Death Note/Characters/Supporting Characters

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Supporting characters - L's side

Touta Matsuda

Voiced by: Ryo Naitou (JP), Vincent Tong (EN)

The youngest and most inexperienced member of the Japanese Task Force, Matsuda was Soichiro Yagami's protege before the series started and is the only member of the force to both consistently believe in Light's innocence and even show some sympathy towards Kira's cause. Unlike his teammates, he prefers not to do things 'by the book', instead taking risks -which is often heavily criticized by his colleagues.

Along with Mogi, he is the only member of the Japanese Task Force to see the Kira case through from start to finish, with no breaks: Light joined late; Ukita, Soichiro, L, Watari, Wedy and Aiber die; and Ide and Aizawa both quit briefly.

Besides Near and a few of the other task force members, Matsuda is one of the few characters that survives the events of the anime/manga. The manga epilogue shows that he continues to work as a member of the police, but he still does not wish to believe that Light was Kira, and suspects that Near was involved in Mikami's death.

(To Light) "What about your dad, what the hell did he die for?!"

  • Berserker Tears: He weeps openly as he shoots Light up.
  • Beware the Honest Ones
  • Beware the Nice Ones/Beware the Silly Ones: He's the one that stops Light from writing Near's name by shooting his hand, followed by shooting the rest of him, and would have killed Light had the others not intervened. And to think he was the only one that sympathized with Kira.
  • Black Shirt: Interestingly, Light sees him this way. When he shoots Light to keep him from killing Near, Light is flabbergasted. Out of everyone, he expected Matsuda to side with him.
  • Break the Cutie: He might be kinda dumb, but is more or less a nice person who tries his best even if it doesn't work. Then, the poor guy has his idealism, mentors, and self-esteem slowly demolished throughout the series.
  • Brown Eyes
  • Butt Monkey: The other characters - Aizawa, L, Light - tend to make disparaging comments about Matsuda.
  • Captain Obvious
  • Chekhov's Gun: The ending isn't the only time he pulls a gun - he's a pretty good shot. Of the task force members, he's the most likely to do so.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: He has his moments.
  • Color Coded for Your Convenience: Official color seems to be yellow.
  • Cowardly Lion
  • Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: But you gotta wait a long time for him to become un-hidden.
  • A Day in the Limelight: He gets an episode to himself during the Yotsuba arc.
  • Distress Ball: During the Yotsuba arc.
  • The Ditz: Matsuda is a normal guy, if a little goofy and impressionable; his contrast with the likes of L and Light is very obvious.
  • Dumbass Has a Point: His theory in the manga epilogue chapter. He suggests that Near used the notebook to control Mikami to make sure Mikami and Light would make no changes to the plan at the Warehouse. In short, Near cheated. While we never learn for sure if he's right, the fact that "Near cheats" and is the "more dishonest" of him and Mello is confirmed by Word of God.
  • Exact Eavesdropping: During the Yotsuba arc.
  • Faking the Dead: In order to continue the investigation against the Yotsuba Kira.
  • Fearless Fool: Matsuda just kind of assumes that things will work out well.
  • Foil: To Light and L.
  • Greek Chorus
  • Horrible Judge of Character: He adores Misa and, later, Kiyomi, and supports Light completely, even when the rest of the task force begins to turn against him.
  • I Am Spartacus: In the manga, Mello demands to know the identity of the second L so that he can kill him if the trade for the notebook goes south, threatening to kill Sayu if they don't comply. Matsuda saves Light and his dad from that dilemma by hijacking the keyboard and telling Mello that he's a stand in for L.
  • Idiot Hero: While not the protagonist, he certainly fits this.
  • Improbable Aiming Skills: He's shown more than once over the course of the series to be something of a crack shot
  • Just Trying to Help: The poor guy...
  • Leeroy Jenkins: During the Yotsuba arc L warns the others, "Be sure not to act impulsively out of panic or haste." Matsuda didn't get the memo. His "unpredictability" rating is 10/10.
  • Let's Get Dangerous: When he shoots Light up.
    • Other instances count as well; during Light's and Misa's confinement, Sayu's kidnapping, and the task force's raid on Mello's hideout, Matsuda demonstrates an ability to get down to business.
  • Loony Fan: Towards L, Light, Misa, and, from afar, Kiyomi.
  • The Matchmaker: He always seemed to want Misa and Light to be together; later, when Light "investigates" Kiyomi Takada, he's quite enthusiastic about it.
  • The McCoy: To L and Light.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Done in understatement at the end of Relight 2, after finding Light's body.
  • Nepotism: The manga explains that this is why he has a job despite being more or less incompetent at it.
  • Nice Guy
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Gives one to Light at the end of the series.
  • Not So Different: Among the most honest characters, in that he admits that he "can think like Kira, too."
  • Phrase Catcher: "Matsuda, you idiot."
  • Plucky Comic Relief: Matsuda is one of the characters who eagerly engages in joking and teasing.
  • Revenge: When Near offers to write Mello's name in the notebook, he's the only one who says to go for it, since Mello indirectly killed Soichiro.
    • He didn't shoot Light for being Kira. He did it because Light insulted and mocked Soichiro, who had been Matsuda's hero.
  • Ship Tease: With Sayu. Also for some reason he gets really excited about Light dating Misa and Takada.
  • The Slacker: "All you ever do is watch TV." The thirteenth volume explains that he dislikes slow and steady work.
  • Suicidal Gotcha: He falls off of a building for L's plan.
  • This Loser Is You
  • True Companions: To the Yagami family. He's a family friend and Souichiro has him over at their house before the events of the Kira case. Souichiro is his Mentor, he crushes on Sayu, and he is enthusiastic (almost to an unhealthy degree) about everything Light does explaining his rampage when learning that Light is Kira.
  • Unstoppable Rage: At the end. Considering the living hell Light Yagami put the poor guy through, some would rate this as Matsuda's finest moment.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: with Aizawa, who's always yelling at him.
  • The Watson
  • Why Are You Looking At Me Like That?: During the Yotsuba arc when L mentions that they need someone who Kira will think he can kill easily.
  • Who's Laughing Now?
  • You! Get Me Coffee!: Poor guy.

Soichiro Yagami

Voiced by: Naoya Uchida (JP), Chris Britton (EN)

Light's father and the police chief initially in charge of the Kira investigation team operating under L. When L begins to suspect Light of being Kira, Soichiro is unwilling to believe his son would be capable of such a thing. He was originally envisioned as an "honest police officer with a strong sense of justice" so that the reader "would have to feel sorry for everything he has to go through", and according to Word of God, he is the only truly "pure" character. Over the course of the series, he changes visibly by losing weight and aging poorly, particularly during his and Light's confinement.

After L's death, he is sent to retrieve the Death Note stolen by Mello by obtaining Shinigami Eyes and infiltrating Mello's hideout. He retrieves the notebook and learns Mello's real name by looking at him face to face through the Eyes, but is unable to kill him, and as he argues with Mello he is repeatedly shot by one of Mello's men that he assumed was dead, and is afterwards buried in rubble from an explosion set off by Mello. Because Light had given up ownership of his Death Note, making his lifespan visible above his head, Soichiro dies believing that Light is not Kira, thus maintaining the Shinigami proverb that humans possessed by Shinigami meet misfortune but- as observed by Ryuk- subverting the other one that maintains they die in misery. 

However, in the movie he is alive and present when Light is revealed as Kira - even holding him in his arms as he dies - but keeps his identity secret from his family.
  • Badass Mustache: In the manga and anime; in the live action films, he's clean-shaven.
  • Benevolent Boss
  • Captain Ersatz: Of Commissioner Gordon from Batman
  • Car Fu: Ramming a TRUCK into a building.
  • The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes: He admits that he has trouble looking at the case objectively when his own son becomes the main suspect.
  • Cool Old Guy: Well, sort of. He's not even as old as fifty when the story starts and barely in his mid-fifties when he dies, but he has a heart attack quite early on in the Kira investigation while his son is a suspect and never recovers fully after that point, though he is repeatedly prevented from resigning from the Task Force either by L or his own stubbornness, depending on the context. Hence, he comes to look "old" even when speaking strictly he isn't.
    • He's certainly got the coolness covered, though. What do you do when the Second Kira is lurking outside killing anyone who tries to get into Sakura TV to prevent the airing of a message on the news that threatens the innocent? Smash through the studio's door with your van and threaten the producer at gunpoint, of course! And he does all of it after leaving the hospital where he had been admitted for a heart attack just days prior.
  • Da Chief
  • Daddy Didn't Raise No Criminal: His reaction to the suggestion that Light may be Kira.
  • Deadly Upgrade: Yes, that one.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: It's certainly no coincidence that the most noble character arguably gets the happiest ending. Though in-story, Ryuk says he got to die happy because he refused to use the Death Note.
  • Fan Nickname: Iron Chief.
  • A Father to His Men
  • The Fettered
  • Good Is Not Nice: He pulls a gun on both Demegawa and Light.
    • Later still he makes the trade for Shinigami Eyes and attempts to write Mello's name into the notebook, only failing to write said name in full because Mello asks him if he's ever killed a person before, leading to a moment of hesitance which proves his undoing.
  • Happily Married: To Sachiko. Not the lovey-dovey kind, but the strength of their marriage is extremely moving.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: While he didn't know that he was going to die when he did, he knew that his days were numbered by making the eye trade. Also, he believed that he was going to die within thirteen days if he actually did manage to write Mello's full name (he failed to do it, but he was prepared to do it).
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Played by Takeshi Kaga of Iron Chef fame in the movie.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: A rare adult version of the Trope. Moral, upstanding, and never giving sway to any temptation. In How To Read, his strongest attribute was his integrity. When given a chance to kill Mello using the Death Note, at the cost of his own life. Ryuk remarks that if he'd used the Death Note he'd have been doomed to unhappiness, and in a way, he was happy dying thinking his son wasn't Kira.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: When Mello kidnaps Sayu. "Plan? There's no time for that!"
  • The McCoy: In contrast to L's Spock and Memoryless!Light's Kirk during the Yotsuba arc.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard
  • Mr. Exposition
  • Not a Game: Da Chief is fond of this Catch Phrase. He scolds Matsuda for his enthusiasm a few times, expresses disgust at how Kira is "playing with people's lives as if it were just a game!" and he says this word for word in the live action movie to L.
  • The Obi-Wan: To Matsuda's Idiot Hero, From a Certain Point of View.
  • Oblivious Guilt Slinging: All of the time spent with his son, Light.
  • Only Sane Man: During the Yotsuba arc, in a group that includes L's utter lack of social skills, Aizawa's temper, Matsuda's kookiness, the uncertainty of Light's might-be-a-serial-killer status, Mogi's silence, and Misa's flirtatious childishness, Soichiro seems to be the only one keeping everything sane.
  • Overprotective Dad: You all saw his face when Matsuda asked if Sayu had a boyfriend.
  • Papa Wolf: Towards Light and Sayu, all the way.
  • Parents as People: He has his flaws, and expresses worry about how these may have affected his two kids.
  • Principles Zealot
  • Scary Shiny Glasses
  • Spared by the Adaptation
    • The Live-Action Movies
    • The 2nd Relight Special. It's vaguely implied he's dead ("Whenever things get tough I just remember my father.") but his death is never shown or mentioned.
  • Stupid Good: At least as far as Light is- or pretends to be- concerned when he refers to him as the sort of person that is "made to be a fool" of when trying to persuade Matsuda to see things from his angle. Bad move.
  • Tame His Anger
  • Technical Pacifist: He "has never actually taken a life before" despite having risen all the way to the top of Japan's police force (Truth in Television as the NPA are the Desk Jockeys of Japan's police force.)

Watari

Voiced by: Kiyoshi Kobayashi (JP), French Tickner (EN)

L's guardian/butler/servant that contacts the police organizations of the world on his behalf. He is killed along with L by Rem. Real name is Quillsh Wammy.

Shuichi Aizawa

Voiced by: Keiji Fujiwara (JP), Trevor Devall (EN)

Another member of the Japanese task force and eventually head of the NPA. He quits for a while when he wants to put his family first, but he eventually comes back. He's basically the smartest of the non-geniuses (Light, L, Near, etc.) and after L's death, he takes up the charge as the member of the Task Force most suspicious of Light.

Kanzo Mogi

Voiced by: Kazuya Nakai (JP), John Murphy (EN)

A member of the Kira Taskforce. He and Matsuda are the only two task force members who see the case through to the end with no breaks, and is one of the few survivors in the series.

Hideki Ide

Voiced by: Hideo Ishikawa (JP), Brian Dobson (EN)

Another member of the Kira Taskforce. He leaves early on and later returns for season 2. Along with a few other people he survives the events of the series.

Hirokazu Ukita

Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (JP), Jeremy From (EN)

Another member of the Kira Taskforce. He's killed during Misa's stunt at the Sakura TV station, leading L and the task force to suspect that there's another Kira who can kill with just a face.

Wedy

Voiced by: Miki Nagasawa (JP), Venus Terzo (EN)

A thief L hires to assist in infiltrating Yotsuba. Her real name is Mary Kenwood.

Aiber

Voiced by: Takuya Kirimoto (JP), David Orth (EN)

A Con Man L hires to assist in infiltrating Yotsuba. His real name is Thierry Morrello.

Supporting characters - Kira's side

Teru Mikami

Voiced by: Masaya Matsukaze (JP), Kirby Morrow (EN)

The fourth Kira, hand-chosen by Light himself. Holds a view of morality more black-and-white than a zebra and penguin musical in the 1920s. Has even more of a flair for the dramatic than Light, if that's even believable, and worships Light as the true God. Used by Light to maintain the image of Kira whilst being the leader of the Task Force, since he can't really do both at the same time.

Eventually, he causes Light's downfall by killing Takada too early and providing evidence for Near and the SPK. When Light is finally cornered in the Yellow Box Warehouse, in the manga, Mikami denounces Light as God when he's beaten by Near and sees he's just another human. After Light dies, he is imprisoned, goes insane after ten days, and dies in prison. In the anime, he instead commits suicide on the spot... with his pen..

Kiyomi Takada

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (JP), Heather Doerksen (EN)

A popular and pretty young woman whom Mikami chose to be Kira's spokesperson. She was the girl whom Light briefly dated once to hide his connections with Misa; the authors later "forgot" about her... and once they recalled her, they brought her back. Light gets in contact with her to gain access to Mikami, seducing her with a promise to make her the goddess of the New World. Eventually, Mello kidnaps her, and then Mikami kills her - Light would have killed her, if Mikami hadn't done it first - after she kills Mello to prevent any evidence from being gotten from her.

  • Alpha Bitch: "Refined Takada" is the mean girl to Misa.
  • Alternate Continuity: In the live action movies she fulfills the same role as the Yotsuba group does in the manga / anime.
  • Ambition Is Evil: While she is genuinely attracted to Light, she becomes much more interested in being close to him after learning that he's Kira.
  • The Beard: Light sets it up so that he "dates" her. His excuse for the Taskforce is that Kira will not kill Takada's boyfriend and that this will keep him safe while he investigates Kiyomi, but the real reason he does it is because he is Kira and he needs Takada to access Mikami.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Definitely. She sleeps with a man and invites his fiancee out to brag about it, while being presented to the world as the epitome of grace and class. Even her nickname is "Refined Takada".
  • Blatant Lies: Her repeated referral to Misa as her "good friend", even after this exchange:

Misa: Are you going to get Kira to kill me?
Takada: Of course not!

Takada: If you're lying you're going to pay. I'll tell Kira, you know.
Light: Ha ha. Great joke Takada.
Takada: I'm not joking.
Ide: Whoa, women are scary.

  • Woman On Fire: How she ends up. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to be conscious for most of it, at least not in the anime.
  • You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Shortly after she kills Mello, Light tells her that before he lets her die.
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