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This Death Note quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the whole franchise: Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's 108-chapter manga, the 37-episode Madhouse anime, the Japanese live-action films with Tatsuya Fujiwara and Kenichi Matsuyama, and the Netflix version that moved the story to Seattle. It asks about Light Yagami's rise as Kira, L's aliases and habits, Ryuk's apples, Misa's two deals for the shinigami eyes, and the successors Near and Mello, right through to the Yellow Box Warehouse and who finally writes Light's name. About a third of the questions are answerable by anyone who has watched the anime once; the rest are for people who know Watari's real name, which chapter the pilot was, and what Mikami mutters while he writes. Spoilers, obviously, all the way through. Every answer has been checked against a cited source, and the citation appears under each explanation.
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Q 01Who wrote Death Note?
Tsugumi Ohba
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.
Q 02In which magazine was Death Note serialised from December 2003 to May 2006?
Weekly Shōnen Jump
Weekly Shōnen Jump, Shueisha's flagship magazine, ran Death Note alongside Naruto, Bleach and One Piece, an unusually dark series for the title.
Q 03How many chapters does the Death Note manga have?
108
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.
Q 04The public nickname 'Kira' for the mystery murderer is the Japanese rendering of which English word?
Killer
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.
Q 05The shinigami Ryuk is invisible to everyone except whom?
People who have touched the notebook
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.
Q 06What is Ryuk's well-known weakness in the human world?
Apples
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.
Q 07Which studio animated the Death Note anime?
Madhouse
Madhouse, the studio behind Monster and Hunter x Hunter, produced the series for Nippon TV, where it aired from October 2006 to June 2007.
Q 08How many episodes does the Death Note anime have?
37
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.
Q 09Which band performs 'The World', the first opening theme of the Death Note anime?
Nightmare
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?!'.
Q 10What is L's real name, revealed only in supplementary material?
L Lawliet
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.
Q 11Which of these is NOT one of L's aliases in the series?
Touta Matsuda
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.
Q 12Which eccentric habit is L known for?
Crouching in chairs instead of sitting
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.
Q 13Who ultimately kills L?
Rem
Light engineers it so that Rem must write L's and Watari's names to save Misa, which also destroys Rem herself.
Q 21What is Watari's real name?
Quillsh Wammy
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.
Q 22What word does the prosecutor Teru Mikami mutter repeatedly as he writes names in the Death Note?
Delete
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.
Q 23Light hides a scrap of the Death Note in which object to regain his memories?
His wristwatch
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.
Q 14What is Misa Amane's job?
Model and idol
Model and idol 'Misa Misa' is famous across the Kansai region; she worships Kira because he killed the burglar who murdered her parents.
Q 15What does a Death Note owner give up to obtain the shinigami eyes?
Half their remaining lifespan
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.
Q 16Which shinigami crumbled to dust after writing a name to save Misa Amane's life?
Gelus
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.
Q 17After L's death, his two potential successors are introduced. Which of them joins the mafia?
Mello
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.
Q 18What is Near's real name?
Nate River
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.
Q 19Mello is rarely seen without which food?
Chocolate
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.
Q 20The orphanage that raised L and his successors is in which English city?
Winchester
Winchester, in Hampshire, is the home of L's orphanage in the series, founded by the inventor better known as L's handler Watari.
Q 24Which FBI agent tailing Light is tricked into writing his colleagues' names?
Raye Penber
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.
Q 25How does Light Yagami finally die?
Ryuk writes his name in the notebook
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.
Q 26The kanji of Light's surname, Yagami, mean what?
Night god
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.
Q 27Who voices Light Yagami in the Japanese version of the anime?
Mamoru Miyano
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.
Q 28Who voices L in the Japanese anime?
Kappei Yamaguchi
Kappei Yamaguchi, also the voice of Inuyasha and of Usopp in One Piece, plays L; Alessandro Juliani voices him in English.
Q 29Who played Light Yagami in the 2006 Japanese live-action films?
Tatsuya Fujiwara
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.
Q 30Which actor played L in the 2006 films and their 2008 spin-off L: Change the World?
Kenichi Matsuyama
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.