Plotline of Death Note

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Death Note is a manga series written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. It has recently been adapted into an anime and a series of live-action films. The plotline centers around a high school student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook.

Contents 1 First arc 2 Second arc 3 Changes in the movies 3.1 General changes 3.2 First movie 3.3 Second movie 4 References

[edit] First arc

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 in 2003. 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 and true name. Light realizes his ability to kill whomever he wishes, and he uses it to begin a "cleaning" 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". So as Light works towards his "perfect" world, devoid of crime and injustice, L works to catch the mysterious murderer, dubbed "Kira" (Japanese pronunciation of Killer) by the press and end the increasing deaths of criminals and anyone who gets too close to the truth. L and Light soon begin a cat and mouse chase to see who will be the first to have their identities exposed.

With the help of the FBI, L tracks down Light as a suspect and monitors him closely through the 64 video cameras and microphones installed in Light's bedroom. However Light quickly realizes that he's being spied on and plans several convoluted yet smart moves such as hiding a miniature TV, pencil and a piece of the Death Note inside a bag of potato chips to continue killing criminals without appearing to do so.

Although no evidence is found against Light and the video cameras are eventually uninstalled, L still suspects Light and enters the same university as him under the alias of Hideki Ryuga. After revealing his true identity to Light, L invites Light to join the investigation team in order to continue keeping an eye on him.

Later, Light and L realize that there exists a second Kira who, unlike the original Kira, is able to kill a person without knowing his name. After a series of investigation on the Second Kira, a girl called Misa Amane approaches Light and demands that he become her boyfriend in exchange for helping him against L. L eventually deduces the identity of Second Kira and imprisons Misa, who decides to give up her ownership of the Death Note and pass it to Light.

Under heavy suspicion and various evidence against him, Light voluntarily lets L imprison him while passes one of the Death Notes to another person to ensure the continuation of 'Kira's action' and bury the other Note in a forest. By giving up the ownership, both Light and Misa lose all their memories related to the Death Note.

After a month or so L is forced to release Light and Misa by other members of the investigation team. However, still suspicious, L chains himself and Light together with handcuffs to keep an eye on him. With the help of Misa and other members of the investigation team, Light and L are able to track down the new Kira, Kyosuke Higuchi, and arrest him successfully.

When Light touches Higuchi's Death Note again, all the lost memories come back to him once more. He then kills Higuchi secretly and regains the ownership of the Death Note. Light then cunningly steers the investigation towards Misa again, forcing Rem, Misa's Shinigami, to kill both L and Watari, killing herself in the process. Upon L's death, Light is nominated to act as L by the members of the investigation team.

[edit] Second arc

In Japan, the manga took a 7 week break before the second story arc started. It takes place in the year 2009, six years after the events in the first arc. Possessing the identities of both L and Kira, Light seems invincible now. With many people, even governments around the world declaring their support to Kira, Light is about to reach his ultimate goal of changing the world.

However, one day someone who calls himself Near and who claims to be the true successor of L, contacts Light and demands his cooperation in capturing Kira. Near and his rival Mello are two bright young orphans who are trained to succeed L in an orphanage founded by Watari. Although they split ways after L's death, Near and Mello both attempt to track down Kira through their own means. Mello joins a criminal gang in the US and obtains the Death Note by kidnapping Sayu Yagami and using her as a hostage to trade for the Death Note. Although the Death Note is eventually regained by the Japanese investigation team, Mello is able to find out about some of the rules of the Death Note. Near on the other hand, gains the support of the US government and forms the SPK.

With certain information gained from Mello, Near suspects that the present L is actually Kira. Later, Near is able to deduce L's real identity from information he gained from Aizawa. Detecting the suspicion, Light orders Misa to destroy all possible evidence against them and pass the ownership of the Death Note to Teru Mikami, the new Kira chosen by him. Light finally makes contact with Mikami through Kiyomi Takada, Mikami's chosen spokesman who incidentally was Light's girlfriend in college. Light approaches Takada and eventually confesses his true identity as Kira. Meanwhile Near discovers Mikami's existence.

Light instructs Mikami to write in a fake Death Note and to email a list of criminals to Takada each night. Takada is given sheets of the Death Note to write the names on. Mikami's real copy of the Death Note is kept in a safety deposit box, which he was only use when told by Light. Near and the SPK observe Mikami's routine behavior, and eventually gain access to his fake Death Note in his gym locker.

Both Light and Near decide to meet in a final confrontation that will decide the definite winner. Light is confident that Near has found the fake notebook, and will switch it with their own fake prior to the meeting. Suddenly, Mello kidnaps Takada to capture Kira, but Takada manages to kill him with a scrap of the Death Note. Mikami learns about the kidnapping over the news and goes to the bank and uses the real notebook in order to kill Takada and destroy her evidence, unaware that Light possesses a scrap and does the same thing. The SPK notice his sudden change in behavior, and gain access to his deposit box where they find the real Death Note. By comparing the names written in the fake and real ones, Near learns of Light's plan to have Mikami carry a fake notebook to act as bait. Near replaces both notebooks with perfect copies.

Light and Near meet at the warehouse with their members. Light has arranged for Mikami to use his Shinigami eyes and real notebook to kill everyone present except for Light himself. He does, as both Near and Light expect. Light confidently invites Mikami in, but time passes and no one dies. Mikami is apprehended by the SPK, and Near reveals that he has obtained Mikami's real copy of the Death Note earlier, and the fact that Mikami has not written down Light's name. Light finally confesses that he is Kira. He rants about the better world that he has created, but Near puts him down as a dictator and mass murderer. Light then tries to write down Near's name on a piece of the notebook concealed in his watch, but is shot by Matsuda.

In a last ditch effort to eliminate his opposition, Light begs Ryuk to write their names down in his Death Note. However, Ryuk sees his hopeless situation and decides to write down Light's name instead. Light pleads for his life to no avail as Near and the rest watch him die. Mikami dies 10 days later after turning insane in prison.

Thereafter, Near becomes the new L. A year later, through fate, L's and Light's former colleagues work together to stop a ring of normal drug dealers in the same warehouse they had their meeting a year earlier. The world realizes that Kira is gone, and crime increases again. Matsuda questions the situation that took place a year earlier. He questions the fact Mikami, being the careful perfectionist he was, would have checked to see if the Death Note was the real one and tested it before he set out to the warehouse to eliminate the SPK. He thinks that this may have been because Near may have written Mikami's name in the Death Note instructing him not to test it, and since Near burned both of the real Death Notes at the scene, this would have destroyed all evidence that would implicate him. The fact that Mikami died 10 days later only solidifies Matsuda's theory. However, Ide tells Matsuda that even if his theory was true, there is no evidence and if Near had lost to Kira, none of them would be alive today. Followers of Kira continue to exist thereafter and worship his ideals of justice.

[edit] Changes in the movies

[edit] General changes

• There was no time delay, thus the story resolved in the First Arc
• Instead of the Death Note being passed to Higuchi, it was passed to Takada, who killed her predecessor and became the anchor woman. After returning the Death Note to Light and declaring her loyalty, Light killed her.
• Teru Mikami, Near, and Mello do not exist in the movies.

[edit] First movie

In the movie, Naomi kidnapped Shiori, and asked Light to come to the art museum and confess that he really is Kira if he wanted to save her. He did go to the museum, but denied that he was Kira, and said that he was upset at seeing his girlfriend being taken hostage. Naomi told Light that unless he started to write her real name, which was "Naomi" written in katakana, she would kill Shiori. Light, however, adamantly insisted that he wasn't Kira. Soichiro, upon seeing this, sent in the police. Naomi immediately became upset and distracted, allowing Light's girlfriend to break free and run away from her. Naomi, however, fired her gun and shot Shiori, who died in Light's arms shortly afterward, and then afterwards shot herself.

Later, Ryuk found out that Light actually engineered Naomi's death using the Death Note, as he had already found out her name through his own investigation and written a scenario whereby Naomi would kill herself after shooting Shiori. Obviously, Ryuk was confused, as by doing this Light would end up killing Shiori, but Light revealed that he'd written her name in the Death Note as well, which shocked Ryuk. When questioned by the Shinigami, Light replied that he wasn't certain if he had even loved her.

Using these events to foster hatred for Kira, he asked to join the investigation team when his father checked on him. While Soichiro was slightly reluctant, L immediately granted his wish.

[edit] Second movie

This movie introduced Rem, the Shinigami who gave a second Death Note to Misa. Misa used her Death Note to attempt to make contact with Kira (Light) and made the Shinigami Eye trade. Using this power she discovered that Light was Kira, and tracked him down.

When she found him, she declared her devotion to him and gave him her Death Note as proof, and in exchange, he agreed to go out with her. Soon afterward, Light encountered L on the university campus, wearing a mask so that his face could not be seen. Misa turned up to say hello to Light, and Light manipulated the circumstance so that Misa could see L's face, and therefore his name. However, L had already deduced that Misa was the Second Kira, and he had her captured and imprisoned before she could tell Light his name.

Misa gave up her ownership of the Death Note and lost all memory pertaining to it, and thus once captured she honestly remembered nothing about the Death Note, the Shinigami, or being the Second Kira. Light then used the same trick, burying his own Death Note in the forest for future retrieval, and allowed L to capture him and lock him up, telling Rem to give Misa's Death Note to someone else.

After several days, the Kira deaths stopped, but then resumed when the new owner of Misa's Death Note began to use it. L authorized Misa's and Light's releases, but Misa was required to stay in a secure, though comfortable, compound. L and Light hunted down the new owner of the Death Note, Kiyomi Takada, and captured her and her Death Note, then coming to see Rem.

However, upon touching the Death Note, Light remembered everything that had happened before. The case was "solved", and Misa released, but Light made her touch a piece of her previous Death Note so that she would regain her memories. Light said goodbye to her, and asked her to dig up his previous Death Note and write L's name in it. Meanwhile, Light remained in the compound with L, and Soichiro took possession of the Death Note obtained from Kiyomi, leaving it in a secure suitcase. The team went with him, leaving L and Light alone together.

Misa dug up the Death Note, but could not remember. L's name, so she made the Shinigami Eye trade a second time, with Ryuk. She visited Light at the compound, determined to see L again and reveal his name a second time. When she arrives, L reveals to Light that he has decided that Misa is definitely one of the Kiras and will catch her in the act of writing his name in her Death Note.

Rem is furious that Light has arranged Misa's demise, and writes both L's and Watari's names in her Death Note. Both of them collapse to the floor soon afterward, supposedly dead. Rem, having used her Death Note to extend Misa's life, dies.

After L's death, Misa came down and met Light, giving him her Death Note again. Light wrote his father's name immediately, shocking Misa, and arranged that he should die after bringing Light his Death Note. True to what was written, Soichiro arrived with the suitcase, but opened it to reveal that it was empty, and he remained standing. Light was shocked.

As the rest of the investigation team converged on Light, L re-emerged, alive and well. He revealed that he'd had the Death Note Misa dug in the forest stolen and replaced with a fake. L discovered that deaths could be arranged up to 23 days in advance, as well as that anything written could not be changed. Three days prior to Rem writing his name, he had written his own name on the other Death Note, arranging to die peacefully at the maximum limit of that 23 days. Rem's writing of his name had had no effect because his name had already been written in a Death Note, though he lamented Watari's death.

Light, in frustration, attempted to use a piece of the Death Note hidden in a secret compartment of his watch, but Matsuda shot him before he could do so. As a last-ditch attempt to eliminate his opposition, Light tried persuading Ryuk to write their names in his Death Note (and extend Light's life). Ryuk, however, refused to do this, and instead wrote Light's name in his Death Note. Light pleaded, to no avail, and finally died in his father's arms while Misa watched in horror. L was given possession of all the Death Notes, but informed Ryuk, much to the Shinigami's dismay, that they would all be burned.

Afterward, Interpol closed the case. Twenty days later, after being congratulated by Soichiro, L died peacefully while eating his sweets, with a picture of Watari next to him.

One year after these events, the Yagami family visited Light's grave. Sayu reveals her belief that Light died in the fight against Kira, and Soichiro hoped only that Sayu would never find out what had really happened to Light. Somewhere else, Misa wondered about the gaps in her memory and felt that something was missing, but she did not know quite what. The movie ended with Ryuk flying past Tokyo Tower.

[edit] References

Death Note v • d • e
Main	Manga | DVD | Music | List of anime episodes | Characters | Plotline
Concepts	Rules of the Death Note | Shinigami Eyes
Individual episodes Rebirth Confrontation Transaction Pursuit Bargaining Open Seam Clouded Sky Gaze Contact Suspicion Break-in Love Confession Friend Gamble Decision Execution Comrade Matsuda Makeshift Activity Guidance Mania Recapture Friendship Reincarnation Abduction