The old Greek saying goes like this,
“Power has a tendency to corrupt. Little power tends to corrupt a little. Absolute power tends to absolutely corrupt.”
One of the most famous beginner anime that deals with a lot of morality, the grey area, justice, law, violence and power.
This story of two geniuses standing shoulder to shoulder, one to uncover a secret and the other to keep it, fighting over the fate the world.
Sounds fancy, doesn’t it?
Here’s a list of 15 Death Note Characters that made us rethink certain things.
15. Shinigami King
Although ignored the Shinigami King is the ultimate authority and reason why the entire anime happened in the first place.
The king of the Shinigami realm who either produces Death Notes or gets a fixed supply of Death Notes which he circulated among the Shinigami.
Although not having a direct control over what the Shinigami can and can’t do with his Death Note, the king is the one who writes the rules of the Death Note, eventually being the puppeteer for the entire series.
14. Gelus
He is the one who is used to let us know that Shinigami can also ‘die’ and can ‘fall in love’.
Gelus has a Death Note which he uses to extend a human life, after using his Death Note to save Misa from a murderer because of falling in love with her.
Gelus was the reason this entire Misa arc happened, with his Death Note falling into the hands of Rem.
It also introduced us to the fact that Shinigami can respect another Shinigami’s death wish as Rem takes the Death Note and starts helping Misa after Gelus’s death.
13. Mello
Mello is one of the successors of L at Wammy’s house.
Mello is one of the most direction oriented tunnel visioned people to exist in the series. All he wants is to defeat Near. He will be the best no matter what means he has to adopt, whether right or wrong.
In this entire series filled with different definitions of justices, Mello is the only one who isn’t doing something for the sake of justice but for his own goals which is admirable in its own way.
12. Soichiro Yagami
Light Yagami’s father.
This is the identity he managed to garner throughout the series.
Although it might not seem like it, Soichiro seems to have quite the influence on his son. Light inherits his motto of ‘Justice first, family later’ from his father.
He is a man of justice with a strong sense of duty as a police officer.
Soichiro was always having to balance this fine line of family and duty as L had his suspicions that Light is Kira.
He did choose his duty over his son by putting him in a situation where he would pick the police officer over the father.
11. Touta Matsuda
A brash young detective detective with temper issues and a dash of naïvity.
Touta Matsuda is an excellent asset when it comes to infiltration.
He is a risk taker although he realizes that he is weak willed. The only thing keeping him in this investigation was this strand of duty as a police officer.
He sees himself as less than others and tries to make himself useful by trying to sacrifice himself on someone else’s behalf, which furthers his superiors’ beliefs of him being naïve and rash and highly emotionally driven.
10. Stephen Gevanni
Gevanni is on this list as he is probably the only one who has become a well-known pop-culture reference.
Die to his achievement of making an exact copy of Teru Mikami’s Death Note in a single night, anyone who manages to do a lot of things in a very short amount of time is referred to as ‘Gevanni.’
The guy is loaded with skills including lock-picking, shadowing people, investigation and so on.
Stephen Gevanni definitely might be a small part of the series but he definitely made sure to make an impact.
9. Near
The one to actually steal the victory and get behind this whol secret of Light and Kira and L.
Near a lot of times is seen just playing around with toys and puzzles making gigantic towers out of them, felling them and reconstructing them.
Near is a very subjective person who doesn’t believe that a greater right or a greater wrong exists and that everyone should decide what is right and what is wrong for themselves.
It is often the case that he doesn’t mind using methods that use the loopholes of laws as the only thing that matters are results.
8. Watari
One of the most non-problematic characters of the series, Watari does whatever L asks him to without question.
He is such a refreshing splash of simpleness that comes in as a savior for this extremely heavy series where everyone constantly has plans.
Watari is a simple character who only cares about getting L what he wants, from pastries to tea.
He is therefore for a long time, the only one who can speak to or see L in person.
7. Rem
The Shinigami who actually introduced us to a completely different sides of Shinigami.
Characters like Ryuk remain important throughout the series but do not per say put an effort into doing anything for any side apart from giving their Death Note to other characters.
Rem on the other hand makes the ultimate sacrifice as far as a Shinigami is concerned of extending someone’s life instead of shortening it leading to her getting dissolved into some sort of a sand or dust-ish substance.
The loving side of Shinigami was carefully captured due to the efforts of her to keep Misa safe.
6. Kiyomi Takada
Kiyomi Takada better known as Kira’s spokesperson on News 6, or girlfriend of Light Yagami’s.
Kiyomi was prideful, refined and a very attractive person that led her to believe that someone like Misa Amane was unfit for Light.
This led to a sort of rivalry between the characters over light.
Kiyomi did steal the show with her involvement as the ‘Goddess of the New World’ and her reaction of furthering her respect for Light, now that he is Kira.
5. Teru Mikami
Teru Mikami often outspoken, a very strict adherent to his schedule, someone who believes in the force of habits and an unafraid devout of Kira.
Obviously, he was rewarded by becoming a Kira and getting a death note for himself.
Teru voiced his opinion about Kira on various TV platforms as well not caring about the controversial nature of his statements.
He was definitely someone who deserved much more than what he got.
4. Misa Amane
Misa is the person who sacrificed her entire world for Kira.
Light being the antagonist that he is beautifully used Misa to get his ends meet and this just discarded her like scrap.
Misa, despite knowing these facts let herself be used and was happy just by being able to stand beside Light as his tool.
A devotion to her God named Kira, led to her sad parting with him but she left her mark in everyone’s mind by being one of the rare characters who are pure in this series of everyone deceiving everyone else.
3. Ryuk
Light’s resident Shinigami… Would best friend be the right word or… Perfect enemy would be the right word…
Ryuk maintained his neutral stance towards Light and the whole situation with Kira.
Ryuk is probably the one who in the end got the taste of victory as he was the one who was entertained by this entire ordeal of mass murders and people figuring each other out and secret identities and this web of manipulating each other and life.
2. Light Yagami
I hope you guys know that if a charming anime villain promised me the world, I would leave. Without hesitation.
Sound familiar?
Light is one of those people who most people would abandon you for.
Light will show you the man you want to see in him. By the time you will actually start realizing the truth it will be too late.
Manipulative and controlling, Light Yagami fits the mould for the perfect antagonist of a series because for such a long portion of the series, he was portrayed as the protagonist.
1. Lawliet (L)
Everything about him is something out of the ordinary, from the way he holds the phone to the way he knows who Kira is, the undisputed winner of this listicle is none other than our beloved Lawliet L. L is an out of whack genius who’s diet mostly consists of tea and sweets.
The L and Light dynamic was the major reason that gave this anime such a rise in popularity.
L gave the show a completely different kind of competitive edge.
Light being the perfect charming straight A’s student while L being the imperfect whimsical straight A’s student.
In this aspect, L beat everyone else to a pulp.
