Light finds this acceptable, but by the end of the series Ryuk reveals that, Death Note or no, this is the fate of all human souls: to disappear into nothingness, and that under no circumstances may a human be brought back to life. One of the first things Light is told by Ryuk upon picking up the Death Note is that those mortals who use the note will never experience an afterlife, either good (heaven) or bad (hell). It would be as recognizable in Japan as, say, the number 666 would be to Americans. Reaching Nirvana is obviously seen as a positive thing, so the number does crop up in things like the number of steps leading to a Buddhist temple, or the number of beads on a prayer necklace carried by monks.

This does tie the number 108 to the concept of death, but unlike some other numbers with that association, 108 doesn't immediately have negative connotations. 108 is said to be the number of temptations that a human soul must face throughout the reincarnation cycle before reaching Nirvana and exiting the cycle. The number 108 is an important one in Buddhist beliefs, which are prevalent in Japan.

Related: Death Note Artist's New Series Rumored to Be a Radical Departure Hitting this mark was very important to Ohba, however, because of the special meaning associated with 108 in Japanese culture. Some chapters of the manga tend to be a bit wordy as a result, and a few chapters were cut out of Death Note's anime adaptation entirely. However, Death Note's writer Tsugumi Ohba had always aimed to end the series at 108 chapters, and attempted to structure the story in such a way that this made sense. The Death Note manga has precisely 108 chapters, which probably seems to most Western fans to be an arbitrary stopping point. In supernatural lore, there's often a special significance associated with particular numbers, and Death Note makes extensive use of these numerological meanings right down to the number of its chapters.

Death note rules contradiction