Death Note (デスノート) is a Japanese manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It has been serialized by Shueisha in Weekly Shonen Jump since the first 2004 issue. It is increasing in popularity in Japan. Currently, 59 chapters have been released. The second arc of Death Note is going to start around 7 weeks after the last chapter release. Six graphic novels have been released. The Death Note manga has been licensed by Viz and will be published in graphic novel form starting in October 2005.

Plot Outline

Light Yagami is a young but bright high school student who has until recently led a boring and uneventful life. That changed very quickly when he found a strange notebook with the title "Death Note" lying on the ground one day. It wasn't until later that he realized that this "Death Note" was the tool of a shinigami (god of death in Japanese) from another world named Ryuk, and that it had the power to kill whoever's name was written on its pages, so long as the writer knew the victim's face as well. Light realises his ability to kill whomever he wishes, and he uses it to begin a "cleansing" of the world from evil. It does not take the police long to realise that somebody is responsible for the mysterious deaths of criminals, and he is then soon hunted by the Japanese police force and a mysterious detective known as "L".

Characters

Main characters

• Light Yagami (夜神月 Yagami Raito) - The main character of Death Note. An extremely bright young man in possession of the Death Note of the Shinigami Ryuk, Light is constantly trying to evade suspicion by the detective L while maintaining his identity as Kira (Japanese pronunciation of the word "Killer"), the cleanser of the world.
• L - The genius detective tracking down "Kira". He suspects Light at first, and decides to join Light's university under the identity of Ryuuzaki. His dissheveled appearance masks his great powers of deduction and insight. He has many quirks, such as sitting in an odd manner.
• Misa Amane(弥　海砂 Amane Misa) - A girl who has an immense crush on Kira, AKA Light. She is a famous model, and tends to wear clothing in the Gothic Lolita style. She usually refers to herself in third person, and is tends to be hyperactive. She is considered the "second Kira" and the Death God who follows her around is Rem. She has also performed two "eye trades", first with Rem, and later, Ryuk. This is explained into more detail in the section "the rules of Death Note" section below.

Shinigami

• Ryuk(リューク) - The Shinigami who dropped a Death Note in the human world which Light found. Has a great fondness for apples, and will behave unusually if he goes for too long without eating one.
• Rem (レム)- Misa's shinigami. Usually mistaken for a male, but is actually female. She cares deeply for Misa, and would do anything to protect her from harm, even give up her own life.
• Zyerasu-The Shinigami who loved and died for Misa.

Investigation team

• Soichiro Yagami - Light's father.
• Matsuda - Fakes his own death to avoid being killed.
• Watari
• Mogi
• Aizawa - Quits the team.
• Ukita

Other characters

• Sachiko Yagami(夜神　幸子 Sachiko Yagami)-Light's mother.
• Sayu Yagami-Light's younger sister; and is 14 years old.
• Ray Penber - A member of an FBI team sent to Japan to investigate the Kira killings. Light would soon devise an ingenious plan, killing Penber along with the rest of his team.
• Naomi Misora(南空　ナオミ Misora Naomi) - Former FBI agent, engaged with Ray Penber. She would go on to search for the killer of her fiancé. Light would later trick Misora into revealing her name from her driver's license, and arranged to have her commit suicide on the first day of 2004.
• Aber
• Weddie

Villains

The Yotsuba Group

• Kyosuke Higuchi
• Shingo Midou
• Reiji Namikawa
• Arashi Hatori
• Eiichi Takahashi
• Hide Shimura
• Masahiko Kida
• Takeshi Ooi

The rules of the Death Note

Written rules

Before the series begins, Ryuk writes instructions in English inside his "Death Note" (though he erroneously claims this is because English is the most-used language in the world):

• The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
• This note will not take effect unless the writer has the subject's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
• If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the subject's name, it will happen.
• If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack.
• After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

As the plot progresses, he adds more instructions to the '"Death Note":

• If the person using the "Death Note" fails to write the names of people within 13 days of one another, the user will die.
• If the "Death Note" is rendered unusable by cutting, burning or other means, all the humans who have come into contact with the "Death Note" will die.

But these instructions are only for misleading L's investigation in order to help Light Yagami, and they are not true.

Unwritten rules

As the plot proceeds, unwritten rules for the "Death Note" are revealed:

• If the cause of death or the details of the death are impossible in the context of the subject, the subject will simply die of a heart attack. For example, writing down words "unknown" by the subject is impossible.
• Only those who have touched the "Death Note" or one of its pages can see or hear the shinigami it belonged to.
• Touching one "Death Note" only make a human able to see the shinigami who own such "Death Note". i.e., Touching one "Death Note" dosen't make a human able to see every shinigami.

Ownership of "Death Note"

• A shinigami must own at least one "Death Note". That "Death Note" must never be lent to or written on by a human.
• Exchanging and writing on the "Death Note" between shinigamis is no problem.
• If a shinigami decides to use the "Death Note" in order to to extend the life of an individual he/she favors, the individual's life will be extended, but the shinigami will die.
• The dead shinigami will disappear, but the "Death Note" will remain unchanged. The ownership of the "Death Note" is usually carried over to the next shinigami who touches it, but it is common sense that it is returned to the Great shinigami.
• The ownership can and can only be transferred under approval of current owner.
• The individuals who give up the ownership of the "Death Note" will also lose their memory of the usage of the "Death Note". This does not mean that he/she will lose all the memory during the owership, but means only to lose the memory involving the "Death Note".
• Such lost memory would be recovered if the human reclaim the previously given up ownership.
• Such lost memory would also be temporarily recovered if the human touch a "Death Note" not owned by the human, but only as the human is touching the "Death Note".
• Whenever an individual with ownership of more than two "Death Notes" loses possession to one of the "Death Notes", he/she will not be able to recognize that "Death Note"'s shinigami's appearance or voice anymore. The shinigami himself will leave, but all the memory involving that "Death Note" will remain as long as he/she maintains ownership of at least one other "Death Note".

Special ability of Shinigami eyes

Shinigami eyes have the ability to learn the subject's natural life span and name by simply looking at the subject's face.

• Such special ability can be traded to a human with the price of having the human's remaining natural life span cut in half.
• An individual with the special ability of a shinigami can tell the name and natural life span of humans other than him or herself.
• The shinigami must not tell humans the names or life spans of individuals he/she sees. This is to avoid confusion in the human world.
• In order to see the names and life spans of humans by using the special ability of the shinigami, the owner must see "more than a half" of that person's face.
  • When looking from top to bottom, a look of least from the head to the nose is needed. If looking at only the eyes and under, the person's name and life span will not be seen.
  • Even though some parts of the face, for example the eyes, nose or mouth are hidden, if whole face can basically be seen, the person's name and life span will not be seen.
  • It is still not clear how much exposure is needed to tell the name and life span, and this needs to be verified.
• (If above conditions about facial exposure are met,) names and life spans can be seen through photos and pictures, no matter how old they are. But this is sometimes influenced by the vividness and size. Also, names and life spans cannot be seen by drawings of face, however realistic they are.
• Those with the special ability of the shinigami will have the eyesight of over 3.6 in the human measurement, regardless of their original eyesight.