An Analysis of Death Note The Musical in both English and Japanese
(Read only copy)
Current Word Count of this Version: 7285
Current Word Count of full version (still writing): 21100
This is a piece I am writing purely because of how much I enjoy the musical. I am not a professional in any way; I am an amateur. Amateur is a word that originated from the Latin word ‘amare’, which means ‘to love’. Amateurs do something simply because they love it, without expecting payment. An amateur is also ‘a person who is incompetent at a particular activity.’ I am an amateur in both senses. This piece will not be a professionally written analysis, but merely the view of a fan. Please don’t expect anything to be written to a high standard. This is a piece for fun.
I finished my first watch of the musical via YouTube in March 2024. Since then, I have rewatched it, possibly too many times, and have gone through various periods of explaining the musical on my social media accounts. It will be to the surprise of no one that I am finally writing this piece.
I aim to discuss the musical version that was staged in Japan in 2015. I am going to be comparing the original concept album, which was released in December 2014, with the Japanese translations of the songs, both of which give slightly different but equally important insight into characters that will be familiar to numerous people. The music was composed by Frank Wildhorn, with lyrics by Jack Murphy, and the script by Ivan Menchell.
I will also be adding information and references from the source material of the manga written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. I will explain all references as if the reader is unfamiliar with them. This includes, but is not limited to, the original manga and anime, the live-action adaptations, the concept album, and the 2015 stage version itself. This means that this essay will not be spoiler-free.
I am limited in what I can write about, as I have not seen the show live, so unfortunately cannot comment on the different translations of the dialogue between the Japanese and the English versions. I can only comment on the English translations of the Japanese dialogue. For this purpose, I will be comparing only the dialogue within the musical to the dialogue within the anime. For this purpose, the primary focus of this essay will be on the songs of the musicals. There are also specific songs that were written only for the stage version to help with plot movement, in which case I will be talking about their addition to the musical and what it adds compared to the concept album.
I am aware that some of these songs have now been staged in London and therefore have English lyrics; however, as there have also been other lyrical changes, all the analysis will be between the 2014 concept album and the 2015 stage version only. Which means some songs will only have the English translations of the Japanese lyrics. I will be taking this from the sub of the Japanese version, and I cannot comment on the accuracy of the translation.
There is apparently an album in the works with the London cast. If this gets released, I will write about the lyric changes and also use the lyrics to write a comparison between the 2015 stage version and the songs for which I only have the translated lyrics. But for clarity, these will be clearly labelled, as this shifts slightly from the original purpose of this essay.
Light Yagami is an intelligent young man, an honour student, who resents what appears to be a relentless increase in crime and corruption in the world around him. His life undergoes a drastic change when he discovers a mysterious notebook, known as the "Death Note", lying on the ground. The Death Note's instructions claim that if a human's name is written within it, that person shall die. Light is initially sceptical of the notebook's authenticity, but after experimenting with it, he realizes that the Death Note is real. After meeting with the previous owner of the Death Note, a shinigami named Ryuk, Light plans to become a god and establish a new world order by passing his keen judgment on those he deems evil and anyone who gets in his way.
Soon, the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of the International Police Organisation and a mysterious detective known only as "L". L quickly learns that the serial killer, dubbed by the public as "Kira", derived from the typical Japanese pronunciation of the English word "killer", is located in Japan. He also concludes that Kira can kill people without laying a finger on them. Light realises that L will be his greatest nemesis, and a nuanced game of psychological cat and mouse between the two begins.
Misa Amane, another Death Note owner, finds Light. Obsessed with Kira after the death of her parents' murderer, she devotes herself to helping Light but is captured by L. Light makes a plan involving renouncing ownership of both Death Notes, and all of his memories of them, and turns himself into L for surveillance. Together, Light and L investigate eight people from the company "Yotsuba" who are using a Death Note for their own profit. While arresting them, Light recovers all his memories when he touches the Death Note. He remembers and continues his plan of compelling the former owner of Misa's Death Note, the shinigami Rem, into killing L and his aide Watari.
After L's death, Light is given the position of the "new L" by the Japanese Task Force. Four years later, Near and Mello - two children who were raised to be successors to L - appear, intending to find Kira. In the meantime, Kira has gained much public support and has contacts. Mello, one of L's successors, kidnaps Sayu Yagami, Light's little sister, as a bargaining chip to get the Death Note. The Japanese Task Force plans to go to Los Angeles to rescue Sayu, but ends up losing the Notebook. The Task Force later attempts to retrieve it and succeeds in doing so. However, as a result of an explosion that Mello uses to cover his escape, Light's father Soichiro Yagami dies.
Near begins to suspect the second L of being Kira thus causing some members of the Japanese task force to also openly suspect him. Realising the risk of being caught, Light has Misa give up ownership of her Death Note. He then finds his next successor, Teru Mikami, a strong, almost crazed Kira supporter. Mikami later recruits a new spokesman for Kira, Kiyomi Takada, a newscaster and one of Light's former college girlfriends. Teru Mikami and Kiyomi Takada continue killing criminals while Light is unable to do so himself. Kiyomi is later kidnapped by Mello and is forced to kill him with a hidden piece of the Death Note. Light kills Kiyomi to avoid her implicating him after she uses the note to kill Mello. Mikami, unaware of this action, writes her name in his notebook, exposing it to the members of the SPK. Near has it replaced with a fake notebook and, in a final confrontation with Light, can use it to prove that Light is Kira. Realising that Light had lost, Ryuk writes down Light's name in his own notebook, killing him with a heart attack.
Written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata, Death Note was first published in Shueisha's shōnen manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from December 2003 to May 2006, the series's 108 chapters were later collected into twelve tankōbon volumes by Shueisha, released from April 2, 2004, to July 4, 2006. A tankōbon, an independent or standalone book, is a standard publishing format for books in Japan. The term specifically refers to a printed collection of manga that was previously published in a serialised format.
Author Tsugumi Ohba wanted to create a suspense series and after the publication of the pilot chapter, the series was not expected to receive approval as a serialised comic. Learning that Death Note had received approval and that Takeshi Obata would create the artwork, Ohba said, they "couldn't even believe it". Due to positive reactions, Death Note became a serialised manga series. Death Note has since sold over 30 million copies and is highly regarded among manga fans.
Directed by Tetsurō Araki and animated by Madhouse, the Death Note Anime aired on Nippon TV on October 4, 2006, and finished its run on June 27, 2007, totalling 37 episodes. The series was co-produced by Madhouse, Nippon Television, Shueisha, D.N. Dream Partners and VAP. In North America, the series was licensed by Viz for residents in the United States to use "Download-to-Own" and "Download-to-Rent" services while it was still airing in Japan.
This move was seen as "significant because it marked the first time a well-known Japanese anime property was made legally available in the United States for domestic audiences to download while the title was still airing on Japanese television". The downloadable episodes contained the original Japanese audio track and English subtitles.
DVDs of the series have also been released, containing both an English dubbed audio track, produced by Ocean Productions, and the original Japanese audio track with optional English subtitles. Viz announced at Anime Expo 2007 that the first DVD was officially released on November 20, 2007, in both regular and special editions.
Death Note was due to make its North American television premiere in Canada on September 7, 2007. However, the show was removed from the schedule at the last minute and the Canadian premiere was pushed back to October 26, 2007. The series premiered in the U.S. on October 20, 2007, at midnight on Adult Swim and ran until January 10, 2010, when its contract expired. The last episode aired on YTV, on July 4, 2008, and would later air on Adult Swim two days later. The show was removed from YTV's schedule on July 5, 2008, with its last airing being a rerun of the final episode at 1:30 a.m. ET. Soon after, Bionix became a 2-hour block on Saturday nights. The show also streamed online free on Adult Swim Video, with a new episode available every Saturday afternoon, on the day of its broadcast premiere.
The complete series of the Death Note anime was released in the UK on September 28, 2009. However, it was available to stream online beforehand. At the same time as the release of Death Note, the emo subculture was also going through its own peak of popularity, and the two quickly became intertwined.
Over the years there have been many live-action adaptations, and unfortunately, not all of them were well received.
The first time Death Note was adapted into a live-action film was in 2006 with two films released in Japan in the same year. This would be a series of a total of three films.
The first two films were directed by Shusuke Kaneko and the third was directed by Hideo Nakata and produced by Nippon Television, CG production of all three films was done by Digital Frontier and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures Japan.
The first film, simply titled Death Note, premiered in Japan on June 17, 2006, and topped the Japanese box office for two weeks, pushing The Da Vinci Code into second place. The first film briefly played in certain North American theatres on May 20–21, 2008. The film was broadcast in Canadian theatres for one night only on September 15, 2008. Later the DVD was released on September 16, 2008, one day after the Canadian showing. The sequel, Death Note 2: The Last Name, premiered in Japan on November 3, 2006. It was featured in U.S. theatres in October 2008.
A spin-off from the films named L: Change the World was released in Japan on February 9, 2008. It is focused on the final 23 days of L's life, as he solves one final case involving a bio-terrorist group. Two dubbed versions of the film were shown in the United States on April 29 and 30, 2009.
In August 2016, a three-part miniseries entitled Death Note: New Generation was announced as a part of the Death Note live-action film series and aired in September. It bridges the 10-year gap between the previous films and the then-upcoming 2016 film.
A fourth Japanese Death Note film was released in 2016 and featured a cyber-terrorism setting with the inclusion of six Death Notes brought into the human world.
In 2017 an American adaptation was released on Netflix on August 25, 2017. The film was directed by Adam Wingard and was written by Charles Parlapanides, Vlas Parlapanides, and Jeremy Slater. It starred Nat Wolff, Lakeith Stanfield, Margaret Qualley, Shea Whigham, Paul Nakauchi, Jason Liles, and Willem Dafoe.
This adaptation had everything going for it at the start; it had a huge budget of between $40–50 million and was predicted to be a huge hit based on how popular the other adaptations were. The emo kids who grew up with the manga and anime were older, and they were hoping that, based on how popular it was at the time, it would be enough to draw them towards this new adaptation. Unfortunately, it was not well received. To date, it has received a rating of 36% on Rotten Tomatoes from 77 reviews, and 23% on Popcornmeter with over 5000 reviews.
Many regarded the adaptation as too Americanised. One change was changing Light’s name from Light Yagami to Light Turner. Perhaps an attempt to bring new audiences to the adaptation, but to many, it felt like a pointless change.
Light, the protagonist, was significantly changed in the new adaptation, portraying him as a more troubled and rebellious teenager compared to the intelligent and driven student in the anime, which impacted the story's dynamic and moral complexity. The original painted Light as a genius who started with a plan to make the world a better place, something that, to begin with, you are meant to agree with. Only as his plans and motives change do we see him for who he really is. His intelligence plays a huge role in the story. Changing that changed the motives of Light and ultimately the whole plot. The film also missed out on a lot of Light’s internal dialogue and conflict, something that is key to the anime. Whether intentionally or not, they dumbed Light down to fit the troubled teen narrative, and that was the start of the film’s problems. For characters who were always portrayed as geniuses and every move was planned, adding to the thrill of the chase, dumbing them down lost a lot of that charm and thrill.
With this new Light came another issue. The main change was the setting, which originally was Tokyo and switching that to Seattle led to the alteration of the cultural context to fit a Western audience, resulting in a loss of the original Japanese societal themes and nuances that were crucial to the story.
Depending on the version you watch, the Death Note anime is between 14 and 18 hours long, fitting that into an hour and forty-minute film was never going to be easy; however, the film has a huge pacing issue. Many of the key moments are lost, and the film sacrifices character development and the thrill of the chase dynamic between Light and L, making the story feel shallow and rushed. This was something that the fans of the anime loved and also led to a lack of depth in characters like L, who was portrayed as less intellectually stimulating and strategically complex compared to the anime. This meant that a lot of the charm and what attracted audiences to his character was lost.
Ultimately, the main downfall of this adaptation was the fact that the original Death Note explores profound questions about morality and justice, which were significantly downplayed in the movie, resulting in a less engaging narrative. The whole theme of Death Note is about justice, and that plot point was lost.
One of these alone would have been enough to make a much-loved and well-known story feel less familiar; however, a combination of all of these factors ultimately led to long-time fans of the anime feeling disappointed with an adaptation that barely looked or felt like the source material. I have not covered everything because, unfortunately, more things led to the downfall of this hugely budgeted film. However, I have picked out the main things.
I wanted to cover the other adaptations of Death Note because to understand how good an adaptation the Death Note musical is, it’s important to understand the adaptations that came before and after it. Especially considering that the Netflix adaptation came two years after the Japanese stage version, it is a good comparison.
I wanted to add this section because the rise in both the emo subculture and the Death Note anime within the UK are ultimately linked.
Between 2007 and 2012, I was an emo teen growing up in England. At the time, my friends and I discovered the Death Note anime, like many other emo teens, and very quickly it became part of the emo subculture. Teens carried around Death Note notebooks and bags. Style from the anime was adapted into everyday wear. Death Note was printed on everything from T-shirts to stickers and homeware, and people customised their clothes, such as Converse shoes, to match Death Note’s vibes.
Emo is a music genre and music-based subculture characterised by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and post-hardcore from the mid-1980s Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. Since the early to mid-2000s, fans of emo music who dress like this are referred to as "emo kids" or "emos". The emo subculture was stereotypically associated with social alienation, sensitivity, misanthropy, introversion, and angst. Purported links to depression, self-harm, and suicide, combined with its rise in popularity in the early 2000s, inspired a backlash against emo, with some bands, including My Chemical Romance and Panic! at the Disco, rejecting the emo label because of the social stigma and controversy surrounding it.
With the rise of emo teens in the early 2000s and the dark themes of Death Note, it was quickly adapted into the emo subculture at its height and became hugely popular. With conventions at the time full of Death Note cosplayers of all ages. L with his dark, swooping hair and dark under-eye shadows that could be achieved with smudged eyeliner, became an emo icon. Misa, with her gothic style often involving black lace, hand warmers, striped socks, and black boots, became a style icon for emo girls, with various people adapting her style not only for cosplay but for everyday wear. Memes involving still images of Death Note were shared constantly on and offline.
As both became hugely popular at the same time, they became linked forever. Those who were around at the time cannot think of one of them without the other. I believe that the rise of the emo style within the UK at the time helped hugely with the popularity of the anime and manga, and subsequently the popularity of the other adaptations, including the musical.
An English concept album was recorded in December 2014, featuring Jeremy Jordan as Light, Jarrod Spector as L, Eric Anderson as Ryuk, Carrie Manolakos as Rem, Michael Lanning as Soichiro, Adrienne Warren as Misa, and Laura Osnes as Sayu. Eight songs from the album were released online in early 2015. As of 2024, 19 songs have been released from this concept album.
In 2015, a musical adaptation of the manga Death Note: The Musical ran in Japan and South Korea. It was originally composed in English by Broadway composer Frank Wildhorn, with lyrics by Jack Murphy and book by Ivan Menchell.
The musical premiered on April 6, 2015, and ran until April 29, 2015, at the Nissay Theatre in Tokyo, Japan, with Kenji Urai and Hayato Kakizawa sharing the role of Light, Teppei Koike as L, Kotaro Yoshida as Ryuk, Fuka Yuduki as Misa, Megumi Hamada as Rem, Takeshi Kaga as Soichiro, and Ami Maeshima as Sayu. This was the first version of the musical to be brought to the stage. Two of the performances were professionally recorded and later aired on TV in Japan. The first with Kenji Urai as Light, aired on October 17th, 2015. The second with Hayato Kakizawa was aired on November 7th 2015
A Korean production of the same musical ran from June 11 to August 11, 2015, in South Korea, starring musical actor Hong Kwang-ho and JYJ member and musical actor Kim Junsu.
An English production directed by Nick Winston was announced in May 2023 to play at the London Palladium for two nights on August 21–22, 2023. It stars Joaquin Pedro Valdes as Light, Dean John-Wilson as L, and Frances Mayli McCann as Misa. A recording of the Palladium cast was announced in October 2023, and as of June 2026, a release date has yet to be announced.
The Japanese version is the one that I have watched online and is the version that I will be discussing in this piece. I will be covering the differences in the translations between the English and Japanese lyrics, the added songs in Japanese, the staging and lighting, and referencing, where I can, the original manga and anime. I will set this out by act and by song. For songs that aren’t on the concept album, I’ve added ‘Japanese version only’ under the song title.
One thing that I will say about the musical however, is that fitting 14 to 18 hours of the anime or all 12 books of the manga into a 2-and-a-half-hour musical is not an easy task, and the musical only really covers the main plot points within the first 15 episodes of the anime before jumping straight ahead to the ending. Even the ending has been changed. But it covers enough of the plot and throws in direct quotes so that it feels familiar for fans while also explaining plot points in a way that people experiencing Death Note for the first time will be able to follow along and enjoy it.
Overture
Sung by: Company
Where is the Justice?
Sung by: Light, Teacher, Students
They're Only Human
Sung by: Ryuk, Rem
Change the World
Japanese version only
Sung by: Light, Company
Hurricane
Sung by: Light
Kira
Sung by: Ryuk, Company
I'm Ready
Sung by: Misa, Backup Singers
We All Need a Hero
Sung by: Sayu, Misa
The Game Begins
Sung by: L
There Are Lines
Sung by: Soichiro, Light
Secrets and Lies
Sung by: L, Soichiro, Light
Hurricane (Reprise)
Sung by: Light
Change the World (Reprise)
Japanese version only
Sung by: Cops
Where is the Justice? (Reprise)
Japanese version only
Sung by: Light, L, Misa, Company
Sung by: Company
Although there is no difference between the song on the concept album and the stage production, except length, this song can only be fully appreciated in person with the stage setting. In the 2015 musical, the song starts as soon as the show begins. With a digital clock starting at 40 seconds and counting down, the visual aspect of this on stage really does add more context compared the just the audio side of the song.
This song is a 55-second long on the concept album featuring the ticking of a clock. However, on stage, the song is exactly 40 seconds, which makes more sense when you know the reason behind the timer.
On stage, there is a digital clock counting down from 40 seconds to signal the start of the show. To those experiencing Death Note for the first time on the stage, this appears as nothing more than a simple countdown to signal the fact that the show is starting soon. However, fans of Death Note will know the significance of 40 seconds.
A few seconds into the song, a simple dramatic tune is playing to add atmosphere and slowly the tune changes to something stronger and eerier, then with 12 seconds left on the timer, the actors sing the word ‘Kira’ over and over. 40 seconds is significant because after writing a name in the Death Note if you do not specify a way that the person dies, they will die 40 seconds later from a heart attack. A simple yet very effective opening to the show. As the timer ends, so does the song, and the lights come up on the stage.
This is the perfect way to open the show, as it not only signals the start with a simple countdown, but it is familiar to those who already know the plot.
Sung by: Light, Teacher, Students
This is the first full song of the musical and is key to setting Light's scene and character development. The scene starts in a classroom where a teacher talks about law and order, and Light states that law and justice are completely different things. The tone of the song starts as a conversation, but as it continues, there is more energy as we can feel Light getting more passionate about what he is saying. This shows that he strongly and confidently believes what he is saying, and does not leave any room for negotiation, something that becomes clear as Light becomes Kira. Kira treats all criminals the same, no matter the level of the crime they committed. To him, a pickpocket is treated the same as a serial killer.
Light:
Where is the justice
When the guilty all go free?
Why don’t we lock them up
And throw away the key?
This is a strong opening, straight to the point. It shows clearly how he feels about the system and how broken it is. He doesn’t feel that the system is fit to deliver ‘justice’.
Teacher:
I see a young man’s anger
Burning in your eyes;
This is something that is shown in the anime and manga; Light’s view is very juvenile and oversimplified. His teacher sees his passion and where he is coming from. This juvenile view is what later leads L to conclude that Kira is a student.
Light:
What you see is my impatience
With your noble compromise;
This solidifies Light’s view on justice, he sees it as very black and white and is impatient with people seeing it as anything other than that. While also being aware of what the police do. He views the way that the police and law deal with justice as noble, it is fair, and doesn’t put those who deal justice over the line of right or wrong. It is noted many times that Light respects and admires his father Soichiro, who is the head of the Kira task force, and shares some of the same morals. However, Soichiro believes that you cannot cross into the grey zone and do something evil to pursue justice, which is shown in ‘There are Lines’. However, Light, and mainly Kira, sees himself as above that, and we can see that as he uses the Death Note.
Light believes that Soichiro’s philosophy is a compromise and sees him as not being willing to do anything in order to seek justice, therefore not using their full potential. Light views this compromise as a middle ground and a weakness. They fear becoming ‘evil’ themselves and they are not willing to cross certain lines to secure justice, something that Light views as a flaw in the system. This line is the difference between Light and his father, and one that Light crosses very quickly, and it spirals because he doesn’t have a strong set of morals himself when seeking justice. He views himself as above that, and because of that, he ends up viewing himself as the god of the new world, the one who passes justice, and the only one who can do it properly. He views it as himself sacrificing part of his life in order to seek justice, something he feels that the police, including his father, don’t do, and this is the key flaw in the system. He later starts to believe that his murder is noble, although he knows his actions are wrong, he is willing to sacrifice his soul in order because he truly believes that he is doing more good than bad.
Light:
Show me what’s right about the wrongs that we allow
Real people need to feel protected here and now;
This whole damn system’s broken way beyond repair
It’s just law
Not law and order;
Not much good and seldom fair
Here we see Light’s motivations, what he intends to do, and his whole reason for writing in the Death Note. Although he hasn’t found it yet, we know what’s going to happen. This whole song is to set up Light’s character and to make you start to agree with Light. The audience is meant to say ‘he has a point’. You’re meant to see his views and agree to some degree at least. Light sees the whole system as not doing anything to protect anyone, and he believes that any action taken by the law is not enough, that people don’t feel protected by the law and that they don’t have faith in it to uphold justice.
Teacher:
Laws were made for everyone
We’re treated all the same;
Light:
Till a lawyer’s tricks can fix the blame;
What about the victims
Waiting for some justice?
How can we turn away
And say that's just the way things are?
What about the families
Hiding in their houses
All of them afraid to walk the street at night
With all their doors locked tight
Tell me where is the justice
If there's any justice
Light disagrees with his teacher, stating that anyone with a good lawyer can avoid convictions or lower the sentence. How is that justice for the victims? He is frustrated with how the justice system handles the crimes and does not work to help the victims and their families.
‘How can we turn away and say that's just the way things are?’ The use of ‘we’ is a way not only to involve his peers in the conversation that is happening between Light and his teacher, but it also involves the audience. Making the audience really think about what he is saying and leading them towards siding with him. This captures the audience.
‘All of them afraid to walk the street at night’ This line at this moment discusses the victims, their families, and everyday people. But as the show progresses, the line flips to mean criminals. Kira sets out to make sure that the criminals feel unsafe walking the streets in case they become a target of Kira.
Teacher:
Your simple arguments have all been made before
The world's not black and white
The choice not either or
Light:
Perhaps it's time we drain the colour from within
Till we're back to seeing black and white
And wrong and right again
His teacher acknowledges Light’s view and says he is not the first person to discuss this view. However, it is not so clean cut. The world is full of a lot more grey areas than black and white.
Light’s juvenile view doesn’t consider the grey area. He is trying to bend everything so it’s either good or bad, with no room for anything else. However, it would only be his view of right and wrong, which may differ from someone else's. At this point, we see more of Kira, how it is his way, and that is the only choice. He will pass justice on those whom he deems to be wrong. Kira replaces right and wrong, with live or die. He can’t see any grey area so all criminals are treated in the same way, from thieves to murderers. He views them all as just criminals. He wants to make the system simple so that justice is simple, without any regard for the type of crime and the possible motives behind it. For example, to him, all thefts are the same and should be treated the same. Whether it is petty theft of food basics to feed your family or grand theft, in his black and white view, both are treated the same. He doesn’t consider the grey area or motive; a crime is a crime.
Teacher:
Overwrought pronouncements won't improve the paradigm
Light:
Till lawyers cutting deals becomes a crime
Let’s break this down.
An ‘overwrought pronouncement’ is an excessively dramatic, highly emotional, or overly elaborate statement, featuring exaggerated rhetoric, lacking emotional restraint, and typically delivered by someone who is extremely tense, agitated, or anxious.
A ‘paradigm’ is a widely accepted framework, pattern, or mental map that shapes how we perceive reality, understand the world, and approach problem-solving.
The teacher is saying that fancy words won’t get Light anywhere, they can talk about it all day, but it won’t fix the system. He can make elaborate declarations about the system, but ultimately it’s not that simple. The way justice is served, through the system, is complex and has been done the same way for a long time. Without a thought-out plan and evidence to back up what he is stating, there is no way he can change it.
Light counters by saying lawyers do that exact thing, they use their fancy lingo to manipulate the system into working in their defendant's favour and succeed. Until that becomes a crime, and the law is broken down into set punishments for every single crime, true justice will never be served. Lawyers cut deals for defendants all the time; in his view, a crime should have a set punishment, no adjustments, no special treatments, no deals. However, by doing that, you completely disregard any other factors in the crime. This works for many crimes, but not for all. A theft of a basic food item from a shop that a struggling family member commits is not the same as a theft of something much larger, such as a car. However, in Light’s view, they would be considered the same; a theft is a theft. This solidifies that Light’s view is very juvenile and oversimplified. But on the surface, his ‘overwrought pronouncements’ are there to convince you that he is right; the whole point of this song is to draw you in and sympathise with him.
Light and classmates:
Let the corporations make the regulations
And hold no one accountable when everything goes wrong;
Let the rich and famous get away with murder;
Every time a high-priced mouth piece starts to talk
His client gets to walk;
Tell me where is the justice?
If there’s any justice
In the anime, Light gives the Death Note to a corporation and lets them do what they want with it. Light allows Ryuk to erase his memories by relinquishing ownership of the Death Note while in police captivity. This allows him to sincerely assist L with the investigation into Kira’s identity. Rem gives the notebook to Kyosuke Higuchi, an executive at the Yotsuba Corporation, who uses it to eliminate business rivals and keep Yotsuba at the top of the corporate world. Light later regains all of his memories by touching the notebook. This isn’t included in the musical, and this line is a possible reflection of these actions.
These actions show that his idea of justice becomes twisted when he thinks of himself as above the law. I think this could be a reference to that, and/or a reference to the fact that big corporations can afford to hire the best lawyers and therefore get through the cracks in the system. If they can afford to hire the best lawyers and win every case, in a way, they own the system, and therefore it works primarily in their favour and against ‘everyday’ people. Who can hold corporations accountable if they own the system that is meant to pass justice? Is that true justice? Everyone knows it isn’t. Kira aims to change that, to make the system more fair.
Light:
Where is the justice
Students:
Tell me where?
Light:
For all the victims?
Students:
Tell me where?
Light:
Where is the justice?
What good is law that can not punish those who break it?
Light centres the victims again, although he is discussing his own idea of justice, he believes he is doing it for the good of the people. This is where we can see the fact that his peers agree with him. This later goes to show how he gets a following from the public, which is shown through websites worshipping Kira. The last line once again solidifies the fact that Light sees justice as something very black and white without any grey area.
Student:
Politicians make their speeches all day long;
While judges pushing pencils mostly get it wrong;
Students:
Mostly get it wrong!
Student #2:
Instead of loopholes for the laws to fall between;
Let some good old fashioned payback
Grease the wheels of the machine;
Students:
Grease the wheels of the machine
At this point, the audience can see that Light has convinced his peers. He is very persuasive, and it is easy to see how Kira manages to gain a following. This section shows the students agreeing with each other and persuading each other that what Light is saying is correct. Once again showing that Light has a very juvenile view on the matter.
Light:
Isn’t everybody sick to death of all this stuff
Can’t we all stand up and say enough?
Students:
Time and stand up! We've had enough!
Justice, Justice, Justice
Now's the time for justice
Light:
Listen to the families hiding in their houses;
Students:
Justice, Justice
Light:
All of them afraid to walk the street at night
With all their doors locked tight;
Students:
Afraid to walk the streets at night
With all their doors locked tight
Light:
We must give them their justice;
Students:
Where is the justice?
Light:
We owe them some justice;
Students:
Where is the justice?
Light and students:
Where is the justice?
The end of the song shows how Light has managed to convince all of his classmates to believe that he is right, and also solidifies the idea in his mind that he could be the one to protect them and everyone else by making the world a place that criminals fear. He gets support from his peers, and they repeat his words. This later appears as people echoing Kira’s words and beliefs.
This song has recently been trending online regarding the current political and social climate and the call for justice to be served towards some high-profile people and companies; at a base level, it is a powerful song about calling for justice to be served and questioning if the justice that we have been told has been done, is true justice, or rather, what they want us to believe.
Regarding the musical, it is the perfect song to start with. It brings both a basic and a deeper level of understanding of Light’s character. With subtle references to the manga and anime, it adds a multi-layer definition to some of the lyrics that fans may recognise. This effort will not be lost on people who are experiencing Death Note for the first time through the stage production, as some of the lyrics' meanings become clearer as the show progresses.
This is great for showing how the subtle westernisation and tailoring of the show to a specific audience can work. The lyrics in the Japanese version are different, as the music was originally written in English on the concept album in 2014, leading to the writers adapting the meaning of the lyrics to fit the Japanese audience. However, the meaning and overall moral of the show are not lost or changed drastically in either language; instead, it is clearer for the audience. With the tailoring of the lyrics, it means that the song can do what it is meant to, provide character context and development, while most importantly, making the audience consider what Light is saying and manipulating them to start supporting him and his ideas. With his classmates also showing their support, it is hard not to feel like Light has a point.
This is something that the 2017 Netflix adaptation failed to do. The westernisation of the story drastically led to it losing its original meaning and the familiarity of the story for the audience, who were already fans of Death Note. As I stated earlier, I do not feel as if this was the only factor in the failure of this adaptation, but it was a mixture of numerous factors.
After watching the musical and then rewatching it, it is clear what this song set out to do, not only regarding building on character development and drumming up support for Light to begin with, but also showing that as Light progresses in Kira, he becomes the very thing he claimed to be fighting against. Light starts by using the Death Note in order to pass judgment and start fighting for justice; however, he ends up using it for his own gain.
‘Not much good and seldom fair’, Kira punishes criminals in the same way, rather than based on their crimes. Someone who steals a purse is treated in the same way as someone who commits murder; they both die. We can all agree that the crimes aren’t at the same level, and as such, shouldn’t be treated the same. Both are not victimless crimes; however, they impact the victims and their families differently. In treating them the same way, the punishment isn’t fair.
In the Japanese lyrics, Light says, ‘But that's always subject to the doctrine of convenience’ when talking about justice. Which is exactly what happens as he becomes Kira. He starts killing people who are opposing him, in particular the FBI. He is twisting the definition of justice for his convenience.
This song, along with Hurricane, shows how someone who is so set on creating a system of true justice can get so lost in their idea that it quickly twists into something entirely different. As Ryuk says to Light, “That means the world’s only evil left would be you.” We will see a drastic change in Light between the two songs, as his motives and overall goals shift from the juvenile Light we see in ‘ Where is the Justice’ to the confident Kira.
This song is important to introduce the audience to Light and to see his viewpoint before discovering the Death Note, so that the audience has something to compare his character to for the rest of the story.
It is important to remember that Light isn’t the hero in the story; he is a complex anti-villain who very quickly gets caught up with his idealistic intention of purging the world of criminals. This song is here to show how he starts as a ‘model student’. Through the following songs, we see him transform into someone who rapidly demonstrates a god complex, narcissism, and a lack of empathy. He sets out to punish only those who break the law, but he also starts assassinating innocent people who seek to discover his true identity.