Minoru Tanaka

Minoru Tanaka (田中実, Tanaka Minoru) is the protagonist of the The a-Kira Story.

Appearance
Minoru is a young man of average height with brown eyes and brown hair worn in a style typically known as a two-block cut. When not wearing his school uniform his casual attire consists of a white jacket and blue pants.

Character
Minoru is shown to be incredibly smart despite his poor performance in school. Like his predecessor, he is good at problem-solving and planning, devising a plan to sell the Death Note and working around the heightened levels of security that have arisen as technology has advanced. His intelligence was praised by Near who, for the first time since becoming L, admitted defeat after being unable to track Minoru down.

Unlike Light Yagami, however, Minoru does not seem to have a strong sense of justice. Although he is morally opposed to using the Death Note himself, he has no issue with making it available to anyone who is willing to pay for it, regardless of how they plan to use it once he has sold it to them. In fact, when the USA and China promise, while bidding for the notebook, that they will use it for altruistic purposes, he makes a point of announcing that he does not care why they want it, he just wants to know how much they are willing to pay for it. Among the Kiras, while it was not his main intention, Minoru's actions created the most economically positive influence for Japan. After his plan was complete, Japan's economy boomed, especially around the capital, and the event was known as the Reiwa Bubble or the Kira Bubble, and Japan's inhabitants praised Kira as a god once more.

History
Minoru grew up in Japan. At the start of the one-shot, he is a middle school student noted for consistently scoring highest in the nation on intelligence tests. However, despite his high IQ of 182, he performs poorly in all of his school subjects, mostly due to his laziness.

Plot
In the year 2017, while fretting over his latest failing test grade, Minoru is visited by the Shinigami Ryuk. Ryuk gives the boy a Death Note and explains that it is what allowed Kira to perpetuate his crimes 10 years prior. Minoru is impressed by Kira's ingenuity with the notebook but points out that the advancement in technology since his death has made it difficult to perpetrate such a crime again without being caught. When Ryuk asks if he believes he can replicate such crimes, Minoru realizes that Ryuk wants him to follow in Kira's footsteps and use the notebook as a murder tool. After some consideration, Minoru requests that Ryuk take back possession of the notebook and return in two years' time.

When Ryuk returns with the Death Note in 2019, Minoru explains that, rather than use the Death Note himself, he plans to sell it. Instead of using the internet, which could be used to trace him, Minoru has Ryuk go to a local news station and hold up a teleprompter, announcing the auction on live TV. Knowing that anyone who has already touched a Death Note will be able to see Ryuk, Minoru has the Shinigami travel between his house and the station underground so that no cameras will be able to track him. Near names him a (auction) -Kira and deduces that he will have to receive the money online, which would enable him to track him down, and decides to watch the auction and wait. Touta Matsuda breaks into Sakura TV to try to stop the broadcast, but is recognized as one of the people involved the Kira case, which in turn proves the legitimacy of the auction. He is scolded by his superiors and is subsequently transferred to desk duty as a punishment.

Numerous bidders around the world make offers for the notebook, but the bidding is eventually whittled down to just the United States of America and China. After the timeframe for bidding ends Minoru decides to sell the Death Note to the USA for 1 quadrillion yen. In order to keep any deposited money from being traced to him, Minoru has Ryuk announce on live TV that the money should be deposited in equal amounts to the savings accounts of every Japanese citizen with a registered residence in Tokyo under the age of 60, adding up to 100 billion yen for each person. Near gives up the case, unable to track Minoru.

After confirming that the USA has paid what it agreed to, Minoru gives the Death Note to Ryuk to deliver to America's president, ordering the Shinigami never to return once he has left.

Unfortunately for Minoru, in response to the commotion caused by a Death Note being made available for purchase in the human world, the King of Death makes a new rule that anyone who attempts to sell a Death Note will be killed the moment they receive payment for it. Ryuk considers telling Minoru but decides not to, due to the latter telling him to never come back again. After withdrawing his money from his bank account, Minoru suffers a heart attack and dies. It is revealed that Ryuk was the one who wrote Minoru's name in his notebook, on the same page he previously wrote Light Yagami's, in accordance with the rule.

Trivia

 * In the Jump Square version of the a-Kira chapter, Minoru's IQ is mistakenly given as being 142. This is corrected in later releases.

Минору Танака Minoru Tanaka