It seems like a source of ultimate power, making its owner the equivalent of a god on earth. However, the truth is that owning aDeath Noteis a curse. The human user is destined to suffer a horrible fate. According to Ryuk, their names will be the last ones entered into the deadly book.
Several humans throughout the series have either owned a Death Note or used its pages, and none of them escaped the evil lure of the power it gave them. In the end, it was that same power that took their own lives, and it didn’t end well for any of them. Whether or not they were villains, however, is a debate for another time.
9Light Yagami
Shot Multiple Times By An Enraged Matsuda
The main character ofDeath Noteis set up as a model citizen, a straight-A student who is expected to follow his illustrious father into law enforcement. His meteoric fall is a tragic one, even though he’s the villain of this story. Light’s intentions begin as benevolentbut turn evil, not only destroyinghimself but his own family and the people closest to him. Many of the other characters here met their untimely end because of him. He was the first person to pick up the fateful book when it fell from the Shinigami Realm, stolen from a Shinigami called Sidoh and dropped by Ryuk.
In the last episode of the anime, Ryuk is shown writing Light’s name in his book when the protagonist dies. Light perishes when he succumbs to the gunshot wounds inflicted in the final fight by Touta Matsuda, one of the last surviving members of the original Task Force. His death on a bare, skeletal iron scaffolding is lonely, undignified, and empty.
8Misa Amane
Commits Suicide After Light Dies
Two Death Notes are floating around in the human world. One of them belongs to Light Yagami, and the otherto Misa Amane. Misa had her own Death Note, which came to her from a Shinigami named Rem. It was formerly the property of a Shinigami named Gelum, who intervened on Misa’s behalf and gave his life to save her. Rem decided that meant Gelum’s Death Note was, therefore, Misa’s property, and visited Earth to give it to her.
Misa’s death is ambiguous because it’s not explicitly shown, but it is fairly obvious. It’s important to remember that she has halved her lifespan twice at this point to get the Shinigami eyes, and doesn’t have much time left anyway. After dressing in a Victorian-era maid uniform and taking a calm walk through the city, she jumps from a building.
7Kiyomi Takada
Burns In A Fire, Resembles Suicide But Actually Light’s Death Note
A pawn in Light’s nefarious plans, Kiyomi Takada was a friend of his from their university days. Her position as a television news anchor put her in the ideal position to be Kira’s public mouthpiece. She foolishly thought that she was an equal partner in his grand scheme, but in the end, she was just a pawn and died a horrible deathto keep the Death Note’s secrets.
Kiyomi never owned an actual notebook. She was sending pages of a fake one to another one of Kira’s accomplices to distract the authorities. When she’s cornered with enough evidence to implicate Light, she writes her name down on a page of the real Death Note and commits suicide by setting fire to the trailer she’s trapped in.
Even more tragic, she doesn’t do this of her own free will. It’s revealed later that Light wrote her name in his book, directing her actions and tying up a loose end.
6L
Killed By Rem Using Her Death Note
His real name was Lawliet, but for the better part of the show, he was the child prodigy and political investigator known as L. When he put his team together, he encouraged them to use pseudonyms so that they wouldn’t be targeted by Kira. He owned Light’s Death Note for a brief time when the investigation was getting too close and Kira needed to manufacture an alibi.
The battle between L and Light is intense. It only ends in Light’s favor because Rem, the second Shinigami, was manipulated into giving her life to the same Misa the same way that Gelum had been. She wrote L’s real name in her notebook, as seen with her Shinigami eyes, to save Misa from getting caught. L had considered the possibility of a second Death Note and Shinigami,but wasn’t able to confirmthe theory until it was too late. The notebook he had ended up in the hands of the Mafia and Mello later, while Gelum’s had already been sent to someone else.
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Mello is the only member of the gang to keep his cool when Sidoh shows up, following his long-lost Death Note. Thanks to some pointed questions, the Shinigami reveals that some of the rules are fake, an issue that tripped up L’s investigation. Eventually, Mello and his gang track down Kiyomi Takada and identify her as Kira’s closest contact. She has a scrap of the notebook’s paper, and uses it to kill him before committing suicide.
4Jack Neylon
Killed In The Raid That Only Mello Survived
Once in a while, the Death Note was passed on to a human who didn’t understand or didn’t believe in it. This was about safekeeping, as this person was intended to be a red-herring for anyone or anything that came looking for the Death Note.
That’s how this clueless meathead mafia boss came to own a Death Note, even though Mello was the one who often handled it. A coward and drug addict, it was easy for Mello to threaten Jack Neylon to convince him to get the Shinigami eyes, but this backfires when Misa uses her eye powers to identify him.
Light, now in his father’s position as Chief of Police, uses Misa’s Death Note to get Jack to reveal the gang’s location and stages a raid on the hideout within minutes of when he’s scheduled them to die. Only Mello survived the ensuing attack and explosion, because Soichiro gave him a chance to surrender.
3Kyosuke Higuchi
Killed By Light Using A Hidden Piece Of The Death Note
Kyosuke Higuchi owned a Death Note for similar reasons to Jack Neylon. It was given to him by Rem as part of the plan to give Misa and Light an alibi by creating a third Kira. He was happy to use the book’s power without questioning it further.
Higuchi uses the notebook to kill criminals, which Rem said he had to do to keep the notebook. However, he also used it to eliminate his corporate rivals. Eventually, he got too overt with his killings and outlived his usefulness. Rem helped Misa, and by proxy the police, track him down. When he’s apprehended, he reveals some interesting details about the notebook.
During this confrontation,Light touches a pieceof the notebook, and his memories return. He kills Higuchi using another piece of the notebook hidden in his watch.
2Soichiro Yagami
Shot In The Raid, Succumbs To Injuries In The Hospital
When Light was using an elaborate plan to swap and hide Death Notes to give himself and Misa an alibi, one notebook ended up in the hands of the head of the police Task Force, Soichiro Yagami — Light’s father. He didn’t have it for very long, but it was enough for him to make the deal to get the Shinigami eyes and track down Mello’s hideout. By then, they were holding his daughter hostage.
Soichiro traded his Death Note for his daughter’s life, and died from injuries sustained in the raid before he could reveal Mello’s real identity to Light. He could see Light’s lifespan using his eyes and thought this confirmed Light’s innocence, but it was only because his son didn’t officially own a notebook at the time.
1Teru Mikami
Stabs Himself To Death With His Own Pen
Teru Mikami was the criminal prosecutor that Kira entrusted with Gelum’s Death Note, while Kira continued his work with the original. The two used Kiyomi Takada as a contact, with Teru faithfully carrying out Kira’s orders as one of his most ardent followers. However, when Teru’s devotion turned to fanaticism, he became a liability. His final mistakes led to Light’s exposure and ultimate demise. Mello fools him with some fake notebook pages, which is part of how the SPK and Task Force track them both down.
Ironically, he doesn’t die because his name is written in the notebook, but stabs himself out of despair when he finds out who Kira is. It’s his last gift to his god, buying him a few more minutes of life before Ryuk writes the name of Light Yagami.
