Monstrous, inhuman creatures who inhabit the land of the dead, the
Shinigami are Gods of Death who all own their own copy of the titular
Death Note. The series starts when one Shinigami in particular gets bored with lazing around all day and decides to take a visit down to Earth.
These tropes are shared by most of the Shinigami:
- Blue and Orange Morality: Of course Shinigami have no problems killing humans or with humans dying. Shinigami take human lifespans for themselves. Why should they care about the human world beyond it being their food source? In fact if a Shinigami does care about a human, that means they "failed as a Shinigami", and that is punishable by death.
- By the Eyes of the Blind: A shinigami on Earth can only be seen or heard by humans who have touched his/her particular Death Note.
- Cute Monster Girl: Averted: all of the female Shinigami are rather grotesque in appearance.
- Deadly Upgrade: Any Shinigami on Earth can offer a human the Shinigami Eyes.
- Intangible Man (or Woman): Although a Shinigami on Earth can temporarily become solid to manipulate objects.
- Namedar: Shinigami eyes see everyone's name and lifespan.
- OC Stand In: Most of the Shinigami who don't go down to Earth.
- Punch Clock Villain: It really is only their duty to take humans' lives, and they only truly qualify as "evil" insofar as the occasional decision to kill a human earlier than intended - and doing so to save another is an offense for which death is punishment.
- It's unclear if death is a punishment or it's simply what happens
- Random Power Ranking: All of the known Shinigami are ranked from 1 to 13 (with the exception of the Shinigami King who doesn't have a rank). This could be subverted in that Ryuk is two levels below Rem, yet is shown to be more cunning and manipulative than her, not to mention he ends up outliving her.
- Shinigami: Obviously.
- Stationary Wings: Some have extending wings despite being able to float like ghosts.
- We Are As Mayflies
Ryuk
Light's
Shinigami sidekick, and the one who dropped Light's Death Note on Earth in the first place. Despite his terrifying appearance, he's mostly harmless (unless he gets bored), and has a fondness for apples. He tells Light about various rules of the Shinigami Realm, sometimes at extremely inconvenient times.
In the end, he's the one who kills Light, due to Light being finally beaten by Near, meaning that things won't be fun anymore. Appears briefly in the one-shot, where he is indirectly responsible for creating C-Kira by revealing to all the other Shinigami that they can go into the human world under certain circumstances and eat apples.
Tropes associated with Ryuk:
- A Protagonist Is Ryu
- Affably Evil or Faux Affably Evil: Is a bit of both, as he can be genuinely nice to Light and Misa, but fits the latter in his malicious way of curing boredom.
- Alien Catnip: Apples
- Allergic To Routine
- Audience Surrogate: "So interesting!"
- Bigger Bad: He dropped the Death Note to Light in the first place, so everything that happened in the series is ultimately his fault.
- Captain Obvious
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Ryuk is an apple junkie.
- Interestingly, the potential symbolism of apples is one Ohba claims to have been unaware of.
- The Dragon: To a certain extent.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Ryuk tells Light at least once that he's even more evil than a shinigami, and generally, when Light does something particularly nasty, laughs mockingly in the background.
- Evil Laugh
- Fish Eyes: Depending on the angle of the scene. The rest of the time it's just a bulging stare.
- Fun Personified
- Glowing Eyes of Doom
- Good Wings, Evil Wings
- Goth: Well, at least his clothes look like it. Personality, not so much.
- The Grim Reaper
- Hey, It's That Voice!: Ryuk's Death Note must have over 9000 names.
- How Do You Like Them Apples?: Juicy!
- I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin: He's a "triple A"; an Apple Addicted Asshole.
- Intrigued By Humanity
- Ironic Echo: Y'know that thing Ryuk warned Light about at the very beginning of this whole mess? Guess what!
- It Amused Me/For the Evulz: Ryuk drops his Death Note into the human world, setting off all the chaos that follows, just because he's bored.
- Jerkass Dissonance: Nearly everything bad that happens throughout the series is technically Ryuk's fault, but god damn if we don't love him anyway!
- Jerkass Gods
- Jump Scare: Frequently the one to make it happen.
- Keet
- Kid with the Leash: Inverted; Ryuk, and by extent, the rules of the Death Note, are often the only thing restraining Light from killing his opponents directly. Not that that stops him from getting around the rules.
- Kill You Last:
"You know, you haven't been very nice to me. I might just write your name in my Death Note and kill you, just like that! ...I wouldn't laugh if I were you."
- Large Ham
"The symptoms are STAAAAAAARTING!"
- Lightning Reveal
- Looks Like Cesare and Looks Like Orlok.
- Monster Clown
- Monster Roommate
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family
- No Sense of Personal Space
- No Trademarks Were Harmed: He's totally not The Joker.
- Not So Harmless Villain: When he finally kills Light.
- Not So Imaginary Friend
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Ryuk conceals his knowledge of the rules of the notebook from Light in order to amuse himself.
- Perky Goth
- Pet Monstrosity
- Plucky Comic Relief
- Shooting Superman
- Sidekick Ex Machina
- Slasher Smile
- Snarky Nonhuman Sidekick
- So Proud of You: Tells Light this at his high school graduation.
- The Starscream
- Stop Helping Me!: Ryuk has the bad habit of trying to conversate with Light in public.
- Team Pet: Lampshaded by the other Shinigami "LOL, Ryuk is being kept by a human."
- Too Dumb to Live: More Informed Stupidity; the other shinigami consider him the stupidest of their kind, but he's shown quite a bit of cunning at manipulating and tricking Light.
- Too Many Belts
- Trademark Favorite Food: Apples.
- Villains Out Shopping:
"Hey Light, want to play some video games?"
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Light and Ryuk, arguably BOTH types 1 and 2.
Ryuk (sounding excited and happy): He’s not the least bit daunted by the fact that I’m a Shinigami! He doesn’t suck up to me, and he seems to have no problem giving me a hard time. (Grins, AWESOME!!)
- The Watson: Occasionally.
- What Could Have Been: His original design
◊, before the creators decided that him looking more interesting than Light could cause the fandom to ignore Light's character. - You Bastard: Fridge Logic: he's the Audience Surrogate.
- You Can See Me?
- You Didn't Ask: Ryuk amuses himself by explaining certain rules of the Death Note to Light at the worst moments. He even invokes this trope word-for-word in the movie.
- You Have Outlived Your Entertainment Value
Rem
Voiced by: Kimiko Saito (JP), Colleen Wheeler (EN)
Misa's
Shinigami, who is highly protective of her, bringing Gelus's Death Note to her after his death and generally watching out for her.
Rem forces Light to enact a Memory Gambit to save Misa when she gets caught, and haunts Higuchi while this is being done. Misa surprises her by coming to be interviewed at Yotsuba for an advertising gig as part of L's plan to local the Yotsuba Kira, and Rem takes the opportunity to reveal herself to Misa and tell her what's going on. Later, Rem follows the Death Note back to Taskforce Headquarters when L captures Higuchi and Light regains ownership of the Note. There, Light tricks her into killing L and Watari in order to save Misa; and although she realizes what he has done, she goes along with it, choosing willingly to die to keep Misa safe.
Tropes associated with Rem:
- Affably Evil: As long as Misa's safety isn't in danger, she doesn't seem terribly threatening toward people. Although, the only humans she's interacted with have somehow been a potential cause of harm to Misa...
- Bandage Babe
- Cute Little Fangs
- Dark Chick
- Dark Is Not Evil: Although her morality is in question, she genuinely cares about Misa and is disgusted by Higuchi.
- The Dulcinea Effect: She sees Misa once and developes feelings for her so intense that she journeys to the human realm to give her Gelus's notebook.
- Even Evil Has Standards: She has no qualms with Misa murdering innocent people, as well as murder being committed for her sake, but is repulsed by Higuchi's greedy and obsessive nature.
- Eyepatch of Power
- Eyes of Gold
- Facial Markings
- Femme Fatalons
- Four is Death: The Rank 4 Shinigami
- Friendly Neighborhood Shinigami
- Gentle Giant
- He's A Woman In Japan: Confusingly, the English adaptation of the anime chose to have her referred to as male. The manga bounces a little on this, with Light using male pronouns for her from time to time. Rem herself says in the English manga, "I'm female."
- Hellish Pupils
- Heroic Sacrifice: She ends up killing herself so Misa won't be found out as the Second Kira.
- Horrible Judge of Character: "Now that I think about it, Light may be as pure as you, Misa."
- Humans Are Bastards: In her opinion, "humans are such ugly creatures."
- I'll Kill You!: Rem vows to do this if Light doesn't protect Misa and make her happy, promising that if he tries to kill Misa she will kill him first even if it means she'll die too. However since Ryuk is supposed to be the one to write Light's name when he dies she might have been bluffing.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
- If You Ever Do Anything To Hurt Her: As Light notes, she is firmly on Misa's side and will take action on her behalf.
- Love Martyr: Rem cares deeply for Misa and is even willing to die for her. Misa doesn't care.
- Mama Bear: She is very protective of Misa. Considering that Misa had recently lost her mother (she tells Light that her parents were murdered a year ago) around the time Rem showed up, it's not too inconcievable that Rem took up that role for her; although Rem obeys Misa and follows her lead, she certainly is shown treating Misa as a daughter, up to and including willingly sacrificing herself for Misa's safety.
- Meaningful Name: "Res", in Latin, is a feminine noun meaning 'thing,' like a tool to be used. An accusative is when something is happening to it. The accusative for Res? Rem.
- Also R.E.M. is the state when the mind is dreaming, which goes along well with Rem's idealized notions of love and sacrifice.
- Monster Roommate
- Moral Myopia: She is extremely protective of Misa, but she never says a word about the people Misa kills. Justified in that she is a god of death who herself must kill to stay alive and that she comes to view most humans as "such ugly creatures."
- She is still a mass murderer who kills so she may live, Hypocrite much?
- More than Mind Control: "You want Misa to be happy, right?"
- My Mistress Right Or Wrong: She's on Misa's side, no matter what.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much
- No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
- Not So Imaginary Friend
- Protagonist Secret Service
- Sarashi
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right
- Sidekick Ex Machina
- The Smart Gal: Though she is frequently tricked by Light and L she is the smartest of the Shinigami who get any screen time and knows the Rules of the Death Note much better than say Ryuk or Shidoh as Light notes when asking Ryuk to clarify some of the rules in the second arc:
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics
- Thinks Like a Romance Novel: Dying for love is so tragic and beautiful...
- Token Good Teammate: To Team Kira.
- Unwitting Pawn: Light manipulates her into saving Misa (thus ensuring her own death) by killing L and Watari. Double Subverted in that she figures out exactly what it is Light wants her to do, how he's getting her to do it, and what will happen if she does, yet she does it anyway out of her love for Misa.
- Woman in White: in contrast to Misa and possibly Ryuk.
- You Gotta Have Purple-White Hair
Sidoh
A lazy, whiny shinigami and
the original owner of Light's first Death Note (before it was "liberated" by Ryuk). Causes trouble for Light's plans when he comes to retrieve his notebook.
Tropes associated with Sidoh:
Gelus
The original owner of Misa's notebook, who sacrificed himself to save Misa.
Tropes associated with Gelus:
Armonia Justin Beyondormason
The jewel skeleton. The Shinigami Realm’s adviser who knows the rules well.
Daril Ghiroza
A high-ranking female Shinigami.
Deridoveley
Voiced by: Tetsuo Goto (JP), David Pettitt (EN)
Another denizen of the Shinigami realm.
Midora
A female Shinigami with a spotted body that kind of looks like
Jabba the Hutt. She likes humidity and dislikes dryness.
Gukku
An antelope-headed Shinigami. A friend of Ryuk's that watches his exploits in the human world. He likes gambling but he's not very good at it.
Zellogi
Voiced by: Kibou Tokumei (JP), John Novak (EN)
A minor Shinigami character that expresses interest in the human world and what Ryuk is doing.
Calikarcha
Another Shinigami mentioned in
How To Read 13Kinddara Guivelostain
A female Shinigami. She’s very violent and not very smart.
Nu
The highest ranking female Shinigami that resembles a stick covered with eyes. Only the King is more powerful than she is. She likes repentance and dislikes sound.
The Shinigami King
"The Old Man,"
The King of the Shinigami Realm, the one who issues the Shinigami their marching orders, and the highest ranked Shinigami of them all.
The Unnamed Shinigami
An unnamed Shinigami who appeared in the movie
Relight: Visions of a God, where he was searching the Shinigami Realm for Ryuk. He is violent and impetuous, making demands of the other Shinigami. He is very interested in the human world and
bored with the Shinigami realm. He bribes Ryuk with apples to hear his story of the time he spent in the human world but leaves before he finishes it. Physically the Shinigami is a skeleton with spiky brown hair and wears a tattered suit, a red tie headband and a grey bookbag, and he walks with a limp.
This and the dialogue strongly hints that he is a Reincarnation of Light Yagami. [1]
