The Morality of Death Note

There has recently been a lot of chatter surrounding Death Note. Netflix announced that Matt and Ross Duffer (Stranger Things) have been commissioned to produce a live action series of Death Note. They hired Halia Abdel-Meguid to be the writer of this new series. Recently, The Simpsons released a Death Note parody. If you haven’t seen it, it’s worth tracking down.

If you are new to the anime series, Death Note follows Light Yagami, a teenager who stumbles on a book that allows him to kill anonymously. This book belongs to Ryuk, a Shinigami, and has the ability to kill anyone who’s name is written in its pages. Ryuk lends the books to Light, who uses its power to conduct a worldwide massacre.

Light, though young, possesses a high intelligence that is only matched by his determination and his sense of justice. With the book, Light sets out on a mission to establish a new world order, one that is built on justice and peace. He sees that the book allows for the opportunity to restart the world. If he kills off the criminals of the world, the law-abiding people of the world would be left to live their lives untouched by such crimes. True justice and goodness can be established once and for all.

In anticipation of the live action release of Death Note, I want to examine the central focus of the series through the moral theories of deontology and utilitarianism. One of the questions the series asks is, is it morally permissible to kill criminals for the sake of society? Does Light act as morally good protagonist or is he the villain?

Light’s sense of justice can be compared to deontology’s principle of the universal law and the categorical imperative. Light’s goal is to create a world where justice is universal for all. No one gets to commit an injustice and get away with it. The death note guarantees that criminals will be punished. Also, the death of criminals deters future criminals to commit…