Light Vs. Raito: Wank
I couldn't pass this Death Note FFR wank up. I was just wondering where this exact wank was earlier today. Thanks you, mousy on wank_report!

Over in fanficrants, </a>arislanchan</span> tells Death Note fans that "it's Light, not Raito".

</a>arislanchan</span>:So, the main character of Death Note is a young man named Yagami Light, written 夜神 月. The furigana of 月 is given as ライト- literally transliterated, 'Raito'. However, despite the fact that his name has officially been confirmed by the author as 'Light' and the fact that the only use of 'raito' in the Japanese language is occurs as the english loanword for 'light', fans persist in calling him Raito. A lot of fans.

A few reasons seem to be given for this: "I'm used to it from the scanlations, it's habit!", "it sounds better that way", "it's more Japanese"

1) I understand getting used to it from the scanlations; I did too. But... so? The scanlations (referring to TOWNL's, here, as they seem to be the most widely read) referred to him as Raito for only five volumes before switching to Light. Given the manga is 12 volumes long, he's actually called Light longer than he's called Raito. That alone should be enough to get used to it, surely?

2) Obviously it's perfectly subjective as to which sounds better, but personally I can't see how intentionally mangling another word sounds good.

3) No, it's not more Japanese, really. Raito is neither a Japanese word, nor name. It's only spelled out in Japanese syllabary out of necessity. Raito is not a reading of 月. Neither is 'Light' of course - but at least it's related in meaning.

Basically... his name can be correctly written in three ways: 月, ライト, or Light. If you insist on transliterating the furigana (which are, in this case, a pronuncation guide for Japanese speakers on how to pronounce a foreign word), then why not call L 'Eru'? His name is written as エル, so why do you not choose to write that out literally?

Obviously, call him whatever you want, I'm not trying to force anyone into anything. Just needed to rant, because people's blind rejection of his real name is irritating, and so is reading fics in which over and over he is called "Raito" (not referring to very old fics, here).

Conclusion: his name is not Raito. It has never been Raito, and it never will be Raito. It'd be kind of nice if people could get over it.

As another mouse named Luna on wank_report says, "Death Note fandom seems intent on proving that it is just as batshit insane as the big-name fandoms."