Light Yagami

Light Yagami (夜神 月, Yagami Raito) is the protagonist and anti-hero of Death Note. At the start of the series, he discovers the Death Note and uses it to kill criminals, then becoming known to the people of Japan as Kira (based on the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "killer"). Light is characterized as an extremely intelligent yet bored young man, confident in his own sense of logic and how clever he is in regards to others. He is frustrated by the lack of justice in the world.Believing the world to be "rotten," he desires a means by which he can enact his will to purge the world of all evil. Light is unaware that he is not alone: a Shinigami (God of Death) named Ryuk is tired of the rotten Shinigami Realm. This Rogue Shinigami drastically changes Light's life and world forever.

In the year 2003 (2006 in the anime), Light Yagami discovers a mysterious notebook on the ground at his school. Written on the cover: the words "Death Note". The Death Note's instructions state that if a human's name is written within it, that person shall die. Light is initially skeptical of the notebook's authenticity, but after experimenting with it, Light realizes that the Death Note is real. It is in this way that Light Yagami found his true purpose in life: to become Justice by judging and killing all criminals with the Death Note. Light feels that he is the only one fit to judge humanity, thus he decides to create a New World where he alone is "God." After meeting the previous owner of the Death Note, a Shinigami named Ryuk, Light seeks to control the world with Divine Rule, passing judgment on those he deems to be evil or those who get in the way of his goals.

A short time later, Light sets to work ridding the world of criminals, attracting the attention of the master detective L. Light and L encounter each other in several different battles of wit and logic throughout the first arc of the series. Once the second Kira, Misa Amane emerges, L is able to corner them both. After giving up the Death Note briefly to clear their names, Light is able to manipulate Rem into saving Misa's life. Kira's goal: to kill L, antagonist and arch-rival to Kira. When L is attempting to test the Death Note, Rem realizes that Light has trapped her. She is forced into a situation where she must choose: the life of Misa Amane, or her own existence as a Shinigami. It is only then that Rem has an epiphany: Light Yagami has surpassed all Shinigami, having the ability to even kill "immortal" Shinigami. Rem kills both L and Watari, and then dies, leaving her Death Note at Light's disposal.

With L dead, Light takes up his mantle in order to hide L's death from the world, becoming the second L while also putting him in the perfect position to continue killing criminals as Kira. He comes into contact with L's true successors, Near and Mello, who are out for revenge in the name of the true L: Mello wants Light dead, while Near wants him exposed as Kira. After making a mistake in using Teru Mikami as a proxy, Near is finally able to corner Light. Having decided that it is time to end Kira's game, Ryuk decides to kill Light.

Fate
In the end, the combined efforts of Mello and Near, combined with a large miscalculation and miscommunication on the part of Mikami and Light, force Light to reveal himself as Kira. In the final clash between Near and Light at a warehouse, all is revealed and the Kira case comes to an end after six long years.

In the manga version, after completely losing his head and characteristic cool over the prospect of being arrested, and in complete desperation after his attempts to write Near's name down are thwarted by Touta Matsuda (who had previously believed in Light most ardently of everyone involved in the Kira case), Light begs Ryuk to help him. Ryuk reminds Light that he is on neither side, and fulfills his earlier promise to write Light's name in his Death Note, thus ending Light's life.

In the anime version, Light manages to flee the warehouse after Mikami commits suicide. Near instructs the team that there is no reason to pursue Light given that there should be no more hidden Death Notes, and Light's wounds would prevent him from getting far. Despite this, Shuichi Aizawa, Kanzo Mogi, Hideki Ide and Matsuda follow Light but are unable to find him before he dies on the staircase of a nearby warehouse due to cardiac arrest from Ryuk writing his name in his Death Note. As Light slowly closes his eyes, an apparition of L appears before Light, mirroring Light standing over L in episode 25 at L's death.

Film Summary
In the film, a few changes were made to Light. At the film's beginning, Light is a first-year university student studying Law, instead of still being a high school genius, as in the beginning of the manga and anime. Light's motives differ; his boredom trait does not exist, and he instead uses the Death Note out of frustration from the perceived failures of the Japanese justice system. Light, prior to his discovery of the Death Note, hacks into the government database and finds that the government secretly acknowledges that many criminals are unable to be prosecuted. Light discovers the Death Note in an alley during a rainy night after encountering Takuo Shibuimaru in a club and throwing a law book into the rain in a rage. Light meets Ryuk after killing Shibuimaru. Light has a girlfriend, Shiori Akino, who attends his university. Light kills Shiori at the end of the first movie to gain sympathy from L.

Similarly to the manga, Light relinquishes ownership of the Death Note in order to prove his innocence. He gives the notebook to Kiyomi Takada. After Takada is caught, Light kills her to recover the Death Note. L states that he will test the 13-Day Rule. Rem, knowing that this will reveal Misa's identity as the 2nd Kira, writes both L's and Watari's names in the Death Note. Light then proceeds to write his father's name in the book.

Light confronts his father, but Soichiro does not die. The investigation team members, including L, reveal themselves. Having already written his own name in the Death Note, thus negating Rem's actions, L tells Light that he had just written in a fake note. Light tries to write on a hidden piece of death Note, but Matsuda shoots him. Light tells Ryuk to write the team's names and begins to laugh. He stops, however, when Ryuk shows him that he had written just one name: Light's. Light tries to stop Ryuk, passing through the shinigami, and dies in his father's arms, begging him to believe that he acted as Kira to put justice, which Soichiro had taught him since his childhood, into practice. The film concludes one year later, on Light's birthday. Sayu fetches Soichiro and says that Kira helped reduce crime rates, however, she says that she does not support Kira as Light was killed by Kira (which is what Soichiro told her). Light is portrayed by Tatsuya Fujiwara, known for his role as Shuya Nanahara of Battle Royale.

Ken'ichi Matsuyama, the actor who played L in the film series, said that Light and L are "extremely" alike in that they have "very strong sense of justice."

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