50 Fun Facts About Death Note

Who wrote Death Note?

Tsugumi Ohba is a pen name, and the writer's identity has never been confirmed; the same name appears on Bakuman, the 2008 manga about making manga.

In which magazine was Death Note serialised from December 2003 to May 2006?

Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shueisha's flagship magazine, ran Death Note alongside Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, an unusually dark series for the title.

How many chapters does the Death Note manga have?

108 chapters ran in the magazine, plus a one-shot epilogue in 2008; 108 is also the number of earthly desires in Buddhism, which fans have taken as deliberate.

The public nickname 'Kira' for the mystery murderer is the Japanese rendering of which English word?

Kira is how Japanese renders the English word Killer; the public coins it once criminals start dying of heart attacks, and Light embraces it as the name of a new world's god.

The shinigami Ryuk is invisible to everyone except whom?

People who have touched the notebook can see and hear its shinigami; Light's father and the task force only see Ryuk after they handle the Death Note themselves.

What is Ryuk's well-known weakness in the human world?

Apples are Ryuk's addiction in the human world; he calls them 'juicy', goes through withdrawal without them and twists himself into knots when deprived.

Which studio animated the Death Note anime?

Madhouse, the studio behind Monster and Hunter x Hunter, produced the series for Nippon TV, where it aired from October 2006 to June 2007.

How many episodes does the Death Note anime have?

37 episodes aired on Nippon TV between October 2006 and June 2007; two 'Relight' compilation films followed, and Adult Swim ran the series in the US from October 2007.

Which band performs 'The World', the first opening theme of the Death Note anime?

Nightmare, a visual kei band from Sendai, also sang the first ending theme, 'Alumina'; Maximum the Hormone took over the opening from episode 20 with 'What's Up, People?!'.

What is L's real name, revealed only in supplementary material?

L Lawliet is the name given in the 2006 guidebook; Lind L. Tailor, by contrast, was the death-row convict L used as a TV decoy to provoke Kira.

Which of these is NOT one of L's aliases in the series?

Coil and Deneuve are supposedly the world's second and third best detectives; L is all three. Matsuda is the task force's youngest member.

Which eccentric habit is L known for?

Crouching in chairs instead of sitting is L's signature pose; he claims his reasoning drops by 40 per cent if he sits normally, and he lives on sweets.

Who ultimately kills L?

Light engineers it so that Rem must write L's and Watari's names to save Misa, which also destroys Rem herself.

What is Misa Amane's job?

Model and idol 'Misa Misa' is famous across the Kansai region; she worships Kira because he killed the burglar who murdered her parents.

What does a Death Note owner give up to obtain the shinigami eyes?

Half their remaining lifespan is the price; the eyes then show the name and lifespan of anyone whose face the owner sees, and Misa pays it twice.

Which shinigami crumbled to dust after writing a name to save Misa Amane's life?

Gelus, a shinigami who had watched Misa Amane from the shinigami realm, wrote her stalker's name to save her and died for it; his notebook later reached her.

After L's death, his two potential successors are introduced. Which of them joins the mafia?

Near works with the US government instead. The two were raised as rivals at Wammy's House and only ever add up to L together.

What is Near's real name?

Nate River is Near's real name, per the guidebook; the orphanage's other graduates include Mihael Keehl and Mail Jeevas, known as Matt, and Near spends the story stacking dice and toys.

Mello is rarely seen without which food?

The bar of chocolate is his trademark, as sweets are L's and apples are Ryuk's. Potato chips belong to Light's most famous scene.

The orphanage that raised L and his successors is in which English city?

Winchester, in Hampshire, is the home of L's orphanage in the series, founded by the inventor better known as L's handler Watari.

What is Watari's real name?

Quillsh Wammy, a wealthy inventor, founded the orphanage that raised L and serves as his sole link to the world; he dies alongside L when the shinigami writes both names.

What word does the prosecutor Teru Mikami mutter repeatedly as he writes names in the Death Note?

Delete, 'sakujo' in Japanese, is Mikami's chant; his rigid routine is what Near exploits, letting the SPK swap his notebook for a fake before the final showdown.

Light hides a scrap of the Death Note in which object to regain his memories?

His wristwatch has a hidden compartment holding a scrap of the notebook; touching it restores Light's memories during the Higuchi chase, and he uses it to write Higuchi's name.

Which FBI agent tailing Light is tricked into writing his colleagues' names?

Raye Penber, one of twelve FBI agents sent to watch the Japanese police families, is tricked on a train into writing his colleagues' names; his fiancée Naomi Misora then investigates.

How does Light Yagami finally die?

Ryuk writes his name in the notebook once Light is cornered and useless to him, honouring his day-one warning that a shinigami's company is no friendship; the manga and anime stage the death differently.

The kanji of Light's surname, Yagami, mean what?

Night god is the reading of 夜神: ya, night, and gami, god; his given name is written with the character for moon but read as Light.

Who voices Light Yagami in the Japanese version of the anime?

Mamoru Miyano, later the voice of Rintaro Okabe in Steins;Gate, plays Light; his unhinged laugh in the finale became a meme, and Brad Swaile voices him in English.

Who voices L in the Japanese anime?

Kappei Yamaguchi, also the voice of Inuyasha and of Usopp in One Piece, plays L; Alessandro Juliani voices him in English.

Who played Light Yagami in the 2006 Japanese live-action films?

Tatsuya Fujiwara, who had already played the lead in Battle Royale, starred in both films; Shusuke Kaneko directed, and the sequel The Last Name opened in November 2006.

Which actor played L in the 2006 films and their 2008 spin-off L: Change the World?

Kenichi Matsuyama played L in all three films; the spin-off covers the 23 days L has left after writing his own name to trap Kira, a plot unique to the films.

Who directed the 2017 American Death Note film released by Netflix?

Adam Wingard, known for You're Next and The Guest, directed the Netflix film, which relocated the story to the US and was criticised for whitewashing its cast.

Who voiced Ryuk in the 2017 Netflix Death Note film?

Willem Dafoe supplied Ryuk's voice while Jason Liles performed the body on set; LaKeith Stanfield played L and Margaret Qualley played Mia Sutton.

The 2017 Netflix film moved the story from Japan to which US city?

Seattle stands in for Japan in the Netflix film; the production shot there and in Vancouver, with Light Turner a local high-school student.

The prequel light novel Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases was written by whom?

Nisio Isin, the Monogatari author, wrote the 2006 novel in which L pursues Beyond Birthday, a failed successor from the orphanage, with Naomi Misora as investigator.

The official guidebook released in October 2006 carries what title?

Death Note 13: How to Read prints the characters' full names, the complete rules and the unpublished pilot chapter, along with interviews with the creators.

The manga's final confrontation takes place in a location Ohba called what?

The Yellow Box Warehouse, on Daikoku Wharf in Yokohama, hosts the final meeting between Near's SPK and the task force; Ohba said the series ended much as intended.

By April 2015, roughly how many copies of the Death Note manga were in circulation?

30 million copies were in circulation by that point, nine years after the manga's May 2006 finish, with translated editions in more than a dozen languages.

In June 2015, which country's Ministry of Culture listed Death Note among 38 banned anime and manga?

China's Ministry of Culture put Death Note on a list of 38 titles, alongside Attack on Titan, citing content that encouraged violence and crime; replica notebooks had already been confiscated in US schools.

Which company licensed Death Note for English release in North America in April 2005?

Viz Media, owned by Shueisha and Shogakukan, announced the licence in April 2005 and published the first English volume that October.

What does SPK, the anti-Kira unit Near leads, stand for?

Special Provision for Kira is the SPK, a small US-backed team Near assembles after L's death; its members include Halle Lidner, Stephen Gevanni and Anthony Rester.

Tsugumi Ohba wrote Death Note, but who drew it?

Ohba and Obata rarely met during the run, communicating through their editor; they first met in person at an editorial party in January 2004.

Who plays Light Turner in the 2017 Netflix film?

Nat Wolff, previously of The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns, plays Light Turner, the surname changed from Yagami for the American setting; LaKeith Stanfield plays L opposite him.

A person named in the Death Note with no cause given dies after how many seconds?

40 seconds after the name is written, the victim dies of a heart attack unless a cause is specified; the writer then has 6 minutes and 40 seconds to add details.

Kyosuke Higuchi, who receives a Death Note while Light loses his memory, works for which company?

Yotsuba Group, a conglomerate whose executives meet weekly to pick business rivals to kill, employs Higuchi; with his memory erased, Light genuinely helps L catch him.

The 2006 Japanese film topped the box office for two weeks, pushing which Hollywood film to second?

The Da Vinci Code was knocked to second place when Death Note opened on June 17, 2006; the sequel The Last Name followed that November.

In the 2017 Netflix film, Light and Mia's final confrontation takes place on top of what?

Ryuk wrecks the Great Wheel, killing Mia and dropping Light into the water, where a doctor controlled by the notebook is waiting to rescue him.

Who kills Mello after he kidnaps her near the end of the story?

Kiyomi Takada, Kira's TV spokesperson, writes her kidnapper's name with a scrap of notebook hidden in her clothes; Light then kills her too, and that killing is what exposes him to Near.

Who directed the Death Note anime series?

Tetsurō Araki directed the series and went on to direct the first seasons of Attack on Titan and Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress, both at Wit Studio.

Which Broadway composer wrote the score for Death Note: The Musical?

Frank Wildhorn, best known for Jekyll & Hyde, wrote the score in English with lyricist Jack Murphy before the show premiered in Japanese and Korean productions.

Fans noted Death Note resembled 1973's The Miraculous Notebook, a one-shot by which manga artist?

Shigeru Mizuki, best known for GeGeGe no Kitaro, drew the 1973 one-shot; the chief difference fans noted was that his notebook story had no shinigami.