A notebook seems like an ordinary everyday object. Simply used to take notes for school, or maybe a to-do list. A notebook can possess someone’s deepest goals, and thoughts, giving way to their innermost intentions. For a God of Death, a Shinigami, a notebook is the essence of their existence. The Death Note is a powerful notebook that gives anyone who possesses the notebook, the ability to kill any human being just by writing their name in the notebook. For a Shinigami this means adding the reminder of the individual’s lifespan to that of the Shinigami’s life, leading to their immortality, however a human using the notebook will gain nothing but staying in an eternal limbo after death, unable to go to heaven or hell. One may think a Shinigami is a scary being, who passes judgement onto humans, deciding who gets to live or die. That is quite far from what Shinigami, Ryuk, describes. He describes a bare ridden world, where the only apples that exist in the realm of death, taste like sand. See Ryke is bored, and the only source of entertainment in the realm of the shinigamis is playing cards or writing names in the death note. This boredom results in Ryuk dropping his notebook into the human world for his own entertainment. This is a classic trickster move as usually a trickster only does things for his own amusement and selfish entertainment. In the case of Ryku he is bored of the Shiganimi world, a bare ridden world where a god of death can only find entertainment in a game of card or writing the name of human in one’s Death Note, however writing names even leads to the other Shinigamis making fun of a god of death for working to hard. Ryku explains that the only reason the gods of death continue to write names in their notebook is simply because they are afraid to die. Ryke is a catalyst for chaos, introducing a newfound power into the human world.
Death Note, is an anime adaptation of popular manga, written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. Death Note follows the journey of a genius highschool student who picks up the notebook shortly after Ryku drops the Death Note into the human world. Light Yagami, quickly finds out the true potential of the notebook, and builds a godlike persona, Kira (from the english word killer) a nickname given by the media, after finding out the capability of this newfound power. Light comes up with a plan of killing anyone he deems as a criminal and a menace to society, as a means of building a Utopia, free of crime and where only hardworking and genuine people will be able to live and prosper. Quickly Kira runs into a dilemma when world class detective, L, is after the infamous Kira. L and Kira will be in a cat and mouse chase where the one to learn the others identity first will be the winner and hero of the story. Either Light brings to realization his utopian dream, or where L can bring a killer to justice.
Ryku is a Shinigami who crosses boundaries and his cunningness has led him to his possession of two Death Notes, by fooling the not so easily gullible Shinigami King. A God of Death is only granted one notebook by the Shinigami King, making any regular shinigami vulnerable if they misplace their notebook. However because Ryku poses two notebooks he doesn’t have to worry about losing one, and therefore his mortality. Making it easier for him to cross realms in search of his misplaced Death Note. Getting a second Death Note is not an easy task to come by since the King is not easily fooled, and the only other way to get a Shinigami notebook is by killing another shinigami. However a Shinigami is not easily killed as they can only die if they fall in love with a human. This passion can lead to a shinigami doing the unthinkable, which is to use the Death Note to save a human life instead of taking it, which is against the nature of being a Shinigami, as they exist purely to take and shorten lives.
When Ryku drops the notebook out of boredom, he makes sure to write the instructions on how to use the death note. He does this for his own entertainment and him being able to go from one realm to another is another characteristic of the trickster. The trickster is a figure of duality who lives in the inbetweens, in this case Ryku lives in a state of in between realms in the human world because no one can see him except for the people who have touched the notebook. Ryku also serves as a comic relief in the series. Since the apples in the Shinigami realm taste like sand, he becomes addicted to how juicy human apples are. He mentions how he does head stand because he is getting withdrawal symptoms from not eating red juicy apples. Ryku also offers commentary while following Light, when meeting Misa, the second Kira, he merely says “oh scary”, and mentions how light is “popular as always” with the girls and “chuckles” throughout the series, especially when he knows something Light doesn’t, or when light is being manipulated, i.e. when asking Rem, Misa’s shinigami, to kill L for him. Another example is when Light encounters Rayne Penbeger’s wife, Naomi Misora.
Not to mention Ryku offers Light to Shinigami eyes to deal with light in the midst of his breakdown, after coming face to face with L. The deal consists of granting anyone the ability to know the name of someone just by merely looking at them, only at the cost for half of their remaining lifespan. This adds to the situation since Ryku tries to help by merely making a suggestion that will benefit him more than anyone else. This further ties into the selfishness of Ryku, another characteristic of the trickster. The trickster is always looking out for number one. Ryku makes sure to tell Light that he is not on anyone’s side. He does not care if Kira gets caught by L or if Kira gets to fulfil his vision of a perfect world, he is only on earth as a passive observer, curious as to how a human would handle the Death Note. The only time Ryku decides to help Light is because there is something for him to gain, or because something is affecting him directly. He only helps Light for his own gain. For example Ryku reminds Light that he is on no one’s side and proceeds to tell Light he is being followed by another person. Ryku only tells Light this because it gives him the hibby jibbies since it feels like somebody’s watching him and therefore makes him uncomfortable. This leads to the realization that he will no longer be able to eat apples since that means Light’s room is now covered in surveillance cameras. And at the end Ryky keeps his promise in writing Light’s name in his notebook when his time comes.
Mythology 