What's the message of Death Note? Killing is bad? Everybody already knows that...

This is just entertainment. There is no profound message.

>How is that justice if he ended up fighting police force more than he fought criminals
Look at it in an objective point of view
Nigga is a threat to the state and could kill politcal leaders whenever he wish, causing power vacuums that could ruin the country
Just because he only kills criminals, doesn't mean he wouldn't kill innocents soon.

It is only right that the cops should stop him.

>anime
>dispensing morals coherently

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But that's what I am saying, Light is one in the wrong. Even if you can make an argument "oh, you can trust with this much power someone who is sane, he's killing only criminals" Light ended up being not the one to trust it with since killing L nets nothing but negative objectively.

It didn't have a point. It's just a fuckin story.

The state is already getting innocent people killed. They only ever feared for themselves because Kira would do the right thing by killing them.
I'm sure only L, Light's dad and their group believed Kira was evil because he was a murderer. The actual reason powers that be wanted Kira removed was because he infringed upon their authority. Light wasn't exaggerating when he said he would become god, and it wasn't god complex either. That's simply what it means to have the most power in the world.

Light was literally right and did nothing wrong. He decreased all crime in the nation by like 70% or something. Absolutely based.
>hurr some innocents got involved
>hurr muh power trip
>hurr who is he to decide who lives and dies
Fuck off. The end result speaks for itself.

Why the fuck does everything need a message? Can't something just be for entertainment?

Go fuck off and read some philosophy books for "messages".

The message of death note is that a short masterpiece is better than a long disappointment. The authors go in detail about that with the reversi arc of bakuman.

That's only even in there because otherwise the show would have to have the "genius" Light question his own method, and the writers both didn't want and weren't able to do that.

it has no message

>Trust the establishment with dispensing justice?

So who are you going to trust with it? Should we even dispense justice? Who are you even quoting? You look for stupid simplifications to make yourself feel smart and superior when you could instead explore all the questions like that a show asks. Because you're a miserable peasant

>dude just turn your brain off lmao

No message, it doesn't need it.
As to why it's so well like, it's a good thriller that's not too short and not too long. It's a good entry anime to watch for newer anime fans, or if you just want to watch something with people who don't usually watch anime (not that any of you would feel the need to do that, but others might). It has fun characters that all have action in the plot rather than just being an entourage. It's just good on a lot of levels and has a unique enough idea/setting that it stands out.

It's more a showcase of insanity than anything, that man can't be God-like. Light was intelligent a lot of the times, but his motive was mostly immature. A more humble and patient kira who did more research and targeted more influential people would've done more good in the limited lifetime he/she could judge. Light became blinded by his power and didn't realize that his new world was mostly limited to his lifespan, like how just the small intrusion of Mikami ruined his whole control over the world. Good kings in history have been succeeded by infamous ones, it's that no single man can be a God.

Go watch hunter or something if you’re looking for a message. Death note doesn’t really have a message, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad anime. Just enjoy it user

There's a huge difference between cops who operate after proper investigations were done and a random vigilante killing anyone

If a cop fucked up, he can be traced and imprisoned
Light can kill anyone without remorse

Also, criminals have the right to face justice on the court to see if he deserves condemnation or just correction. Crime is not black and white

Light just killed anyone who disobeyed the law

>dude what did that plastic bag floating in the wind mean? does it symbolize the duality of man? lmao this is so deep look at me im so smart , i love looking into everything lmao

Well that just makes a difference between 'the ends justify the means' believers and those who don't believe in that. It's like Lelouch vs Early Suzaku.

>dude strawman lmao

I think it's easier just to write Death Note off as a power fantasy than deal with the troubling idea that a random teenager, if given the power to kill anyone with no repercussions, would willingly choose to engage in mass murder.

because we're violent and horny, all we care about is eating, fucking and fighting.

technically plasticman

Not having a message doesn't instantly mean turn your brain off. If the only think you ever use your brain for is philosophy than that explains your post

Propaganda of hedonism.

but was he really? They said it themselves after about a month society returned to normal, wars, rapes, death, assautl,s kidnappings, murders, ect. It all came back even through Light was killing people for years. What good is a god who kills everyone if as soon as they are gone society returns to how it was so fast all those prior years are effectively meaningless?

That's not a particularly troubling idea because magic murder books don't actually exist. It's also not an idea Death Note actually explores.

But Light wasn't killing all criminals indiscriminately, was he? He only targeted the worst criminals who deserved death, not some petty street thieves or scammers.

Why would you take this part of the story seriously when the writers clearly put no thought into it at all?

he targeted the worst very early on, then moved to the street thieves, scammers, etc for most of the show..

The message is that if more highly malicious intelligent people did what needed to be done and we had less obnoxious moralfags, we could live in a crime free society. The truth is that the narrative is completely ineffective at dismissing Light's core thesis: The world is rotten and reliable punishment of criminals would result in far superior outcomes. All arguments to the contrary are rooted in traditionalism or faulty logic. It's a tale of the overman. It's an idea we've been trying to reconcile within humanity for the past 70 years (Superheroes also result from this trend), but Death Note lays it bare, and the end result is any sensible individual must support the overman, the Light Yagami's. It's only through repeated interference by the weak apparatus of society seeking to re-establish the monopoly on violence that gives them legitimacy is Light's plan turned to darkness. It's one of the most subtle redpills in anime.

He kills like a hundred in a week.
Today, Japan has just 197 on the most wanted list
No way he didn't kill people who are just desperate for money or committed unmediated homicide

Light could never keep the criminals at bay forever, being a mortal human. Not even if someone else had taken the notebook and become the new Kira.
All peace is temporary, no way around that. That's what makes it so precious.

Death Note does absolutely nothing to argue either side of that. It's presented as the conflict between Light and L, but not explored in any way.

Because that's true, the only thing light left behind is a crippled sister, a traumatized mother, a dead father and a cult that will call his name in vain ignorant to the truth behind their failure of a savor, that's very real. Even if they didn't put much thought into it, in the midns of humans that's exactly how it would end if we had some maniac killing for about half a decade, then suddenly it stopped. Through I would imagine if that happened in real life it'd be alot worse, if the madman stopped and governments realized they could proceed as normal they may become rather embolened by their actions going unpunished, they may even think since god is no longer puinishing them that these actions are okay and they'll escalate them. It could even go from wars to mistreatment of certain people.

but we could talk about the would, ifs and possibilities all day, that's the mark of a good ending in my opinion. conclude the plot but leave something there for people slam their heads against for years to come.

FUCK YOU

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>his sense of justice is completely immature and black and white
just stop committing crimes asshole

Not everyone gets served in a silver plater, fuckboi.

What crime did fbi waifu do?

It's okay when the state does all that, amirite?

No, I mean the whole thing including the reduction in crime rate. They put no thought whatever into the social consequences of Kira, so arguing about it is completely pointless.

L and Light's actions outcomes are the argument. Their stated reasons for pursuing Kira despite results is rooted in a desire to destroy a challenge to their monopoly on violence and reject his ideology. It's through L's actions that Light's actions become worthy of critique. If left on his own, undisturbed, this overman, Light Yagami, would have reduced crime by 70-85% with only criminals being harmed. That kind of outcome cannot be realistically evaluated as anything but positive if you exclude the whining of the state about their authority being destroyed. Or, you reject the concept of highly qualified individuals making huge decisions for the benefit of society using their superior gifts. The struggle between the two IS the ideological battle user.

>thinks every anime has a message
Please grow up and watch more anime.

there is no message, the writers are jast hax

>i should get a pass for hurting other people because of my upbringing
>what oh god no stop killing me and making the world a better place for non-criminals
>don't you realize human life is precious WE LIVE IN A SOCIETY

reveal classified information to a civilian

I'm not saying every SoL, CGDCT or haremshit has a message. But Death Note, at the very least, pretends it does. So what is its message?

But isn't that what you're doing by assuming everything has a message? Learn to use your brain so you can recognize the fact that the main intention of anime is just fucking entertainment, looking for more than just that means you're the retard here.

None of their actions relate to the argument at all. Their conflict is entirely keikaku mindgame bullshit and in no way relates to their ideals. The crime reduction is merely stated, not argued for or explored at all. There's no acknowledgement that such a thing would even affect society in any other way. Because that would be entirely irrelevant to the keikaku battle the show is actually about.

>But Death Note, at the very least, pretends it does
How?

By asking if Kira is right or wrong every 5 minutes.

power corrupts or something

>if he had never been interrupted
Well theres the flaw in your argument, it applies equally to either side.
Kira interrupted the apparatus of the state, and the state (L) then interrupted him, and then kira went mad.

No one's saying that poorfags deserve a gibsmethat.
You're just an idiot for thinking they deserve capital punishment over stealing out of need

Try the well established scammers. They do it because it's business

nice oxymoron

>>There's no acknowledgement that such a thing would even affect society in any other way
>Brutal law enforcement in streets, ie Matt's death
>Individuals/groups turning Kira into corporate religion to try to profit and gain influence
>Everyday citizen terrified of even the smallest crimes being broadcasted, ie scene when kid begs officer not to report his petty theft
>World governments openly accepting Kira while still running secret investigations against him
What more did you want

light is basically if pic related became a god. a spoiled retarded idealistic man child. delusional to think their intelligence is superior. the idea behind the story is to realize any human is capable of descending into madness if they arent careful

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I don't remember that coming up more than very occasionally to reinforce a character's commitment to the conflict. But it's been over a decade since I read it.

Always remember to kick when swimming.

>It's just a self-righteous prick who wanted to impose an authorative regime to satiate his god complex.
It's any person in Light's position 2bh. Most people are fucked in the head.

I was entertained more when Light simply gave zero fucks.
It's like doing a Caesar's Legion run on Fallout NV.

>something need to have a message to be good
Not like DN is that good but you are a faggot.

How it might affect the reporting, enforcing, and judgement of crime when everyone involved knows the likely outcome is an execution? How his reliance on the media (particularly outside of Japan) would affect that? How legislation would be affected given that any crime might attract a death sentence?
Fucking basic and obvious shit?

His father didn't
He is serious when he said he is willing to die after using the note and not killing anyone for 3 days

What Monty Python is to comedy, DN is to thrillers.

This argument always appears on death note threads. Light DID focus on the big criminals and scammers. He even was forced to kill a lowlife criminal once (the chip scene) and that was a clue for L, because it was unusual.

Was that in retrospect of Light's actions?

>How it might affect the reporting, enforcing, and judgement of crime
This is literally all covered even in my post. Reporters were shown accepting him, taking individual stances/risks against him, like praising a public act against kira at one part.
>How his reliance on the media (particularly outside of Japan) would affect that?
L comments on this and refrains from stopping media publication because he knows Light would hold reporters hostage or people withholding information hostage.
>How legislation would be affected given that any crime might attract a death sentence?
Based on the scene where Matt's shot down in the streets I think it's safe to say things got a little more brutal, but that's pretty ridiculous to expect that to be covered in more detail.

>megalomaniac asshole with a god complex that tries to force his ideology dies alone, sobbing and bleeding in some stairs

Gee user I don't know.

Literally first episode he's like, "i've gotten rid of the world's worst criminals, and soon I'll get rid of them all". He's kira for like 3 years, he killed a shitton of petty criminals.

>that's pretty ridiculous to expect that to be covered in more detail
But that's the point. None of it is covered in any detail. It's all vaguely alluded to and not explored at all. Which is fine as long as you don't think the show is actually about the social consequences of Kira's actions.

>You're just an idiot for having different arbitrary opinions than my arbitrary opinions
no u

It's obnoxious when people decide hurting other people is ok but when they're about to get hurt suddenly absolute morality is real and it's standing between you and them. If you're going to harm others at least accept you have it coming when they harm you back.

>None of it
>legislation
of fucking course, it's a television show. Even western shows wouldn't do that shit much more than DN.
>It's all vaguely alluded to and not explored at all
If you just use your brain you don't need every little thing spelled out for you.

Shut it, you soft palm sissy
We've all been there where we could not find anything to feed ourselves or someone we love.
It's only instinct to turn to crime just to survive

No criminal takes pride in what they do, but they just have no other choice

Maybe if you try working a sweat on your back instead of preaching on an Apple computer you'll understand it a bit

If you're just going to think about it yourself what do you even need the fucking show for? I can do that and my conclusion is that it would be a clusterfuck and increase crime dramatically by undermining the public faith in key institutions. Which clearly isn't anything like the show.

>everyone has stolen shit to avoid starvation, this is a universal experience people should be able to relate to
wew

it's not even a problem with you committing crimes if you decide morality is a spook. but after you do that you don't get to start crying about how other people don't have the right to shoot you while you're trying to run away with their shit

How would it undermine public faith in institutions if they're still acting as usual, just with an insane serial killer on the loose who'll just kill you while behind bars instead of serving time. At most I see the police fearing being seen as brutal enforcers on their cam footage so they might have a bit more restraint, which would be good, but they'll still shoot on feel since they also don't want to die by everyday criminals.

Funny you mention that
You can get your firearm license revoked if you shoot a thief who was running away
That's not classified under self-defense and, depending on the state, can get you arrested for homicide

Like what I said, you're an idiot for thinking a common thief deserves capital punishment.
Thank goodness they don't give firearm license to retards like you

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yeah, a lot of soft hearted people take pity on entitled hypocrites like you.

>i'm going to keep pretending my feelings have something to do with intelligence
i can see why you had to resort to theft

Just shut the fuck up, mate.

>only criminals being harmed
And false convictions, and anyone who got their named spammed hard enough on an image board. But as long as you stick to tax evasion and corporate exploitation of loopholes, you're in the clear.

Eliminating "visible" crime doesn't magically mean society's ills are fixed. You still have scarcity, poverty, and mental illness. You still have niggers raising child soldiers and mudslimes blowing themselves up in Middle Eastern town squares, spics trading drugs and the spillover into the rest of the world. Even if the head of a cartel is known, once it's decapitated, someone else will just assume his place and know to be more secretive.

When it comes to choosing between starving to death or being struck down by god, you're going to take your chances. And perhaps even worse, by normalizing violence by legitimizing "I can kill whomever I don't like" and effectively sabotaging the power of legitimate government, you embolden faceless revolutionaries who will make bids for power, and once it escalates to civil war, any semblance of stability is irreparably shattered.

>do everything right
>lose because of your underling

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The message is that arrogant people always lose. It's best to know your limitations and stay humble. Near only won because he acknowledged his weaknesses and had help from people whose strengths countered his weaknesses.

>bawww
why are you so upset about hearing someone else's opinions on morality? it's almost as if your superior intellect can't logically refute the idea that you're a shitty person

>You still have niggers raising child soldiers and mudslimes blowing themselves up in Middle Eastern town squares
Those seem like visible crimes. And a world with no visible crime is still preferable to the current world. It doesn't seem likely forcing crime underground and making violence risker would somehow increase the total amount of crime happening.

>And perhaps even worse, by normalizing violence by legitimizing "I can kill whomever I don't like" and effectively sabotaging the power of legitimate government
There's no such thing as an objectively justified monopoly on violence, just a monopoly by people you do or don't agree with. If someone can magically make people drop dead they have the monopoly pretty well established so it doesn't even make sense to worry about revolutions.

Because it publicly undermines the state's ability to set punishments for crimes? And does so in a way that conflicts badly with the average person's morality? And no one really knows what crimes will be punished in this way? And that he does this while implicitly holding legislators (and anyone with a public profile) hostage because again no one knows what he'll kill you for?
How the fuck doesn't it undermine public faith in the entire justice system?

I guess I was mainly held up on your feeling that crime would skyrocket. Sure people were less reliant on the justice system because it wasn't the greatest power anymore, but the new power is even more brutal, so I don't see why you think that would spark more crime seeing as it's people running to their deaths. What I could see it do is raise crime behind the scenes a bit, but they'd have to mask the effects and hope kira doesn't become aware. In public doesn't make sense for that to happen.

But not so visible that Light would have access to the name and face of every warlord or terrorist or gang leader. And it will only embolden them they realize they can get away with it as long as they keep their identities under wraps, as well as inspiring imitators. The lack of omniscience ultimately dismantles that monopoly quite readily. And that's even without considering the possibility that a shinigami might feel like conveniently losing another Death Note for shits and/or giggles.

He can just take control of the current power structures by threatening them. Maybe he'll need supporters to install in positions of power but that seems realistic. Especially with surveillance technology as long as he can take everything over once he should be able to maintain his power. So it's not like there's a tradeoff, there's just potential divine retribution on top of whatever else he decides should stay.

>And it will only embolden them they realize they can get away with it as long as they keep their identities under wraps, as well as inspiring imitators
My point is the people who want to go around committing crimes knowing they'll get smitten the instant the CIA finds out what their name is a subset of the people who decide they want to go around committing crimes now. You're not going to get current non-criminals deciding to go into crime because they think the risk of being smitten makes it a sexier career choice.

Imagine having a magic book that kills people anonymously and still getting caught.
what a dipshit

It doesn't really come out that much. Both Light and L call themselves justice, and almost right after that L admits that he wants to catch Light for entirely personal and selfish reasons, while Light's hypocrisy is more apparent because we follow his every movement. Even the police isn't acting out of justice, they just act out of pragmatism, because even if Kira targets only imprisoned criminals, it doesn't change the fact that there's a dude out there that can kill anyone anytime, and governments don't want their authority challenged even if they were happy to get such a reduction on the costs of their prisons.

Also, you have to consider that the authors were wriiting a story with a MC that murders tons of people each chapter in Shonen Jump, when they posed morality questions it was more to avoid desensitizing the readers about the mass murder. The Death Note itself was already pretty dehumanizing, by doing something as impersonal as writing a name, you could end the life of a person, without the author having a chance to draw a scene about the murderer steeling his resolve or the victim's last minutes of desperation, which didn't even exist because the Death Note controls even the last actions before death. Calling attention upon the fact that countless people died wasn't done out of morality, but to make sure people didn't forget.

Bad guy has to lose user

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> If left on his own, undisturbed, this overman, Light Yagami, would have reduced crime by 70-85% with only criminals being harmed

He only killed criminals that were already in prison. No security agency has reliable information on the names of every people involved in human trafficking, drug dealing, corporate fraud, and other tons of criminal activities. Kira could only kill people already in prison or dumbasses that would take hostages in a school in Japan. He couldn't have even stopped the New Zealand mosque shooting. The 75-80% figure is mentioned without even explaining how did Kira do it or how did they measure the results, because it was just impossible to explain with any number of asspulls. And about the wars, if you really think that Israel and Palestina would stop killing each other just because a Japanese kid threatens to kill them both, you're deluded (realistically, he could threaten to kill only the few people whose names and faces he could get, and only before they catch on the fact that they have to hide their names or faces). Only teenagers could believe for a second that Kira's plan would work.

>Those seem like visible crimes
Please just tell me how would you get the names of every warlord in the world.

Be dumb enough to actually give Light his real name. I know that she was forced to fail because it was too early on the story, but every people seems to have a brain fart at the time of dealing with Light. Look at his fucking husband. "I was forced to reveal my real name to one of my suspects in a very unusual situation, but I definitely don't think it's worth reporting it to my superiors, on the off chance that I die and this becomes an important clue". I don't even know why did he have a badge with his real name on him.

>Please just tell me how would you get the names of every warlord in the world.
Ask the CIA.

Or ask them for his location and send someone with magic eyes and binoculars. Or start killing his more exposed underlings until people stop wanting to work for him. Or tell the army I acquired through my monopolization of force to go fuck him up.

Also you keep demanding a perfect eradication of crime. No one is claiming that would happen. It would still be reduced.

I think the point is not who's justice is right and wrong, but the motivation and mentally behind their actions.
Yes, Kira kill criminals, but he's at heart a narcissist psychopath and have zero empathy, an evil men who used other and have no problem at all killing good people and innocent.
While L and all the police want justice too, they are at core, good hearted people who want to stop criminal and psycho like Kira.
If Kira actually a men who wants to be hero and do good, he won't kill L the first place and all the police who want to bring him to justice.

>ie scene when kid begs officer not to report his petty theft
Since the USA police regularly shoots black people that haven't commited any crime, they must have lots of names of black people, both criminals and innocent, on their databases, without mentioning their prisons full of blacks and latinos. Kira must have killed more color people than the Ku Klux Klan by now.

Turns out killing everyone you don't like doesn't actually fix anything

*everything

>Also you keep demanding a perfect eradication of crime. No one is claiming that would happen. It would still be reduced

Only in Death Note world where everybody is retarded. Hiding your name is stupidly easy, plenty of criminals go for years without even being suspected. Again, the CIA and every other security agency has limited and unreliable ways to get information, and there's no way for a single person to acquire that information, that's why they have so many agents and take so much time investigating. And I don't want a total erradication of crime, but again, you're deluded if you think Kira could stop a single African child soldier. The guerillas would merely use Kira for their benefit, sneaking out information about their enemies and hiding their own names. It would merely change the game. If he really managed to put a dent on their activities, they would just send people to Japan and kill people until they manage to kill him or kill enough people to make anyone stop wanting to help him. He's a single person, and if he can get info on an African warlord, sure as hell the African warlords can track down the info and eventually realize that a Japanese kid is behind everything. Again, Kira only works because the authors didn't put any thought explaining how does it actually works and because everybody else is just retarded on Kira's benefit. You didn't even address how stupid is to think that a war, any war, would actually stop just because people is afraid of a Japanese kid (and yes, in Death Note L was the one that revealed that the killer was a human, but authorities had enough reasons to think the same because of details like Kira failing to kill people with their names misspelled, and with enough time, it would be more and more evident for everybody that Kira is human and even where is he from, L merely did it faster).

The message is you couldn't fix the world by killing everybody you don't like. Many people stiil seems to try, so I guess it's pretty good message.

I think the most ironic part is that the "good" and normal Light also think
Kira is a evil self righteous psychopath and want to bring justice to Kira when he and L team up try to catch him(self)

it's not like a first world country couldn't take down an african warlord if they wanted to. just no one gives enough of a shit. you can always take over the first world, conquer the rest of the world, then institute draconian requirements on publicly broadcasting birth certificates or whatever determines 'true names'

>africa would just send soldiers on death missions to a first world country (on submarines or something i guess?) until the population was terrorized into fearing them instead of the guy who kills his opponents with magic
i don't think that would work.

the whole things about names being hideable is really just a consequence on killing someone based on their "true name" being stupid and potentially meaningless. in this particular setting you might be able to give your spies magic eyes to deal with a lot of that.

>What's the message of Death Note?
"Wouldn't it be neat to watch two autistic geniuses play 4D chess against each other?"
>Why is everyone praising this shit?
Because the answer to the above question is "Yes."

Kindly reminder that the Japanese live action movies are significantly better than the anime and manga.

People said that Halle and Mello had chemistry, and is strongly hint to have romantic and sexual relationship. But than people also said that Mello is gay and homosexual.
So what is he ? a bi ?

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Isn't the entire reason why Light turned out as he did just due to his mind doing the whole "justice" thing as a sort of defense mechanism to prevent himself from getting a breakdown from killing two people at the very beginning when "testing" the Death Note? In other words he actually had morals similar to his father, but he forced himself to abandon them due to fear of how he'd "judge himself under them". Basically Light's father was right. Light was a miserable person because he was an actual good guy who picked it up.

The message is to trust the mainstream media to decide who is a criminal.

imagine needing a moral message after watching any story.
Are you under 15 year old by any chance?
Sorry kid but world isn't always black and white

Power destroys people and people do not realize it. More the power, more the person gets evil minded

No real message. Maybe: death is inevitable and if you screw around too much with your lust for power in this life, you move on to the next one faster. Like Shikoku Shoujo somewhat.

I always took Death Note more as like a strategy and tactics study about how the change the world with an unfair advantage.

There might be such advantages in the future, in a smaller scale, if you are smart enough.

Code Geass was in this sense a direct copy..

The world loves and has remorse for the criminals and their bullshit son stories about how they are the true victims, mean while everyone one forgets about the true victims..lifes they ruined...#deathnoteisthetruegod

>Light was literally right and did nothing wrong.
>He decreased all crime in the nation by like 70% or something.
That doesn't mean he was right. That only means the anime is badly written.
If I think repetedly bashing my head against the wall is the best way to end hunger, and hunger actually ends, that doesn't mean I'm right. It only means I'm in a badly written anime.

For the most part hubris

Kira thinks he's god, he isn't god
he can still die
he can still get shot
he can still get flanked by people
he can still get outsmarted
but for some reason he still believed he could become god with his magic death book

You misunderstand the underlying meaning behind why Light calls himself a god. It's a defense mechanism he got after he killed two people due to the power of the Death Note that makes someone "try it out at least once". Light looked like he was about to suffer from a long-term mental trauma due to that because he actually believed in the same sort of justice as his father despite all the trashtalk of his about a boring and rotten world.
But then his mind "saved" him from the potential mental trauma by rationalizing his actions as being that of a judge and it went all downhill from there. It's also the reason why he got triggered by Lind L. Tailor's words so much. If he let it slide, he'd have an even worse mental trauma because he'd have to live with the fact that he killed even more people to cover up his broken spirit.
All the people calling Light a manchild should look again. The real reason is that just a bundled mess of defense mechanisms instead.
You see that part when Light refuses to use a gun after he lost his memories because at his core he doesn't want to be a murderer, but due to the compelling force of the Death Note to try it out once, his self with the memories got himself into a devious cycle that he cannot escape from.

>anime needs to have a "message"
Cringe

The morality is mostly irrelevant. It's lasting appeal lies in the amazing direction of the anime that kept things going at a break neck pace, and it's overall concept that can be analysed from a ton of different angles.

The message is that justice and who is right actually depends on who wins and how it perceived.

Light Yagami said himself that if he wins he is justice...if he loses he is a criminal.