Good And Evil In Death Note, A Graphic Novel By Tsugumi Ohba

Normally, the difference between good and evil is like black and white – it’s usually obvious. The reasons to distinguish heroes who struggle to better the world and villains who consume the same desire boils down to the methods of achieving it. In the most obvious sense, Adolf Hitler wanted to make the world a better place based on his own values and in doing so, took the undesirables of society – the Jews – and put them in concentration camps. Hitler also squashed any obstacles in his path to creating his utopia with himself at the helm. In Death Note, a graphic novel by Tsugumi Ohba, 17-year-old Light Yagaumi stumbles upon a Death Note, a book that gives him the ability to kill anyone in the world with as little as a name and a reason.

To do this, Light must first dispose of all the criminals in the world. Many people and proponents of capital punishment would agree that killing criminals and removing them from society is not a bad thing and indeed makes the world a better place, in fact, having the ability to do so and failing to rid the world of killers, rapists, and thieves would not be heroic at all, but Light quickly realizes that the methods in which he completes this moral cleansing of society are not received with praise by all, and a police investigation soon ensues. Faced with a dilemma, Light decides that in order to save his utopia and continue his “path the righteousness”, he must eliminate the very people fighting his cause. In Death Note, author Tsugumi Ohba’s inserts many comparisons between Light Yagami and the Nazi leader Adolf Hitler though his rise to power, use of propaganda, and the plan create the perfect utopian society to show that Light is not really a hero, but in fact an source

In Hitler’s Mein Kampf, he states that it is “imperative we fill people with blind faith in the correctness of a doctrine and idea.” It is this sort of thinking that helped Hitler convince the people of Germany that he was in fact a god. Following the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, Hitler established a Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. The Ministry 's aim was to ensure that the Nazi message was successfully communicated through art, music, theater, films, books, radio, educational materials, and the press (Adolf Hitler’s Rise to Power). This was most prevalent as Hitler’s title as Fuhrer, or “Lord”. For example, this excerpt from a speech by Robert Ley, a politician in the Nazi Party, illustrates the profound German belief in Hitler 's godlike abilities: “It was all due to the faith of one man! Yes, you who called us godless, we found our faith in Adolf Hitler, and through him found God once again. That is the greatness of our day, that is our good fortune!” (Ley, Robert) Hitler uses his title of a god to control the minds of the people and in addition, instill fear in the hearts of the people to not defy a man of his power. Similarly with Adolf Hitler, Light Yagami uses propaganda to make himself seem like a god to the people of Japan in the form of Kira. Kira is a god-like figure who kills people as punishment for their sins. On page 63, Ohba paints a picture of