidnapped Takada, Light ordered her to write down Mello's name using a hidden piece of the Death Note. Light promised her he'd come rescue her, but in reality, he wrote her name in the Death Note by having her burn herself and the building she was in to remove any evidence, without any hint of sympathy or regret.
    • Light claimed he would never do such a thing as manipulate or seduce a woman during his amnesiac period, further debasing himself when he subverts this quality.
  • Given that Light only treated his allies as nothing but mere pawns, it can be assumed that he would eventually betray and kill Mikami sooner or later, once Mikami has outlived his usefulness.
  • He threatened to kill the US President, George Sairas, over the phone as Kira if Sairas didn't comply with providing information on the SPK.
  • He prepared to kill every member of the Task Force with whom he'd known and worked with for several years, taking sadistic pleasure in believing he'd be victorious.
  • After getting caught, he attempted to secretly write down Near's name with a hidden piece of notebook in his watch, before being shot by Touta Matsuda. Light responded by yelling at Matsuda to shoot the Kira task force and SPK instead, and Matsuda responded by accusing Light of not caring for his father. Light then tried to write Near's name again with his blood in front of everyone, only to almost die from being shot again, demonstrating that he was more motivated by spite at that point to kill Near.

What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]

  • Unlike in the manga, where Light dies pathetically begging Ryuk to kill the Task Force members, his death in the anime is played for sympathy, as it shows him remembering his life and wondering what could have been had he never found the Death Note, even seeing his younger, innocent self walking past him, therefore revealing that he experienced a sort of epiphany for his descent into madness.
    • Later on, he is seen lying down on the stairs of a warehouse, accepting his fate and dying gracefully as he sees a vision of L symbolically welcoming him to his death.[1] This contrasts with the manga, in which Light, after having his name written in the Death Note by Ryuk, screams and struggles frantically as he tells Ryuk over and over that he does not want to die in spite of knowing that having his name written is irreversible.
    • Also unlike in the manga, where Mikami abandons him out of disgust and Ryuk writes his name down with no remorse, Ryuk is shown as more nostalgic when killing Light in the anime (to the point of it appearing to be a mercy killing) and Mikami stays loyal to Kira by killing himself to let Light escape, further showing how the anime is more sympathetic to him.
    • This death also shows a great deal of symbolism and pathos, with Light's younger and innocent self walking the opposite direction of him. If Light had never picked up the notebook, his moral downfall would likely never have happened and he would've likely stayed the good person he was during his amnesiac period. He would've gone the opposite direction in life and lived a very good one if he had just never picked up the Death Note.

Trivia[]

  • Toshiki Inoue, the series organizer for the anime, confirmed in the official anime guidebook that the screenwriting team wanted to enhance the tragic aspects of Light's character more than the manga did, and, through the ending, show the tragedy of "a sad person" ruining his own life.[2]
    • Likewise, in the director's commentary for episode 37, the creator's described Light's death scene as "sad" and stated their opinion's that "at the end, he's just a lost boy."
  • Despite scaled in different moral rankings, the manga and anime version of Light share the same Villains Wiki page because their storylines don't diverge from each other, while other adaptations such as TV Drama and Netflix movie drastically change the narrative.
    • As a matter of fact, the anime is considered to be the closet official adaptation of the manga, being more accurate than even his original film series counterpart, who is Pure Evil just as Manga Light is.
    • Ironically though, Anime Light starts out as more evil than Manga Light, as he felt dread over killing criminals when first using the Death Note, which was excluded from the anime.
      • The Anime also had much less qualms killing his sister than his manga counterpart, agonising over the decision far less; matter-of-factly stating this to himself in the bathroom, horrifying even Misa.
  • According the official anime guidebook, a short, anime-exclusive scene of Light during the first episode putting the notebook back on the ground when he first picks it up but later changing his mind to pick it back up again was meant to imply that the Death Note could have had a "magical power" that compelled him to possess it.[3]
    • This could have suggested that the notebook has some corrupting influence; however, none of the Death Note rules in the anime canon confirms the notebook truly has such an influence.
    • Furthermore, as stated above, Ryuk confirmed that Light was not the first human to use a Death Note, but was the first to have written as many names as he did, suggesting that even if the notebook has a power to compel someone to take it, it does not absolve him of his choice to use it the way he did.
  • Light, alongside The Follower, Abigail Lazar and Hiro Shishigami are the only Near Pure Evil villains to also be Inconsistently Admirable.
  • Even if he gladly sent him to his death, Light seemed to respect L, as he scathingly derided Near as having no right to wear L's mask, and in his final moments before death, saw an apparition of L, indicating he held respect for the late genius detective.
    • That the anime is confirmed to have no afterlife just like the manga confirms that Light's vision of L had nothing to do with the afterlife.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

           Death Note logo Near Pure Evils

Anime/Manga
Light Yagami | Kyosuke Higuchi | Beyond Birthday | Teru Mikami

Films Series
Yuki Shien

References[]

  1. Death Note /A Official Analysis Guide of the Animation, pg. 97
  2. Death Note /A Official Analysis Guide of the Animation, pg. 123
  3. Death Note /A Official Analysis Guide of the Animation, pg. 13
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