L named Near and Mello as practical jokes
Near is a distant and detached savant. Mello is incredibly emotional and crazy. L thought it was funny to name them what they weren't and to make their names start with the letters that follow L, M and N.- Not to mention, that name order implies that Mello should have been first.
- Well, actually Word of God states that Mello was supposed to be Near's name and Near was supposed to be Mello's name.
The theme naming goes much further than this
This really is trivial, but: Kira, L, Mello, Near? Coincidence? I doubt it. The authors are Ohba and Obata. Can we keep this up?- Raye Penber. The novel includes a dead character named (of all things) Quarter Queen.
- Don't forget Rester.
- Ah ha! Fridge Brilliance! Mello is before Near because either he came to the orphanage before Near or because of the fact their designs were accidently switched in the design phase.
- S...S]]oichiro!?
- ...or Sayu! Presenting Death Note 2: Sayu's Revenge!!! [1]
- Tanaka......or Takada, but the former is somehow more terrifying.
- Ukita. Good luck finding a V.
All the confusion over Tsugumi Ohba's gender is EXACTLY AS PLANNED.
It seems that a lot of people consider Ohba-san male when evidence exists to the contrary. A lot of indirect quotes attributed to Ohba are printed as "he said" rather than "she said," so much that it has to be intentional confusion to keep readers from suspecting that a woman can create such a dark tale as Death Note.- ...If she's even a woman. Turns out "she's" an asexual self-fertilizing hermaphrodite. Hey, if it works for Vaarsuvius and Ash's Pikachu...
Death Note is based on the They Might Be Giants song "No One Knows My Plan"
Seriously, the song perfectly shows Light's thoughts when is imprisoned by L.- I made an AMV just for you, fellow troper! No One Knows My Plan
MOST of the main characters have traits of mental disorders, if not the mental disorders themselves.
Light is almost certainly a psychopath, at least when he possesses the death note. Mello has low emotional control. Misa falls in love with Light in an absurdly jealous way and says she won't hesitate to kill anyone Light even PRETENDS to go out with. Near and L are both on the autism spectrum. And Teru sticks to rules and obeys authority without question. Read up on the DSM's personality disorders, then compare.- More than the Lord of the Rings characters!
The sequel manga chapter was not done by the original creators.
Certainly, Takeshi Obata didn't do it.- All the lines are thicker, and everyone is a bit off-model - most noticeable with Matsuda. This could be attributed to years out of practice, but then there's item two:
- A handful of chapters after first showing the N logo, Obata made a conscious decision to change the font from Cloister Black to Olde English - a subtle cue that things are a bit different. This holds in the epilogue. But in the sequel manga chapter, we're back to Cloister Black.
- Near has been aged up. But he was last seen at eighteen. Not only is Obata bad about aging anyone up, but Near's appearance of having caught the puberty train in the two years since we last saw him goes against biology.
As for Ohba - well, that's harder to determine. Writing is more mutable than it should be. That said, though: Mello - first seen shaking the living hell out of a hapless messenger of bad news - did not get where he was by winning any apathy contests. Least of all where L is concerned. And yes, it's fair to say that L (unlike Near) does, in fact, give a damn.
- Agreed. Near never meeting L also raises the question, "how the hell does he know what he looks like?" He plays with the L finger-puppet he made in that chapter, and he made an L mask that Light can identify immediately. And it's not at all unreasonable to assume there were no photos of him — there were none of Near or Mello.
- On a side note, it's interesting that the manga up to then had held some degree of logic in all the, well... Wild Mass Guessing. But here, we have a story wherein at least three respectable detectives (one an alleged super-genius) and the Japanese public at large immediately deduce that there's a magical killer about based on the sole evidence that.....old and sick people are dying.
Everything was just as planned... by Rem.
Realizing what Light was up to, Rem decided to cut a deal with L. Rem and L fake their own deaths, and L works in the shadows to take down Light. L is smart enough to realize that if he dies it would be impossible to ensure that Light gets taken down (it seems like it required a pretty big Idiot Ball to do him in). When Light finally is killed, L can show and explain to Misa about how touching a Death Note gives someone with a strong sense of justice the ability to eventually come back from the dead. That keeps Misa from committing suicide, since she'll want to see Light again, Rem manages to kill off Light without dying in the process, and L can work from the shadows to bring down Light.Obviously, the plan wouldn't work if Light knew L was still alive, so L is forced to use extremely indirect methods (like sending a message to Wammy's house from his Mac), and possibly even posing as a Kira supporter named... Mikami. The data deletion Watari did was to cover up the preparations for L to fake his own death. L obviously hid some sort of temporary coma-inducing drug in his tea (you can see the teacup just before he "dies"), and had Rem dig him back up once it wore off. The Death Note anime is The Plan in the style of...
...Douglas Hofstadter's Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid. In one of the chapters, he points out that it's impossible to hide the end of a story from the reader simply because of the number of pages left to be read. They can't be left blank, either, because then it becomes equally obvious for anyone who flips ahead. His proposed solution is to end the story before the number of pages run out, and then keep writing, incorporating things like Character Derailment, Idiot Ball, Villain Ball, introduction of new characters, unforeshadowed plot twists, Genre Shift-ing, and other story-killing devices to let the perceptive reader know where the real story ended. And this is exactly what happened in the second half of the Death Note anime. Death note's creator is a Nietzsche Wannabe
That would explain the Crapsack World, Karma Houdini Shinigami, lack of an afterlife, Black-and-Gray Morality, and ambiguity surrounding whether what Light is doing is truly evil.- I don't know about that. Towards the end Light becomes more clearly villainous, and he bites it in the end.
The main characters represent the seven deadly sins
Main characters meaning the four Kiras and the three detectives- Light is pride. His incredible God complex is the cause of all his mistakes (without it he might well have won) and towards the end seems to be his main motivation.
- L is gluttony. This doesn't really need explaining.
- Misa is lust. A bit dodgy here, love would be better, though she certainly inspires lust from others.
- Higuchi is greed. His motivation seems to be "money, cars and women".
- Near is sloth. He rarely even manages the effort to stand up. Also his style is to watch other people rather than make the moves himself until the very end.
- Mello is envy. Directed at Near.
- Mikami is wrath. Unlike any of the others he really seems to enjoy deleting just for its own sake.
In the pilot chapter, Taro Kagami writes Death Note.
Fast forward to the ending, and you see people gushing over the newest 'in' thing, Death Note. An older Taro is seen smirking and looking over a quiz about it in a magazine, while Ryuk looks over his shoulder. While others speculate over whether it's real or not, Taro KNOWS it's real, and is capable of writing a story around it, which later gets picked up for movies and television.- Or, alternatively, Taro Kagami IS Tsugumi Ohba.
The next human to have a Death Note will take advantage of the unlimited pages.
He or she will tear out a few hundred pages (or a few thousand depending on patience) and deposit them in random recycling bins. Maybe leave a bunch of pages with the margins carefully cut off on different bulletin boards, write a petition or "leave your name and phone number for [purpose]" on the main part of the page and a date of death on each line in the removed margin, or do the same thing with one of those "write your name and send it forward" chain letters to eradicate more specific (gullible/annoying) people.- Darn, you discovered my plan! Now I'll have to take another plan for the extinction of the human race!
- Or simply throw a million pages off the top of a tall building, and let the human race finish itself off.
The Whole thing was one big Prank
a rather powerful friend of lights or a friend with connections organized the whole thing fake news reports, blanks, the works and even hired some actors to portray Shinigami and paid off others to pretend they didn't notice. and in the end Ryuk looks in to Lights face and whispers "surprise"
Light, L, and Misa were named as Shout Outs to the original Macross.
Think about it. "Light" is the English translation of "Hikaru", "Misa" is well, "Misa"...and "L" really stands for Lynn Minmei.- Almost: "L" is a consonant swap of "R" for Roy Fokker. It's a little known (read: entirely fabricated and possibly Jossed by How To Read 13's comprehensive guide to the contents of L's stomach) fact that the last thing he had plans to eat before his untimely death was pineapple salad.
Watari and the King of the Shinigami are at war
Light is manipulated by Ryuk to fight for the King of the Shinigami. L was raised by Watari to fight the Death Note users. Light builds up a group of Death Note users in Misa, Hirugushi, Teru, and Kiyomi. Watari has the detectives of A through Z with L being the leader. In the all out war both L's and Light's groups continue to fight until they are all dead. Death Note is an experimental MMORPG
in anime style. The Shinigami are admins/developers, and their world is a developer isle of sorts. That you go to "Nothingness" when you die is a way of saying that your character is deleted/sakujo'd when it dies. Mikami's blood fountain in the last episode is the result of a glitch. Feel free to add to this.- Well, that explains the "see somebody's name written in midair above their head" thing.
The actual Starboarding chain is: Rem -> Gelus -> Misa -> Light
Rem's attachment to Misa was her way of honoring Gelus's memory. Tsugumi Ohba is a woman.
Why else would he/she emphasize that his/her gender was a well hidden secret? Most Writers Are Male so that suggests that any mystery being intentionally attached to Ohba in regard to gender would be a hint that he/she is a woman. Also, reading through the interview in How To Read 13 creates the distinct mental image of a woman. I've tested this by showing it to friends then asking what gender they think the interviewee is. Death Note is seemingly sexist as a plan by Ohba.
Ohba is actually a woman, but doesn't want to make that obvious. So she writes the gender roles as she thinks a male would, and it turns out it can be viewed as sexist. But its not sexist, just a female trying to imitate how a male would view females. And I suppose the plan worked anyway, because many believe that the writer is male due to the gender roles in the story. Exactly as planned. When the American Live-Action Remake hits theaters, The Asylum will release a movie called "Death Book".
- Jossed. Death Note (2017) was released on Netflix instead of theaters, and (at least as of now) it hasn't inspired any knockoff movies.
Near and Ryuk were working together.
Somehow, Near and Ryuk made a plan together to overthrow L so Near would be the greatest detective in the world and Ryuk would ease his boredom. Misa has Rem's Death Note in the finale, and Near retreives it later.
Somehow, Light switched the Death Note in the safe for a fake, but then Misa switched the real Death Note for a fake later. Therefore, when Light died, Misa had a Death Note. However, she bounds it to Ryuk, so he could stay in the human world. When Misa commits sucide, she has the Death Note with her, and Near or one of his allies, retreives it and locks it up.- And then it is stolen by a master thief.
- Aforementioned master thief known as John Mischief.
Roger and Watari are boyfriends.
You wonder how Roger hates children and yet runs the Wammy House? This is why. The unnamed shinigami is Tai
Look at that hair and those goggles Naomi actually didn't die.
She was unknowably pregnant with Raye's baby, granting her immunity to the Death Note for nine months. Light's confession to Naomi turned out differently. She considered suicide, but after finding out that she was pregnant, she changed her mind. Naomi then assumes a new identity and raises her child in the outskirts of Japan, so Kira wouldn't kill both her and her child. That is why her body was never found. The Finale scene was mostly Bilingual Dialogue.
Near understands Japanese, and the NPA learned English in school and on the job. Enough said.Oh, and the SPK didn't really know what they were saying. Upon confirming that the death note was real, Light's first victim was Hannibal Lecter.
A and B are really...
Alice and Bob of TV Tropes... Why didn't L just call Batman?
And the whole thing would have been solved in a few days. In fact the final episode of the anime would be two episodes of Batman figuring the whole thing out and then twenty minutes of Batman making Light his bitch. The unnamed Shinigami from Relight is Matt.
Because the Goggles Do Nothing! When Rem killed L, some of her lifespan was transferred to Light
Rem dies after killing L because she does it to extend Misa's life. But since she's also knowingly extending Light's(keeping him from being outed as Kira and executed), he gets some, too. That's why he gets a Rasputinian Death. He wouldn't have died if Ryuk hadn't written his name down, because of his extended lifespan. The reason there are so many weird names in Death note
- The names have been changed to protect the innocent.
The unnamed Shinigami is Light, as well as the REST of Kira aswell.
It is entirely possible that after "he" died, Kira became a Shinigami. However, since "Kira" is an identity refering to Light, Misa, Teru Mikami, and that one guy from the Yotsuba Group, the "Kira" Shinigami is reflective of ALL of those people. Since Light was the "brains" behind Kira, he is the dominant basis for the new Shinigami. Light, Misa, Teru, and Pervy all ended up in Mu after they died, but they essentially "live on" through this Shinigami for some reason.- The unnamed Shinigami's first victims will be Near and Matsuda for obvious reasons. Or he will give them the Death Note and possess them. We all know that Near used the Death Note in the finale and that Matsuda partially agreed with Kira. Both of them WOULD use the Death Note in some way or another, and Light/Kira could get his revenge/play with his enemies.
- Someone should really write a some fanfiction on this...
Aiber is A from Wammy's House
A's "suicide" was committed in such a way that the body either wouldn't be found or would appear dead long enough for him to be buried. This allowed him to drop off of Wammy's radar. However, he still wished to beat L and tried to do so by both exceeding his detective skills (while using the name Eraldo Coil) and by being a con-man who L wouldn't be able to catch. Unfortunately, he failed on both fronts, thus losing the right to use the alias "Eraldo Coil" and being forced to either help L when needed or spend a great deal of time in prison. Hence, Aiber uses an "A" to identify himself and is able to act as Eraldo Coil during the Yotsuba arc without anyone noticing any discrepancies between his behavior and Eraldo Coil's known behaviors.- This would explain a lot, but L blatantly stated that Coil was another of his aliases, which he was letting Aiber borrow. So it doesn't work.
- It's hinted in Another Note that L steals the aliases of his vanquished rivals-the names are like his trophies. He becomes "Ryuuzaki" right after stopping BB a.k.a. Rue Ryuuzaki. If things had gone differently L might have gone on to his next case calling himself "Light Yagami"! So "Coil" could have originally been Aiber's alias and L is letting him "borrow" it back.
- But A was raised at Wammy's orphanage to be L's successor. L is 25, Aiber in his 30s.
The pilot is the REAL Death Note story. Everything else is the manga mentioned at the end of the pilot, making it a Story Within a Story.
If THAT isn't enough, Taro is the author of the manga. The newest Kira is the mastermind the Suicide Club.
The Subliminal messages were a red herring. Someone just took advantage of the unlimited pages by making a note system like the one Light used on Ray Penber and making each suicide random. The American Movie will have Viral Marketing.
In the form of ordinary commercials getting interrupted by fake news reels about hostage situations, leading to the offender to collapse from the Death Note. There would also be websites titled "Who is Kira?," "Kira is a menace," "Kira is our savior," etc.- Jossed, this was never used to promote Death Note (2017).
The everyday awesomeness that exists in the Death Note universe is the direct result of Phineas and Ferb.
Instead of making everything fun, they one day decided to make everything AWESOME! The use of the name "Kira" has deeper meaning than simply being the Engrish version of "Killer."
Kira is a Russian name by origin and is the feminine version of Cyrus. Cyrus comes from the Greek Κυρος (Kyros) which is the Greek version of the Persian name Kürush which may mean "far sighted" or "young" — this, in and of itself, may refer to Light's grand, far-reaching dreams and his own youth and inexperience. Where it gets more interesting, however is that the name is also sometimes associated with the Greek κυριος (kyrios), meaning "lord." Indeed, the Greek word Kyrios means "lord, Lord, and Master" and in religious usage designates God, appearing 740 times in the New Testament referring to Jesus.Consider, though, that one of the songs in the Death Note soundtrack is titled "Kyrie" which is a transliteration of Greek κύριε (kyrie) and a vocative case of κύριος (kyrios). In a Traditional Catholic Mass, one of the well-known Ominous chanting sessions involve reciting the mantra Κύριε ἐλέησον, "Kyrie eleison", meaning Lord, have mercy. An interesting connection, even if it wasn't done intentionally.
Or perhaps it's a mere coincidence.
By the end of the series, no one was a virgin.
- What about Near?
- Maybe Rester or Gevanni helped him out with that little problem...they seem awfully close. He won't even get on a plane without one!
Naomi Misora suffered a mental breakdown.
This troper believes that the Death Note cannot just mind control someone into doing something, there has to be an explanation, even if that explanation is extremely contrived, like a self-fulfilling prophecy. My theory is that Naomi suffered a mental breakdown at the moment she realized who Light was. The fact that she revealed everything, believed, and confided in the one person who she most hated caused her to shut down internally. She fell into despair and thus sought suicide. Death Note is intended to be an allegory against capital punishment.
The moral of this story: the death penalty is morally wrong, that people shouldn't arbitrarily decide who lives or dies. Lind L Tailor is innocent.
Neither the anime nor the manga give him any defined backstory, so there's techinally no hard evidence he ever canonically committed any crime.
