Mello

Mello (メロ, Mero), real name  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 seeks help from 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) from the SPK in order to write most of the member's names in Sidoh's Death Note. Later, he also relies on Halle Lidner for intelligence about the connection between Kiyomi Takada and Light Yagami.

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 (1992 in the anime) and he dies on January 26, 2010 (2013 in the anime). 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).

Character


Mello is the older of L's two successors raised in Wammy's House, Watari's orphanage for gifted children, in Winchester, England, United Kingdom. When it is decided that Mello should work with the other successor, Near, Mello refuses, citing an inability to work with Near, to whom he is considered second. Similar to L's fondness for sweets, Mello is often seen eating bars of chocolate. 13: How to Read states that Mello has "an excellent mind" and that he "sometimes lets his emotions get in his way." The book cites Mello's "hatred of Near," which created "a flaw in [Mello's] personality." The book states that Mello isn't purely evil, citing his apology and genuine care for Matt's well-being. Tsugumi Ohba, the writer of Death Note, stated that Mello "works hard for everything." Ohba added that Mello's name "doesn't really stand for anything," as opposed to Near's name standing for Nate River, etc.

Mello is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in the Japanese anime, and David Hurwitz in the English version.



Mello decides to find Kira his own way by joining the Mafia. After obtaining one of the Death Notes from the Kira investigation team by kidnapping Sayu Yagami, Light Yagami sets up a raid that leaves Mello badly scarred and his real name in Light's hands. After learning that Light is Kira and Near was going to attempt to apprehend him, Mello kidnaps Kiyomi Takada, but is soon killed by Takada's hidden pages of the Death Note. This action causes Teru Mikami to expose his own Death Note to kill Takada, an action that Near picks up on and is eventually able to use to thwart Light's plans. Near reflects 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 that he would be killed to expose Light's plan.

Conception and development of Mello
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 'L-ish.'" Ohba said that he "wavered" in their ages and considered making the characters the sons 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."

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.

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 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. 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. 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.

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 was "more calm and feminine." He felt that "it's better" that the switch occurred.

Novel
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. 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.

[[Category:L]]