Is Kira (Yagami Light) an antihero or a villain?


I was having a conversation with my friend and I said that Kira was one of my
favorite antiheroes. He replied with: Kira is not a an antihero, he's a
villain.

But he gave nearly zero arguments for that.




## In modern works, we are not limited to Greek archetypes. Light is a
[villain
protagonist](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainProtagonist).

While the stories of the Greeks were written to follow great heroes, that does
not limit us to their archetypes. The central character can be a villain --
and Light is clearly one such person, as he steps off the deep end shortly
into the series.

An anti-hero is a _hero_ who lacks heroic features; Light is a _protagonist_
who _performs villainous actions_.

A good anti-hero example would be the modern take on Batman. He is dark,
foreboding, and a lawbreaker. He does things (like attacking policemen to stop
them from accidentally attacking disguised hostages in _The Dark Knight_ )
that aren't considered heroic, with the direct intent of performing a heroic
duty -- that is, saving lives. The presence of heroic intent with unheroic
actions makes Batman an anti-hero.

Light, on the other hand, quickly steps off his original goal of removing
dangerous known bad actors, and begins killing people -- both innocent and
guilty -- for the sake of glorifying himself. This is, both in action and
intent, the opposite of an archetypal hero. In this way, Light steps over the
anti-hero line directly into villain territory.

