Death Note (Drama)

Episode 10

A lot happened in this penultimate episode of Death Note, and none of it was anything we could necessarily see coming based on the previous installment! It's not because the story veered away from the anime version—in fact, it referenced the original material's events various times. Anyway, it leaves me with a whole bunch to unpack, interesting implications for the characters, the themes of this story, and its ultimate ending.

Mello finally takes complete control of Near's body, turning our childlike master investigator into a chaotic psychopath. Mello was always kind of a wild card, but he was originally at least committed to finding his own method of catching Kira. This Mello seems to just like destroying things, no matter what he says. He's almost like Ryuk, if Ryuk burst into conflicts guns blazing instead of just putting the pieces in place to see what happens. This plot thread repeats (some of) the beats of the original Mello Arc, but without Near to guide the team based on knowledge of his rival. The investigators are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, especially after the reveal that Himura—or Halle Lidner—is working for Mello.

Jekyll and HYDE alternate personalities, where the former struggles to control the latter, are really common in genre fiction despite being relatively unheard of in real life. Like many clichés, it's repeated because it works without much explanation needed. Death Note doesn't explore the split-personality dynamic like some other fiction does, and there's no deep metaphor for how we all have a monster inside of us. Instead, it's mostly there to revitalize the plot. The final third of Death Note, where Mello and Near are Light's enemies following L's death, is infamous for feeling tacked-on and overly-long, both in anime and manga form. Making the two foils into one person limits their respective personalities and abilities. It's a great solution to give their story more dramatic tension. It also makes Near less perfect as a character—but it doesn't make him particularly deep either, just more interesting to watch.

It's almost like we had to sacrifice L's complexity for Near's. Death Note apparently needs to retain a flawless master investigator to bring Kira to his knees. The show sets this up to be Near by killing L after he predicts that Near will "put the final piece in the puzzle." But it's still really L, directing things from beyond the grave through his videos. L's still fun and weird enough to be entertaining, but he lacks the social awkwardness and earnest anxiety that he did in the original. (It was a lot harder to buy him calling Light his "only friend" in this drama.) He isn't as rich of a character, and his journey was a lot more interesting than the Near Has Multiple Personalities twist. At the same time, Near's twist does more to keep the plot entertaining at a time when it desperately needed that kick in the pants. Audiences will simply have to be the judge of which one works better.

The episode ends with a long confrontation between Soichiro and Light. This is spurred by Soichiro finally watching one of L's final videos, which apparently imparts (offscreen) that Light is Kira. This has been a long time coming for Soichiro, and it's a huge departure from the original material, where Soichiro dies blissfully unaware that his son is Kira. His death here is specifically caused by that revelation, because he can't live with himself over the truth. The whole scene is one of the tensest and most heart-rending this story has ever pulled off, in any version, with phenomenal acting from both Yutaka Matsuhige and Masataka Kubota. It's amazing how much emotion Matsuhige can convey as the stoic chief investigator, with just a knit eyebrow and a slight change in his tone of voice. Kubota, as usual, pours all the emotion he can into Light without leaping into the over-acting of Kento Yamazaki's L, or Mio Yūki's Mello scenes. That is, until he goes over the edge for real, because this scene finally proves how far Light has fallen, and how little he still feels for the father whose peril turned him into Kira in the first place.

This scene highlights the differences between this version of Light and the original Light, as well as their similarities. Soichiro is only able to figure out that Light is Kira because of their relationship, which is much closer in this version of the story. Light became Kira initially to protect his dad, and he clearly looks up to him and wants to impress him in a way that the original Light never did. So he has a harder time faking things in front of his dad, who knows him better and can read between the lines. That's also why he's so shocked, because he used to know a Light who was compassionate and empathetic, and that Light is gone now.

We then see how much closer Light has become to his source characterization, through his reaction to his father's death. He's upset when Soichiro writes his name in the notebook, but not nearly as upset as when Soichiro tries to destroy it as his "last act of love" for his son. Light screams at his dad's suicide, but he lunges forward and wrestles the notebook away when its life is at stake. Light confirms this change later as he coolly lies to the investigation team about how his dad met his end. The investigation team believes him, even though Light is a terrible liar at his most transparent here, barely shedding a tear or showing any emotion for one of the most important people in his life. Then he coldly leaves the room, saying that his dad taught him that "sacrifices are necessary," admitting that he's lost his soul, but it's okay because he's going to "become God." Being Kira has gone completely to Light's head, to the point where he's abandoned his original goal for the sake of his own pride. Even Ryuk is aghast!

So with all that drama behind us, what's next? The final episode of Death Note is in just a couple days, and there are a few different possibilities for how it could end. One is that Mello/Near survives the blast and moves on to defeat Kira. An "unlikely" twist like that would be par for the show's love of plot curveballs, and a weird way to combine both Mello's original fate (burning disfigurement and death) and Near's (winning the game and defeating Kira). I think if that happens, it would likely result in Near being shocked into taking back over his body, "killing" the Mello personality in the process. On the other hand, this also feels dishonest after Light's methodology was so thorough. People survive in Death Note by being more clever than their adversaries, not by strokes of luck—which is pretty clearly the only way Mello/Near could get out of this. (Luck in Death Note is more often a way for people to die, by not accounting for it. For example, Light dies in the original story because he opened his big fat mouth too soon, but he still would have been beaten because Mikami made a mistake in the plan.) Near could still have another trick up his sleeve, but as Mello, I doubt that's the case. Mello goes for flash and bombast where Near sticks to careful calculation. Near defeats you with a computer and a carefully concocted plan; Mello does it with a gun. Of course, Kira isn't the kind of criminal you can kill with a gun, which is why Mello couldn't win.

Another possibility is that Kira will actually "win" in this version. I doubt this outcome even more, but I could see this version going for cold cynicism. I used to wonder if this version was taking Light's side, since it started him as a sympathetic character and deepened Misa and Mikami's backstories to better explain how they'd come to believe in Light's cause. (It also does a lot to show how Light's idea of justice could appeal to those let down by the system.) Light's final confrontation with Soichiro put all that to bed. Respectable anti-heroes don't, instantly get over their dad's death, coldly lie about it, and then conclude that they've lost their soul and they're okay with that. So the only way that Kira could win is if Death Note wants to leave us on a downer note. That could happen, but it's not likely. Just like in the original story, Ryuk can (and probably will) end the game if Light goes too far, but we also know that everything is going according to keikaku. Except it's L's keikaku this time.

L's videos are the key to this show's ending. After Soichiro falls into despair over Near becoming Mello, he asks if L left behind any information. L reassures Soichiro that even when things look hopeless, don't be rash, because L has predicted everything. He demonstrates this by admitting his suspicion that Soichiro would do something to get himself killed and warning him against that. Soichiro then immediately proves L right through his confrontation with Light. So even with all the cards stacked in his favor, Light is going to lose, likely due to some miscalculation L could predict, and not just Ryuk pulling the plug on the whole operation.

Then again, Ryuk does seem disturbed by all this, even as the fun-loving agent of chaos. He says "Humans are terrifying!" at the close of this episode, after Light mutters that he doesn't care if he's lost his soul. This Death Note has a million different tricks up its sleeve, just like its characters. Whatever ending it goes with, I'm sure it will go out with a satisfying bang.

Rating: A

Death Note (Drama) is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.

Rose is a music Ph.D. student who loves overanalyzing anime soundtracks. Follow her on her media blog Rose's Turn.