Death Note it’s an incredibly exciting story from start to finish, and this is true even in reruns with how brilliantly paced it is and how well the characters are written. Almost everyone who appears is an incredibly strong character with their own convictions, morals, and ultimate goals. Many of them are also willing to die or at least put themselves in danger to finally achieve their goals.
However, this way of writing characters can be a double-edged sword, as it means that many end up being rejected for their views or how they handle their relationships with others. Some characters are judged on things like their intelligence when most other characters are already too smart for most first-time audiences, and there ends up being quite a few characters in the series that get more hate than they should.
Warning: spoilers ahead.
10 Matsuda’s intentions are good and he has a pure heart.
Matsuda is one of the agents who is against Kira from the beginning, though he also shows the most curiosity towards Kira and her targets. He is the one who points out that crime has dropped statistically since Kira’s reign began, and at some points questions whether Kira is really bad.
However, after discovering that Light is really Kira and that he allows people incredibly close to him, like his father, Soichiro, to die, Matsuda shoots him without hesitation to stop him. Although he is used a lot for comic relief and is often treated as a joke by the other characters, Matsuda contributes a lot to the plot and is one of the purest souls in the series who deserves more love.
9 Misa might have a slip, but she is devoted and moves the story forward
Misa is a source of much conflict in the story. She’s not as dumb as many of the fans imply, but she’s not as careful as Light and L, so she leaves little traces here and there that end up getting her and Light into a lot of trouble.
The thing is, without a character like her, it’s likely that Light and L would have continued their relationship of “acting like friends but questioning each other” for who knows how long. Both characters would be waiting for the other to slip up because they are both too smart, and Misa deserves more credit for what she contributes to the story.
8 Aizawa’s family life suffers due to how dedicated he is to his work.
Aizawa isn’t a much talked about character compared to most of the cast, but he deserves more recognition. He is a highly intelligent member of the Task Force who is serious about his work, to the point that his marriage suffers for it.
It gets to the point where it is implied that Aizawa’s wife physically beat him after the two of them argued about how much he was working. L also constantly toys with him to the point where she temporarily leaves the force, because she hates that L feels like she has to test Aizawa’s devotion in the first place.
7 Rem is a Shinigami, but she is kind and cares deeply about Misa.
It makes sense that Rem would automatically be greeted by a poor reception from fans, as she goes to great lengths to protect Misa. She claims to have no feelings for Misa, but she tells Light that she will kill him if she tries to harm Misa in any way. She does this even knowing that she will kill her in the process.
Rem is one of the most pure and devoted characters in the series. Originally, he only comes to Misa with Gelus’s notebook because she is the only one who witnessed her death and why it happened, but this doesn’t stop the two from forming a true bond.
6 Raye Penber is a loving couple and she didn’t need to be killed
Raye Penber follows Light at the beginning of the series and is brought in from America to help investigate Kira outside of the Japanese police. He is an FBI agent who primarily wants to be able to focus on his upcoming marriage to his fiancée Naomi, a former agent.
He gets a bad rap in the fanbase because he’s one of the first people to openly oppose Light, but he doesn’t deserve all the hate. Her death could have been easily prevented as well, as the bus scene was actually the last time Raye was going to follow Light, and she would have soon returned to America.
5 Kiyomi is very intelligent and is manipulated by Kira until her death.
Kiyomi is another incredibly unpleasant character within Death Note, but much like Misa, this feels more like bad writing for her character than like she’s actually off-putting. She is a spokesperson for Kira who truly believes in her vision of a better world.
He manipulates this and her feelings to continue doing his job as Kira even under intense and unrelenting surveillance. She still does everything she can for him until her last moments, truly believing that Light will save her until he forces her to kill herself using her own notebook.
4 Near is seen as a less attractive version of L, but has his own quirks.
Compared to most of the others on this list, Near still has a sizable fan base that’s pretty dedicated to him, much like the fans of L and Light. However, the difference between them is that there are also a lot of people who hate Near and see him and Mello as demoted replacements for L.
A big complaint often made to Near is that he feels like he shares L’s personality but to a less interesting degree, but still has his fair share of funny cat and mouse moments with Light. Not only that, but he and Mello were raised in an orphanage whose essential purpose was to raise L’s successor, so it makes sense that they share some of his traits.
3 Soichiro Yagami is a devoted policeman and father
Soichiro is another character who really doesn’t like him at all because he gets in Light’s way. Although he is Light’s father, he is also the police chief and head of Kira’s investigation before they start working alongside L. He has no idea who he is fighting, but is one of Light’s main antagonists. .
His devotion to his son, even when all the evidence points to Light being Kira, is heartbreaking. When Light is arrested, Soichiro even requests his own arrest, because his emotional state is so volatile with his son’s accusation that it seems better to be locked up as well.
two Sayu has a pure heart and is incredibly nice.
If Sayu is a nice character who doesn’t do anything wrong in the series, why is there a part of the fan base that doesn’t like her? The answer once again has to do with the Light. Her kidnapping leads to the loss of the notebook and takes the plot one step closer to defeating Light, causing those who like her character to dislike Sayu by default.
She is shown to be sweet with a habit of slacking off when it comes to her schoolwork, though it is implied but not shown that she changes this habit as the series progresses. She has also been shown to have a sense of humor and gets along with others in the Task Force, including Matsuda.
1 Naomi could have ended the series in the first few episodes
Naomi Misora is highly intelligent, and she may even be able to rival Light in how fast she can think. This is best shown after Ella’s fiancée Raye passes away and she decides to take Kira’s investigation into her own hands, despite being retired.
She is able to figure out that Kira can kill by methods other than heart attack, control the moment of death, and control the victim’s actions before they die. With all this knowledge, she had to kill her off early, and she’s another character that gets a bad rap in the fanbase for not much reason.
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