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.

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Tropes associated with Matsuda:

• Action Survivor
• Adorkable
• Ascended Extra
• Audience Surrogate: He's the character most unsure about Kira's morality. Less centrally, in several scenes he is also the one to express annoyance or confusion over things such as L's odd behavior (the cell phone scene comes to mind) and L's and Light's rather obscure back-and-forths.
• Author Avatar
• Berserk Button: Insulting Soichiro, as Light finds out:
  (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 Lime Light: 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.
  • Somewhat. The only one that he believes is innocent is Light, and that's mostly rooted in three things: the fact that they're similar, the fact that they're friends, and Soichiro Yagami being like a father to him. Like Aizawa said, it's not that it was impossible, but that they didn't want to believe it when they thought of the Chief. It was even worse with Matsuda because they were even closer friends.
• 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.

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.

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Tropes associated with Soichiro Yagami:

• 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
• Mama 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.)

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.

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Tropes associated with Watari:

• Badass Longcoat
• Badass Grandpa
• Battle Butler
• Conspicuous Trenchcoat: In his first appearance.
• Cool Old Guy
• Dark and Troubled Past: Owns/Runs a Tykebomb producing institution.
  • It's hinted in the light novel that he experimented on children.
• Expy: Of Alfred Pennyworth. Fitting, since L bears notable similarities to Batman.
• Friendly Sniper
• Gadgeteer Genius
• The Handler
• Heroic Sacrifice
• Improbable Aiming Skills
• Mysterious Past: Something about a world war and being a famous inventor?
• Nice Hat: Wears one along with his Conspicuous Trenchcoat.
• Parental Substitute: For L.
• Unflappable Guardian: Nothing L does seems to surprise him.
• We Have Reserves: This is the implication to some of the fans of Wammy's House, with orphanages around the world. L is expendable. As are his successors. However, to others, Watari genuinely loves L and saving and teaching orphans. Roger, on the otherhand, admittedly hates kids.

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.

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Tropes associated with Aizawa:

• Action Survivor
• Ascended Extra
• Audience Surrogate: By virtue of not being a super genius yet also being smart enough to realize Light's Kira, he's the character who comes closest to being in the audience's position.
• Badass Longcoat: Begins wearing one in the second half.
• Big Damn Heroes: Along with Ide he gets the police organized in order to assist with the arrest of Higuchi.
• Changed My Mind, Kid
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Official color seems to be green.
• Double Standard Abuse: Female on Male: Aizawa comes into work one day with a bandaged head. When asked about it, he says he and his wife were in a fight, and the other men barely register that he's been physically injured by his wife.
• Failed a Spot Check: JUST misses seeing Light and Naomi Misora together.
• Fan Nickname: AfroCop
• Funny Afro
• Greek Chorus
• Hair-Trigger Temper: And rather highly strung.
• I Have A Family: He does honestly care about catching Kira, but ultimately puts the well-being of his family first.
• Important Haircut: He loses the afro in the second arc.
• Inspector Lestrade
• My God, What Have I Done?: Done in understatement at the end of Relight 2 after finding Light's body.
• Tame His Anger: To deal with Misa Amane. It didn't work.
• Unwitting Pawn: To both L and Light's plans.
• What the Hell, Hero?: He's the one willing to call out and walk out on L's extreme methods, unlike Soichiro, who whilst objecting always stays for the sake of defeating Kira.
• You Are Grounded: He sends Misa to her room, much to the relief of everyone (both in the show and in the audience.)

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.

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Tropes associated with Mogi:

• Action Survivor
• The Big Guy
• Comedic Sociopathy: Enjoys himself a little too much when screwing with Yotsuba Kira.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: In the live-action movies.
• Faking the Dead: In the manga; Near holds him hostage and tells the Kira Taskforce that he's died of a heart attack in order to give one of the Taskforce members an incentive to come forward... it works.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Whenever he's babysitting Misa.
• Large Ham: As Mochi the Manager.
• Odd Friendship: With Aiber and Misa.
• The Quiet One: Near finds this out.
• The Reliable One
• The Stoic: According to Word Of God, Mogi dislikes expressing himself.
• What Could Have Been: There were plans for him to have a larger role, but Ohba couldn't decide how to do it.

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.

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Tropes associated with Ide:

• Action Survivor
• Big Damn Heroes: Along with Aizawa he gets the police organized in order to assist with the arrest of Higuchi.
• Commander Contrarian
• Heterosexual Life Partners: He joins the Kira task force to work with Aizawa.
• Ineffectual Loner
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: He leaves the Taskforce prior to meeting L in person. He comes back to help catch Higuchi and stays for the second arc.
• The Sixth Ranger
• Unlucky Everydude

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.

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Tropes associated with Ukita:

• Leeroy Jenkins: Drawing a gun and pointing it at the security officer at Sakura TV with the Second Kira in the area? Misa didn't kill him until he pulled the gun.
• Plucky Comic Relief: In the manga.
• Red Shirt
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the Live Action movies.
• We Hardly Knew Ye

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

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Tropes associated with Wedy:

• Action Girl
• Anti-Hero: Type III
• Badass Biker
• Classy Cat Burglar
• Cool Shades
• Hell-Bent for Leather
• Highly Visible Ninja: Bright PINK!
• Loveable Rogue
• Spell My Name with an S: In the anime, when we see her real name written down by Light when he's killing her with the Death Note, her first name is spelled "Merrie" and not Mary.
• Spy Catsuit
• Stuffed into the Fridge

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

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Tropes associated with Aiber:

• Alternate Continuity: Although Light kills him with the Death Note in both the manga and the anime, the cause of death is different in each continuity: liver cancer in the manga, a heart attack in the anime.
• Anti-Hero: Type III
• Blond Guys Are Anti-Heroes
• Boxed Crook: According to the manga, he works for L because he has enough on him to send him away for life.
• Clasp Your Hands If You Deceive
• Con Man
• Consummate Liar
• Doesn't Like Guns
• Loveable Rogue
• Odd Friendship: With Mogi.
• Perma Stubble
• Pet the Dog: For maximum empathy, he is shown with his family when he is killed.
• Stuffed into the Fridge

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..

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Tropes associated with Mikami:

• Adjusting Your Glasses: he adjusts his Scary Shiny Glasses by the bridge.
• Adorkable
• Alternate Continuity: The different versions of his death in the manga and anime.
• Amoral Attorney: Somewhat subverted; he works as a prosecutor during the day, but there are no hints that he acts like one of these, aside from Hanging Judge quirks.
• Ascended Fanboy: Or more specifically, ascended Kira worshiper.
• Axe Crazy: Say it with me: "DELETE."
  • Some added scenes in Relight 2 makes this even worse.
• Badass Bookworm
• Badass Longcoat
• Beat It By Compulsion/Idiosyncrazy: Near uses this strategy with Mikami, who neatly and precisely writes a certain amount of names down in the Death Note per day, to calculate which pages of the notebook to replace and which to leave.
• Bishōnen: Up until the Yellow Box scene, very much so.
• Black and White Insanity: Even more so than Light. While Light falls slowly but surely into this, Mikami has always had it.
• Brown Eyes
• Bully Hunter: According to his Back Story.
• Bumbling Sidekick: His screw-up costs Light dearly.
• Calling Your Attacks: Overlaps with Madness Mantra: "Delete. Delete. Delete."
• Catch Phrase: "Delete. Delete. Delete." And to a lesser extent: "GOD!!!"
• Class Representative: In his Back Story.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Official color seems to be purple. Wardrobe tends towards black, white, and blood red.
• Cool Shades
• Creature Of Habit: He follows a daily schedule down to the minute.
• Dark and Troubled Past: He was ruthlessly bullied throughout his childhood, and he felt that his mother, the only person he had, didn't support his crusade or his ideals.
• Deadly Upgrade: "Shinigami...I thank you for these eyes."
• The Dragon: "The Hand of Kira."
• Driven to Suicide: At least, in the anime.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: The emphasis here is on "eerie."
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: A notable subversion - as he sees his mother as someone who tolerates the bullies of the world rather than opposing them, he is ecstatic when she dies, taking it as a sign that God is looking out for him.
• Evil Overlord List: Subversion of item 5, in a darkly humorous manner. Apparently keeping the artifact that is the source of your power in your safety deposit box doesn't quite cut it.
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul
• Four is Death: He is the fourth Kira.
• Gorn: His bloody suicide in the anime.
• Harmful to Minors: He was around the same age as Light (when Light first got the Death Note) when after years of abuse he began to think the world would be better off without certain people in it. Then all the people he secretly wanted dead died, explaining why they are messed up in the same way.
• Hello Attorney
• I Just Want to Be Special: When people kept coincidentally dying around him he came to believe he possessed the power to delete evil, even before gaining those powers via the Death Note.
• I Wished You Were Dead: To his mother.
• Identical Stranger: He bears a resemblance to L, both being Eerie Pale Skinned Brunettes with longish hair. Makes you wonder what Light was thinking...
  • He'd found a follower with two brain cells to bang together who'd do what he was told and do it well?
• Intelligence Equals Isolation: He's frequently shown alone; in one scene in his introduction, he's drinking coffee by himself in the corner of the recreation yard.
• Jack the Ripoff: His killings are attributed to Kira.
• Kids Are Cruel: Back Story again.
• Kingpin In His Gym
• Knight Templar: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Blinded by extreme ideals, zealous, devoted, and insane.
• Large Ham: He rivals even Light here.
• Long Haired Prettyboy
• Looks Like He Is Enjoying It: He really likes deleting (spoilers) [1].
• Megane
• Namedar: He makes the eye deal.
• Nightmare Face: Several of them at the warehouse.
• Parental Abandonment: His mother was a single mom, indicating that his father either abandoned them, or died. And then, of course, his mother dies as well.
• Person of Mass Destruction: As a Kira, he kills many.
• Poisonous Friend: Worshipping Light as God does not help Light's problems.
• Principles Zealot
• Protagonist Secret Service
• Pure Is Not Good: "Evil should be deleted."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Religion of Evil: He worships Light as God.
• The Renfield
• Right-Hand Cat: He has one in the manga.
• Samaritan Syndrome: This + Who's Laughing Now? = his Start of Darkness.
• Schedule Fanatic: Sticks to it religiously.
• Secret Keeper: For Light.
• Serial Killer-Killer
• Ship Tease: His literal devotion to Light. Also he and Takada seem awfully close. Some of the dialogue in Relight 2 indicates that Takada is seeing both Mikami and Light.
• Slasher Smile: Often.
• Soft Spoken Sadist: In his early appearances, he is a very quiet and understated man, but listening to him describe his past during his introductory monologue as the new Kira you can tell he's a man so far in Black and White Insanity that he quietly snapped some time in high school and is waiting for an outlet to explode through. Which he does. With great aplomb.
• Spanner in the Works: Leads to Light's downfall by thinking TOO much like him. However, it's implied Near might have ensured this outcome by controlling him with the Death Note.
• Spear Counterpart: Can be considered one of Misa.
• The Stoic
  • Not So Stoic: When he's killing and in the Yellow Warehouse.
• Straight Edge Evil: Murder? Sure - it's for the good of the new world, and evil deserves only deletion. But drink or drugs? No way.
• Strange Minds Think Alike: One of the main reasons Light picked him to be the next Kira. Perhaps the two are too similar: in the end, it costs them everything.
• Super OCD
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Some consider him to be this given his resemblence to Light and that his name is basically Light's backwards.
• Totalitarian Utilitarian
• Unequal Pairing: He is often shipped with Light, whom he literally worships.
• Unreliable Narrator: In the anime he himself, rather than an omniscient narrator, narrates the flashbacks to his youth. He thus has an unfavorable view of his mother's advice to stop fighting against the bullies, whereas the manga's narrator noted that she was motivated by genuine concern for his welfare that was largely lost on him.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Played tragically straight.
• Vigilante Man
• Villainous Breakdown: So, so much.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Awesome?: Just look at how he kills Kira's "supporters" and Demegawa, especially in the anime.
  • Sakujo! SAKUJO!! SAKUJO!!!
• What Happened to the Mouse?: (see Right-Hand Cat above) What happened to Mikami's kitty?
• Who's Laughing Now?
• Wicked Cultured
• Wild Hair
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: His childhood sucked. It's no surprise when he received the Death Note that he would gleefully "delete evil."

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.

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Tropes associated with Takada:

• 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!
  • That line itself is another blatant lie.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: Directed by Halle into being kidnapped by Mello.
• Break the Haughty: Her very last scene. The woman who spent all of her time being presented as superior, poised, and perfect dies naked, crying, and reaching out for comfort.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Shows up as a very minor character in the first arc, promptly vanishes, and is never mentioned again until far into the second arc.
• College Sweethearts: With Light.
• The Dark Chick: On Team Kira.
• Deadly Upgrade: She makes the eye deal in the live action movie.
• Ditzy Genius: She gets very good grades in school but is lacking in the common sense department.
• Driven to Suicide: Under the influence of Light's Death Note
• Drop Dead Gorgeous
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Evil Eye: She makes the eye deal in the live action movie.
• Expy: She's like a murderous Lois Lane.
• Hello Nurse: Quite popular with the opposite sex.
• Horrible Judge of Character: She trusts Light, after he tells her that he is Kira - the same Kira who has murdered anyone who got or threatened to get in his way. She even expects him to save her.
• Hot Scoop
• Intellectually Supported Tyranny: As an educated young woman, rather than help protect society against the cult of Kira, she becomes one of its main propagandists. "We must teach our children that Kira is good."
• It's All About Me: She loves to be the center of attention.
• Jack the Ripoff
• Knight Templar: Blinded by ideals, check. Devoted, check.
• Lady Macbeth: She urges Light to kill Misa at one point.
• Loves My Alter Ego: Subverted; while she is very much more in love with Kira, she's still attracted to Light.
• Maaya Sakamoto
• Meaningful Name: Takada = tall ricefield; Kiyomi = pure beauty. Notable in being the only character in the entire series to have a real-life name.
• Modesty Bedsheet: Wears one right after killing Mello, who had stripped her naked.
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Really dislikes Misa and tells Light at least once to kill her.
• Namedar: She makes the eye deal in the live action movie.
• No Place For Me There: In the live action movies "There's so much filth in the world... and I am the worst of all."
• The Ojou: She's nicknamed "Refined Takada".
• Person of Mass Destruction
• Poisonous Friend
• Principles Zealot: More in the live action. In the anime, she's more interested in being Kira's goddess than in his ideals.
• Psychotic Love Triangle: She and Misa are rivals for Light's heart, which ends just as well as you'd think it would.
• Protagonist Secret Service
• Psychic Assisted Suicide
• Secret Keeper
• Serial Killer Kira
• Ship Tease: With Light and Mikami. The dialogue in the Relight 2 special seemed to suggest she is dating both of them.
• Stuffed into the Fridge
• Totalitarian Utilitarian
• Unequal Pairing: Considering Light's god complex, this is pretty much unavoidable.
• Victoria's Secret Compartment: Keeps a page of the Death Note in her bra.
• Who's Laughing Now?: In the live action movie.
• Wicked Cultured
• Yandere: After Light assures Takada that his seeing Misa doesn't mean anything and "you're the only one for me":
  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.