Mello

Mello (メロ, Mero), also known as M, whose real name is  Mihael Keehl  (ミハエル・ケール, Mihaeru Kēru), is Near's rival. He is the older of L's two successors raised at Wammy's House—Watari's orphanage for gifted children—in Winchester, England. When it is decided 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 joins the Mafia. Mello has sometimes been known to use less conventional methods to achieve his goals, including kidnapping the Director of the Japanese Police. He also relied on information leaked from an informant (Ill Ratt) in the SPK.

Similar to L's fondness for sweets, Mello is often seen eating bars of chocolate. How to Read 13 states that Mello has "an excellent mind" and that he "sometimes lets his emotions get in his way." The book cites his hatred of Near, which created a flaw in his personality. His birthday is December 13, 1989 and he dies on January 26, 2010. He is 171 centimeters tall (5' 7"), weighs 52 kilograms (115 pounds) and his blood type is A. He can usually be seen wearing black clothes and a crucifix which was altered to a red stick-shaped charm for the anime adaptation (erasing any evidence of Catholicism in Mello's personality). His eyes were also changed from black to blue in the anime.

Conception and Development
Tsugumi 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 let Takeshi Obata, artist of the series, create the character designs and asked him to make both characters look "a little like 'L.'" He 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 it would fit with the story arc in the United States. The trait became useful during the discovery of Mello's base due to the discarded chocolate boxes. Ohba also stated that he added the scar because it would give Mello "more depth."

Ohba recalled that he considered having Mello be the character who ultimately defeats Light, but after the disappearance of Sidoh, the writer "struggled" with Mello's role. He added that the idea of Mello defeating Light was "strong in my mind" and that he thought about having Near as the "best" at Wammy's House and Mello being the final victor. But after Mello "learned too much" about the Death Note, Ohba decided against this and killed him off to sustain the intensity of the story. Instead of having a large role, Mello was mainly designed to negatively affect Light "indirectly" and died in a non-dramatic way so that the truth behind his death would not be revealed to the other characters.

Obata, Death Note's illustrator, described the character designs as "a major struggle." When he first heard about Near and Mello, he envisioned the two as twins so they could work together. Also, at the start of the series, Mello's hair was cut straight across. However, due to the artist's own preference, he eventually started drawing Mello's hair messy. Obata was grateful when Ohba added the scar because he felt that it would make Mello look cooler. Obata added that he designed Mello's clothing based on "what I like" because he enjoys drawing "shiny" leather.

In Other Media
pSW0l4LeQkk Madonna's music video for "Jump".

Novel
Mello is the narrator of the 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. 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. The novel also switches from Mello's view and opinions to Naomi's point of view.

Music Video
In the music video for the song "Jump", Madonna is said to be cosplaying as Mello from Death Note. The video was shot in Tokyo, Japan while he was on the Japanese leg of her Confessions Tour. In it, Madonna is seen preforming on a sound stage (wearing a short, platinum blond wig and black pants) while clips of dancers running through the streets of Tokyo are played. Visit the Myths page for more information.

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