LIARGAME vs DEATHNOTE
Saturday, October 3, 2009 at4:23 PM
" If you are a reader of both Death Note and Liar Game, the comparison between Akiyama Shinichi and Light is inevitable. The fact that they’re both geniuses who have run-ins with the Japanese legal system is grounds enough, really. Yet to be honest, despite Akiyama’s more dramatic entrance (as opposed to Light staring out a window in boredom), I found myself smitten to Light much, much earlier on in the series. Perhaps it was my initial skepticism and worry as to whether Akiyama=Neo-Light that forced me to take time to warm up to him, but when it came down to the initial response of “coolness factor”, Light’s far exceeds Akiyama.
But now, who do I like better? It would definitely be Akiyama, hands down. His scenes aren’t as epic or heart pounding as Light’s, but that’s a good thing to me. Remember the three clichés I mentioned earlier on in the post? Those are exactly the reasons why I find Akiyama a much more enjoyable character to be around than Light.
The best thing I like about Akiyama is his inner conflict, as opposed to Light. The latter has everything he could have ever wanted. Light wants to eliminate ’suffering’ in the world, but has he ever even experienced it (before the Death Note came into his hands, anyway)? If he had come from a broken family, witnessed a death that profoundly impacted his life or something of the sort, I could have sympathized more with him. Yet the fact remains that he’s a rich, spoiled child.
Therefore, in terms of depth, Akiyama outranks Light. He is not the stereotypical manipulative genius, yet neither is he the “jerk with a heart of gold”. He’s just a bit of both. As we know, he helped Nao save her teacher, even though he told her that “[he doesn't] have any noble motives like [sacrifice]“. Well, thank God! From that moment onwards, I never worried again as to whether Akiyama would turn out be a character similar to Light’s.
What made the story even better was the discovery of Akiyama’s past. Here is a character who knows suffering and a difficult life; Therefore, I at least could sympathize with his fate! Even now, I am not sure whether Akiyama’s manipulations were “justified” or whether he deserved to go to jail, but it does make for one hell of a story. To this moment, you can see that Akiyama is still pained over the loss of his mother (hence the desire to continue participating in the Liar Game), and he is still pained over his “past deeds”.
Light? He never doubts what he’s doing. I feel that people are mistaken when they say his original intention was to eliminate criminals. It really wasn’t. His method was to kill criminals (and eventually anyone who came in his way), but his original intentions were ALWAYS to “create an utopia and reign as God”. His failing wasn’t that he lost sight of his “noble” goal, but rather that he became too focused on it. In reality, the only people who I have seen clutch onto their ideologies with such steadfastness are those who are motivated by underlying, usually painful, and relevant personal experiences. And as I’ve established before, Light never had any such things.
Finally, the thing I like the best about Akiyama is that he doesn’t treat women like idiots. And nor would he go to such ridiculous lengths to rationalize or excuse murders.
Well, as Akiyama would say, Light experienced a huge case of cognitive dissonance. After killing a few “test” people and feeling remorseful and disgusted, how does Light react? Since he can’t revoke the deaths, the only thing he can do is justify them by changing his philosophy to include the reasoning “those who do bad deeds deserve to die”. And then act upon it.
Huh.
So I guess Akiyama has the last word, thank you very much."
QUOTED FROM : http://liargame.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/liar-game-vs-death-note-light-vs-akiyama/
i really enjoy reading this critic's comments alot.
though i'm a little puzzled why the comparison between Light and Akiyama and not L and Akiyama.
oh wells.
but for now, i can tell you that to me, liargame beats Deathnote two hands down! woots.
and for you jdrama fans out there, if you havent caught liargame yet, do catch it!
it's one of those witty, smart, sets-you-thinking shows, although the ending is a little repetitive and some parts are a little lame, but i think it's a good show nonetheless(:
andand one more thing,
i do not see why is Deathnote more famous than liargame though.
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