What does the ending of Death Note (manga) mean?

Question

The last few pages of the end of the final book in the Death Note series shows a huge amount of people in hoods walking in a line across the mountains and one offering a candle to Kira their "saviour".

At first when I saw this I was quite confused about who these people were, I thought that perhaps they were the land of the dead and that these were all the people he saved? Then someone pointed out to me that the moon and the stars were probably there for a reason and wouldn't be in the land of the dead, which supposedly didn't even exist anyway given the conversation Ryuk had with Light just before he died.

So is this then meant to be some sort of a religion which has formed which holds Kira as their saviour?

Answer 1

Yes. It is indeed meant to invoke that.

Throughout the series we see Light fall more and more into a trap where he kills to protect himself, instead of just "punishing" criminals. His ultimate aim was to usher in a new era where crime was non existent and himself to be the saviour (read God) for the people still living.

Though he died, in the end he did affect multitude of people with his reign as that of Kira and eventually a cult (religion is too strong a word at this point) of his worshippers formed who worship him and probably undertake a spiritual journey for their saviour.

This is what the wiki describes as the scene you described,

In a place with high mountains, thousands of hooded people of all ages walking by candlelight. The group parts and a hooded woman dressed in white walks to the edge of a mountain and clasps her hands in prayer. She says, "Kira, our saviour." Source - Wiki

This is typical for a spiritual group. Think Teerth Yatras for Hindus or Hajj for Muslims. I am expecting this to be inspiration for the scene.

On a side note, unnamed Kira worshiper was drawn with her face shown because Obata "personally wanted to draw something pretty in the final chapter"