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Just some of the artistic and Biblical references I found while watching Death Note (the anime).

I'll probably scrap this later

If you can't read the font let me know because I can change it (I just liked the look of a handwritten font )
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As you watch the opening credits for Death Note (episodes 1-19) you see the first two screenshots - one of Light reaching to Ryuk the Shinigami, and Naomi Misora holding the body of her fiancé Raye Penber. Both are linked to an artpiece of Michelangelo's.

Light and Ryuk's scene compares to "The Creation of Adam", circa 1511. Quoted from Wikipedia, "God's right arm is outstretched to impart the spark of life from his own finger into that of Adam, whose left arm is extended in a pose mirroring God's." Maybe this could be that Ryuk (a Death God) reaches down to give Light the same kind of powers and life that the Shinigami have through the Death Note. It's also known that God created man in his own image - Ryuk shaped Light's life with the Death Note, even commenting that Light would make a fine Shinigami if he were one.

The image of Naomi Misora and Raye Penber is a close likeness to the sculpture "Pietà". The sculpture is "depicting the Virgin Mary cradling the dead body of Jesus". In this case, I would think Jesus stands for Justice, and Naomi (as Mary) mourning the injustice of his death.

The last screen, taken from episode 25, depicts L drying Light's feet after coming in from the rain. A few interesting quotes are said, implying that L knows he is going to die soon, and be betrayed by Light (which can be seen as Jesus betrayed by Judas). Jesus had washed the feet of all his disciples, even Judas, who was going to betray him.

However, I also found it interesting that there were 12 FBI agents under L's orders, like the 12 disciples of Jesus.

8 Feb '09: Found this while browsing the Internet - the 40 seconds that a person lives before having a heart attack by default could relate to the Biblical 40 lashes of the whip. This quote from GraceThruFaith.com reads, "40 lashes was the prescribed method of interrogation. The whip they used had multiple strands into which had been embedded pieces of bone and metal. These would dig into the skin when the whip was applied and pull the flesh off the prisoners back when the whip was drawn back. Many prisoners didn’t survive this method of interrogation."

10 Feb '09: While watching episode 26, it is said that by the year 2012, Kira's killings grew at an alarming rate (in the manga, it is said to be 2009). 2012 is a very controversial year (see this Wikipedia page) according to the Mayan calendar. Among New Age believers, it is a controversy whether the year will bring spiritual enlightenment to humankind, or the apocalypse (which covers both views of Kira - whether he is righteous, or evil).

Thank you to ~black-blaze-inferno, who pointed this out to me about the significance of the apple: "...consider the forbidden fruit concept from adam and eve. Like in the bible it gives the power of knowledge but at a price. I works the same in DN since Ryuk gives him the power of the death note but it comes back to hurt light in the end."
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If anyone else has seen something I missed, or would like to point something out, or if I've got something wrong here, please let me know.

And as a final note, the screen shots were taken from YouTube versions of the English dubbed anime series, and because I was disappointed in their poor quality I attempted to make them better in Adobe Lightroom 2. Brought out the blacks and colors a bit, they don't look so washed out anymore