Like of course ACAB, but at the start at least they frame it as opposing ideologies, where either the ends justify the means or they don’t. So at least L and the cops are sympathetic. But holy fuck does that deteriorate fast.
spoiler
So his father pulls a gun on him, which would give literally anybody intense psychological trauma and PTSD, and yet you’re supposed to still be on his side? Like, he’s objectively not a good guy, and should be fired and jailed. They set up security cameras in homes, including the bathrooms?? What the fuck? And everyone’s just...cool with it, eventually? L himself says there’s only a minuscule chance of Light being the perp, and yet goes to tremendous lengths to prove it, breaking a myriad of laws and inflicting emotional and even physical harm on people? How the fuck are you ever supposed to sympathize with “the good guys” when they’re unrelenting assholes who operate with no oversight, burning through funds to achieve a dead end cause. L built a fucking skyscraper to catch one guy. That’s millions, if not billions of dollars wasted, when it could have gone into oh I don’t know, infrastructure and welfare and literally anything that actually materially helps people? Light is completely justified in his actions, and the cops immoral and excessive actions only serve to further prove it. But the worst part is that the show doesn’t seem to understand that what the cops do is wrong at all? Admittedly I’m not quite finished yet, but goddamn this shit sucks.
ACAB, ABAB, literally fuck this show
Mm, I'm gonna have to disagree with this take. Literally nobody is written as a good guy except for Matsuda, and he's the only one that questions whether or not he's doing the right thing. I think the point of the show is to simply ask whether or not the ends justify the means, which is why there's so much overreach on the part of the cops, and why we end up kinda rooting for Yagami even though he's a straight up psycho.
I mean, it's written for teenagers, it's not going to be insanely politically nuanced, but I don't see anything too problematic with it. It does lightly touch on political corruption and corporate greed, but the story is hyper-focused on justice, which is why basically every character is intentionally written as absolutely resolute in their own interpretation of justice, to a fault .
The only real issue with the series, and it's a big one, is that it seems to assume that evil is an innate human feature, and doesn't ever imply that bad people end up bad due to material conditions. There's a lot of catholic imagery and undertones which seem to outline the basis for the ethics of the series. I won't spoil the ending, but I wished the the show dwelled more on the problems inherent in Light's vision of the world, as it's inherently quite a fascistic one.