Watari

Watari (ワタリ, Watari) is L's handler, as well as the supplier of logistics to the Japanese Taskforce.

Appearance
He has white hair and blue eyes. As L's assistant Watari, he wears a long black suit and a hat which also covers his face. After he reveals his appearance to the Taskforce, Watari wears a black tuxedo with a black hat and glasses.

Character
Watari is a famous inventor and the founder of Wammy's House, an orphanage for gifted children in Winchester, England. Using the fortune he made as an inventor, he built an orphanage that teaches children with special talents, and sends them out into the world. Before the Japanese Task Force is formed, he is the only person who has seen L, and the only one capable of contacting L directly. Like L, he represents himself with a Cloister Black "W" on computer screens. He is also a fatherly figure to L. Watari is well trained in espionage and marksmanship. According to Death Note: How To Read 13, Watari likes Earl Grey tea and dislikes dirty rooms.

Plot
Watari first appears during an Interpol emergency meeting, as he informs that L is currently working on the Kira case.

During the chase with Kyosuke Higuchi, Watari helped to stop him from committing suicide by shooting a gun from a helicopter.

After Light Yagami regains his Death Note, he tricks Rem into killing Watari and L for his own personal gain. Before Watari dies, he presses a kill-switch button which causes deletion of all data at task force headquarters. L told him to do this if something 'strange' were to happen to him. Rem disintegrates after killing L and Watari because she deliberately increased Misa Amane's lifespan by causing their deaths.

His death in the anime is nearly identical to his death in the manga, with the exception that in the anime, Rem is shown behind Watari, stepping back into the shadows with her one visible eye glowing red.

In Other Media
In Death Note: Last Name and L: Change the WorLd, Watari dies of a heart attack in the elevator while capturing Misa.

In the film, he is played by Shunji Fujimura, who felt that Watari's presence would "come alive" if he projected "the mood of this mysterious old gentleman without the air of livelihood."