Death Note

Main Characters

L -
Considered one of the best detectives in the world, no one really knows much about the mysterious L. He speaks to his clients through faceless means such as his lap top, a PowerBook G4, and only takes on cases that interest him. [See also: Ryuuzaki]

Ryuuku -
A God of Death who tricked his boss into giving him two Death Notes. Out of boredom he drops one of them on Earth, and takes to following around the boy who found it. He takes a lot of interest in the travails of humans, and has a penchant for video games and apples.

Ryuuzaki -
The man most refer to as 'L', he was forced to show himself to the Japanese police during the Kira case. He is a young, highly intelligent boy who masquerades as several internationally reknowned detectives. Ryuuzaki is the name he uses with the Japanese police, while Ryuuga is the name he used to enroll in Raito's school. His real name is unkown so far in the story.

Kira/ Raito -
Raito is an above average seventeen-year-old boy when the reader first meets him. He is extremely intelligent, handsome, and popular. When he finds the Death Note he decides to create a kind of Utopia by killing off all the criminals in the world. In some scanlations he is called "Light" instead of Raito. After Raito starts killing off criminals he is given the name "Kira" by his fans, a name they derived from the word "Killer".

Takeshi -
One of the Yotsuba corporation's employees, he is part of a board who decides which competitors should be killed to benefit the company. They use a third Kira to accomplish this. He is head of the TV Enterprise Department. Other board members: Hatori, Higuchi, Kida, Midou, Namikawa, Shimura, Takahashi [Appearance: ch. 37]

Aber -
A con artist who has worked with L in the past. He has extensive knowledge of psychology, linguistics, and diplomacy. [Appearance: ch.4]

Aizawa -
One of the five police agents who decide to work with L to pursue Kira, along with Yagami Souichirou, Matsuda, Ukita, and Mogi. [Appearance: ch.11]

Amane Misa -
Amane is a model and also the owner of a second Death Note. She uses it to become the 'second Kira' because she idolizes the first Kira and wants to meet him. Her parents were killed and the murderers were not punished, until the first Kira killed them. For that reason she would do almost anything for Kira, including putting herself at great risk. [Appearance: ch.23]

Coil -
A detective who is said to surpass even L, he is hired by Yotsuba Corporation to find out L's identity.

Danuvue -
In addition to L and Coil, Danuve is one of the three best detectives in the world.

Demegawa -
The director of sleazy television station Sakura TV, he was nonetheless integral in the Kira case. [Appearance: ch.22]

Hatori -
One of the Yotsuba corporation's employees, he is part of a board who decides which competitors should be killed to benefit the company. They use a third Kira to accomplish this. He is head of the Advertising Planning Division. Other board members: 001, Higuchi, Kida, Midou, Namikawa, Shimura, Takahashi [Appearance: ch. 37]

Kida -
One of the Yotsuba corporation's employees, he is part of a board who decides which competitors should be killed to benefit the company. They use a third Kira to accomplish this. He is head of the Lights Planning Department. Other board members: 001, Hatori, Higuchi, Midou, Namikawa, Shimura, Takahashi [Appearance: ch. 37]

Kitamura -
The vice director of Japan's police force.

Lind L. Taylor -
A criminal on death row who pretends to be L for the purposes of finding out more about "Kira". [Appearance: ch.2]

Matsuda -
A young officer on the Japanese police force. He's not taken very seriously by his peers, though he puts himself in several life-threatening scenarios in the pursuit for Kira. He also works undercover as Amane's manager. [Appearance: ch.3]

Midou Shingo -
One of the Yotsuba corporation's employees, he is part of a board who decides which competitors should be killed to benefit the company. They use a third Kira to accomplish this. He is head of financial planning. Other board members: 001, Hatori, Higuchi, Kida, Namikawa, Shimura, Takahashi [Appearance: ch. 37]

Misora Naomi -
Raye Penber's fiancee and, apparently, one of the FBI's brightest female agents until she quit to get married. Despite the fact that she's a strong American woman, she's perfectly docile to her fiance's statement that "it's true you were an outstanding FBI agent...but now you're just my fiancee" when she tries to help him with the Kira case. Argh. Uses the alias Maki Shouko. [Appearance: ch.8]

Mogi -
One of the five police agents who decide to work with L to pursue Kira, along with Yagami Souichirou, Matsuda, Ukita, and Aizawa. [Appearance: ch.11]

Reiji -
One of the Yotsuba corporation's employees, he is part of a board who decides which competitors should be killed to benefit the company. They use a third Kira to accomplish this. He is head of the First Sales Division and graduated from Harvard. Other board members: 001, Hatori, Higuchi, Kida, Midou, Shimura, Takahashi [Appearance: ch. 37]

Nori -
A friend of Amane's. She helps Amane ditch her bodyguard at one point by dressing up as her. [Appearance: ch. 48]

Kurou -
Raito's first victim. He is an unemployed forty-two-year-old man who killed and/or wounded six innocent people in Shinjuku. Raito gives him a heart attack while Otoharada is holding eight infants and daycare workers hostage at a nursery school. [Appearance: ch.1]

Takada -
Takada is supposedly a very smart girl at Touou. She is one of the girls that Raitou dates. [Appearance: ch. 32]

Ukita -
One of the five police agents who decide to work with L to pursue Kira, along with Yagami Souichirou, Matsuda, Aizawa, and Mogi. [Appearance: ch.11]

Watari -
Watari is L's assistant. He is also a physical go-between that L uses to deal with the police or any other parties that have business with him. He is usually dressed in a trench coat and hat so that no one can see what he looks like. [Appearance: ch.2, ch.13]

Zyerasu -
A God of Death of who fell in love with a human. When he saw that she was about to die, he gave up his life to save hers. [Appearance: ch.27]

Death Note has also been adapted for big screen in the form of two live-action films. The first one premiered in Japan on June 17, 2006 and topped the Japanese box office for two straight weeks. It is mostly faithful to the manga (with some slight alterations such as the addition of Light's girlfriend Shiori), starting with Light in a university and flashing back a year or so to him receiving the Death Note. It ends with his first meeting with L. The second movie, Death Note: The Last Name, premiered on November 3, 2006, and instantly topped the Japanese box office. Death Note (%u6B7B%u4EA1%u7B46%u8A18) was released in Singapore on October 19, 2006 & Malaysia on November 9, 2006 with English and Chinese subtitles. It has also been released in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The sequel was released in Hong Kong on November 3, 2006, with news that the second movie will be released in Singapore on December 28, 2006 with english and Chinese subtitles. Cinema Topics Online has confirmed that there are plans for an American screening of these movies and even an American remake, depending on their commercial success. A date has not been stated, however.
Theme songs

* Dani California by Red Hot Chili Peppers
* Manatsu no Yoru no Yume by Suga Shikao
* Snow ((Hey Oh)) by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Movie Cast

* Light Yagami: Tatsuya Fujiwara
* L: Ken'ichi Matsuyama
* Ryuk (voice): Shido Nakamura
* Soichiro Yagami: Takeshi Kaga
* Misa: Erika Toda
* Raye Penber: Shigeki Hosokawa
* Naomi Misora: Asaka Seto
* Shiori (original character): Yuu Kashii
* Rem (voice): Peter (actor)
* Sayu Yagami: Hikari Mitsushima
* Sachiko Yagami: Michiko Godai
* Watari: Shunji Fujimura
* Matsuda: Souta Aoyama
* Aizawa: Shin Shimizu
* Ukita: Tatsuhito Okuda
* Mogi: Ikuji Nakamura