Light Yagami is the god of a new universe. It’s not hard to see why.
Is there anyone else who can kill with a notebook of his own?
Being a god is not that easy.
The Death Note has its rules and it is important to follow them.
Death Note is an excellent anime drama.
It’s not just the cat-and-mouse dynamic that makes this show so special.
L and Light live in an amazing fictional world that has intricate rules for supernatural elements.
Here are ten rules of Death Note as shown in anime and ten rules of Death Note that you don’t know about.
This is a list of important guidelines for the story and setting.
1. Whoever is in possession of this note will die.
Even if Death Note has yet to be seen, chances are you’re familiar enough with anime to know about this story.
This is one of the few facts that the series has, and it’s the one that all other events and decisions revolve around.
The plot of Death Note is like that of a Superman comic.
With an unstoppable hero and suspense around his ability to exercise his power, it’s easy to see how the suspense revolves.
It’s not as simple as just writing someone’s name.
Light is acutely aware of the possible repercussions even before he uses the Death Note.
Light spends the first episode contemplating his first victim and concludes that it can’t be someone he doesn’t know.
Even a casual acquaintance would be suspicious enough to suspect it.
This is the world Light lives and works in.
Every action creates unexpected ripples that he soon faces against those who know how to read them.
It is possible to alter the death conditions beyond a heart attack.
However, paradoxically, these elaborate measures are easier to implement because of the skill of Light’s enemies.
Light’s experiments using Death Note’s capabilities start in the first season.
They never stop as a matter of curiosity and survival.
(Note: The term “note” in the rule refers to “notebook.” “Death Note” & “Death Notebook”, both mean the same thing.
2. Unless the writer imagines the person’s face when writing their name, this note will not take effect. Because of this, people who share a name won’t be harmed.
This second rule is more important than the first because it makes the first one possible.
This rule is simple in mechanical terms: you can only kill one person at once.
It’s the only defense against the Death Note.
One must hide or use an alias.
This is the easiest way to be an undercover detective, such as L.
However, figuring out the identity of someone is just one step.
How can you use this information without incriminating yourself?
It takes so long for L to die, even though Misa Amane knew his name from the first time they met.
When L tells the police that Misa is Kira and that he will die if Misa doesn’t, it means he’s using his closeness to Light and Light to make sure he does not.
Even if Light or Misa have his name and face, he’s still invincible.
They can not act as prime suspects.
It is fundamentally different to kill a detective that you are close to than to kill a convict who is on national news.
It’s one thing to know someone’s identity, but it’s quite another to take someone’s life without telling them something you don’t.
3. The person who uses the notebook will not be able to enter Heaven or Hell.
This one is a bit misleading. According to the Death Note, the second and final rule states that “after [humans] have died, they will go to MU (nothingness).
Why mention Heaven and Hell when they don’t exist?
It is a deterrent to all but the most sociopathic people–the “interesting”, Ryuk would say.
Perhaps. It could also refer to the basic immortality of Death Note users in the minds and hearts of those who know them.
Think about Light’s effect on the world during the five years that he holds the Death Note.
The fear of an unknown god that can kill as he pleases grips the world.
However, wars are now halted and the fear has led to a better life for all. From beginning to end, the debate continues: Is Kira a good person?
Is he good?
Is he good or evil?
Even after Light’s passing, there are still pockets of Kira worshippers who wait for their god to rescue them from the wicked.
Or perhaps they have to take responsibility for deciding for themselves who is evil.
This rule may simply reflect a dualistic view of all people in a world where Heaven or Hell are human constructs.
As a species, we cannot decide if Kira is a god or a demon.
This rule is the most widely known and well-known.
The fact that its meaning directly contradicts reality speaks volumes about our inability or refusal to answer the questions that make up human nature.
4. The god of death is under no obligation to reveal how to use the note and its consequences unless asked.
This is another example of certainties that I have mentioned before.
Ryuk declares in the first episode that he will kill Light one day.
Because he is bored, he follows Light around.
He doesn’t need to explain the Death Note at all to Light.
Note the last two words, “Unless asked.” To get the series moving, Ryuk ignores the Shinigami laws.
However, he is still bound to them in different situations.
To kill people, the gods of death exist.
This is how they live. It’s a fact that they can’t escape.
And none of them is interested in helping humans.
Their interactions with humans are highly controlled, and their relationship with us is also unclear.
Why are they so lazy?
Some of them forget to write their names.
Ryuk asks why they are required to give information when requested.
Shinigami can omit, evade, or evade information, but they can not lie.
This raises many questions about our relationship with death.
It is up to us humans to ask the right questions, but let’s not forget that
5. In exchange for half their lifespan, a human can gain the eyes of the God of Death and be able to see someone’s name and remain alive when looking through their eyes.
What is your willingness to go to achieve your vision?
And at what price?
Light has a few lines he can’t cross.
This is not because of any special necessity, but because he doesn’t want to cross them.
This rule serves more than any other in the series as a test of one’s character as a Death Note user.
Light is not willing to sacrifice his life for the sake of others, but he will happily ask them to do so.
Misa does it because the light is her love, but her obsessive love destroys everything around her.
She has made the deal three times.
Soichiro Yagami will make a case for the “correct” use and correct application of the eye power if there is one.
He decided to do the deal because he wanted to bring a murderer to justice.
It was a hard decision.
Light’s father is the only one to accept the ultimate power, with the intention that it will never be used again.
6. To trigger the conditions for death, it must be possible for a human to die or there must be good reason to believe that a human could accomplish it.
This was one of the first lessons Light learned from his experiments with convicts.
This is why you can’t have any Japanese prisoners die at the base of the Eiffel Tower.
This rule provides a significant constraint on death circumstances as ordered by Death Note.
It’s also an oblique commentary about human nature.
A second rule states explicitly that all humans have the potential to commit suicide.
The Death Note is responsible for each death, but it also spurs speculation about the capabilities of the average person.
Though the Death Note is generally restricted to manipulating circumstances, in certain situations–particularly where suicide is concerned–it is shown to affect the psyche of a victim.
Although the criminal who hijacked Light’s bus may have done something like that, what can we make of Naomi Misora’s strong-willed decision to commit suicide?
What made her life so difficult?
What would it look like if there were a fundamental force that could drive you to do unspeakable acts?
7. Even a shred of the page has all the power of the Death Note.
This rule, like the Shinigami eye deal, is a test of the user’s ingenuity.
The Death Note allows you to cut pages, or bits of pages, and store them somewhere else to write on.
This gives the user access to infinite possibilities.
As Raye Penber demonstrated, one can manipulate a piece of paper to write names.
The Death Note’s owner is limited only to his ambition and resources when he has two additional rules.
One states that names can be written with any material.
8. Whether by suicide or accident, if the person’s death causes the deaths of others, the person will die of a heart attack. This is to protect other people’s lives.
Although it is not at the top of a long, lengthy list, this rule remains the most important.
The Death Note cannot cause a victim to die. If the President of the United States orders nuclear strikes, he will die from a heart attack.
Why?
Why would Death Note be concerned about “other lives not being influenced” in a notebook that warns of unanticipated consequences?
This may not be about minimizing impact per se, but rather about focusing on scale limitations.
Even Death Note users have to share the planet with more than seven billion others.
There’s only so much one person can do to make the world a better place.
The causes of catastrophes are not often caused by one person alone.
They are the result of many people making different decisions about whether or not they will act.
Although the Death Note can be used to kill, it’s just as difficult to convince someone to murder by talking to it.
It is difficult, but not impossible.
Although the first live-action movie found a way around it, it would have been impossible to duplicate the circumstances.
9. If the god of death uses the Death Note to kill an assassin he likes, the assassin’s life is longer, but the god of death dies.
This rule causes Misa directly to enter the story.
If the Shinigami Gelus had not taken pity upon her and killed her assailant, then Rem, the death god Rem, wouldn’t have intervened and given her the Death Note.
It is impossible to predict where the series might have ended.
To move away from plot questions, this rule also highlights an inextricable principle of Shinigami law: One cannot prolong life but only shorten it.
This is a little too simplistic.
Another rule says that the Death Note can sometimes be used in the human world to affect the lives of other people or reduce their life expectancy, even though their names may not be in the Death Note.
Also, killing someone will alter the balance between life and death.
Even humans are aware of this.
This rule seems to block true altruism by a Shinigami.
A god of death can not knowingly allow someone to live longer.
The other rule is vague and it is impossible to understand the full consequences of murder.
What does this say about those who use the Death Note to gratify their selfish needs, such as the pain of death?
10. Without regard to their original eyesight, anyone having the eye power of the god of Death will have an eyesight of over 3.6.
The Japanese equivalent of 20/20 eyesight, 3.6, can see 3.6 times as much detail in an image as someone with perfect 20/20 vision.
This is an advantage of the Shinigami eyes.
It’s not related to their ability to discern identities.
Even perfect human vision can’t see names or lifespans.
What impact does this have on the series, then?
It has absolutely no bearing on the series, which is part of its appeal.
This rule would not affect the story.
It is only one example of the thoughtful consideration that went into creating the Death Notice world.
These rules, which I have outlined in this article, are ten out of more than a hundred in sixty-seven sections and govern all possible situations and human relations relating to the Death Note and Shinigami.
What happens if a Death Note is destroyed when a name has been written?
What happens if you need to write multiple pages for a name?
What if you misspell it?
It is essential to have rules when creating a world, especially when you are writing characters who bend or break them.
Conflict and creativity are driven by constraints.
Rule XXI.1 doesn’t just sound funny; it’s part of a living story that recognizes that the devil is in all the details.
Some of these rules are not included in the main series.
This creates some fascinating lore that many fans don’t know about.
What other Death Note rules are you curious about?
These are ten Death Note rules that manga-only fans probably have never heard of.
