I like the buddhist take. That rationalizes some of the particularly inconsistent parts. I kind of doubt Matsushita intended it, but that's what fans are for, after all.

I recall some heavy hints that Enma wants Tsuzuki's power, but I don't recall that applying to the shinigami as a class. Hm. So we have something of a split view, there; Tsuzuki, one of the most messed up, may not be there entirely of his own will. But most of the rest of them seem to be.

YnM definitely isn't as... disgustingly explicit about it as the yaoi genre tends to be, but this whole love-affair with the Tragic Beauty of Their Doomed Fates just kind of makes me twitch.

Maybe I really will write the damn story forward, and let them all kick some psychological butt.