Naomi is one of the most intelligent characters in the show, but at the end acted emotionally, her love for Pember and the thought of avenging him were stronger
Yeah, is a japanese writer in the start of the 2000s, even wetern media feel seixist in this age, but to be fair to him, i wuld say one of his points is that even really smart people can make emotionl mistakes and its not jsut the woman characters that does this, as light is making emotional errors tand act stupid a lot of tims since the begin and thats what lads him to his downfall at the end
The reason Light goes to tell Raye Penber that Light is Kira is that Serial Murders chase fantasies. In real life anyways. Think about it. Standing over your biggest personal rival of yet as they die and letting them know YOU are god and have ended their life when they were just in the grasp of catching you. For Light Yagami, or Kira, this is practically climax.
Near won because Gevanni gained the asspull superpower copying the exact handwriting in a language that has Kanji and never was his mother tongue, all with gaining and returning the note in a single night
@@alexandergonstas6660 No he used the death note to kill the woman Kira spokesperson when he went to the bank, Light had told him to not do that so Near was able to actually switch the notebooks
To be a bit more specific for those curious, he does technically know Mello’s face through an FBI sketch of him which is why Takada is able to recognize Mello later. At the same time though there’s a rule that says drawings don’t work as a prerequisite for seeing a face with the Death Note no matter how realistic.
I think Misa is less stupid in random moments and more so just trusts Light to take the wheel and just does what he says because she has full faith in him even if she disagrees with his plan.
That's exactly what she said in the show and that the guy making the video left out just to make it seem like the writer is a sexist lol, like she said from day 1 that she didn't care what light did to her or others, she just wanted to help him any way she could after he was the only one who seemed to care for her. She wanted absolutely 0 control and wanted light to have all of it, she's not written to be dumb, she's written to be someone who wants to give control to someone else.
Great video! Death Note retrospectives and reviews will never ever get old. I love hearing other's thoughts and interpretations of how they viewed the series. Keep it up dude!
Through the video I was really immersed in your editing and standpoints, and I finished it and it stuck with me for about an hour. I came back to it and saw the views and likes and was in disbelief, I for sure thought it’d be one of those videos with 3 digit thousand numbers (368k for example). The quality of this is amazing, and I hope you keep growing, I came back to look at your other videos as the first one I watched was earlier today from the JoJo’s retrospective video. I’m going to keep following you through your journey and I’m rooting for you.
Yes! I like your analysis! I also want to say that a lot of people’s complaints would be reduced if the anime had a higher budget and didn’t cut 30% of additional content about Near and Mello’s arcs in the manga. It really damaged their characters and gave the fandom a negative impression about them. The second half became a final third because of all that was cut. Light and Near are my favorite Death Note characters :)
Im pretty sure Near won legitimately. Iirc, You cant use the death note to write that someone will kill someone else. Also said that you cant get someone to do something they dont know about, so having Mikami bring a fake notebook that he assumes is real wouldnt work since he doesnt know its fake. Idk, i love Near and his ruthless "i know you're kira, im just figuring out how to expose/humiliate you." And his calm snarky attitude towards Light is icing on the cake. Light got to comfy to believe near was up there with Lawliet.
@@cringewyrm the show/manga itself shows that you can in fact control someone with Shinigami eyes though. Misa controlled the mobster with the eyes. Thats how Light knew where their base was at
I completely disagree with your opinion on women being written poorly in death note I think you just want them to be written the way specifically Light and L were and thats just not the case. Theres PLENTY of male characters who are smart and randomly dumb or overlook something/get manipulated.
THANK YOU, you just said exactly what I wanted to, they really aren't written poorly, he just wanted them to be, even leaving out key details to try and make their character writing seem worse than it was. And seeing how death note has a strong female fanbase who never once said that, I'd say that says more about the writing being good than what the youtuber wants to believe.
Gave me super weird vibes. Are we forgetting that Mikami completely ruins Light's entire plan, that the Task Force constantly jumps to wrong conclusions, that Higuchi traps himself in a million different ways, and that Light nearly got himself caught in episode 2? Super cringe
Another Death Note video essay?? Bro I eat that stuff up cuz I love this anime so much. I've pretty consumed most of the top results videos that cover it, so the more of them I get, the better.
i love how you acknowledge how badly potrayed women are because its never talked about and its the one problem i have with my favourite piece of media. great video you deserve a lot more views!!
@@DustyyBoi They showed why, rem saw one of her fellow shinigami fall in love with misa, causing her to have an interest in misa too, then after he died for her, rem decided to follow misa around and help her out. It's almost like a parasocial relationship in a way
Death Note will forever be a nostalgic anime for me. Although it's not in my top 5 favourite anime any more, it's an interesting story and I still like a lot of the characters.
38:33 You say that Light doesn't take into account any circumstances for crimes, and this is factually incorrect. In reality, the reason why L and Memory Loss Light deduced that the second kira and the third kira were different from the first was exactly because of that. According to both the manga and the anime, Light investigated each crime before killing them and had a very strict criteria about who he would kill. Under excusable circumstances he wouldn't kill them, and given that Light is as smart as L, it is extremely likely that 99.9999% or even 100% of his judgement/investigation was correct. To know the exact criteria (he had a few points), I'll link this part of death note overanalyzed from episode 21, to see all of them. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-q4xdnvDHUlU.htmlsi=K9qysM8DvFUuDXiT&t=1033 Btw. I do think Light was delusional and was actually evil, but Light to himself genuinely thought that he was a good person doing a necessary evil.
I just want to thank you for finally explaining perfectly why Kira's world order would never have worked in the long term. Never mind that we humans shouldn't have ultimate say to cast judgement on the actions of others. Trying to hogtie the world by indiscriminately killing anyone who commits a crime, regardless of their reasoning for why it was committed isn't healthy nor is it right or just. The person who is killed because they had to steal bread to feed their starving children would not believe it was just. Only people not knowing or understanding hardships or suffering consequences for their actions would be able to flourish in a world made to cater to them. It is also unfair to kill off anyone who is deemed a "burden" to society as there can be several factors for why someone could be a "burden" such as being born with disabilities and falling ill through no fault or control of their own. It's not just nor fair to take the life of someone away who did not choose to be born as such or who did not choose to fall ill. And while I can understand why those whom have suffered through the justice system or at the hands of criminals and thus have become disillusioned with the concept of justice support Kira and want this world he offers them, they are not thinking of anyone or anything else beyond their own bubbles as evidenced by Near showering them with money and most of them being more preoccupied with themselves instead of helping to bring about a new world for everyone. For Kira, there was no gray area and he sought to control the world through fear while only simply disguising it as justice. He was an egotistical man who desired nothing more than to be worshiped for his greatness and to project his own opinions of what is good and what is evil, molding the world into what he thought it should be and not what it actually is. He's just a crazy serial killer who was given and incredibly dangerous way to kill others. Kira is just a murdering sociopath and that's all there is to it and this is the story of the downfall of Light Yagami.
To be fair, Light did differentiate between those deserving of death(in his eyes), those who comitted nonviolent crimes, and those who regretted their actions or had extenuating circumstances. It's even a point he brings up comparing Kira v1(him, but the comparison is during his memory loss arc) vs Kira v3(Hibachi).
@the_last_ballad and I am sure he thoroughly researched every one of his killings, with the rate that he kills 😂. As Gandalf says (paraphrased): "Who are you to deliver death and judgement? Even the very wise cannot see all ends (of a person's story)".
Eh, I prefer the manga ending. It's satisfying seeing Light so pathetic and Ruyk calling him out for it. After killing so many people (many of them innocent) it's so nice to see him begging to be saved "I DON'T WANT TO DIE"
12:04 It's not literally related to emotion. It was just a way of explaining that having feelings for a human is the only reason that a shiniagami would do the thing that would lead to their death which is using the death note to extend someones life i.e. saving their life. Not having feelings
I feel that Ray Penber's in decision in the L arc make little sense. First the bus Jacking, he didn't have to tell Light he was an FBI agent. He could have told Light to not do his attack the hijacker. Plus why would he give his name to the suspect he's following? He already knows Kira needs a name. Another is when he's at home with his fiancée he complete dismisses and ignores Naomi. I get he didn't want her involved but he would have at least let her finish speaking about what she had to say. It seemed so out of character since their both detectives. Finally is why did L remove the cameras and then confront Light? He could have kept the camera's their for a couple days or at least remove a a lot of the camera's that could be found. This would have put Light in a lot more mental stress. Great video!
Don't forget, Naomi isn't a detective anymore. Because for some reason one of the best agents let their fiancé tell them to just quit. _They aren't even married, let alone have a child on the way._ Under that light, Ray does not come off as the kind of guy who respects his spouse. Even if she's much more talented than him.
My biggest issue with Mello’s arc is that Mello gets too much lucky. He gets a Shinigami working for him which helps him escape from the task force or the US President, and then he escapes because a guy from the mafia was conveniently still living. Plus, he is never put in danger because of his crimes.
Great video. Absolutely agreed on how questionable the women are written. Ppl always come up w excuses for why they aren’t, but it simply is what it is
@@bealu9459 that’s such a dumb argument. That’s like saying none of the side characters contribute to the story and therefore can be excused if they’re written like shit. It DOES matter.
Death note isn’t even close to the worst at writing female characters. Just about every shonen anime (at least the ones I’ve seen) write female characters so badly that it feels like straight up sexism. Also, the side characters of death note are well written despite that L and Light are by far the best written and most focused on in the series. L and light being the main focus was intentional on the writer’s part. I really like a lot of the side characters though. Matsuda shooting light was such an impactful scene and it gave him a really great and underrated character arc. He is an example of how side characters should be written.
The point of Light and L manipulating everyone is to showcase their intelligence. Male, female, it doesn’t matter, Light and L make everyone seem dumb and insignificant. It has nothing to do with Ohba being sexist. Also, it’s as if you don’t take personality’s into account for people’s “stupidity”.
And in the other series the author writes with just as bad examples of women, but in stories without super geniuses to explain why it seems so sexist? Its... kinda a pattern for Oba
And seeing how death note has a huge following of women who like the writing, I'd say the man calling it sexist doesn't really have a point to stand on lol
@@luminousdelight5097 nah it's a "i'll take what a black person has to say over race relations between black people than a white guy in a gated community" kind of reasoning
@@JimMilton-ej6ziWomen who like Death Note aren’t a monolith, you're just using the fact that some women agree with you to dismiss criticism as baseless without having to address the criticism
I'm sorry that your whole analysis video just became a huge debate about sexism in the comments. A lot of incel anime fans take that shit really personally 😂 Even though a lot of people are arguing in the comments, it's definitely true and Ohba proves it with all of his other content as well. Every female character in this show is unimportant or just someone to be Light's absolute pet who will do anything he says. It's not just a "show of his manipulation skills" when women like Takada and Naomi who ARE supposed to be extremely intelligent will still IMMEDIATELY do as he says. It's just poor writing. I also loved your take on the second half and the Mello and Near arcs! I was a bit lost on the second half during my first time watching DN because I watched the anime first. Now, after watching it a few times and reading the manga, it's refreshing to see an analysis video that isn't just completely hating on the second half lol.
I think I agree on everything but not the end. The fact light dies in a such bad way, I mean it’s a logical end but not an satisfaying end wich holds the key of the series: the mind games, wich stop when N comes in.
For me i hated the gigantic ass pull in the ending being how Near outsmarted Light Near stated how he had Giovanni make a perfect fake replica of the real Death Note after figuring out it's existence Only problem is that he only figured that out a day before the scheduled meeting,meaning that it would be physically impossible for Giovanni to write down all the names that the X Kira had written down perfectly in X Kira's own handwriting without the X Kira even noticing in,all under a day And Near even specifically stated that ONLY Giovanni did this all on his own and that no one else helped him This feels like they had to bend reality or smth to defeat Light which makes it extremely unsatisfying A more thought out way to outsmart Light would have been a lot better and woulda felt like they actually managed to defeat him but the way that they stuck to felt extremely cheap and because of it all too much dissatisfying which i'd say ruins the ending for me
thanks for calling out the underlying misogyny in the show. They could really just made some of the main chars female. What about a female L? No, of course, women are not seen to be that smart, right? (omitting how the show doesn't really undstand the concept of intelligence in itself.)
Honestly I see nothing wrong with how the women are written, misa amane is a special case because she herself was specifically saying that she wanted to give herself to light, she didn't want control, she only used it when she was forced to. She was smart but she didn't want to use her smarts for anyone but light. Honestly the only two people that really even matter in the show itself is Light and L, since that's the only two characters that both men and women seem to care for.
just like the anime i skipped the last parts of your video lmao, light is not dumb. He would have just written for all of the detectives or maybe just one to shoot near but instead he trusted mikami. Which was bs. That or have an ear piece that would let mikami just tell him his name. Especially since he gave that female some pages he could have asked for 1 back. Hell he'd even give the watch to one of the detectives and write down that theyll cherish it until death. So that detective is seen as kira.
ngl dude not to leave a generic hate comment but i genuinely hate some of your takes here. you said lights plan to force the task force and L against each other is stupid then you say that if light didnt get his pride in the way he couldve got the shinigami eyes and won. out of character for light to tell someone hes kira??? what????? a plot hole bc a camera didnt catch his face dude? imo but who the hell cares if a camera couldve or could not have saw his face, thats not an engaging story. you cannot like whatever you want but naomi being manipulated and killed is supposed to be a feat for light. using real life manipulation strategies in order to take advantage of a persons emotional turmoil, seems uber realistic. dn is my favorite anime and it sucks how almost 2 decades later it either gets misinterpreted or engaged with so ill-faithfully
Naomi was killed because of how sexist the series is. I mean the one female character whos almost as smart as light is killed and the rest of the females being stupid or just crazy/in love with light is not a coincidence.
bro says that the author cant write good female characters, but Sachiko, Sayu, and Weddy are certainly good characters. I think the female characters around Light are meant to showcase the manipulation skills of Light. You can't just nitpick certain female characters and say they are all bad.
Sachiko doesn't even have 50 lines the entire series, Sayu is similarly unimportant as anything other than a plot device, wedy is okay, but similarly to Sayu is just a plot device. It's okay to admit that there are problems with a show you like.
@@coolnuggetI’ll even go a step further and say Wedy isn’t even that important. She planted cameras after Everyone already figures out info she would have got. What info did Wedy even give that pushed the story? She follows Higuchi around when he’s trying to stop that broadcast?
@@coolnuggetSachiko has as many lines as makes sense for her character, why would we focus on the daily life of the house wife of the detective going after Kira, it just doesn’t make any sense, this ain’t the sopranos. And the argument that sayu is only a plot device is invalid because at the end of the day, it’s fiction. Every word, every character, every page is a plot device so what are u talking about. We literally see Sayu change from innocent young girl to innocent young woman to traumatized young woman. Thats not nothing. And wedy is one of my favorite characters even though she is a background character. And as a background character I would say she has more than enough scenes of badass shit that she does. I understand that I have the ability to recognize where a show is faulted, but I simply just disagree with you. Your entire argument is that they are plot devices which completely falls short of a true argument.
Using a disguise, using a rule to her advantage, not going up to light immediately, and leaving a message only Kira would understand is pretty smart imo
Im glad for this video but I feel like you didn't fully get Death Note. As if you just watched it once and read it once and decide to make a quick review. But hey I still enjoyed the video
characters are flawed, and im not saying that in the way that most think, ofc a good character has flaws right? but theres a difference between the "bad characteristics" and writing a truly human person, i person no matter who intelligent wont and shouldnt make the logical choice everytime, there are varibles outside the character that a good author will include with naomi for example, yes she uber intelligent, but shes also in emotional termoil over her dead lover, shes not at 100%, shes consistntly inconsistant just like any REAL human would be, same thing with light, or L or Near, these are very intelligent humans, but they are humans, they'll make obvious mistakes in highsight or make too risky plays outa fear or pride, i think the people in deathnote are writen like real people, no matter how fantastical, and that comes with conscience and unconscience flaws and issues some of which might not be a characters "flaw" but it is a human one idk it just frustrates me a little how real these characters are and for them to get strays for being truly human characters kinda always sucks, case the mangaka but alot of effort to make each character seem real, including inconsistanty, one hallmark of any true person
I can’t stand the critique that women aren’t well-written in this show. It’s such a bad argument because nobody ever brings up substance for it. It’s like you just heard someone else make the complaint and you’re parroting it. Oh they were manipulated by the evil main character? You mean just like everyone else in the show was? I have no idea what you are referring to when you say they flop between Misa being smart and dumb. Yes, the super genius main characters say she’s dumb. And? She made some smart decisions and not really any dumb decisions other than when she’s being manipulated by Light. Her mentioning shinigami isn’t an act of stupidity. Nobody could foresee the confirmation of shinigami’s existence. Light did the same thing, but nobody is saying he’s poorly written, right?
all of the women in the series are written pretty well id say, you're missing the fact that almost all of them minus naomi are literally there because they wanna bang light, that alone shakes up the dynamic significantly and i think its pretty realistic if you arent already biased towards thinking they're written badly. I've met women that are identical to the women in this series but ive never met an L or a higuchi, so if realism is the only goal you could even say they're some of best written in the series. very good video though, you're gonna pull big numbers one day
Saying that the women are well written because most of their main motivations are almost entirely related to wanting to bang the main character is an insane take
@@coolnugget Yea thats fair, but it still strikes me as pretty realistic regardless, they are only in there because they wanna bang light, and if this was the real world it would probably be the same way with only 11% of the force being made up of women in japan. The women that are there wouldn't really work being there if they DIDNT wanna bang light cuz then they literally do nothing for him and hes the one bringing them in. Naomi could've been replaced with a dude and I think it would change nothing as well, she/he would be extremely broken and not thinking correctly, and i do think most people would've given light their info a lot earlier than her anyways. I just dont think theres a real way women could be written into the story in an organic way without seeming like its inclusive for the sake of inclusivity regardless of the real life counterpart being different. Kinda like battlefield 1 adding women soldiers and being inaccurate, its fine, but the women in this series just add realism for me
@@richunclepennybags1532 Nah I don't think thats why they're well written, they're just believable human beings in every other capacity with very realistic emotional responses to things, in my opinion the method used to bring them into the story and keep them doesn't affect how well written the character actually is unless they're just 1 dimensionally horny for light, which they aren't. its something a lot deeper than that
I delete the really bad ones but it's super unfortunate to see misogyny in my comments. I try to moderate but I'll try even harder to ensure that my comments are a safe space.
That point about Ohba's writing of women was pretty stupid and preachy. Misa and Takada don't act stupid because they're women -- they act stupid because they're fanatically devoted. As for Naomi, her lover was just murdered and, while she is clearly incredibly smart, she was in an emotionally vulnerable state, which Light expertly exploited. You can notice this pattern in male characters too, especially Mikami. He makes perhaps the biggest blunder of the entire show and it's because he's overly devoted. Higuchi runs into countless traps when distressed. Furthermore, the Task Force is chastised constantly by L (and occasionally Light) for jumping to conclusions, and they're all male. Even Light makes a massively idiotic mistake by killing Lind L Tailor. Women aren't portrayed hyper realistically in Death Note because nobody is portrayed hyper realistically in Death Note. The fundamental rivalry of DN is Light versus L, so everyone is comparatively less smart in order to bolster the magnitude of that rivalry. If you want an example of a show with terribly written women, go watch Classroom of the Elite.
Sorry but you are slightly wrong about Near and Mello's win. While it is true that it was thanks to Mello disrupting everything that Near found out about the fake notebook, Ohba, the author of Death Note, has stated in an interview that there was no way for Light to mess up or make a mistake, since he is indeed smarter than both of them, even if they work together, hence why he struggled of how to find a way in which they could beat him. In the end he decided that he HAD to make another character make a mistake. While Mikami was never told that Light had in secret a piece of the death note, he had explicit instructions from Light to NEVER act unless he's told. No matter how you look at it, it was Mikami who messed up. And while yes, you can say that Light also did a mistake by underestimating Near due to his arrogance, like when Light thought to himself that L would have thought about the fake notebook (and had it been L in front of him, Light would have thought about a plan B, but since he 'underestimated' Near, he didn't), that is also not true, because Light was correct about Near, he was correct about Mello, even when Mello tried to create chaos. Light didn't need a plan B (even though it would have helped him here obviously) because his plan was going to work just fine if Mikami simply followed his instructions. If you are interested, I can find the interview for you.
finally someone with a good opinion on the near and mello arc. you understand it as well as i do and thats so refreshing to see someone compliment the final arc because it is NOT bad especially not in the manga
Great Video, your retrospective and review added to my experience of the show and now I know why i disliked the parts that I did. didn't realise that the female characters were just really poorly written and neglected. Hope for my more quality videos like this
I’ve always had trouble explaining my love/hate for misa and you nailed it! I sympathize with her greatly and admire when she has her smart moments, but then am disappointed as fuck when she acts like a child for no reason other than to attract lights attention. It’s so degrading to her character and neglects the depth she may have. Thanks for recognizing this, most people write misa off as a dumb desperate submissive girl, but it’s not her fault!!
Light couldn't kill Mello because he's never seen his actual face I guess? anyways biggest disappointment w the anime is how much they removed for Matt.. like he already had little screentime in the manga and not really any proper introductions,,
I read at tv tropes the writer sayd the main topic he wantd to tackle in this anime was cult mentality, puthing this in mind change how i saw some thigns in the manga, specially misa
I'd never thought that the ending implied that Misa killed herself, but I guess it would kinda make sense. I mean, she did say she couldn't imagine living in a world without Light. It has made me wonder though, if she somehow knew that Light had been killed, since she looks saddened in those final scenes.
It also makes me wonder. Ryuk tells Light that a user of a Death Note can neither go to heaven nor hell when they die, so where do they go? The only possibility I can think of is they go to the Shimigami world and become Shimigamis themselves.
@@CinemaSongscoversI’m pretty sure there’s a point where the show reveals that when humans die there’s just “nothing” and when ryuk tells light he won’t go to heaven or hell that’s him referencing that neither even exist
I think Naomi was in a highly emotional state due to her fiance's death, despite her intelligence. She WANTS to believe in L's ability to catch Raye's killer, and so she WANTS to believe Light has her best interests in mind despite him acting like a total creep
While I do like the ending both from the manga & anime I personally prefer the way the japanese live action films handled it more specifically the Last Name. It's mostly adapted from the manga but with L & Soichiro being present when Light is exposed as Kira which thematically is great while also taking Light's tragic downfall in the anime and incorporating it to his death. Not to mention that while L still dies the way he defeats Light is incredibly smart. Also for those who love the dub like I do they brought back a majority of the cast back for those movies.
I hated Light as a person from the second episode. L is my favorite because he takes him to task. When Light kills L he DESERVES the fro yo versions of L to catch him. I felt justified in that Light didn't feel the thrill of the hunt anymore.
*complains when Misa is shown to be smart* *complains when Misa is shown to be impulsive* *complains when Misa is shown to be resilient* Maybe you just hate women bro
His points are in favour of writing flawed and strong women, but WELL written ones. I think this is the opposite of disliking female characters. Misa is shown countless times to be a dumb little girl who just wants lights attention, which negates her intelligent moments in the show when she does something childish for the sake of light. Yes it’s a flaw, but it’s a degrading one, and I wish misa had been more carefully written so as to not simply portray her as a stupid desperate girl while ignoring other facets for her character growth (like Rem dying, light getting increasingly more abusive with her, the weight of killing people, etc). We can make variable and flawed women without making them the prime candidate for a misogynistic target
11:05 i don't think it's unrealistic for misa to act this way and im tired of people saying she's stupid, she's clearly very intelligent and there's plenty of intelligent people in the world that do stupid things. Literally my favorite charecter. 12:05 also its not about how much emotion they feel lol, a shinigami dies if they use their notebook to prolong a human's life past their expected death date, and i think its a beautiful analogy for love and i ❤ rem sm
I think the problem is that there are multiple different kinds of intelligence, and Misa feels inconsistent to most because she doesn't specialize in the series' main intelligence: logical. She's good at using the Death Note's mechanics to her advantage: finding Light's name and Jack Neylon (Mello's hire who had ownership of his Death Note) through her understanding of them. She seems to specialize in existential intelligence because she handled the reality that Gods of Death exist extremely lightly, TWICE. Once when she was in a bathroom afraid for her life lol Light, L and his successors meanwhile demonstrate logical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, linguistic, pretty much everything lol. Misa would've been so cool if she specialized in interpersonal intelligence, and could read Light and understand him and what he wants Kira to do without him telling her. Could've been really interesting~
NONE of the women are stupid, let's get that straight... I do have conflicting theories on the writers misogyny though. I always perceived the way the women were reacting to Light to be because Light was charming yet manipulative, and Light himself is narcissistic and misogynistic. Light, very much treats women as pawns, even tugging at Rem's emotional side to get what he wanted. Again, I think people forget that Kira having the power he does AND he's also a charming young man is what makes these characters specifically fall in love with him. Misa met her god, who killed the criminal who killed her parents. Kiyomi was an avid Kira supporter AND had a relationship with Light years before she knew he was Kira. However, these emotional decisions rippled into Light needing to adapt and the story to continue in ways that were very interesting to watch. You yourself said that (13:19) is a great turning point, which was due to Misa's actions. I do think Naomi's arc was written poorly, I will agree with that. The writer said that he could not develop Naomi further due to her being "too smart". This is the most solid piece of evidence regarding his misogyny, It would've been really cool to see Naomi and L work together, and cool to know more about their time working on the BB murder case. I guess he can't write certain female characters, but just because he feels his other characters weren't smart, doesn't mean they aren't... I would like to point out that ALL the characters made emotional decisions, ascribing only some to the women kind of feels close minded on your end as well. Matsuda, Soichiro, Mikami, Mello... and THE main character himself, all good examples of major emotional decisions made on their part that drastically affected the story. Even the part where they were going to kill Mello, the task force members clearly did not think through the implication of this in regards to Kira. You called some of Misa's decisions dumb, but called Matsuda's decision to go AGAINST L's orders, leave a previous suspect alone, and falling into the Yostuba Groups headquarters, "risky"... You called Kiyomi Takada's emotional response to Light dumb, but Mikami's emotional decision to check his vault twice is what caused the series to end the way it did, Light DID tell him not to do anything, indirectly I believe, but Mikami did go against what he was ordered to do, yet you didn't call this decision dumb. I think your should rethink your bias a little bit... It's interesting to see that we are able to accept emotional decisions from men more than women... After rewatching this series, although I also enjoy discussing who is the "smartest", I found more enjoyment looking at the end goals of each character and their motivations. Each character has to navigate not only themselves, their wants, and their inner worlds, but the people around them. In regards to Rem, we understand that shinigami can feel, in fact the motivations for them seem to be more emotional. They come from a world where nothing really happens and are now enmeshed in characters that have higher stakes than them and limited power compared to them. Rem and Gelus were friends, she watched what she thought was her immortal friend die due to his strong feelings for Misa. We assume they are romantic, because Rem mentions "in love" and Misa is a woman, but they may love differently than humans, however it does look the same. When Rem meets Misa, she tells her this story so that Misa, being somewhat ditzy and careless, can understand the gravity of her powers. I believe that Rem did have strong feelings for Misa, and they could've been romantic. There are so many types of love though, I don't think we should discount how Rem felt. Again as I said before, the shinigami are experiencing a world where small choices effect every human, she spent some time with Misa and might've felt that Gelus died for no reason if Light let Misa die/go under suspicion again. She even expresses her feelings before it happens, I am sure she thought of some way to prevent this from happening. Like you said, she could've killed Light, but knew it would hurt Misa. Why does she want Misa to be happy? Why would you want your parents to be happy? Sibling? Significant other? Best friend? Children? Foster children? Why do we see humans save even strangers? As said before, Shinigami seem to feel a lot more. Ryuk didn't drop his death note because he thought he was bored, he didn't think through the decision. He FELT bored.
