“Death Note” is my favorite show of all time and has been since I first watched it when I was 11 years old, so for 12 years I’ve been a fan of this show. To the point where I currently have 3 “Death Note” tattoos (one of which I got the day of writing this), I’ve met the English dub voice actors and I’ve dropped hundreds of dollars to be able to cosplay the characters. These characters drew me in and the story is so interesting that I couldn’t help but be captivated by it.

The original opening song of the show also drew me in, being such a good song that has such interesting visuals. But what about the second opening?

The second opening of “Death Note” is first seen in episode 20 of the show, when Light and L establish a mole within the Yotsuba group. The group contained member Higuchi who had temporarily taken ownership of the Death Note while Light had lost his memories.

I remember when I saw the second opening I was shocked as it was so different from the original one, but I still liked it, because I just thought it was a cool opening. As I grew up I started to understand the meaning and reasoning behind the harsh change of the opening, but I also started to learn that people didn’t like or understand it.

The first opening was slower, it showed visuals that describe the battle between L and Light as well as visuals that describe the events of the episodes that have the first opening. It showed Light’s more calculated movements, his thought-out plans on how he will get rid of criminals and become a god.

The second opening is fast, it’s aggressive and the visuals are more colorful and abstract looking. This opening depicts Light’s descent into madness. While his moves are still calculated, he’s clearly becoming anxious and paranoid. It may not make sense originally because the second opening starts when Light still hasn’t regained his memory of the Death Note or of being Kira, but when you really look into it, it starts to make more sense.

The second opening doesn’t start until episode 20, but Light doesn’t regain his memory until episode 24. So how could he be starting to go mad before even remembering his plans? As I stated previously, episode 20 is when they establish a mole in the Yotsuba group. Having someone on the inside gave them a great advantage in finding who Kira was (at the time).

At the time Light’s only interest was finding Kira, and he became as obsessed over it as L was. He was determined to catch and bring Higuchi to justice and would do anything to achieve this goal.

This is similar to how he acted after regaining his memory of being Kira. During the episodes with the first opening, he of course had the goal of becoming god and had his plans on how to do it. But he was smooth, calculated and calm.

After regaining his memory he went about being Kira as he did when he was trying to catch Higuchi. He became obsessive. His main focus no longer was getting rid of criminals with a plan to get rid of L as well, but now his focus was on getting rid of any organization that dared to stand in his way.

You can see it in the way he is often snapping at Misa, his unnerving smile when he got to speak on the phone to Mikami when meeting with Kiyomi, risking his sister’s life in order to get the Death Note back and even begging his father on his deathbed to write Mello’s name in the notebook before he passed, just to have one more enemy out of the way.

So simply put, if you didn’t understand or like the second opening, you didn’t understand the developments that Light went through. Yes, he was crazy at the beginning of the show as well. A high school student with a plan to become a god? Can’t get much crazier than that. But if you pay attention throughout the show, you really get to see how he truly snaps.