Naomi Misora

Naomi Misora (南空 ナオミ, Misora Naomi) is the fiancée of Raye Penber. Described by How to Read as formerly a "first rate" FBI agent, Naomi left the Bureau in October 2003 for the sake of starting a family in the United States. After the sudden death of her fiancé which she blames Kira for, Naomi, described by How to Read as having a "remarkable investigative ability," decides to take part in the Kira case herself. In her attempts to contact the Kira investigation team she comes across Light Yagami. Cautious at first, she uses the false name Shoko Maki in order to protect herself until she can reach L. However, Light manages to manipulate her into revealing her real name to him resulting in her death by suicide. Her body is never found due to the specifications made by Light in the Death Note. In the anime's first opening, Naomi is seen holding Penber's corpse in a manner similar to Michelangelo's representation of Pietà after about 45 seconds.



In the live-action films her character, played by Asaka Seto, plays a larger role in the story. After witnessing her fiancé die at the hands of Kira, an enraged Naomi decides to investigate the case herself. Beginning with Light as her prime suspect she uses Shiori to get to him. Using the alias Shoko Maki to protect herself and with a strong belief that Light is Kira, she tries to make him confess that he is. However, her real name is uncovered by Light through the wedding documents held by the church where she and Raye had planned to marry. Naomi's fate ends in a similar manner to the anime and manga as she is forced to commit suicide, the only exception being she takes the life of Shiori before doing so. Her character also makes a brief appearance in L: Change the WorLd.

For the production and filming of the movie, Seto stated that she "tried to project that awesome spirit" of Naomi, referring to the character's tenacity and drive while trying to defeat Kira.

Naomi in Death Note: Another Note
Naomi is one of the central characters in the spinoff novel Death Note Another Note: The Los Angeles BB Murder Cases by author Nisio Isin. The story is set several years prior to the start of Death Note and focuses on a series of murder cases investigated by L with Naomi as his operative. The resulting capture of the murderer helped launch Naomi's reputation within the FBI.

Naomi is one of the females in the Death Note series with a brain that she uses. Unfortunately, she lets her feelings get in the way of her investigative abilities. Naomi is also one of the only people who worked with L, besides his assistant Watari. Although the story is supposed to revolve around L, many readers believe it revolves around Naomi and Beyond. L is the main aspect of the story, but he works through Naomi, who makes her own discoveries and assumptions with Beyond’s help and also with out it. Ultimately, it was Naomi who solved the case, not L.

Conception and development of Naomi
Naomi's character was originally intended to have a larger role in the storyline which included investigating possible suspects for the Kira Case and expanded interaction with her fiancé. However, once Raye's character was killed author Tsugumi Ohba believed that having Naomi search for Kira was a "natural and interesting development" in the story. Within the cast of characters at the time Sayu was the only notable female. In adding Naomi, Ohba could finally have the "cool" female character he had always wanted. He initially planned for Naomi to have a long involvement in the story but underestimated the character's deductive abilities. Because she was able to uncover crucial plot information "faster than...thought", Ohba decided to end her character early or face complications with the story development later on. He described the storyline issue of Naomi as the greatest difficulty that he created for himself since the beginning of the series.

According to artist Takeshi Obata, after hearing about the storyline he looked forward to drawing her character since it would be his first time designing one like Naomi. Using the color black to convey her mourning over her fiancé he gave Naomi a leather jacket then designed her face and hair to match her clothes. Because of this ordering Obata states that Naomi was essentially "born from her clothes".