Death NOte; L Lawliet

L Lawliet

 

L, the main deuteragonist and antagonist of Death Note.
Debut	Manga: Chapter 2: L Anime: Episode 2: Confrontation
Birthday	October 31, 1979 (1982 in the anime)
Deathdate	November 5, 2004 (2007 in the anime)
Also known as	L Hideki Ryuuga Ryuuzaki Eraldo Coil Deneuve
Sign	Scorpio
Age	24 at debut 25 at death
Status at debut	World's Greatest Detective
Relations	Quillish Wammy (handler)
Voiced by	Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese) Alessandro Juliani (English) Kenichi Matsuyama (Live action)
Knowledge	8/10 in manga only 9/10 or 10/10 in anime and film 10/10 (Ohba's statement)
Conceptualization Power	10/10
Will to act	9/10
Motivation	10/10
Social Skills	1/10

L Lawliet (エル・ローライト, Eru Rōraito), known universally by the letter L (エル, Eru), is a world renowned detective that takes on the challenge of catching the serial killer known only as Kira. In his investigation, L becomes highly suspicous of Light Yagami, and makes it his goal to prove that Light is Kira. L heads the Japanese Task Force, a team of police officers dedicated to Kira's capture. L's successors later solve the Kira case.

Appearance

L is a tall, very slim young man with black hair and dark eyes. One of his most noticeable features is the shadow below each of his eyes, a result of sleep deprivation. L is always shown to be wearing blue jean pants and a long-sleeved, white shirt. He almost never wears shoes or socks, prefering to go barefoot while even in public. This was shown when he visited Light Yagami's school and was seen barefoot while sitting on a bench, not bothering to wear shoes until he got up to walk. According to How to Read 13, he is 5ft 10in tall, and weighs 110 pounds.

Character

The "L" that L uses to represent himself.

L is quite secretive, and only communicates with the world through his assistant, Watari. He never shows his face to the world, instead representing himself with a capital letter L drawn in "Old English MT" or "Cloister Black" typeface. L also uses the aliases Hideki Ryuga (流河 旱樹, Ryūga Hideki), Ryuzaki (竜崎, Ryūzaki), Eraldo Coil (エラルド＝コイル, Erarudo Koiru), and Deneuve (ドヌーヴ, Donūvu), the latter two for which he has developed reputations as the second- and third-best detectives in the world. After meeting the Japanese Task Force, he requests that the task force refer to him as "Ryuzaki" as an additional safety measure. The Task Force never learns his true name.
L is very intelligent, though his disheveled and languid appearance masks his great powers of deduction and many question his abilities upon viewing him. L tends to second-guess everything he is presented with, and is extremely meticulous and analytical. He is good at decieving his opponents, and is willing to take drastic measures to solve a case. Some of his tactics are quite bold, such as having a death row inmate pose as himself on live tv in order to draw out Kira, while others seem bizarr to those involved, such as handcuffing himself to suspected-Kira Light Yagami. He is also shown to have a dry sense of humor, and isn't above making sarcastic remarks to people. Although he tends to be polite, to some (such as Task Force member Shuichi Aizawa), L can seem quite rude and uncarring at times.