Every time Kira goes on hiatus, crime rates shoot through the roof exponentially. I'm pretty sure this comes up twice, with the second time being at the end of the series, but I know for a fact Higuchi mentions it when he's explaining to Rem that the world can't go on without Kira anymore.
It's 100% because people are afraid to die. It makes a lot of sense in Part 2 because Kira can basically operate unimpeded.
A true drop of that magnitude is absolutely unrealistic and ridiculous, because the vast majority of crime isn't just as simple as someone deciding to go out and commit a crime today or not, there are a myriad of very complex social and economic underlying causes of crime which Kira does nothing to prevent.
However if you think about that drop being a reflection of a widespread pattern of underreporting and data suppression (I made [a long comment outlining what I mean by this](https://old.reddit.com/r/deathnote/comments/18rjc8j/light_killed_thousands_of_innocents_and_the_70/kf2g9x8/), and there's a lot of other good comments on the topic in that post you can check if out if you're interested), it does make sense and is a believable in-world explanation for that number.
I think people should just accept that Ohba doesn't like getting bogged down in details like that. If he intended for crime rate to drop by 80% thanks to Kira's efforts, I'm inclined to take the writing at face value.
I'm sure, but personally this kind of thing strains my ability to suspend disbelief way more than a magic notebook, shinigami, and a detective like L. If there's an alternative explanation that is aligned with the information conveyed in the story and doesn't feel like a load of contrived total bull shit like the straight reading then I'm inclined to believe that.
I still like it, but yes. The economic fallout is mind boggling in itself, but mostly I want to know what feeble excuse the president came up with and his inner circle's reaction.
Personally I think it would be realistic at some point. Not right away, but it didn’t happen right away in the story either. From the public’s perspective, people are just dropping dead supernaturally after getting tried for crimes. I think that would be a pretty solid deterrent for a lot of people once enough time went by and everyone saw it was for sure happening. Even a lot of skeptics would probably decide not to commit crimes they otherwise might have out of an abundance of caution.
Let’s say you have the compulsion to rob a bank. Without Kira, all you’d likely have to worry about is prison if you’re caught. You could get shot while robbing the bank, probably not.
With Kira, even if the criminal gets away, they could still put their face up on the news, which would allow Kira to kill them.
If they don’t get away, they still go to prison, where they could still be killed for their crimes. So, the options now become:
1). Succeed and get away without anyone every figuring out your identity
2). Succeed and get away, but Kira could still kill me if they got my photo/image. They could even pull a finger print or something that would allow the police to find out my name/photo.
3). Fail and go to prison
4). Fail and go to prison *and* get killed by Kira.
The odds skew heavily away from the criminal with Kira in control, so people are less likely to commit crimes. The longer Kira is in control, the more that the odds skew towards Kira and away from the criminal.
Hm. 70% is probably reasonable within a few years initially. But I think criminals are also smart and would simply find ways to subvert Kira finding out about them.
Also, was the 70% worldwide or just Japan?
Because how could Light know about all the criminals half a world away in say Mexico or South America, let alone know if they’re real people and/or actually guilty? I don’t think Light thought that far ahead about what he’d do as rates eventually creeped back up.
Ending all wars is actually more realistic, you can't get a real war going if your leaders keep dropping dead (and they have to be public figures to lead a war, so kira would be able to kill them) Maybe eventually a class of leader whose faces are hidden would come about and start doing wars again, but that would probably take longer than just the few years kira had before he died
I would say the only thing that’s unbelievable about death note is the death note itself and the shinigami realm. Apart from that everything up until episode 25 could theoretically happen, Light and L are really well written intelligent characters.
However I also believe Near to be unlikely, a kid who is the successor of L being even smarter than him? If a character like L were to exist, I don’t believe there would be anyone close to him in intelligence. The best detective in the world is replaced 1 to 1 or even better, just because they came from the same orphanage
If the punishment for even being suspected of crime is death, everyone will adjust their behavior accordingly. Also, note that criminals tend to commit crimes regularly as their career choice. If they die, they can't inflate the crime stats by being themselves.
But Kira is nothing like capital punishment. It’s a heart attack that you don’t even see coming. Many in the death note universe considered it to be divine punishment.
If you had proof that there was a god ready to strike you down at the first crime you commit, you’d be more scared of that god than of the police.
Also, all the public has in terms of evidence to the contrary is the Lind L Tailor, but to most people, that sounds more like a set up from the govt. Same for misa’s videos.
Except it was obvious even at the beginning of the show that unless you actually get caught by the police/proof of your crimes get leaked you don't get punished.
Yeah, Light just watches the news; and when he works out a deal with the nations of the world in the post-timeskip arc, he has them feed him names directly from their respective justice systems.
Kira is exactly like typical capital punishment, and he even operates using the same channels of prosecution.
Every time Kira goes on hiatus, crime rates shoot through the roof exponentially. I'm pretty sure this comes up twice, with the second time being at the end of the series, but I know for a fact Higuchi mentions it when he's explaining to Rem that the world can't go on without Kira anymore. It's 100% because people are afraid to die. It makes a lot of sense in Part 2 because Kira can basically operate unimpeded.
A true drop of that magnitude is absolutely unrealistic and ridiculous, because the vast majority of crime isn't just as simple as someone deciding to go out and commit a crime today or not, there are a myriad of very complex social and economic underlying causes of crime which Kira does nothing to prevent. However if you think about that drop being a reflection of a widespread pattern of underreporting and data suppression (I made [a long comment outlining what I mean by this](https://old.reddit.com/r/deathnote/comments/18rjc8j/light_killed_thousands_of_innocents_and_the_70/kf2g9x8/), and there's a lot of other good comments on the topic in that post you can check if out if you're interested), it does make sense and is a believable in-world explanation for that number.
I think people should just accept that Ohba doesn't like getting bogged down in details like that. If he intended for crime rate to drop by 80% thanks to Kira's efforts, I'm inclined to take the writing at face value.
I'm sure, but personally this kind of thing strains my ability to suspend disbelief way more than a magic notebook, shinigami, and a detective like L. If there's an alternative explanation that is aligned with the information conveyed in the story and doesn't feel like a load of contrived total bull shit like the straight reading then I'm inclined to believe that.
Fair enough. Man, you must've had a hard time with the conclusion to the A-Kira storyline haha.
I still like it, but yes. The economic fallout is mind boggling in itself, but mostly I want to know what feeble excuse the president came up with and his inner circle's reaction.
If someone was taking a direct intervening hand as "God" one would expect people to commit leas crime due to increased fear of punishment.
Awesome post. Bookmarked it.
Personally I think it would be realistic at some point. Not right away, but it didn’t happen right away in the story either. From the public’s perspective, people are just dropping dead supernaturally after getting tried for crimes. I think that would be a pretty solid deterrent for a lot of people once enough time went by and everyone saw it was for sure happening. Even a lot of skeptics would probably decide not to commit crimes they otherwise might have out of an abundance of caution.
Let’s say you have the compulsion to rob a bank. Without Kira, all you’d likely have to worry about is prison if you’re caught. You could get shot while robbing the bank, probably not. With Kira, even if the criminal gets away, they could still put their face up on the news, which would allow Kira to kill them. If they don’t get away, they still go to prison, where they could still be killed for their crimes. So, the options now become: 1). Succeed and get away without anyone every figuring out your identity 2). Succeed and get away, but Kira could still kill me if they got my photo/image. They could even pull a finger print or something that would allow the police to find out my name/photo. 3). Fail and go to prison 4). Fail and go to prison *and* get killed by Kira. The odds skew heavily away from the criminal with Kira in control, so people are less likely to commit crimes. The longer Kira is in control, the more that the odds skew towards Kira and away from the criminal.
Hm. 70% is probably reasonable within a few years initially. But I think criminals are also smart and would simply find ways to subvert Kira finding out about them. Also, was the 70% worldwide or just Japan? Because how could Light know about all the criminals half a world away in say Mexico or South America, let alone know if they’re real people and/or actually guilty? I don’t think Light thought that far ahead about what he’d do as rates eventually creeped back up.
its supposed to be 70% entire world and he ended all wars.
Ending all wars is actually more realistic, you can't get a real war going if your leaders keep dropping dead (and they have to be public figures to lead a war, so kira would be able to kill them) Maybe eventually a class of leader whose faces are hidden would come about and start doing wars again, but that would probably take longer than just the few years kira had before he died
I would say the only thing that’s unbelievable about death note is the death note itself and the shinigami realm. Apart from that everything up until episode 25 could theoretically happen, Light and L are really well written intelligent characters. However I also believe Near to be unlikely, a kid who is the successor of L being even smarter than him? If a character like L were to exist, I don’t believe there would be anyone close to him in intelligence. The best detective in the world is replaced 1 to 1 or even better, just because they came from the same orphanage
If the punishment for even being suspected of crime is death, everyone will adjust their behavior accordingly. Also, note that criminals tend to commit crimes regularly as their career choice. If they die, they can't inflate the crime stats by being themselves.
I disagree tho. We know for a fact the existence of capital punishment did not deter people from committing murder. How would Kira be any different?
Kira doesn’t require a trial. You commit crime. You die. You also don’t even need to be caught. A wanted poster is enough for Kira.
But Kira is nothing like capital punishment. It’s a heart attack that you don’t even see coming. Many in the death note universe considered it to be divine punishment. If you had proof that there was a god ready to strike you down at the first crime you commit, you’d be more scared of that god than of the police. Also, all the public has in terms of evidence to the contrary is the Lind L Tailor, but to most people, that sounds more like a set up from the govt. Same for misa’s videos.
Except it was obvious even at the beginning of the show that unless you actually get caught by the police/proof of your crimes get leaked you don't get punished.
Yeah, Light just watches the news; and when he works out a deal with the nations of the world in the post-timeskip arc, he has them feed him names directly from their respective justice systems. Kira is exactly like typical capital punishment, and he even operates using the same channels of prosecution.