Light vs. L

Death note is considered to be a masterpiece by many in the anime community. Scenes such as the chip scene, Naomi Misora and Light's encounter, the Light and L tennis match, and many more make the show top tier. Death note excels in a forensic chase, and the big brain moves will leave you in awe. The show is like a big chess game, with Light playing an impossible match against the world's detective forces.

The main character Light Yagami squares off against an independent forensic detective who is called L. L has solved every case he has ever taken on and has solved the hardest cases known to man. The Kira case was something that he just had to jump into. The Kira case was more than just a mass homicide case, since it involved a notebook that is tied to a god of death and is able to kill anyone whose name is written in it. So, who won? Who was smarter?

Since Light outlived L, the obvious answer seems to be Light. However, it is not that obvious, and could be L who won, since his work was entrusted to his successor, Near. Near continued the case and was successful in Light's ultimate capture and death. Both Light and L have surprising similarities in their personalities and characters. One would not expect so many similarities between a mass murderer and a super detective. For one, as L stated, they are both childish and do not like to lose. This could be said about everyone, right? Who likes to lose? Well, in this case, it is extreme. Typically, people can accept defeat and have a line they will not cross just to avoid losing. For example, when someone loses a game of basketball, they shake hands with the opponent, say good game, and get over it. Even with something with higher stakes, people have an ethical code of when they will stop and must accept defeat. They have limits. Both Light and L, however, do not seem to have limits. Light at the beginning of the show decided that he will become the God of the new world by punishing criminals. Once he started getting chased by L and the FBI, nobody was safe from punishment who got in his way, and he even used people's lives in the FBI to his advantage in his match with L. This included his own father. His boundaries seemed to dissolve, and his focus was not about becoming a god that wanted to punish evil people anymore. He got wrapped up into a game that he simply could not afford to lose. Lights lack of morals is obvious, but what about L? He also crosses lines. The first instance is with Lind L. Taylor's life. He sacrificed a criminal's life for the game he started. This is parallel to Light's lack of value for criminal lives. Lives are lives, regardless of whether they are criminal or not, as Light's father said. Both Light and L are willing to sacrifice lives in order to win their game. Also, L consistently lies to his team about his suspicions of Light . The whole investigation, L gives his probability chances of Light being Kira, and they were always fairly to very low. Something like 5% and 1%. However, his self dialogue and persistence on investigating Light is a bit much for such apparently low odds.

Light is very arrogant, confident and he is great with planning ahead and thinking of every possible situation. He has great social and manipulation skills and develops quick thinking. L is very risky, with almost unrealistic deductive skills, and is socially awkward but articulate. Both are quite manipulative and great at forcing people into decisions. Light is arrogant, and this is shown in his murder of Raye Penber. When Raye Penber's fiancée, Naomi, decides to talk to the FBI about information she thought could help the case after Raye Penber's death, Light was cornered and in trouble. However, he manipulated Naomi into trusting him and giving him her name, which he uses to kill her. Light was confident that with no proof, nobody could tie him into any murders, hence confidently acting out, putting him in sticky situations. The biggest display in his arrogance and confidence is when he killed Lind L. Taylor on live television. Again, being confident there was no way he could be associated or connected with the killings, he was baited into killing a criminal on a Television broadcast by L. However, that may have been his biggest mistake because the broadcast was only broadcasted in a specific region of Japan, narrowing the location of search. This also gave L information on Light's killing methods, that he needs and name and a face. This is when Light arrogantly declared that he would not lose. L was a risky player of the game. He never made a public appearance before the case, but showed up in public and enrolled in the same school as Light to get closer to him. He even told Light in public that he was L and that he suspected Light of being Kira. He got to know Light, to profile him and see if there was anything suspicious about him, and if he could fit the profile of Kira.

Is it easier to chase, or be chased and escape? When you look at the plays both of them make in their match, Light has more impressive moves to get out of sticky situations. The master plans he came up with to prove his innocence to L and his team was incredible. Plans like his big plan of getting rid of his own memories, and the chip bag to avoid heavy suspicion under camera and wire-tap surveillance, also speak to Light's impressive intelligence. He also has social intelligence to manipulate people and use them as pawns for his success and innocence. His downfall was relying too much on these people, for his capture was because of his partner, Mikami, being trick by Near and his team. L, however, put impossible pieces together, and cornered Light multiple times, and did all the groundwork for Lights ultimate capture at the end of the show. Being the chaser is mostly a harder job than being chased, especially considering having to chase someone who has a killing method involving a magic notebook. L set up and tricked Light in ways to pinpoint him and grow more confident that he was Kira. The television broadcast, knowing it was someone in the household of a police officer, profiling Light, and even deductions made from small details. He concluded things that seemed impossible, but were actually correct, with very little to go on. For example, his openness to something like the death note being real, there being two Kiras, etc. The death note is an unexplainable object that involves a god of death and can control people before they die and kill them from anywhere. L was never oblivious to something like that being Lights method of killing, which everyone else in the world simply wrote off as crazy.

So, who is smarter? L. Who won the battle between them? Light.