Rem

Rem (レム, Remu) is the Shinigami who gives Misa Amane her Death Note. Like Ryuk, Rem possesses two Death Notes; however, Rem did not get hers through trickery. The Shinigami Gelus, who had fallen in love with Misa, sacrificed himself to kill her destined murderer. In doing so he was reduced to dust, leaving only his Death Note. Rem delivered Gelus' Death Note to Misa, since it was her life he saved.

Rem is voiced by Kimiko Saitō in the Japanese anime and Colleen Wheeler in the English dub. In the film, she is voiced by Shinnosuke Ikehata in Japanese, with Michael Dobson (who also voiced Gelus in the anime) replacing Wheeler in the English version.

Appearance
Rem's appearance is quite skeletal, with long, spinal cord-like arms and bone-like skin. In the manga and anime, Rem tells Misa that she is actually a female Shinigami. In the second live-action film, this is not mentioned, leaving it ambiguous. She is also given a more masculine voice. L calls her "the white thing."

Plot
While Ryuk takes amusement in everything in the Human World, Rem is almost the exact opposite. She views most humans with contempt. Also, while Ryuk is ambivalent to Light's success or failure, Rem actively assists Misa. This makes her equally as guilty as Ryuk of not displaying 'proper' traits for a Shinigami to have. She is even willing to sacrifice her life to defend Misa, as evidenced by her threat to kill Light should Misa die before her time. For Misa's sake, however, she still assists Light in his schemes. Death Note: How to Read 13 said Rem "supposedly" experiences difficulty while writing the Japanese language.

Light manages to force Rem into killing L for him by presenting a situation in which harm would come to Misa otherwise. As such, she dies when she writes L's name. In the second movie, Rem declares her love for Misa and her spite for Light moments before her death. While her Death Note is left behind in the manga and anime, she burns it in the film out of spite.

Obata said that Rem is his favorite Shinigami since she is "a good person", even though she is a shinigami.



Conception
Obata said that when he heard that Rem was female, he decided to create a design contrasting with Ryuk's design, using a white body with "rounder" lines. He says that he used fashion collections to create her motif. He described her resulting appearance as if she wore a "really bizarre suit." Obata said that Medusa inspired the design of Rem's head.