Apples

Apples in the human world

Apples are Ryuk's favorite food and the only thing he is seen eating. He likes apples from the human world because he finds them, "How do you say it, juicy?" and states that they are addicting to him, much like humans are addicted to alcohol or cigarettes. He has only been seen eating red apples (likely Fuji apples). Ryuk exhibits symptoms of withdrawal if he goes long periods without them; these symptoms include contorting his body into uncomfortable positions and desperation to the point that he will take orders for one (i.e. looking for hidden cameras in Light's room).

Shinigami apples

Ryuk holding a Shinigami Apple in his hand

Apples from the Shinigami Realm look like shriveled green peppers, are black-maroon-colored and don't resemble their human world counterparts. Misa gives a juicy human apple to Ryuk, and in return, he lets Misa have a bite of an apple from the Shinigami realm that he was carrying with him at the time. Misa takes a bite out of it but spits it out immediately, disgusted, stating that "It's like sand."

Apples eventually became a popular commodity/currency in the Shinigami Realm. In the C-Kira one-shot, Midora bribes the King of Death with 13 apples she brought back from the human world to receive an extra Death Note that she gives to C-Kira.

Gukku, one of the first Shinigami seen in the series, comments in the one-shot that Ryuk bringing human apples to the Shinigami Realm is why Death Notes became so easily available and also states that he "doesn't know if that's a good thing or not."

Trivia

• Ohba has stated in an interview for Death Note 13: How to Read that he chose apples because he thought they looked "cool" when contrasted with Ryuk's black figure.