Misa Amane: A Character of Failed Potential
April 18, 2012 in Anime, Rants
We all know Misa Amane from Death Note as one of the most hated characters in anime (aw! But she’s so cute!). She is pretty much useless, obnoxious, and damn her for getting in the way of our precious Light/L pairing (which I am completely against by the way but to each their own).
I totally understand where the Misa bashing comes from. When I first watched Death Note and she made her first appearance I was very excited. Finally, a female lead who doesn’t kill herself in one episode! Then, I was disappointed behind all reason. Why? Not because she was annoying/stupid/getting in the way of a yaoi pairing, but because she actually could’ve been a fantastic character. I don’t proclaim to be better than the brilliant writers behind Death Note are, but:
What Misa was made to be:
- She is stupid
- She is annoying
- She is completely and utterly obsessed with Light Yagami
- She is extremely immature and bratty
And really that’s about it. There’s no more depth to her in the show.
But what could have been? Well, picture this (and this is what I thought the writers were going for which was why I got so excited). Misa Amane is not necessarily stupid. She is a lost, hopeless girl who is completely in love with Light for sending her parents’ killers and so many other murderers to justice. She isn’t, though, in love with him because she thinks he’s a good person. She’s in love with him because she has nothing else in this world and needs his love to go on. The tragedies in her life were too much, so she formed a fairy tale romance to escape. Take out her immaturity and stupidity and fill it in with a much deeper, yet still perky and bubbly character and you have the formula for an awesome heroin.
Why is Misa so one dimensional in an anime so complex and three-dimensional? Sexism. *Insert feminist rampage here*. No, seriously. Death Note, though one of my favorite shows, is a sexist show. There are very few women, who are constantly referenced to as being women and are all referred to as stupid. Okay, I’ll hand it to you and say the anime isn’t that sexist, but the manga was very overtly sexist…And this would lead to a whole different argument.
Okay, so back on topic. In conclusion, Misa could’ve been something amazing. In my head she’s a lot deeper than she actually is in the anime. For better or for worse, we’ll all just have to accept that cute little obnoxious blond for what she is. And for the record, I personally don’t hate Misa.
