Platinum End is an ongoing supernatural anime series from the creators of Death Note, and as fans might have expected, the two series have a lot of similarities, even if their plots and protagonists differ greatly. In Platinum End, the story is split 50/50 between fierce action scenes and Death Note-style intrigue and investigations.
When Platinum End takes a break from the reaction for plot developments, its Death Note ancestry truly shines, and recent story developments helped this series find even more common ground with Death Note. Even if Mirai lacks Yagami Light's resolve and god complex, he may become the world's greatest serial killer -- whether he likes it or not.
How Kakehashi Mirai May Become Kira In Platinum End
Kakehashi Mirai and the other battle royale contestants were not given killer notebooks or Shinigami eyes. Instead, they received different combinations of high-speed angel wings, red love arrows and murderous white arrows, with Mirai getting all three. These weapons are all neutral in that their usage depends on who wields them. Some candidates abuse their powers, such as to build a cozy harem or recruit sacrificial pawns, while Mirai aims to use his gifts for good or not use them at all.
Even if Mirai is a pacifist, his angelic gifts are formidable, and they are beyond anything that ordinary armies or police forces can handle. No bullet can catch a God candidate and nothing can stop a white arrow from striking its target dead. Red arrows, meanwhile, allow God candidates to control their target and manipulate their will.
Kakehashi Mirai has already sworn to never take a life with his gifts, and that's why he needed Mukaido Nanato to finish off Metropoliman for him. Now, however, things are changing. Susumu revealed the God candidate battle to the entire world, and national governments are scrambling to capture and exploit the God candidates as the ultimate weapons. No one will even need nuclear missiles to serve as deterrents if they have the ultimate assassins on their side, and Mirai, in theory, could threaten to kill any world leader who defied the will of Mirai's client.
This isn't too different from certain versions of Kira in Death Note using the notebook's power to threaten or manipulate world leaders, including the American president, to get what he wants. Mundane tanks and bombs can't stop a hidden Death Note user from striking down the American president, and a God candidate is similarly immune to conventional arms. International politics have been changed forever.
Kakehashi Mirai's New Stakes As A Potential Weapon
Curiously, as a shonen protagonist, Mirai's goals are defined not by what he wants but mainly by what he doesn't, and these passive goals of his call for pacifism. Mirai has yet to seriously shed any blood in Platinum End, even to save his own life against Metropoliman and his terrifying allies, and it's even more difficult to imagine Mirai following orders and using his arrows to assassinate world leaders. There may be ways to coerce him into doing that, but it seems unlikely, and his friend Hanakago Saki probably won't end up in that position either, even if the police capture her.
This means that Mirai's battle is not only an external one but also internal to prevent himself from becoming the thing he hates most -- a person who willingly harms others. In a way, this new conflict is a test of Mirai's character, and the series may soon prove how far Mirai will go to maintain his pacifist worldview and avoid shedding blood. Even with two police officers on his side, Mirai might end up being forced to kill someone after all, and if so, he will lose his internal battle. If world leaders want to use him as a tool to threaten or kill world leaders, Mirai will face some difficult decisions he may not be equipped to make, and the same goes for Saki.
Whether Mirai wills it or not, the world wants its Kiras, and if the other God candidates really do become the world's greatest assassins, the stakes will become higher than ever, and Mirai will have to face this conflict sooner or later. Either he dies a noble pacifist, or he lives to become Kira after all.
