Death Note

Death Note

デスノート
2006 -2007 Madhouse NTV 37 episodes Completed
Psychological Thriller Mystery Supernatural Drama
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Details & Synopsis
Light Yagami is seventeen, top of his class, and bored. Not restless-teenager bored. Philosophically bored, convinced that the world is irredeemably rotten and that the people running it are not equal to the task. Then a notebook falls from the sky. Any human whose name is written in it dies. Light picks it up, reads the instructions, and within forty-eight hours has decided he is God.

This is not a villain origin story. Light does not become the thing he becomes through corruption or trauma or a single catastrophic choice. He becomes it because the notebook revealed what was already there. The horror of Death Note is not what the notebook does. It is what Light does with it, calmly, methodically, with genuine conviction that he is correct.

Produced by Madhouse and directed by Tetsuro Araki, Death Note aired on NTV from October 2006 to June 2007. Thirty-seven episodes adapted from Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's manga. The first twenty-five are as close to perfect television as the medium produced in the mid-2000s. The remainder are contested in ways that are worth understanding before you arrive at them.

The contest is L. An anonymous detective. No last name. No visible biography. A man who sits in hotel rooms eating cake and stacking sugar cubes and holds the single largest sustained record of solved cases in the world. He is assigned to find Kira, the name the internet gives to the unknown killer who appears to be executing criminals globally through untraceable cardiac arrest. L deduces within the first episode that Kira is in Japan. By the third he has narrowed it further. Death Note's first arc is a sustained cat-and-mouse between two people who are the most intelligent persons either of them has ever encountered, operating with incomplete information, neither willing to move without certainty and both moving constantly. It is one of the great dramatic constructions of its era.

In 2006 this show was downloaded faster than Conclave-Mendoi could release it. Not by the anime community. By everyone. Death Note crossed into spaces that had never heard of fansubs, had no context for seasonal anime, had no prior investment in the medium. It crossed because the premise translated instantly, because Light Yagami is a protagonist who works on people who have never watched anime in their lives, and because L is the kind of character who produces the specific obsession that makes people talk about a show to people who were not going to watch it. The mid-2000s fansub era had no larger single crossover event.

The second arc arrives. Near. Mello. The Wammy's House succession. Whether what follows L is adequate to what preceded him is the argument Death Note fans have been having since 2007 and have not resolved. Watch and form your own position. The first arc alone justifies every minute.
Alt Title デスノート
Studio Madhouse
Network NTV
Aired 2006 - 2007
Episodes 37
Genre Psychological Thriller, Mystery, Supernatural, Drama
Status Completed
Search Go to ep Filters
Arc List (2)
L Arc (25) Succession Arc (12)
L Arc 25 eps 25 canon 📷 25
001 Rebirth Aired Oct 3, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
Light Yagami is a high school senior at the top of Japan's national exam rankings, and he is bored. On the grounds of his school he finds a black notebook whose rules say anyone whose name is written in it will die, provided the writer pictures the victim's face. He assumes it is a prank, tests it on a man holding hostages on live television, and watches him die of a heart attack forty seconds later. A second test confirms it. Five days and dozens of names later, the notebook's owner arrives: Ryuk, a Shinigami who dropped it into the human world because he was bored too. Only Light can see him. Ryuk promises that when Light's time comes, he will write Light's name in his own notebook. Light has already decided what this one is for. He will clean the world of criminals and rule what is left as its god.
Lore The Notebook Light Finds Belongs to Sidoh, Not Ryuk
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002 Confrontation Aired Oct 10, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
Criminals around the world are dying of heart attacks, and the public has already named the killer Kira. Interpol convenes and turns to L, the world's greatest detective, a man no one has ever seen, who speaks to them only through a computer and a synthesized voice. L opens with a trap. A man introduced as L, "Lind L. Tailor," appears on a broadcast aired only in the Kanto region and declares Kira evil. Light kills him on the spot. Tailor was a condemned prisoner standing in as a decoy, and the real L comes on the air to tell Kira what that death just proved: Kira is in Japan, and in Kanto. Light, humiliated in his own bedroom, swears he will find L and kill him.
Lore · 3 The Lind L. Tailor Broadcast Trap
+2
Light's First Advantage Is Knowing the Weapon L Cannot Imagine Kira Strategy & Information War L Wins Information by Forcing Kira to React Kira Strategy & Information War
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003 Dealings Aired Oct 17, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
L briefs the Japanese police over a feed from a hidden location. From the victims' times of death he reads a student's schedule and a naive sense of justice, and from which criminals died he concludes that Kira has access to police information. That puts the case one step from Light's door, because the officer heading the investigation is his father, Soichiro Yagami. Ryuk delivers two pieces of news. Light is being followed. And a Shinigami can see any human's name and remaining lifespan floating above their head, an ability Light can have if he trades away half of the life he has left. That deal is the episode's title, and it will not be the last time someone is offered it.
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004 Pursuit Aired Oct 24, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
Light turns the eyes down. A god of a new world, he tells Ryuk, cannot spend half his life on a shortcut. Instead he experiments, using six convicts to learn how much control the notebook gives him over the circumstances of a death before it lands. Then he puts the results to work against the man tailing him. Light writes a wanted criminal into hijacking the bus he is riding, with his shadow aboard, and in the chaos he maneuvers the agent into revealing who he is: Raye Penber, an FBI agent working for L. A torn page slipped to the hijacker lets him see Ryuk. He opens fire on a monster nobody else can see, and Penber moves to subdue a man everyone assumes is hallucinating.
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005 Tactics Aired Oct 31, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
A week later, Light follows Raye Penber onto a train. Hidden behind him, holding a page of the notebook and a threat against the people Penber loves, he makes the agent write down the names of every FBI investigator in Japan. Then he lets the notebook take Penber too. All twelve agents die. The fallout runs straight through the police. The Japanese force learns that L brought in the FBI to watch its own officers and their families, and the President of the United States pulls the bureau off the case. Soichiro offers every detective a way out with no penalty for taking it. Only five stay. L, needing them, agrees to meet them in person.
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006 Unraveling Aired Nov 7, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
For the first time, L shows his face: a barefoot, hunched young man who sits with his knees pulled up to his chest and asks the remaining detectives to trust him. He walks them through how Kira must have followed the FBI deaths and which suspects the agents were tracking when they died. Light, meanwhile, goes back over every move he has made, looking for any loose thread that leads to him. One walks into police headquarters. Naomi Misora, Raye Penber's fiancee and a former FBI agent with a formidable record of her own, has a theory about how Raye died. The polite young man who offers to help her bring it to the task force, if she will only tell him her name, is Light.
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007 Overcast Aired Nov 14, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
Naomi's theory is close enough to the truth to end Light, and she is one conversation away from delivering it. Light keeps her talking, earns her trust, and gets a name. He writes it, and nothing happens. She gave him an alias, Shoko Maki. Under pressure and out of time, Light talks his way to her real name before she can reach anyone else. Once it is written, and before the notebook takes effect, he tells her he is Kira. She walks away to a death no one will ever find. At headquarters, Watari reveals himself to the detectives and equips them with gadgets hidden in their clothing, and Aizawa is sent back to police headquarters.
Lore Naomi Misora Gets Too Close
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008 Glare Aired Nov 21, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
L orders hidden cameras and wiretaps into the homes of the people he has narrowed his suspicions to, the households of Chief Yagami and Deputy Director Kitamura. Soichiro agrees, knowing his own son is one of the people being watched. Light catches it through the small traps he leaves on his own bedroom door, and Ryuk, paid in apples, scouts the cameras for him. So Light gives the lenses the perfect son: studying, polite, unremarkable. He watches the news on a portable television hidden inside a bag of potato chips and writes the names on a scrap of the notebook concealed with it. The criminals keep dying while the monitors show a boy doing his homework. The next day, the television goes out with the trash.
Lore The Bedroom Surveillance Counterattack
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009 Encounter Aired Nov 28, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
The surveillance finds nothing, and L does not trust nothing. He decides to see Light for himself. At the To-Oh University entrance exam, Light notices a strange, slouching student staring at him across the hall. Both of them score at the top, and at the entrance ceremony they deliver the freshman address side by side. Afterward the stranger introduces himself as Hideki Ryuga, the same name as a famous pop idol, and then quietly tells Light he is L. Light cannot touch him. If the name is borrowed, writing it could kill the real idol, and if L dies right after revealing himself to Light, Light becomes the obvious suspect. So Light decides to befriend the detective and wait.
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010 Doubt Aired Dec 5, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
L challenges Light to a game of tennis and uses it as a profile, then, over cake and coffee, quizzes him on the Kira case and asks him to help. A phone call cuts in: Soichiro has had a heart attack. At the hospital, Light promises his father he will see Kira caught and executed. On the way out, L presses him again, and Light offers to be locked in a cell without television for a month to prove his innocence. The offer is a little too perfect, and L notices. That same day, Sakura TV receives a package of tapes from someone claiming to be Kira.
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011 Assault Aired Dec 12, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
Sakura TV airs the tapes, and the voice on them begins killing on cue: news anchors and commentators who doubted Kira drop dead as the broadcast runs. Hirokazu Ukita of the task force races to the station on his own and dies in front of it, along with two police officers. These victims' names were never public. L concludes he may be facing a second Kira, one who needs only a face. Soichiro, barely out of the hospital, crashes a vehicle into the Sakura TV lobby and seizes the tapes himself. Elsewhere, a young woman named Misa Amane talks with a Shinigami named Rem about how much she admires Kira, and about the deal she has already made for Shinigami eyes.
Lore · 3 Misa Arrives With the Shinigami Eyes
+2
The Second Kira Turns Sakura TV Into Part of the Case Kira & the Public Demegawa Turns Kira Into Television Kira & the Public
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012 Love Aired Dec 26, 2006 canon 📷 400 ►
Light joins L and the task force at headquarters for the first time. As a test, L has him study the confiscated tapes and the voice reading them, and Light's analysis is sharp enough that L allows, for the moment, that he may not be Kira. The team records a broadcast in Kira's name to bait the second Kira into replying. The reply comes, and it gives the investigators a lead they intend to follow. Light, meanwhile, has to work out what a second Kira means for him, and whether it is a threat, a rival or a tool.
Lore Gelus's Notebook Reaches Misa Through Rem
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013 Confession Aired Jan 9, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Light and Matsuda go to Aoyama on the date the second Kira mentioned. To hide from any Shinigami that might be watching, Light surrounds himself with a crowd of college friends. It does not help. Misa can see the name and lifespan of everyone around him, and the only lifespan she cannot see is Light's, because the eyes cannot read the lifespan of a Death Note owner. She tells the task force by tape that she has found the real Kira. The team answers with a broadcast branding Kira a heartless murderer and offering the second Kira leniency for information. Misa ignores it, finds out where Light lives, and turns up at his door. She tracked him down, she tells him, because she loves him.
Lore Misa Understands Light Is Using Her and Chooses Him Anyway
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014 Friend Aired Jan 16, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Light introduces Misa to Ryuk, and the two Kiras sit down to plan around L. Light sees exactly what Misa is: a pair of Shinigami eyes attached to someone who will do anything he asks, and someone he can discard when she stops being useful. Rem sees it too, and tells him plainly that if anything he does gets Misa killed, she will write his name herself. Across town, new tapes from the second Kira denounce the police campaign against the first, and L concludes the two have met. Light answers Rem's threat by turning her love for Misa into an argument, steering her toward a plan in which Rem kills L with her own notebook.
Lore Rem Knows Light Is Using Misa but Cannot Abandon Her
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015 Wager Aired Jan 23, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Convinced the two Kiras have met, L instructs the task force that if he dies, Light is to be treated as Kira. Then he and Light meet outside the university, and Misa walks up and joins them, to Light's barely concealed fury. Minutes after she leaves, L tells Light she has just been arrested on suspicion of being the second Kira. The evidence has been pointing at her. Misa is held blindfolded and strapped down while Watari interrogates her. Days into it, to spare her, Rem persuades her to give up ownership of her notebook, and every memory of being the second Kira goes with it.
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016 Decision Aired Jan 30, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Light tells L he may be Kira without knowing it and asks to be confined. Soichiro asks to be locked up too, unwilling to trust himself on a case that has reached his own family. In a short exchange the cameras record but cannot decode, Light tells Ryuk he is ready to give the notebook up. While Light sits in his cell, the killings stop, which only hardens L's suspicion. Then Light relinquishes ownership. Overnight, the calm prisoner becomes a frantic, desperate, innocent young man, and the deaths start again where he cannot possibly be involved. L is left holding two facts that cannot both be true.
Lore · 3 Self-Incarceration & Memory Forfeiture
+2
Light's Yotsuba Plan Works Because His Future Self Does Not Know the Plan Kira Strategy & Information War Light Rearranges the Notebooks Before He Gives Up His Memories Death Note Ownership Ledger
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017 Execution Aired Feb 6, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
To settle it, L and Soichiro stage a final test. Soichiro drives Light and Misa to a deserted spot, draws a gun, and announces he will kill his son and then himself. Neither prisoner reacts like Kira. L declares he no longer suspects them, though Misa's DNA on the tapes still bothers him. Misa goes free, Light stays on the case, and the task force moves into a new headquarters built for it. Elsewhere, Rem speaks with a businessman about a Death Note, and eight executives sit around a table deciding who Kira should kill next.
Lore · 2 Higuchi Becomes the Yotsuba Kira
+1
Higuchi Receives the Notebook Light Originally Used Death Note Ownership Ledger
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018 Ally Aired Feb 13, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
L proposes chaining himself to Light, and the move into the new headquarters comes with a scuffle. After a lull, Kira starts killing again, and the pattern now looks like profit. L and Light trace it to the Yotsuba Group, a corporation whose rivals keep dying at convenient moments. Kira's threats have reached politicians, and the task force is forced to operate in secret. Aizawa, angry at L for testing his loyalty, walks away from the case. In his place, L brings in two specialists from his own network: Aiber, a con artist, and Wedy, a thief.
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019 Matsuda Aired Feb 20, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Tired of feeling useless next to L and Light, Matsuda goes to the Yotsuba Group on his own. He finds evidence that Kira is inside the building and is caught by the eight executives before he can act on it. Using the fake ID Watari gave him, he passes himself off as Misa's manager, pitches her for a Yotsuba ad campaign, and quietly calls L through the transmitter in his belt buckle. On L's instructions, he fakes his own death in front of the eight by going over a balcony. Two weeks later, with Matsuda believed dead, Hatori tells the others he wants out of the meetings. The reaction around the table makes the danger immediately clear: now that he knows what they are doing, simply walking away may no longer be an option.
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020 Makeshift Aired Feb 27, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
With wiretaps and cameras inside the Yotsuba meetings, the task force listens to the executives discuss killing as openly as a sales target. Light and L approach one of them, Reiji Namikawa, who agrees to act as their informant and stall the killings from inside the room. L, meanwhile, reminds Light that he still suspects him with a round of mind games. Then he asks Misa to infiltrate the Yotsuba Group herself. Soichiro worries that even with the evidence, arresting all eight at once may be impossible. And the Yotsuba Group hires the detective Eraldo Coil to find out who L is.
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021 Performance Aired Mar 6, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
The third Kira has his eye on Misa from the moment he meets her. On a break from her Yotsuba meetings, Rem comes to her. Misa can see the Shinigami again, but touching a scrap of the notebook does not bring her memories back, so Rem tells her everything and warns her to trust Light. When Misa walks back into the room, she knows who Kira is: Kyosuke Higuchi. She goes on a date with him and gets the proof L has been after. The ease of it bothers L more than anything Misa has done, because he could not deduce it himself.
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022 Guidance Aired Mar 13, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
L refuses to let the police arrest Higuchi until they know how he kills. Instead, he builds a trap. Sakura TV airs a "Kira special" in which Matsuda, very much alive, will announce that he knows Kira's identity. The Yotsuba executives, granted immunity from prosecution, help steer Higuchi into it. As Higuchi races to the station to silence the whistleblower, L and the team follow every move through cameras and wiretaps, waiting for him to show them the method.
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023 Frenzy Aired Mar 20, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Driving to Sakura TV, Higuchi talks to someone the watching team cannot see, and L wonders aloud whether it is a Shinigami. Inside the station, Higuchi writes Matsuda's fake name in his notebook. The team thinks he has jotted himself a note, until his behavior turns erratic and L realizes he has just tried to use his killing method. Higuchi then makes the eye deal with Rem. The moment L understands Higuchi can kill anyone he looks at, he orders the police to take him, and a frantic pursuit follows. Aizawa and Ide return at the head of a line of police cars to box Higuchi in, and Aizawa rejoins the task force. Watari disables Higuchi's car from the helicopter, leaving him surrounded. When Higuchi tries to turn his gun on himself, Watari shoots it from his hand. The chase ends with Higuchi alive and in custody, and for the first time L is about to put his hands on Kira's actual murder weapon.
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024 Revival Aired Mar 27, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Higuchi is arrested. L takes the notebook in his hands, sees Rem, and learns that Shinigami are real. Then Light takes it from him, and every memory of being Kira returns at once. This was the plan all along. With a scrap of the notebook hidden in his watch, Light kills Higuchi on the spot. The team reads two rules in the notebook that Light wrote himself: the owner must keep writing names every thirteen days or die, and destroying the notebook kills everyone who has touched it. They conclude Light and Misa must be innocent, and that the notebook cannot be destroyed. Light orders Misa to dig up the second notebook he hid months earlier. To find L's true name, she trades half her remaining life to Ryuk for the eyes, again.
Lore · 2 The Helicopter Memory Recovery & Higuchi's Death
+1
Light Regains Ownership by Killing Higuchi Death Note Ownership Ledger
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025 Silence Aired Apr 3, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
L questions Rem about the notebooks, and she gives him as little as she can. Misa begins killing criminals again. Light denies she is involved, L's suspicion of her sharpens, and Rem finally sees the shape of the trap: Light has put Misa in danger on purpose, so that Rem will have to save her. On the rooftop in the rain, L talks to Light about how far he is from other people and how often people lie. Back inside, L announces he will test the thirteen-day rule, the only thing still protecting Misa. Before he can, Rem writes the names of Watari and L and crumbles to dust. L dies in Light's arms, and Light smiles. Then he quietly takes Rem's notebook.
Lore · 4 Rem Kills L and Watari to Save Misa
+3
L Never Fully Accepts the Thirteen-Day Rule Kira Strategy & Information War Light Beats Rem by Making Protection Self-Destructive Kira Strategy & Information War Rem's Own Notebook Becomes Light's Hidden Reserve Death Note Ownership Ledger
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Succession Arc 12 eps 12 canon 📷 12
026 Renewal Aired Apr 10, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
The first half of the episode belongs to L, narrating the case from the beginning in an account he left behind as a record of his work. Light finds it and deletes it. The task force names Light the new L and agrees to keep the original's death a secret. Light resumes killing with a vengeance, taking out Aiber, Wedy and what remains of the Yotsuba Group. Then the series jumps ahead five years. Light, now 23, has joined the National Police Agency. And in a flashback to the night L died, his computer automatically notifies an elderly man, who carries the news to two children.
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027 Abduction Aired Apr 17, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
At Wammy's House, caretaker Roger Ruvie tells L's two heirs that L is dead. Mello refuses to share the succession with Near and leaves to hunt Kira his own way, backed by the American Mafia. Near works from inside the system: with the U.S. President behind him and the FBI's Steve Mason at his side, he forms the SPK, the Special Provision for Kira. In Japan, the director of the NPA is kidnapped, and the ransom is the task force's Death Note. Light kills the director. Mello's answer is to take Light's sister, Sayu. Scrambling, the task force turns to the SPK, and Near lets them know he is aware that L is dead and that someone has taken his place.
Lore · 3 Near and Mello Refuse to Become One New L
+2
Near Investigates the Man Calling Himself L Kira Strategy & Information War Kira's Biggest Victory Happens Outside the Investigation Kira & the Public
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028 Impatience Aired Apr 24, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Near offers to work with Light to rescue Sayu. Soichiro carries the Death Note to Los Angeles for the exchange, but Mello's men hijack his plane and drop him in the middle of the desert. Light follows his father by satellite until he goes underground, where Soichiro trades the notebook for his daughter. With it in hand, Mello slaughters most of the SPK. Near proposes full cooperation with Light from here on and suggests Mello is racing them both to Kira. In the Shinigami realm, Sidoh learns that his lost notebook was stolen by Ryuk and dropped into the human world.
Lore · 3 Mello Steals the Notebook and Forces the Case Open
+2
Mello Forces Information Near Cannot Obtain Safely Kira Strategy & Information War Mello Takes Sidoh's Notebook Out of the Task Force's Control Death Note Ownership Ledger
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029 Father Aired May 1, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Light uses the notebook to make one of Mello's men mail him the hideout's address. Sidoh tracks Mello there and tells him the thirteen-day rule is fake. Light gives up ownership of his own notebook and borrows Misa's. Then Misa, posing as Kira, hands the task force a second Death Note along with a promise: most of Mello's men will die on November 10. Soichiro makes the eye deal with Ryuk. On the day of the raid he comes face to face with Mello and reads his real name, Mihael Keehl, but is shot before he can write it. Mello escapes in an explosion. In the hospital, Soichiro dies at peace, certain his son cannot be Kira because he can see Light's lifespan. Light returns Sidoh's notebook.
Lore · 2 Sidoh: He Wants His Notebook Back, Not Kira's War
+1
Sidoh Finally Reclaims the Notebook Ryuk Stole Death Note Ownership Ledger
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030 Justice Aired May 8, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
The President of the United States declares neutrality on Kira, live on Sakura TV's Kira's Kingdom. Mello, scarred by the explosion, takes SPK agent Halle Lidner hostage to walk into Near's headquarters. He wants the photograph Near has of him, so Kira can never use it, and in exchange tells Near about Shinigami and the notebook's fake rules. Near suggests the Japanese task force test the thirteen-day rule, and none of them will. Light leans on the President, threatening his life, for the SPK's location, and Kira's messenger Hitoshi Demegawa flies to America to urge Kira's followers to storm it. Aizawa, starting to suspect Light, considers going to Near.
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031 Transfer Aired May 15, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Kira's followers surround the SPK building in New York while Misa watches on television, waiting for Near to step outside. Near asks the Japanese team to consider that Light may be Kira, then gets his people out by dropping buckets of money on the crowd. Aizawa gives Near what he knows about the old investigation, and Near concludes Light is Kira. Aware of the doubts, Light agrees to renewed surveillance on himself and Misa. When Demegawa goes on television asking followers to fund a temple to Kira, Light has him killed by the new owner of Misa's notebook, Teru Mikami, whom he chose from Mikami's appearances on Kira's Kingdom. Aizawa realizes that with Light and Misa both under watch, the killings cannot be theirs.
Lore · 5 Light Chooses Teru Mikami as X-Kira
+4
Mikami Is Useful Because He Thinks Like Kira Kira Strategy & Information War Gelus's Notebook Eventually Reaches Teru Mikami Death Note Ownership Ledger Near Breaks a Kira Mob With Money, Not an Argument Kira & the Public Mikami Kills Demegawa for Failing the Kira He Imagines Kira & the Public
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032 Selection Aired May 22, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
As a boy, Teru Mikami decided God wanted him to stand against evil. When criminals began dying, he recognized judgment and became a regular guest on Kira's Kingdom. Now holding a Death Note, he judges criminals in Light's place with a believer's joy. He picks a new spokesperson for Kira: newscaster Kiyomi Takada, who once dated Light in college. Light sets up a meeting with her, ostensibly for the investigation, reveals himself to Mikami during a phone call to her, and engineers a way to get the bugs pulled from the room. Alone, he asks Takada to be his goddess in the new world. To the task force, he says he will pose as her boyfriend to catch Kira. Elsewhere, Mello is watching Misa.
Lore · 3 Kiyomi Takada Becomes the Bridge Between Light and Mikami
+2
Takada Is a Communication Layer, Not Light's Partner Kira Strategy & Information War Takada Gives Kira a Respectable Public Face Kira & the Public
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033 Scorn Aired May 29, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Near comes to Japan, calling himself bait. He knows whoever is doing Kira's work has Shinigami eyes and that Kira is talking to him through Takada. On Light's instructions, Takada asks Mikami to send her five pages of the notebook and to carry on his work in a fake made to look like the real one. Misa runs into Takada and goes after her out of jealousy. SPK agent Halle Lidner, posted as Takada's bodyguard, stops her, then sits in when the two women talk. Takada leaves convinced Misa is an idiot, and Lidner reports the love triangle to Near. Elsewhere, SPK agent Stephen Gevanni watches Mikami write in a notebook, and a man dies.
Lore Light's Endgame Depends on Near Watching the Wrong Notebook
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034 Vigilance Aired Jun 5, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Near orders his team to close in on Mikami quietly, so the Shinigami near him will not sound an alarm. Aizawa marks the notepads in the room before Light meets Takada, to catch any written messages. Light, irritated with both women, writes Takada a script that makes it sound as though she has agreed to help catch Kira, and the marked pads tell Aizawa what he already suspected. The SPK picks up Misa. When Light calls Near to report her missing, Near tells him the SPK has her. Gevanni searches Mikami's gym locker, finds the notebook, and on a second visit photographs the names written in it. Near now has Mikami's handwriting, and his plan begins.
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035 Malice Aired Jun 12, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Mello and his partner Matt kidnap Takada in an operation that cuts straight across both Near's and Light's plans for a meeting between the SPK and the task force. Matt is gunned down by Takada's guards. Takada, ready for exactly this, kills Mello with a piece of the notebook she had hidden on her. When Light hears, he uses a scrap of his own to make her commit suicide by setting fire to everything around her, the evidence included. The one event Light did not schedule has happened, and the last move of the game is already in motion.
Lore · 4 Near and Mello Solve Different Halves of L's Problem
+3
Mikami Acting Without Light Is the Fatal Break Kira Strategy & Information War Mello's Takada Kidnapping Creates the One Event Light Did Not Schedule Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Mikami's Unscheduled Bank Visit Reveals the Real Notebook Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown
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036 1.28 Aired Jun 19, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
Light and Near finally meet face to face in an abandoned warehouse, each convinced the other has already lost. Near believes he has neutralized X-Kira by replacing the pages of the notebook Mikami has been using in public. Light is expecting exactly that. Mikami has actually been carrying a fake notebook for surveillance while keeping the real Death Note hidden in a bank safe-deposit box, with Takada performing the real killings from pages supplied from it. Light therefore expects Mikami to arrive with the untouched genuine notebook and write the names of everyone in the warehouse except his own. Mikami peers through the door with the Shinigami Eyes and begins writing. As the forty seconds count down, Light can barely contain himself and declares his victory to Near.
Lore · 2 Light and Near Enter the Warehouse Expecting Opposite Checkmates
+1
Mikami Writes Every Name Except Light's Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown
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037 New World Aired Jun 26, 2007 canon 📷 400 ►
The forty seconds pass and no one dies. Near reveals that he knew about the decoy and had tampered with the real notebook too. Mikami is restrained, the evidence is laid out, and Light, cornered, admits he is Kira. He makes one last attempt with a scrap of the notebook hidden in his watch, writing Near's name, and Matsuda stops him by shooting him several times. As Light writhes on the floor, Mikami kills himself, and in the commotion Light flees the warehouse. His wounds do not let him get far. Ryuk, who made him a promise the day they met, decides Light has stopped being entertaining and writes his name. Light dies of a heart attack, and the last thing he sees is L.
Lore · 6 Yellow Box Warehouse Showdown
+5
Ryuk Is the Only Major Player Who Never Needs Light to Win Kira Strategy & Information War Near's Team Replaces the Real Notebook After Finding It Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Light Reveals Himself Before He Has Another Move Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Matsuda Is the One Who Stops Light's Last Hidden-Page Move Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Ryuk Ends the Game Exactly the Way He Said He Would Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown
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ⓘ Legend
canon Episode adapts events from the source manga.
mixed Adapts source material but adds anime-original scenes.
good-filler Anime-original episode generally well-received by fans.
filler Anime-original episode not based on the source manga.
📷 Number of user-uploaded screencaps available for this episode.
LY

Light Yagami

SPOILER!

Primary Protagonist / Kira

Light Yagami is a brilliant high school student who finds the Death Note dropped into the human world by the Shinigami Ryuk. After confirming that the notebook can kill anyone whose name and face he knows, Light decides to use it to eliminate criminals and create a world he believes will be morally perfect. The killings turn him into the figure the public calls Kira and draw the attention of the detective L. Light's greatest weapon is not the notebook itself but his ability to plan several moves ahead while maintaining the appearance of an exceptional, ordinary student. The series follows the gap between his stated dream of justice and the increasingly ruthless choices he makes to protect his identity and authority.
+47 LORE
Light Rearranges the Notebooks Before He Gives Up His Memories Death Note Ownership Ledger Rem's Own Notebook Becomes Light's Hidden Reserve Death Note Ownership Ledger Light Regains Ownership by Killing Higuchi Death Note Ownership Ledger The Raye Penber & FBI Surveillance Purge Investigation Chronology The Bedroom Surveillance Counterattack Investigation Chronology Naomi Misora Gets Too Close Investigation Chronology Self-Incarceration & Memory Forfeiture Investigation Chronology The Helicopter Memory Recovery & Higuchi's Death Investigation Chronology The 13-Day Fake Rule Deception Investigation Chronology The Public Names Kira Before Light Builds a Movement Kira & the Public Kira's Biggest Victory Happens Outside the Investigation Kira & the Public Light's First Advantage Is Knowing the Weapon L Cannot Imagine Kira Strategy & Information War Light's Yotsuba Plan Works Because His Future Self Does Not Know the Plan Kira Strategy & Information War Light Beats Rem by Making Protection Self-Destructive Kira Strategy & Information War Forty Seconds for the Cause, Six Minutes Forty Seconds for the Details Rules of the Notebook The Death Note Cannot Make the Impossible Happen Rules of the Notebook Possession, Use and Ownership Are Not the Same Thing Rules of the Notebook The 23-Day Control Limit Rules of the Notebook Light's Endgame Depends on Near Watching the Wrong Notebook Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Light Reveals Himself Before He Has Another Move Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Higuchi Receives the Notebook Light Originally Used Death Note Ownership Ledger Mello Takes Sidoh's Notebook Out of the Task Force's Control Death Note Ownership Ledger The Lind L. Tailor Broadcast Trap Investigation Chronology Misa Arrives With the Shinigami Eyes Investigation Chronology Light Chooses Teru Mikami as X-Kira Investigation Chronology Rem Makes Misa the One Person Light Cannot Treat as Disposable Investigation Chronology Mello Steals the Notebook and Forces the Case Open Investigation Chronology Kiyomi Takada Becomes the Bridge Between Light and Mikami Investigation Chronology Yellow Box Warehouse Showdown Investigation Chronology Higuchi Becomes the Yotsuba Kira Investigation Chronology Rem Kills L and Watari to Save Misa Investigation Chronology Takada Gives Kira a Respectable Public Face Kira & the Public Misa Understands Light Is Using Her and Chooses Him Anyway Kira Strategy & Information War Near Investigates the Man Calling Himself L Kira Strategy & Information War Mikami Is Useful Because He Thinks Like Kira Kira Strategy & Information War Ryuk Is the Only Major Player Who Never Needs Light to Win Kira Strategy & Information War L Wins Information by Forcing Kira to React Kira Strategy & Information War Rem Knows Light Is Using Misa but Cannot Abandon Her Kira Strategy & Information War Takada Is a Communication Layer, Not Light's Partner Kira Strategy & Information War Mikami Acting Without Light Is the Fatal Break Kira Strategy & Information War L Never Fully Accepts the Thirteen-Day Rule Kira Strategy & Information War The Eye Contract (50% Lifespan Sacrifice) Shinigami Realm & Eye Deal Light and Near Enter the Warehouse Expecting Opposite Checkmates Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Matsuda Is the One Who Stops Light's Last Hidden-Page Move Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Mikami Writes Every Name Except Light's Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Ryuk Ends the Game Exactly the Way He Said He Would Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Mikami's Unscheduled Bank Visit Reveals the Real Notebook Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown
LL

L Lawliet

SPOILER!

Major Supporting / Detective Hunting Kira

L is the reclusive detective who accepts the Kira case after police around the world realize they are facing a killer who does not need to be physically present. He hides his identity behind aliases and intermediaries, yet his first public trap narrows Kira's location to Japan's Kanto region almost immediately. L is eccentric, socially blunt and constantly eating sweets, but none of those habits make him less dangerous. He is willing to test uncomfortable theories, place himself near suspects and treat Light Yagami as both investigation target and intellectual equal. Their relationship becomes the central duel of the first half of Death Note: two brilliant people sitting across from one another, each trying to prove what he already believes about the other before the evidence runs out.
+9 LORE
The Lind L. Tailor Broadcast Trap Investigation Chronology L Wins Information by Forcing Kira to React Kira Strategy & Information War L Never Fully Accepts the Thirteen-Day Rule Kira Strategy & Information War Near and Mello Refuse to Become One New L Investigation Chronology The Bedroom Surveillance Counterattack Investigation Chronology Self-Incarceration & Memory Forfeiture Investigation Chronology Rem Kills L and Watari to Save Misa Investigation Chronology Light's First Advantage Is Knowing the Weapon L Cannot Imagine Kira Strategy & Information War Light's Yotsuba Plan Works Because His Future Self Does Not Know the Plan Kira Strategy & Information War
RY

Ryuk

SPOILER!

Major Supporting / Shinigami Observer

Ryuk is the Shinigami who drops his Death Note into the human world because the Shinigami realm has become unbearably boring. Light's decision to use the notebook on a massive scale gives Ryuk exactly the entertainment he wanted. He explains the notebook's rules, develops an obsession with apples and follows Light almost everywhere, but repeatedly reminds him that they are not partners. Ryuk is not interested in justice, Kira's new world or L's investigation. He is interested in seeing what humans do when given power they were never meant to have. That detachment makes him funny and unsettling at the same time. From the beginning, Ryuk also warns Light that when everything ends, he will be the one who writes Light's name in his own Death Note.
+6 LORE
The Notebook Light Finds Belongs to Sidoh, Not Ryuk Death Note Ownership Ledger Ryuk Is the Only Major Player Who Never Needs Light to Win Kira Strategy & Information War Touching a Death Note Reveals Its Shinigami Rules of the Notebook Ryuk Ends the Game Exactly the Way He Said He Would Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Light Rearranges the Notebooks Before He Gives Up His Memories Death Note Ownership Ledger The 13-Day Fake Rule Deception Investigation Chronology
MA

Misa Amane

SPOILER!

Major Supporting / Second Kira

Misa Amane is a popular model and actress who becomes the Second Kira after receiving a Death Note from the Shinigami Rem. Her parents were murdered, and Kira's killing of the man responsible turns her admiration for Kira into intense personal devotion. Misa trades half of her remaining lifespan for the Shinigami Eyes, allowing her to see a person's real name simply by looking at their face. That makes her enormously useful to Light and enormously vulnerable to him. Misa is energetic, impulsive and much less cautious than Light, but she is not powerless or unintelligent. Her willingness to sacrifice for him repeatedly changes the investigation, while Rem's determination to keep Misa alive becomes one of the few limits Light cannot ignore.
+15 LORE
Gelus's Notebook Reaches Misa Through Rem Death Note Ownership Ledger Misa Arrives With the Shinigami Eyes Investigation Chronology The Second Kira Turns Sakura TV Into Part of the Case Kira & the Public Misa Understands Light Is Using Her and Chooses Him Anyway Kira Strategy & Information War The Eye Contract (50% Lifespan Sacrifice) Shinigami Realm & Eye Deal Compounded Eye Deals (Misa Amane Rule) Shinigami Realm & Eye Deal A Dead Shinigami's Remaining Life Passes to the Human They Saved Shinigami Realm & Eye Deal Gelus's Notebook Eventually Reaches Teru Mikami Death Note Ownership Ledger Rem Makes Misa the One Person Light Cannot Treat as Disposable Investigation Chronology Rem Kills L and Watari to Save Misa Investigation Chronology The 13-Day Fake Rule Deception Investigation Chronology Rem Knows Light Is Using Misa but Cannot Abandon Her Kira Strategy & Information War Light Beats Rem by Making Protection Self-Destructive Kira Strategy & Information War L Never Fully Accepts the Thirteen-Day Rule Kira Strategy & Information War The Protection Paradox: How a Shinigami Can Die for a Human Shinigami Realm & Eye Deal
SY

Soichiro Yagami

SPOILER!

Major Supporting / Kira Task Force Chief and Light's Father

Soichiro Yagami is Light's father, a senior police officer and one of the leaders of the Japanese task force investigating Kira. He believes deeply in the law and refuses to abandon the investigation even when it begins placing his family directly inside it. L's suspicion of Light is especially painful because Soichiro must balance his duty as an investigator against his certainty that his son cannot be Kira. He repeatedly puts himself at risk rather than ask subordinates to carry burdens he will not carry himself, including during the operation against Mello's group. Soichiro's tragedy is that his moral clarity exists beside a deception he cannot see. Light uses his father's trust while still caring enough about him for that exploitation to hurt.
LORE
TM

Touta Matsuda

Supporting / Kira Task Force Detective

Matsuda is the youngest and most openly emotional member of the Japanese Kira task force. He is often impulsive, eager to prove himself and noticeably less experienced than officers like Soichiro Yagami or Aizawa, which makes him an easy target for jokes inside the group. That does not make him useless. Matsuda's unauthorized infiltration of the Yotsuba Group becomes dangerous almost immediately, but it also gives the investigation valuable information about the new Kira. He is also one of the few investigators willing to admit that Kira's killings have changed crime and public behavior, even while rejecting murder as justice. By the final confrontation, Matsuda's faith in Light and the Yagami family makes the truth hit him with particular force.
LORE
NR

Nate River (Near)

SPOILER!

Major Supporting / L's Successor and SPK Leader

Near is one of the children raised at Wammy's House as a possible successor to L. After L's death, he leads the SPK and resumes the Kira investigation from a position outside the Japanese task force. Near is quiet, detached and usually surrounded by toys he rearranges while thinking, but his method is not simply a copy of L's. He builds conclusions patiently, tests the behavior of the people around Kira and eventually focuses on Light Yagami himself. Near's rivalry with Mello matters because neither successor can solve the case alone. Mello's reckless moves create information Near would never have obtained through caution, and Near ultimately acknowledges that their combined actions allowed them to surpass L and expose Kira.
+10 LORE
Near and Mello Refuse to Become One New L Investigation Chronology Yellow Box Warehouse Showdown Investigation Chronology Near Breaks a Kira Mob With Money, Not an Argument Kira & the Public Near Investigates the Man Calling Himself L Kira Strategy & Information War Near and Mello Solve Different Halves of L's Problem Kira Strategy & Information War Light and Near Enter the Warehouse Expecting Opposite Checkmates Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Near's Team Replaces the Real Notebook After Finding It Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Light's Endgame Depends on Near Watching the Wrong Notebook Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Mikami Writes Every Name Except Light's Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Light Reveals Himself Before He Has Another Move Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown
MK

Mihael Keehl (Mello)

SPOILER!

Major Supporting / L Successor Candidate and Near's Rival

Mello is the other leading successor candidate from Wammy's House and the person least willing to accept Near as the natural heir to L. Rather than join the SPK, Mello enters the criminal underworld and uses a mafia organization to attack the Kira case from an angle no official investigator could. His methods include kidnapping Sayu Yagami and forcing the task force to surrender a Death Note, moves that make him dangerous to both Kira and the police. Mello's competitiveness with Near is genuine, but so is his determination to defeat Kira. Late in the case he kidnaps Kiyomi Takada, an action that costs him his life but exposes a weakness in Light's plan and gives Near the opening needed for the final confrontation.
+6 LORE
Mello Takes Sidoh's Notebook Out of the Task Force's Control Death Note Ownership Ledger Mello Steals the Notebook and Forces the Case Open Investigation Chronology Mello Forces Information Near Cannot Obtain Safely Kira Strategy & Information War Mello's Takada Kidnapping Creates the One Event Light Did Not Schedule Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Near and Mello Refuse to Become One New L Investigation Chronology Near and Mello Solve Different Halves of L's Problem Kira Strategy & Information War
TM

Teru Mikami

SPOILER!

Major Antagonist / X-Kira and Prosecutor

Teru Mikami is a prosecutor whose rigid belief in punishing evil makes him an ideal proxy when Light needs someone else to carry out Kira's judgments. Mikami has worshipped Kira's ideology long before Light chooses him, dividing people into those who deserve to live and those who should be deleted. After receiving a Death Note, he follows a strict schedule of killings and later accepts the Shinigami Eyes so he can act without waiting for names. His discipline is exactly why Light trusts him and exactly why Near's team can study him. During the final plan, Mikami's independent decision to act during the Takada crisis reveals the location of the real notebook and gives Near's side the chance to replace it before the warehouse confrontation.
+13 LORE
Gelus's Notebook Eventually Reaches Teru Mikami Death Note Ownership Ledger Light Chooses Teru Mikami as X-Kira Investigation Chronology Mikami Kills Demegawa for Failing the Kira He Imagines Kira & the Public Mikami Is Useful Because He Thinks Like Kira Kira Strategy & Information War Mikami Acting Without Light Is the Fatal Break Kira Strategy & Information War Mikami Writes Every Name Except Light's Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Mikami's Unscheduled Bank Visit Reveals the Real Notebook Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Kiyomi Takada Becomes the Bridge Between Light and Mikami Investigation Chronology Yellow Box Warehouse Showdown Investigation Chronology Takada Is a Communication Layer, Not Light's Partner Kira Strategy & Information War Light's Endgame Depends on Near Watching the Wrong Notebook Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Light and Near Enter the Warehouse Expecting Opposite Checkmates Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown Near's Team Replaces the Real Notebook After Finding It Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown
KT

Kiyomi Takada

SPOILER!

Major Supporting / Kira Spokesperson and Light's Intermediary

Kiyomi Takada is a television presenter and former university classmate of Light who becomes Kira's public spokesperson during the later investigation. Intelligent, ambitious and already sympathetic to Kira's ideology, Takada is also useful because Light can communicate with her while maintaining his own public role on the task force. She becomes the private link between Light and Mikami, carrying instructions that cannot safely pass through ordinary channels. Takada believes she has a privileged place in the new world Kira intends to create, but Light continues treating relationships according to their usefulness. When Mello kidnaps her, she kills him with a hidden piece of the Death Note. Light then writes Takada's name himself to destroy the evidence connecting her to him.
+5 LORE
Kiyomi Takada Becomes the Bridge Between Light and Mikami Investigation Chronology Takada Gives Kira a Respectable Public Face Kira & the Public Takada Is a Communication Layer, Not Light's Partner Kira Strategy & Information War Mikami Acting Without Light Is the Fatal Break Kira Strategy & Information War Mello's Takada Kidnapping Creates the One Event Light Did Not Schedule Yellow Box Warehouse: The Complete Breakdown
RE

Rem

SPOILER!

Major Supporting / Shinigami Protecting Misa

Rem is the Shinigami who brings Gelus's Death Note to Misa after Gelus dies saving her life. Unlike Ryuk, Rem becomes emotionally invested in the human carrying the notebook. She cares deeply about Misa and quickly recognizes that Light is willing to exploit those feelings if it helps him defeat L. That makes Rem both a threat to Light and, eventually, part of his plan. Light arranges circumstances so that L's investigation will lead to Misa's execution unless Rem intervenes. Rem kills Watari and L to save her, knowing that a Shinigami who deliberately extends a human life will die. Her body turns to dust, leaving Light with exactly the result he wanted and Misa without the protector who understood him most clearly.
+10 LORE
Rem Makes Misa the One Person Light Cannot Treat as Disposable Investigation Chronology Rem Kills L and Watari to Save Misa Investigation Chronology Rem Knows Light Is Using Misa but Cannot Abandon Her Kira Strategy & Information War The Protection Paradox: How a Shinigami Can Die for a Human Shinigami Realm & Eye Deal Light Rearranges the Notebooks Before He Gives Up His Memories Death Note Ownership Ledger Rem's Own Notebook Becomes Light's Hidden Reserve Death Note Ownership Ledger Gelus's Notebook Reaches Misa Through Rem Death Note Ownership Ledger Misa Arrives With the Shinigami Eyes Investigation Chronology Higuchi Becomes the Yotsuba Kira Investigation Chronology Light Beats Rem by Making Protection Self-Destructive Kira Strategy & Information War
KH

Kyosuke Higuchi

SPOILER!

Antagonist / Yotsuba Kira

Kyosuke Higuchi is a Yotsuba Group executive who receives the Death Note during the period when Light gives up ownership and loses his memories of being Kira. Higuchi has none of Light's grand claims about creating a better world. He uses Kira's power to kill business rivals, improve Yotsuba's position and pursue Misa, reducing the notebook to a tool for greed and status. L's task force identifies the connection between the new killings and the Yotsuba executives, eventually setting a trap that exposes Higuchi during a desperate attempt to learn Matsuda's real name. His capture places the Death Note back in Light's hands. The moment Light touches it, his memories return and Higuchi becomes the expendable final piece of a plan he never understood.
+5 LORE
Higuchi Receives the Notebook Light Originally Used Death Note Ownership Ledger Higuchi Becomes the Yotsuba Kira Investigation Chronology Light Regains Ownership by Killing Higuchi Death Note Ownership Ledger Self-Incarceration & Memory Forfeiture Investigation Chronology The Helicopter Memory Recovery & Higuchi's Death Investigation Chronology
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