Avoiding reading or watching Death Note for so long has been a personal choice of mine, stemming from a variety of reasons.
Initially it was because I was young and it was gritty-looking, and then there was also the fact that the general milieu around anime at the time was rather harsh, so even as I felt interested in Japanese stuff, I held myself back as to not be thrusted even more out from society. But I remembered it.

Later down the line I avoided it mostly because I know that I’m the kind of person who gets obsessive about things and I let myself get influenced by things way too easily. (My continuing obsession with Persona 5 and Zetsubou-sensei are probably proofs enough that I usually get way too into things when I do let myself loose for a split second.) And so, I avoided Death Note for the fear that it might make me unbearably edgy, that I’d like it too much and I’d start copying tiny bits from it.

One day I was having lunch with a good friend out and about in Budapest, another one in a series of discussions that aesthetically fall not that far from the chats L and Light share in the early parts of the manga. Death Note came up as a topic and we had a short discussion of „what would you do with it?” but in the end we settled on the topic that I have not read it yet and I went onto detailing my fears that it’s just influence me negatively too much. My friend twisted the argument, telling me that if something is that good, it can have such a devastating aesthetic impact on you, then that’s all the more reason to experience it. And with that I set off to read the Hungarian edition of it (one of the few mangas to receive a commercial publication in full in the country).

This article is a collection of short musings I’ve had on the manga, its structure, themes, and story while reading it and after finishing it.
With that it’s obvious that it’ll include spoilers for the story and conclusion of Death Note throughout.

The first part is a general interpretation and praise of the story, the second part contains quotations from Legalists text and compares them with Light's way of thinking and actions in a concise fashion.

"Because I was bored"

So, in the end, was it a captivating story? Yes, it absolutely was. It occupied my thoughts wholly while reading it, and then it kept me occupied for at least for a good few weeks afterwards.

Though I actually do want to say it that ultimately, I was disappointed in how little it dwelt on the philosophy of the note itself. As much as the popular image of the manga rests on the few chats and L and Light have over the course of their dealings with each other as both friends and enemies, the contents of said meetings are mostly pragmatic in nature both from the perspective of the characters and the story’s progress itself.  Light and L never really discuss what makes the two of them tick, there’s never really an argument.

Most likely because the lines in the sand are clear. Everybody knows which side they are on, and nobody will waver in their faith, not even in the final moments of the great showdown. They don’t discuss morality and ethics because there’s nothing to discuss. The decision is made to use violence to resolve their philosophical differences, the actual discussion is therefore the plot of the manga and the actions the protagonists take over the course of it.

But I think it’s worth mentioning that throughout the twelve volumes of the manga, Light’s position is illustrated not only by his actions, but also in the context of the actions of others. He is the mastermind of the plot, but at least two other people get some agency with the note, illustrating how Light’s approach to killing/culling is a sort of “golden mean” even if his position is ab ovo radical when conferred our contemporary notion of a society based on laws.

When Light loses the Note for the first time, we get a taste of a “different Kira”. Higuchi is a motivated individual, but his concerns are a lot more down to Earth. He fulfils the obligations of brutalizing criminals and filling in for Kira, but all he does on his own accord is manipulate the business world to climb the corporate ladder and corner the market with his associates.

Higuchi’s style of using the Note highlights the unusual moral fibre of Light’s personality. He could have done the same thing very easily, but ultimately, he decided to go beyond seeking wealth and temporal power.

Mikami Teru’s use of the Note is also a commentary on Light’s own methods. Mikami is probably as close to Light as one could get on the surface. A perfectly focused, methodical mind. His biggest fault is his endless lust for purity and his inability to deviate from his standards.

Mikami’s boundless wish to deliver justice results in his cruelty knowing no bounds either, shocking even Light. Mikami shows no tolerance for any deviation from the norms, and he shows no remorse in punishing those breaking the rules. Light doesn’t punish people for minor traffic violations, simple accidents or for the crime of Acedia/ἀκηδία, that is, unwillingness of someone to do their social and work obligations. He’s fully ready to immediately strike down elements he considers “asocial”, something which Light himself is shocked to see in its totality. (But confesses that he himself would have done the same eventually, but in this regard, we can see Light’s ability to bide his time, and that he tries to achieve his goals of building a perfect society in an almost Buddhist manner, where people are gradually purified and awakened to the idea of building the perfect society around Kira’s (cult of) personality and through his guidance.

One could say that the uncompromising, cruel Mikami is the embodiment of a Chinese legalist, which is true if we go Sima Qian’s 司馬遷 depictions of Qin Shihuangdi 秦始皇帝 as an uncompromising tyrant-king whose cruel mode of conduct both in personal affairs and in governance lead to his empire’s downfall. Of course the same Sima Qian details how Qin Shihuangdi enjoyed a good laugh, allowing his court-dwarf, You Zhan 優旃 to make clever quips about his policies. (Like when the emperor wanted to extend the hunting grounds, You Zhan remarked that if the enemy comes from that direction, then they can just ask the deer to take up arms and fight them. While a funny remark, the emperor heeded his warning and decided to not extend the hunting grounds due to the mentioned strategic concerns. But I digress.)

Ultimately this little digression only serves to illustrate that “What is a legalist?” is a tricky question to answer, mostly because of how the “legalists” themselves did not compromise a single unified school in the Confucian/Motian sense. This, coupled with hundreds of years of Confucian supremacy and slander at least on the ideological (not practical) side of things means that there’s not one definition of “legalism” we could reasonably settle on tho answer this question.

Though that is not to say we can’t entertain the thought for at least a bit by contrasting the manga and primary sources of Chinese legalism in the following section once I wrap up interpreting the manga itself.

So, we can say that Death Note doesn’t really comment on morality or ethics, but it does comment on itself by handing the Note to different characters with a diverse number of backgrounds an motives to showcase us how Light isn’t necessarily the embodiment of pure evil.

Ultimately, Death Note is not as much a thriller as it is a tragedy of Yagami Light’s failure to moderate himself when handed absolute power to do as he wishes. Time and time again the manga showcases an alternate version of him, who is an upstanding member of society in the service of the public. It’s reasonable to interpret that without the Note, Light would have become a sensible police officer who would have gone far in the force in his quest to stamp out crime, would have been a good father and so on. But when given the chance to let his ideals bloom and to escape the desolation of boredom and the pain associated with it, he immediately jumps at the possibility without looking back.

Death Note is just as much the tragedy of absolute power corrupting absolutely as it is a tragedy of genius going unstimulated and unused, it putting itself to the path to ruin just to escape the ultimate evil, boredom, not much unlike Conan Doyle’s Sherlock who does cocaine not to enhance his senses but to take his mind off the predictability of everyday life.

But let us discuss something more stimulating too, considering probably everyone has come to a similar conclusion after having almost 20 years to ponder it.

Is Yagami Light a Legalist?

Firstly, we must establish our viewpoint. He's a legalist to whom exactly?
From the viewpoint of society's elite, Light is not a legalist. He is way too independent for that. Light takes the law as a basis, sure, and pays lip-service to upholding it, but ultimately, he makes up his own punishment and criteria for writing names in the Note. Essentially, within the existing framework of the justice system and legislation, Light is a lousy subject for the opposite reason people are: That it, he is overzealous and does too much compared to what is set out in the letter of the law.

This might sounds stupid to an outside reader: "Why punish over-achievement the same way you punish underachievement?" they might ask. Well, it's all about procedure and initiative. As Lord Shang says in the Xiuquan 修權 chapter of his book:

國之所以治者 三：一曰法， 二曰信， 三曰權。法者，君臣之所共操也；信者， 君臣之所共立也；權者，君之所獨制也。

人主將欲禁姦，則審合刑名者，言異事也。為人臣者陳而言，君以其言授之事，專以其事責其功。功當其 事，事當其言，則賞；功不當其事，事不當其言，則罰。故群臣其言大而功小者則罰，非罰小功也，罰功不當名也。

If the lord of men wants to forbid treachery, he must clarify the correspondence between names and punishments, and teach them to differentiate between names. When a subject makes a statement and speaks, the ruler gives them a task taking their speech as measure, and then makes sure that the results are in correspondence with their tasks exactly. If the results are as the task, and the task are as his words, then he is rewarded, but if the results are not like the task, and the task is not like his words, then he is punished. Thus the multitude of ministers whose words are big but results are small are punished. Those of little results are not punished, for only the results not corresponding to the names are punished.

From both quotes, we can gather that in Legalism, evaluating the action of others and setting the measures for the evaluation itself belong to those in power. (In the case of ancient China, the Wang/King or the Huangdi/Emperor.) Light himself is but a lowly citizen aside from the Note, so his infringing on the monopoly of the state/government in setting laws and judging those who break them, he rightfully upsets the defenders of the status quo.

So attacking from this angle, it’s pretty simple to conclude that Light is a terrible person who causes a lot of luan 亂 or chaos within the workings of society, upsetting the stable if imperfect status quo. But this conclusion would be onesided and thoroughly unamusing, which is why I’m going to amuse myself a bit more by taking an approach I have to thank Xianyang City Bureaucrat (@XianyangCB) for introducing me to.

It’s not so much that this is such a revolutionary idea, rather, I was personally limited by my own lack of political education, experience, and ambition. Namely: Let’s analyse the situation from the perspective of not a government in charge, but rather from the viewpoint of an upstart, an usurper. Someone in ascendancy who seeks to re-establish the existing, crumbling order using raw power.

Light fits the image of the up-and-coming tyrant much better. A good illustration of his legalist tendencies is his reasoning (one of the more explicitly philosophical moments in the manga) for using the Death Note to kill criminals in the manga:

Let’s contrast this with both Shang Yang and Han Fei:

Shang Yang writes in the Kaisai 開塞 chapter of his book:

故王者以賞禁，以刑勸；求過不求善，藉刑以去刑。

Therefore the ruler uses rewards to limit and punishments to motivate. He seeks out wrongdoings instead of seeking out good deeds. He relies on punishments to eliminate punishments.

While Han Fei writes in Wu du 五蠹:

是以賞莫如厚而信，使民利之；罰莫如重而必，使民畏之；法莫如一而固，使民知 之。故主施賞不遷，行誅無赦。譽輔其賞，毀隨其罰，則賢不肖俱盡其力矣。

Thus when rewards are given they should be generous and reliably handed out, so that the people may gain benefit from them. Punishments should be harsh and certain, so that the people come to fear them. Laws are great when they are unified and stable, that way the people learn them. Thus when the ruler hands out rewards, he does not change them, and in handing out punishment he does not show mercy, this way both men who are outstanding and the unworthy will do everything in their power.

夫聖人之治國，不恃人之為吾善也，而用其不得為非也。

Thus when governing a country, the sage does not rely on people doing what is good for him, rather, he makes use of them not being able to do bad things.

Here we can see a clear parallelism with Legalist thought in Light’s reasoning for brutally striking down criminals. Essentially you can make sure that people don’t act out of line and brutalize each other if you use a higher power (all-certain brutal judgemental authority).

Light sees himself as an impartial authority who judges appropriately for the sake of society, not for the sake of himself. Unlike Higuchi, who abuses the Note to gain immense wealth in a market economy, Light never uses the Note for personal gain, in line with Han Fei’s warning to rulers who are too fond of acquiring treasures and other items for personal use:

饕貪而無饜，近利而好得者，可亡也。

If the ruler is greedy and insaitable, covets profit and is fond of acquring things, then his fall is certain.  (Hanfeizi: Wang zhi 亡徵 chapter)

But it is absolutely worth mentioning that Light isn’t as strict and severe as you’d imagine an arch-legalist to be based on sources such as the Records of the Grand Historian. He shows compassion, and understanding to those that merely had accidends or the circumstances forced them into commiting a questionable act. Which is coincidentally, also closer to actually existing legalism under the Qin dynasty. For example, the legendary story of revolts breaking out because an army was late and the punishment for rebellion and being late were both death were proven false by archeological sources which report that being late with an army unit only carried financial penalties, and the penalties were waived in case the weather prevented the troops from marching at sufficient speed or at all. So by mere coincidence, Light does not fit the stereotypical, propagandistic image of a legalist being cruel and without compassion, but he’s quite close to legalism as it actually existed most likely during the peak of he First Emperor’s reign.

Another important component of the manga is secrecy: Someone else figuring out your thinking is equal to a death sentence. Both L and Light go to great lengths to either confuse the other or to obscure their own intentions when making moves, which is similar to how Han Fei recommends a ruler not to allow even his ministers to know his thought patterns. (Though it is worth mentioning that in Han Fei’s case, this warning wasn’t against potential coups or plots in the strictest sense, rather, against one minister becoming so good at doing things that makes the ruler happy that it would result in favoritism and monopolisation of the ruler’s attention, thereby weakening the impartiality of government. But the principle is the same: Secrecy is power, and the less someone knows what your potential moveset is, the more they fear you.):

故明主觀人，不使人觀己。

Thus the ruler who sees things clearly observes other people, but does not allow other people to observe him.  (Hanfeizi: Guan xing 觀行 chapter)

Yagami Light might use legalist methods in his approach and see himself as an enlightened, impartial sovereign, but for example, he does not hold fast to the belief that all men are inherently evil and that “goodness” in people is something that is only created through artificial indoctrination (a la Xunzi[1]). In his grand monolgue and final attempt at convincing his opponents, Light genuinely seems to believe that there are upright people in society who are not only capable of not doing bad things, but rather, would be capable of exerting justice upon others, with his father being a chief example. (It’s also very interesting to note that what actually becomes the final trigger in that makes Matsuda doubt and lose faith in Light’s argument is the lack of filial piety (xiao 孝) on Light’s part towards his father, that is, sacrificing family for society.)

Just the same, Light doesn’t intend to just let people avoid acting evil, ultimately, his goal is a utopia, and for that he intends to weed out those who are unwilling to contribute to society. Ultimately the argument can be made that Yagami Light is a committed legalist when it comes to his methods, but his vision goes beyond the goals of legalism, because he ultimately seeks to not just crush evil activities, but he wants humanity to reach ever greater heights and harmony with itself.

But the discussion of that would better be left for an article titled “Does Yagami Light follow Xi Jinping thought?”, an article, which I hopefully will never end up writing.