In a sentence no one expected to be saying in 2020, Donald Trump has appeared in the new Death Note manga. First released in 2003, Death Note was written by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata before gaining further popularity as a now-iconic anime series. The basic premise sees an intelligent high-school student named Light Yagami come into possession of a Death God’s notebook, allowing him to kill anyone he wishes with the flick of a pen. Light starts with noble intentions, taking down criminals that have escaped justice and the like, but the power eventually corrupts him and, under the alias of “Kira,” he amasses a cult-like following before his eventual death at the hands of Ryuk.
Several short Death Note sequel comics have been released over the years, and Ohba and Obata unveiled their latest one-shot earlier this week. The story follows Ryuk as he searches for a new human to temporarily pass his powers onto, both for entertainment and the lure of delicious apples. Ryuk picks Minoru Tanaka as his next target, another teenage prodigy, but Tanaka shockingly reveals he plans to sell the Death Note, rather than use it.
The “powers of Kira” are made available to the highest bidder, with a flurry of offers coming in from social media, and it’s not long before governments gets in on the act. The United States is at the front of the queue, but where most comics would use a nondescript president or draw an entirely new visage for the role, the Death Note follow-up’s U.S. president is a clear parody of Donald Trump. The President engages in a bidding war with President Xi of China, with both promising to buy the Death Note and never use it. Eventually, Tanaka sells the Death Note to Trump’s U.S. for $10, 000,000,000,000.
Before handing the book over to Trump, Ryuk makes a new stipulation. His king is disappointed that the Death Note ended up being auctioned off and so now, if the book is sold, both the buyer and seller must die. This means Trump must sacrifice himself for the U.S. to possess the Death Note and, naturally, he refuses the deal, losing both the book and the money. With Ryuk leaving the mortal world, Trump decides to pretend the U.S. still possess Kira’s powers in public.
It’s interesting how clear the resemblance to real-world politicians is in the new Death Note story, considering most works of fiction include a standard “any resemblance to real-life persons is coincidental” clause. The commentary is particularly unexpected since anime and manga is rarely so politically direct. In fairness, none of the story’s main characters emerge looking good. Ryuk remains the manipulative Death God from before, Tanaka is punished for exploiting the Death Note, and the world’s leaders look foolish by publicly clamoring to obtain the notebook.
However, it’s undoubtedly Trump’s depiction that comes off worse, and several moments in the story allude to genuine traits the president has been accused of showing. Not only does Trump win the bid, but he places his own interests over those of his country, as pointed out specifically by Ryuk, and goes on to use the situation as a PR stunt in his favor. Trump’s critics accuse the star of The Apprentice of regularly prioritizing his own interests while in the office of president and of using falsehoods to improve his public image, both of which his Death Note counterpart shares.
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The new Death Note one-shot manga is available for free on Viz.
