I don't entirely disagree with your assessment, honestly. That said, I don't feel that all of your criticisms are fair either. I will do my best to avoid spoilers.
The female characters are pretty pathetic - they're only driven by "love" and they're not as smart as the men.
The most prominent female characters in the series are: Misa, Naomi, and Kiyomi Takada. I don't count Light's family because they're insignificant to the plot. But let's also include an often overlooked female character that, while minor, contributes significantly to L's investigation -- Wedy.
Furthermore,- the second Kira: not particularly smart; overly emotional; wants to be Light's girlfriend (plus she's definitely meant for teenage boy eye candy)
-Misa is borderline psychotic and not at all unintelligent; your criticism of her is spot on as far as how she presents and carries herself, but she proves to be highly resourceful and quick-thinking in a variety of situations. Her only weakness is Light. That said, she does kind of gets underused in the second season.
- Light's mother and sister: both stupid (especially his sister, who love gossip and bad TV)
Light's sister is a regular preteen. I'm not sure what you could possibly expect of her. The mother is a regular housewife, which, I suppose, does lend credence to what you say of her; but does it, though? She seems to be a good mother.
- The former FBI agent: she was a good agent, apparently; she was smart; but she was only that way because her fiancé died.
True, but Naomi was characterized as having been a
better agent than her husband--she left the police force as a part of their marital agreement, which is extremely sexist, I agree, but the way the scenes play out feel like a conscious attempt by the author to be
indicative of that kind of sexism in Japanese society. She only died because she trusted Light--an innocent, though intelligent child, by what she knew of him. She was right on the money about Kira before she was killed.
I'd go as far as to say that if she had been on that train with Light instead of her husband, she would have eventually caught him. Other adaptations of Death Note use this character much more frequently than the anime did; people liked her, and for good reason.
The rest of the characters are men. Men do the work; men have the brains; men are strong whilst women are emotional.
That's because Japan was a very male-dominated society when the manga was written 13 years ago, and still is. That's changing nowadays--in fact, Japanese women are working in higher percentages than American women as of 2015, which is pretty dramatic from where things were in 2003, when the manga was penned. The author sought to portray contemporary Japanese society in the manga--how would it have looked if the female characters were numerous and center-stage? How would it have looked if half the agents investigating Kira had been female? Progressive, yes. Accurate, no. Believable within that time period, hell no.
Male characters mostly dominating the police scene is normal. It is also normal when the show portrays virtually all of Light's criminal (non-police) victims as male. Does it make the show reverse-sexist somehow, to show that most violent criminals in Japan are male? No, because it's likely true (some would say no because of another reason--that there's no such thing as reverse-sexism, but that's just a bunch of unproven pseudo-academic drivel that I in no way subscribe to, semantic at best and false at worst, and I'll leave that at that). To put it in more politically correct terms: is it "fair" to portray men that way, regardless of the statistical facts?
Also, your assessment is not indicative of all the male characters either; Matsuda is a dumbass, for exmaple.
In any case, you haven't met Wedy yet, I don't think, or gotten to know Light's original girlfriend, Kyomi Takeda, too well yet. She comes into play later and is resourceful in her own way, but I get the feeling you won't be happy with her either.
Keep in mind that Light is a very egocentric sociopath. He manipulates everyone, not just women, to suit his needs. And worst of all, he's good at it.
Like I say, I'm enjoying Death Note a lot. It's just marred by its sexism. It's indicative of the wider problem of sexism in Japan - I don't think any country has completely eradicated sexism, but Japan is behind most other developed countries. It's a shame that such a good piece of Japanese art couldn't push things forward in that way.
Japan is not lagging significantly behind America or even Canada, in my opinion, although Japanese entertainment media certainly makes it seem like it is--they're a very reserved society compared to most western countries, and they let whatever doesn't fit their society's ideals spill into their creative work. American media constantly lies about American values--it's regressive and progressive simultaneously. Japanese media, though exploitative, is at least honest about itself.
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