Persona and Shadow: The Journey of an Anime Antihero

Abstract

This paper aims to examine the character of Yagami Light in Madhouse’s anime adaptation of the famous manga series Death Note (2006-2007). Light, the protagonist of the series, is viewed with regards to his role as an antihero despite being the hero in the anime story. He is examined through the concept of the Carl Jung’s archetypes. This paper focuses on two contradictory archetypes which are the persona and the shadow, explaining the characteristics of an antihero. Henceforth, this paper discovered about the portrayal of those archetypes along with the reflection of anti-hero characteristics performed by the protagonist. Moreover, the character and series as a whole are compared to the stages of Christopher Vogler’s Writer’s Journey (2007), while Joseph Campbell’s concepts in A Hero with a Thousand Faces (1950) are also referenced. Each stage of Vogler’s theory is examined and compared with Death Note’s narrative, exploring the similarities as well as the deviations. Light and events of the series are explored with regards to the portrayals and variations of the stages of the Hero’s Journey as derived from Vogler’s theories. Unfortunately, Light is not able to complete the journey because of his defeat, death, and failure of rebirth and resurrection.