"L" Change the WorLd (novel)
Although following
closely the storyline of its film counterpart - with the exception of a few creative
changes - the novelization reveals various attributes of L. It is revealed in
the novel that the initial "L" has two meanings: L stands for
"Last One," meaning no one could surpass or match him, but also for
"Lost One," meaning a gifted entity who has dropped down, or was cast
out from heaven.
The novel also states that L helped in the prevention of World War III when
he was only eight years old.
In the novel L takes a few capoeira lessons from Suruga. This is most
likely a homage to the on-going fan speculation of L's capoeira like fighting
style in the Death Note manga and anime
Also, in the novel, L for the first time completely loses his composure and
calm attitude: when Maki is kidnapped by Blue Ship, L breaks down and screams
toward the sky after realizing that this was what Light meant about feeling
helpless to protect the people he cares about. L also states at one point that
"his heart hurts". His feelings about Light are also revealed, and it
is described that L did consider Light to be his friend, going as far as
holding on to Light's broken watch as a memento and saying, "Light, I'll
see you on the other side. Let us explore the world of nothingness
together."
According to the timeline that is
presented on each page of the novel, it appears L was to have only 272 days left to live prior to writing his name
onto the page of the Death Note. Based on
this bit of information it's obvious that L's remaining natural lifespan at the
end of the second film would only have amounted to less than a year.
According to page 151 of the novel, it
is revealed that the reason why L has acquired so many eccentric quirks is
because of the heavy strain of upholding the name of L. From the novel: How L did not and could not forget the faces of thousands of victims. "Who could comprehend the man who had lived his life,
and had to live confronting all the lives ended prematurely, the tears of the
grief stricken survivors, the devaluing of life as a daily reality. How was it
possible to measure the pain of such a man? Was it a strain so heavy that L's
back curved under all its weight? Was it an agony so terrible as to leave the
indelible dark circles around his eyes? Was it a feeling so bitter that every
bite he took needed to be coated in sugar? The chronically rounded shoulders,
the inevitable dark circles, the eccentric tastes---L suppressed the pain of
being a champion of justice, but the evidence of the pain was molded into his
very body."
Yonkoma
Main Articles: Death Note: How To Read 13 and Yonkoma
Death Note: How to Read 13 describes L in
the Death Note yonkoma as the
"holder of the world's greatest mind" and having the "powerful
ability to act like a fool". Death Note: How to Read 13 adds
that in the yonkoma "it's like [L was] born to be mocked".
Conception
The following information is from Death Note: How To Read 13.
Tsugumi Ohba: Writer
Takeshi Obata: Artist
Ohba created L as a
"force of justice" and a "super detective" who stands
between Light and Light's goals and advances the story. Ohba believed that the
story would not hold much interest if L was significantly older than Light, so
Ohba created L as a young adult. Ohba said that for L's name he wanted to use a
single letter with a lot of significance; according to Ohba, he considered
"I" and "J" but decided that they did not "feel as
good" as "L" and settled on it "after careful
consideration". Ohba mentions having given L the alias
"Ryuuzaki" because L is pronounced like R in Japanese.
Ohba said that his favorite human character in the series was L as Ohba
believed that L was the "strongest" character in the series
"besides Light". Obata also chose L as his favorite due to
"appearance, personality, everything". Obata said that he could never
have created L and that he enjoyed drawing L. Obata added that because of this,
L is not "real" to him and therefore he likes that aspect of L. In
response to the question "Who was the most fun to draw?" both Ohba
and Obata answered "L".
Appearance
Ohba claims he left
"everything" about L's character design to Obata, who asked Ohba if L
could be "unattractive". Afterwards, Ohba would include his ideas
about the character into his thumbnails, including L's posture when seated, and
notes such as: "he's English", and "he's listless". He also
added details regarding L's mannerisms, and his "sweet tooth". Apart
from all that, Ohba credits Obata for the character designs.
Obata described the thumbnail pictures of L created by Ohba as having a
"plain face with no expression", and no "bags" under his
eyes. According to Obata, the thumbnail design was "great, and I wish I
could have used it as is". Obata drew L as an "attractive young
man" until Chapter 11, when the character appeared in person. After
Chapter 11 Obata decided to contrast L's appearance with that of Light's; Obata
claims that both he and Ohba held this idea.
Obata speaks of his concern, during the
development of the early manga chapters, that L would appear to be "so
suspicious that Light would know instantly it was L if they ever met".
When Obata's editor told him that he wanted L to have a face "looking cool
based on the angle", Obata added black "bags" under L's eyes,
and he cited Devilman's Akira Fudou when
expressing his belief that black bags "looked cool". In addition,
Obata thought of a "dead eyes" concept, which involved L having
"all-black eyes" and "mostly no eyebrows". Although he
believes that giving it such black eyes tends to make an animated character
appear "goofier", he also thinks that the bags "sharpen the
character's gaze". Obata suggests that the design evokes "a feeling
of mystery" surrounding the character, and as a result, the reader cannot
determine L's true thoughts. He adds that the bags under L's eyes also attract
speculation about L's lifestyle and past, and describes the bags as
"useful". Obata designed L with a "simple" white,
long-sleeved shirt and jeans outfit, in order to convey the idea that L does
not put much thought into choosing his attire. In Death Note: How to Read 13, Ohba presented an initial
rough draft of L, and said that, with a "cool expression" and without
the "bags" under his eyes the rough draft showed "a totally
different person".
While designing color book covers, Obata assigned colors to characters to
"get the atmosphere right". The color he assigned to L, was gold.
Mannerisms
Obata has stated his
belief, that traits exhibited by L are best revealed "gradually". He
is convinced that if he drew L eating "mountains of sweets" prior to
revealing L's face, the character would not have "much credibility as a
super detective", and people would question whether L was
"crazy".
Obata mentions being told often, that L's fighting style is
"similar" to capoeira; the artist claims that he did not consider
this when he drew L's fights - he was simply thinking of the most effective
method of kicking an adversary while being handcuffed to him. In Obata's
opinion, if the style resembles capoeira, then this "adds another element
to it" and "that makes me happy".
Reception
Awards and Rankings
During January from 2007, Oricon made a
poll in which they asked Japanese fans from manga and anime which characters
from any series they would most like to see in spinoff series. The overall
winner from the poll was L, who also ranked first in the women's poll and
second in the men's poll. In the Society for the Promotion of Japanese
Animation Awards (SPJA) from 2008 Alessandro Juliani was the winner in the
category "Best Voice Actor (English)" for his work as L. Kappei
Yamaguchi was the winner in the category "Best Voice Actor
(Japanese)" from the 2009 SPJA Industry Awards for his work as L. L also
won in the category "Best Male Character". In the NEO Awards 2007
from Neo, L won in the category "Best Manga
Character". He was also 12th in IGN's Top 25 Anime Characters of All Time
with writer Chris Mackenzie praising how different he is from Light Yagami
while also noted that the series became less entertaining after his death.
Mania's article "10 Greatest Anime Detectives" ranked L as the fourth
best detective from anime series.
Trivia
Although Death Note: How to Read 13 states that L's
intelligence is 8/10, below both Light's and even Near's, when asked which
character he thought was the smartest, Ohba replied, "L. Because the plot
requires it. [laughs]".
§ L can tie two cherry
stems in a knot with his mouth, as seen in Episode 18.
§
L's name was first shown in Death Note: How to Read 13 on a promotional
card at the beginning of the book.
§ In the anime, certain
characters take on stylized hair colours while the viewer hears their thoughts;
L's colour is blue.
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