Mello

"It's not just the notebook I'm after. I wanna eliminate my competition. I will be the best. I don't care what it takes. I'll beat Near by any means necessary."

Mihael Keehl, also known as Mello (メロ, Mero), is the oldest of L's two successors, raised at Wammy's House—Watari's orphanage for gifted children in Winchester, England. When Roger decides that Mello should work with Near to capture Kira, he refuses, citing an inability to work with somebody he is considered "second" to. He leaves the orphanage soon after, stating "I'll find my own way," and eventually seeks help from the Mafia.

Appearance
Mello has blonde hair and blue eyes. He later gains a large scar on the left side of his face, after initiating an explosion of the mafia hideout in order to escape being captured. Mello is usually seen wearing dark leather clothes. The manga depicts him wearing a red colored rosary and a cross-adorned bracelet. In the anime however, the cross has been edited to be a stick (the horizontal portion of the would-be-cross in not present). He also carries a gun that, in the manga, has a cross attached to a chain that hangs from its handle.

Character
While Mello is certainly a genius and more intelligent than most people, the concept of being only the second most intelligent person in Wammy's, behind Near, fuels the inferiority complex that defines Mello's character. Mello verges on being immoral in his obsession with being the one to take down Kira and is willing to do "whatever it takes". Tactics which include kidnapping Director of the Japanese Police's daughter (Sayu Yagami), and having a member of the mafia write down most of the SPK member's names in Sidoh's Death Note. In the manga, after Mello has successfully stolen a Death Note, he even goes so far as to attempt to blackmail the President of the United States via telephone into giving him funds and resources to aid his hunt for Kira, threatening that if his demands are not met he will use the Death Note to force the president to launch the United States' nuclear missiles and start World War III. Arguably, Mello isn't even trying to defeat Kira out of a sense of "justice", but because capturing Kira will prove to the world that Mello is indeed the worthy successor to L as the world's greatest detective, and not simply runner-up to Near, or as Mello describes his goal in his own words, "I will be the new Number One!"

The artist of Death Note, Takeshi Obata points out in the book Death Note: How To Read 13 that Mello's envy and hatred of Near was only one-way, and that Near "honestly liked Mello". The book states that Mello isn't purely evil, citing his apology and genuine care for Matt's well-being, as well as earlier in the series when he apologizes to Soichiro Yagami. It also states that Mello has an excellent mind and that he sometimes lets his emotions get in his way. Tsugumi Ohba, the writer of Death Note, stated that Mello works hard for everything.

Similar to L's fondness for sweets, Mello often eats bars of chocolate, even when talking. In the manga, Mello is often seen licking the chocolate before eating it. Mello also has a habit of bending his right leg up while sitting, often with his left leg turned outwards. He tends to alternate between that pose and simply crossing his right leg over his left leg. Another thing about him that is very like L is his tendency to take drastic strategies to confuse and force the hand of his opponents.

History
Mello is first introduced to the story as a young teenager at Wammy's House. After playing outside with some other children (and hitting one in the head with a soccer ball), he goes inside and is found by Roger. After taking Mello's hand out of a young boys hair, Roger brings Mello to his office, along with Near. Roger informs the two children that L has died, gaining an emotional reaction from Mello. Mello quickly asks if L chose him or Near as the next L. Roger informs them that neither had yet to be chosen, and asks if the two could work together. Although Near agrees, Mello finds it impossible to work with Near. Mello then states that Near should be the next L, citing Near's ability to stay calm and use his head. Mello tells Roger that he is leaving the "institution", being almost fifteen and capable of living on his own. He then leaves Wammy's House. Mello decides to find Kira his own way, and nearly two years after leaving Wammy's House he joins the Mafia, which accepts him as its major adviser because it has the shared goal of taking down Kira. Mello proves his ability to them by tracking down a rival mob boss of whom even Kira could not discover the identity.

Plot
Nearly four years after L's death, Mello learns about the Death Note from Ill Ratt. Ratt, a member of the newly formed SPK, begins leaking information to Mello soon after the SPK first meets.

Mello obtains one of the Death Notes from the Japanese Task Force by having the Mafia kidnap Soichiro Yagami's daughter, then exchanging her for a Death Note. Mello is then successfully able to retrieve the Death Note by fooling the police into thinking it was being transported away from the exchange via helicopter, until revealing that it had actually been loaded onto a missile, which was too fast to be tracked once launched. Having successfully outwitted Kira, Mello's men retrieved the Death Note, and he began planning how to use it.

However, Light Yagami discovers the location of Mello's Mafia hideout by having Misa Amane use her Shinigami Eyes to discover the identity of one of Mello's Mafia accomplices, and then uses the remaining Death Note to make him mail Light the Mafia's location. The indirect result of this is that the Shinigami Sidoh, who is the original owner of the Death Note Mello now possesses, also finds out Mello's location and is able to get there first. Sidoh briefly strikes up a loose alliance of sorts with Mello, revealing to him (in exchange for some of Mello's chocolate) that two rules in the Death Note—particularly the one saying that "if the user does not kill once every 13 days, they will die" -- are fakes. Mello begins to theorize that whoever Kira was, he probably used that rule to fool the Japanese police into thinking he was innocent. Light then launches a SWAT team raid on the hideout, leaving Mello in a face to face confrontation with Soichiro Yagami, who currently possessed Shinigami Eyes after making the eye trade with Ryuk. Mello reveals that he has the entire building rigged with remote-controlled explosives, leading to a tense showdown. In order to escape, Mello detonates all of the bombs, after one of his Mafia accomplices fatally wounds Light's father. Mello manages to survive the explosion and evade the police, but is left badly scarred along the entire left side of his face above his mouth (the gas mask he was wearing at the time protected the rest).

Mello appears at the home of Halle Lidner, who has been passing information regarding the Kira case to Mello. Mello forces an entry into the SPK while holding Lidner at gunpoint, intending to retrieve the one existing photograph of himself from Near. After Near states that Mello has been a big help in Near's investigation, Mello becomes enraged and turns his gun on Near, saying that he isn't Near's tool to solve a puzzle. The SPK members all draw their guns on Mello, though Near orders them to lower their weapons.

Lidner tells Mello that if he shoots Near, she well have no choice but to open fire on Mello. She then states that it won't do any good for the investigation if both he and Near die, to which Mello finally lowers his gun. Near gives Mello the photograph, and Mello says that he is going to repay his debt to Near. As payment for the photograph, Mello gives Near the information from Sidoh about the two fake Death Note rules. Each wryly promises the other that the race is on to see who finds Kira first, and Mello leaves. This meeting between the two successors has a profound impact, as the information Near receives from Mello drastically sharpens Near's suspicions on Light Yagami.

Mello enlists the help of his friend Matt to spy on Misa. After learning that Light is Kira and Near was going to attempt to apprehend him, Mello kidnaps Kiyomi Takada, by having Matt attack Takada's motorcade with a gas grenade. Mello then drives up on a motorcycle, while wearing a helmet, and offers to take Takada to safety. In the confusion, Takada agrees, not realizing it is Mello until it is too late to get off. After a chase, Mello is able to evade Takada's guards on his motorcycle, and lock her in a shipping truck. While driving her to a different location, Mello sees on his portable television that Matt was cornered by Takada's guards and killed in a hail of gunfire; Mello then apologizes for Matt having been shot. Mello forces Takada to strip in order to get rid of any tracking devices, however, he allows her to cover herself with a blanket. This proves to be his undoing, as she had a piece of the Death Note hidden in her clothes, and the blanket allows her to hide it.

Takada uses the hidden piece of Death Note paper to kill Mello. This action causes Teru Mikami to expose his own Death Note to kill Takada, not realizing that Light already killed her (by having her set herself and the truck on fire, in order to destroy all the evidence), using another piece torn from the Death Note, which secretly carried with him. This alerted Near's agents to the location of the real Death Note, hidden by Mikami, which then leads directly to Kira's defeat by Near. In the end, Near tells Light that Mello realized neither of them could live up to their predecessor, L, on their own. Therefore, Mello worked with Near up to his death - and after.

Near reflects on this during the final showdown and credits Mello as the single most pivotal person in discovering Light's plans. Halle Lidner further believes that it was Mello's plan all along that he would be killed, knowing that the only way to reveal the true location of Mikami's Death Note was to force him to immediately need to kill someone, but Near disagrees.

Novel
Main Article: Death Note: Another Note - The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases

Mello is the narrator of the Death Note spinoff novel, Death Note: Another Note - The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases. In it, he states that he is only telling the story in order to flaunt his greater knowledge of L over Near, even describing Near as a "big-headed twit". Mello decides that Near might not be the only person to read the book, so he should make it more interesting. While narrating, Mello uses different techniques: he begins as a typical narrator, but drops it to acquire a way of speech that is usually associated with a live storytelling. Mello's reason for this is that he would have become bored otherwise. The novel also switches from Mello's view and opinions to Naomi Misora's point of view.

Conception
The following information is from Death Note: How to Read 13.

Tsugumi Ohba: Writer

Takeshi Obata: Artist

Overview
Ohba said that he introduced Near and Mello together because L individually could not defeat Kira. Ohba felt that introducing one character individually would produce a "repeat" of the struggle between Light and L, so he instead wanted a story involving three combatants fighting each other. Ohba said that he "wavered" in their ages and considered making the characters the younger version of L. Ohba added that he did not initially develop their personalities as he wanted to "reveal" them through their actions.

Ohba said that he added the chocolate trait because he believed that chocolate "represented all sweets" and that the trait would fit with the story arc in the United States. Ohba described the trait became "useful" during the discovery of Mello's base due to the discarded chocolate boxes. Ohba said that he added Mello's scar to the thumbnails as the trait would give him "more depth." These traits give Mello a unique character build.

Ohba recalled that he considered having Mello be the character who ultimately defeats Light. According to Ohba, after the disappearance of Sidoh, the writer "struggled" with Mello's role. Ohba's idea of Mello ultimately defeating Light and Near being "the best" was strong in his mind, but once Mello had "learned too much about the Death Note" he had to kill him to "sustain the intensity of the story." As a result, Ohba did not give Mello a "large role" at the conclusion of Death Note and instead had Mello negatively affect Light "indirectly." Ohba gave Mello a "very plain" death, depicted in only one panel; he felt that if Mello had perished "dramatically" it would reveal the truth behind his death.

Character Design
Ohba said that he let Obata create the character designs and asked him to make both characters look "a little 'L-ish.'"

Obata said that, since Ohba wanted to "include a little L" in Near and Mello, he tried to keep "the weirdness and the panda eyes." He also added that since L was an important character, he felt that he made Near and Mello look too much like L. He described the character designs as "a major struggle." Obata said that, when he first heard about Near and Mello, he assumed that Near and Mello would join as a team and work together, so he envisioned the two as twins when he created the character designs.

Obata added that the designs for the characters became switched at the design phase; the final Mello had Near's design and vice versa. Obata said that when he created a depiction of the designs, his editor wrote the wrong names accompanying the designs; when Obata received approval he could not say that the labels were incorrect. Obata said that, for him, Mello's design (originally Near's) was "more calm and feminine," while Near's (originally Mello's) was more chaotic with his tangled hair. However, he came to feel that it was better that the switch happened.

Obata added that he designed Mello's clothing based on "what I like," meaning clothes he enjoys drawing and not clothes that he enjoys wearing; Obata says that he enjoys drawing "shiny" leather.

Obata said that at first he tried to depict Mello as having "more energy than Near." At first, Mello's hair was cut straight across; Obata said that he preferred Mello's hair becoming messy, which occurred later in the story. Obata said that he felt grateful when Ohba added the scar since he felt that he could draw Mello "looking cooler." In addition 13: How to Read described Mello as looking "more intense" and "more human" with the scar. Obata said that he felt sad when Mello died in the story shortly afterwards. At the point he created the pages featuring the reappearance of Mello with his scar, Obata said that he "finally [felt that he could draw Mello] really well." Obata added that the fact that Ohba and Obata did not regularly meet in person was best, because if Obata told Ohba about his satisfaction with Mello's new appearance that Ohba may not have killed Mello.

Trivia

 * Although Mello gets his information of Matt's death from a small TV in his truck, it's not seen throughout his whole time in the truck other than at the point he has it on.
 * It is remarked that, during one meeting with L, he was told three stories: one was of the LA BB murder case (which later became the subject of a book), the second was about the final fight between L and the real Eraldo Coil and Deneuve. The third story recounts how L first met Watari, when he was 8.
 * When Soichiro Yagami uses his Shinigami Eyes, Mello's lifespan is shown as 502209.
 * The only food Mello has ever been seen eating is a chocolate bar.
 * Amusingly, Mello's birthday, December 13, is on the National Cocoa Day in the United States.

Quotes

 * "No matter what I have to do, I will get it before Near..."
 * "I'll kill anyone who gets in my way. I'll be number one."
 * (To Near) "I'm not a tool for you to use to solve the puzzle."
 * (To Near) "Our goal is the same, I'll wait for you there."
 * (In anime) "Matt... I never thought you'd be killed... Forgive me..."
 * (Chapter 99 In manga) "Matt... I didn't mean for you to get killed... I'm so sorry..."
 * "Kidnap Soichiro Yagami's daughter, Sayu, next!"
 * "I want Kira's head...and I'll kill anyone who gets in my way. I'll be number one."
 * Chapter 61: "I'll live my own way." 
 * Chapter 64: "In the end there is no greater motivation than revenge."
 * Chapter 64: (Regarding Light) "He's terribly reasonable, this new L."
 * Chapter 77: "Near, you say clever things."
 * Chapter 79: "It's my turn to use you." 

Themes
Mello has three themes, each which can be found on Death Note Original Soundtrack III. Mello's themes are called "Mello" (メロ, Mero), "Mello 2" (メロ2, Mero 2), and "Mello's Theme" (メロのテーマ, Mero no Tēma).