Death Note: 8 Villains That Achieved Redemption

From the morally ambiguous Light Yagami to the equally questionable L, which Death Note villains managed to redeem themselves in the anime?

You Are Reading :Death Note 8 Villains That Achieved Redemption

Death Note, led primarily by a morally dubious antihero, has several villainous characters in its arsenal. However, despite the structure of the antagonist being a hero detective, the protagonist, Light Yagami, and several of his associates do ultimately redeem themselves.

Though the Death Note itself doesn’t necessarily corrupt these characters, their use of it to achieve their ideals consumes them. Death Note examines what exactly might drive someone to become a villain, and the reasons for their nefarious actions can often be explained through their redemption arcs.

8 Light Yagami

As Death Note’s central character, Light Yagami has a moral center that consumes him and designs his use of the Death Note to kill criminals. It’s easy for the audience to see that he is taking this moral stance too far, going to the point where he becomes a villain. Though his actions throughout the series are terrible, the arc where he erases his memories of having the notebook does show that, if he had never picked it up, he would have remained a good person.

The final scene of the anime also shows that he is not a truly evil person and was, therefore, worthy of redemption. As the protagonist, the audience waits for him to realize that what he is doing is wrong, and the final scene gets that across as he feels the pain of being shot and realizes exactly what he’s done.

7 Kiyomi Takada

Kiyomi Takada is a former girlfriend of Light’s who never really fell out of love with him. She ends up as a go-between for Light and Mikami and only kills when she is at her lowest moment. Takada’s fear and panic provide the seeds of her redemption. It’s clear she never meant to get into anything this dangerous or horrifying; she just wanted Light to love her. In the end, he tells her to kill Mello, and she does it, but, because Light has other plans spinning out around her, Takada dies forgotten about.

Takada isn’t terribly complex as a character, though she achieves her redemption by way of her death, and her clear emotion about the situation she inadvertently got herself into.

6 Rem

Rem, Misa’s shinigami, doesn’t care about Light or his plans, as her only concern is Misa. As a result, she sacrifices herself for Misa. She uses the Death Note to kill L and Watari, which protects Misa in return. Rem is a shinigami killing for love, and so she loses her own life.

Her love for Misa is her redemption. It’s a clean, platonic love which is surprisingly pure for this series. Rem redeems her villainous actions through the act of love. Misa is a pitiable character, and Rem is remembered fondly for being the only one to actually care for Misa and her interests. Rem’s action is the only thing in the series that is truly done to help Misa.

5 Matt

Matt is Mello’s accomplice and was also at Wammy’s House with him and Near. He gets very little screentime, particularly since his only scene is the chase leading to his death, and he’d be an interesting character to follow in a theoretical season 2 follow-up to Death Note. He participates in Takada’s kidnapping and clearly didn’t expect to get shot after being cornered by several police cars.

Like Takada, Matt didn’t expect to get into this situation; he thought he could get out of it. He followed Mello along on his schemes, and it got him killed. He died for the sake of his friendship with Mello, and that redeems his actions in Takada’s kidnapping. His partnership with Mello and Near does help capture Light in the end, which is another redeeming factor.

4 Misa Amane

Misa, the Second Kira, is naive and frequently silly. Misa can be a difficult main character to like in Death Note, simply because her character is so childish. Though she initially reaches out to Light because she admires him, after meeting him, her actions all depend on her wanting him to love her. This is possibly why her character was changed so much in the remake, which wasn’t well received.

Her character is not treated well in the series, and her villainous actions as the Second Kira are redeemed several times over. Misa loses her memories of the Death Note twice. Light forces her to shorten her lifespan on his behalf. She loves Light, though he doesn’t care about her. She fizzles out, and her lack of action, as mandated by Light, redeems her.

3 Mello

Mello does several unsavory things in his quest for Kira, including kidnapping Takada. He is scarred but survives and indirectly works with Near to catch Kira. Ultimately, though Takada kills him, his actions do help Near put together the rest of the pieces.

Therefore, his villainous actions are redeemed by the achievement of catching a mass murderer. This series is not black-and-white in its views of morality. Mello succeeded, with Near, where L didn’t. Mello’s single-minded pursuit of his goals to something to be admired, even if the road he chose to get there isn’t.

2 Lind L. Tailor

Lind L. Tailor was a death row inmate who was asked to impersonate L so the real L could figure out Kira’s location. The audience doesn’t learn anything about his crime, but, just taking his cooperation at face value, his impersonation is a fairly self-sacrificing action.

It’s possible that he was coerced into doing it, but putting his life on the line in a dramatic, innovative way is interesting. Maybe he’s repented and he thought he could help capture another criminal, or maybe he simply thought he had nothing left to lose. Either way, dying in place of a man he’s never met redeems him from his other actions.

1 L

L is technically the antagonist of the series, as he is working against Light despite working to catch the murderer. Even while being a great detective, L does some shady things in the course of his investigation, including taking Misa into custody and keeping her in a straightjacket while blindfolded for several days.

On the other hand, he is very sincere in his desire to catch Kira, and morally right in that murder on a grand scale is wrong. He forms a bond with Light that no one else can, by virtue of their intelligence. He dies in pursuit of his goals, leaving them unfulfilled. Like Mello, his single-minded nature redeems him. Luckily, he is able to pass his work on to others to be completed.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/death-note-villains-achieved-redemption/