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まったく…こうなるとどいつもこいつも、殺した方が世の中の為になる奴ばかりに見えてくる

Context: This is from a scene of Death Note were Light is reflecting about the current state of society after seeing a classmate getting bullied.

I find this sentence difficult to understand because I'm not sure about the meaning of どいつもこいつも and ばかりに in this context.

According to my translation attempt he is saying that he sees people that should be killed for the benefit of society. But how does どいつもこいつも fit in here when there's 奴 already?

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    Does it happen to say なる rather than なり?
    – user1478
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 21:53
  • @snailplane no.
    – Jon
    Commented Nov 2, 2017 at 23:21
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    That's strange. I tried to find an image of the text, and the only one I could find says なる instead: i.sstatic.net/OnOja.png
    – user1478
    Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 0:42
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    Judging by your comment below, you're asking about the anime and not the manga. I guess you're using subtitles transcribed by a non-native speaker. Here's a recording. Maybe it's difficult to hear because the /u/ is fairly short and is followed by the /y/ of 奴, which is phonetically almost the same as the vowel /i/. My guess, though, is that most Japanese speakers will hear なる in this clip.
    – user1478
    Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 2:59
  • Yes, that was the case.
    – Jon
    Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 3:28

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「まったく…こうなるとどいつもこいつも、殺{ころ}したほうが、世{よ}の中{なか}の為{ため}になり奴{やつ}ばかりに見{み}えてくる。」

「どいつもこいつも」 is a despising and slovenly way of saying "everybody", so it is often translated as "every man jack", "f***wits", "all those bastards", etc.

「ばかり」 in this context means "all (of them)" as it is used in pair with 「どいつもこいつも」.

Regarding the 「なり」 part, as @snailplane pointed out, it would need to be 「なる」 for the sentence to make sense.

"Damn! Given the situation, (just about) every f***er is starting to look like one that would only serve the world better if wiped out."

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  • I don't really understand the 「なり」 part. The japanese subtitles I have are correct and in the anime it's pronounced as なり instead of なる. Maybe it's some form of informal speech?
    – Jon
    Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 1:58
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    How could it make sense with 「なり」 at all? 「世の中の為になる」 is a relative clause that modifies 「奴」. The verb that is placed at the end of a relative clause NEVER can be in the 連用形. We say 「私がいつも行くレストラン」 and never 「私がいつも行きレストラン」. I will not come back to this because this is not even part of your original question. It has nothing whatsoever with formality/informality.
    – user4032
    Commented Nov 3, 2017 at 2:23

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