Kanzo Mogi

Kanzo Mogi (模木完造, Mogi Kanzō) is a dedicated member of the Japanese Task Force. He is also one of the most reserved.

Appearance
Mogi is a tall, broad man who sports spiky, short, black hair. Like all members of the Task Force, he dresses formally in a suit and tie.

Character
Mogi rarely speaks, even when someone presents an opinion he agrees with. He is shown to be an excellent actor, becoming an excited and cheery manager for Misa on demand and in seeming contradictory to his usual demeanor.

Plot
Mogi is one of the several officers to remain on the Kira case after the majority of them resign.

He is originally ordered by L to investigate the Kitamura family and to pose as L, since the family members were under suspicion of being Kira. Mogi initially seems to serve as more of a field agent during early parts of the Kira investigation, not being present during most of the team's meetings in any of the various hotels they meet in. Mogi is seen meeting with the team more often when the investigation team moves to their new headquarters, where L acknowledges him as being an invaluable asset in intelligence gathering.

During the Yotsuba case, after Touta Matsuda's faked death, Mogi takes over as Misa Amane's manager and aids in the infiltration of the Yotsuba Group.

Not too long after Soichiro Yagami dies, Mello tells Mogi to go to New York, which convinces the second L, Light Yagami, to go along with Mello's plan as he'd be able to get a picture of Mello's face, but Mello had planned things so that Mogi would instead go to the SPK's base, where Near would question Mogi intensely about matters regarding the Kira case.

However, thanks to Light's preparations from beforehand, Mogi stays completely silent despite Near and Mello constantly pressuring him into speaking. Not too long after, the SPK gets attacked by rabid Kira followers, but the SPK and Mogi manage to escape; Near takes advantage of this to lie about Mogi's death, which resulted in Shuichi Aizawa suspecting the second L of being Kira much more strongly, resulting in him spilling a large amount of information to Near, after confirming Mogi is, indeed, alive.

Mogi is also the only Task Force member to go along with Aizawa's plan to investigate Light, such as keeping an eye on Misa and remaining with her. Sometime later, Near takes Misa and Mogi in custody shortly before the Yellow Box Warehouse showdown, which Mogi attends.

Conception
Takeshi Obata believes that Mogi's character design became incoherent because Obata had not planned for Mogi to become a main character. He apparently did not draw Mogi as a main character and did not expect him to last through the whole series.

Ohba believes that, if Mogi became the NPA chief by the end of the story, he would "lean toward L's side," with Near as L.

Live-action films
Although Mogi does not die in the manga or the anime, he dies in the film. He is killed by Misa early on in the second live-action movie. This death is similar to the fate of Ukita in both the anime and manga.

Musical
In Death Note: The Musical, Mogi is a member of the Task Force. After the FBI agents are killed, the Task Force is given the option to resign and they sing Change the World Reprise about their choice. In the song, Mogi sings about having a daughter. He chooses to stay with the Task Force.

L has Mogi shadow Light Yagami. Knowing that he's being followed again, Light convinces Misa, who has the Shinigami Eyes, to give him the man's name. Light writes Mogi's name in his Death Note, having him die by suicide by throwing himself in front of a bus. Mogi's death leads L to believe that Light has met with the second Kira, and it leads Soichiro Yagami to realize that his son is most likely Kira.

Television drama
In the drama, Mogi is portrayed by Jiro Sato, and the character's role is much more major than in other adaptations. Prior to the series, he was once a family friend to the Yagamis, but he drifted apart from them as he had to work his life in the police force, working as a partner with Soichiro Yagami.

Trivia

 * Viz's release of Death Note 13: How to Read incorrectly gives Mogi's birthday as July 12.

Image gallery
Kanzo Mogi Kanzô Mogi Kanzo Mogi Kanzo Mogi Kanzo Mogi