Death Note 13: How to Read, also known as Death Note: How to Read 13, is an encyclopedia-style guide to the Death Note manga series, including character bios, storyline summaries, interviews with creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata, production notes and commentaries and a bonus: the pilot chapter of the manga. It also includes Ryuk's Human Observation Journal.
Everything contained within this book is official, written by the original author and artist, and is considered canon for the manga series.
Chapters
- HOW TO READ -Characters-
- Character Profiles
- The Forces Involved in the Kira Case
- Kira Case Participant Relationships
- Complete Shinigami File
- Shinigami Observation Diary
- Abilities
- Behaviour
- HOW TO THINK -Tsugumi Ohba-
- Story Commentary
- Intermission
- Epilogue
- Story Commentary
- HOW TO READ -Story-
- In-Depth Interview with Tsugumi Ohba
- Death Note Truths (Q&A)
- The Origin of All 108 Chapter Titles
- HOW TO DRAW -Takeshi Obata-
- HOW TO READ -Rules & Tricks-
- Death Note Investigation File 1
- Death Note Basic Knowledge
- Death Note Investigation File 2
- Change of Ownership
- Death Note Investigation File 3
- How to Use It: Complete Rules
- Death Note Case Study
- Death Note Investigation File 4
- All Tricks Revealed
- Death Note Investigation File 1
- HOW TO CREATE -Tsugumi Ohba x Takeshi Obata-
- Special Discussion
- The Making of Death Note
- Questions
- The 13 Truths About Chapter 108
- Special Discussion
- HOW TO PLAY -Ryuk's Notebook-
- Ryuk's Human Observation Journal
- The New World According to Light Yagami
- Inside L's Bewildering Belly
- Misa Amane's Pure Love Memorial
- You Can Do It, Mello!
- Near's Shopping List
- Professor Ryuk Presents: Relatively Accurate Character Type Diagnoses
- Creator Comments
- Four-Panel Comics
- Pilot Chapter
- Ryuk's Human Observation Journal
Character heights
The Japanese edition gives the characters' heights in centimeters.
Viz Media's official English release incorrectly converts the characters' heights, so some characters are listed as a few inches shorter than they should be. Viz apparently converted from centimeters to feet, and then used the remaining decimal as inches instead of properly converting to inches. For instance, Light is 179 cm, which correctly converts to 5.87 ft, or 5' 10½", but Viz gives his height as 5' 8", apparently taking the eight inches from the .8 feet.
| Character | Japanese height | Accurate conversion | Viz height |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthony Rester | 193 cm | 6' 4" | 6' 3" |
| Rod Ross | 190 cm | 6' 2¾" | 6' 2" |
| Aiber | 189 cm | 6' 2½" | 6' 2" |
| Kanzo Mogi | 188 cm | 6' 2" | 6' 2" |
| Takeshi Ooi | 188 cm | 6' 2" | 6' 2" |
| Shuichi Aizawa | 183 cm | 6' 0" | 6' 0" |
| Stephen Gevanni | 182 cm | 5' 11¾" | 5' 10" |
| Soichiro Yagami | 181 cm | 5' 11¼" | 5' 9" |
| Reiji Namikawa | 181 cm | 5' 11¼" | 5' 9" |
| Eiichi Takahashi | 181 cm | 5' 11¼" | 5' 9" |
| Raye Penber | 180 cm | 5' 10¾" | 5' 9" |
| Halle Lidner | 180 cm | 5' 10¾" | 5' 9" |
| Light Yagami | 179 cm | 5' 10½" | 5' 8" |
| L / Ryuzaki | 179 cm | 5' 10½" | 5' 8" |
| Teru Mikami | 175 cm | 5' 9" | 5' 7" |
| Watari | 175 cm | 5' 9" | 5' 7" |
| Shingo Mido | 175 cm | 5' 9" | 5' 7" |
| Touta Matsuda | 174 cm | 5' 8½" | 5' 7" |
| Suguru Shimura | 172 cm | 5' 7¾" | 5' 6" |
| Mello | 171 cm | 5' 7¼" | 5' 6" |
| Naomi Misora | 171 cm | 5' 7¼" | 5' 6" |
| Hideki Ide | 170 cm | 5' 7" | 5' 6" |
| Wedy | 170 cm | 5' 7" | 5' 6" |
| Roger Ruvie | 169 cm | 5' 6½" | 5' 5" |
| Kyosuke Higuchi | 169 cm | 5' 6½" | 5' 5" |
| Masahiko Kida | 169 cm | 5' 6½" | 5' 5" |
| Matt | 168 cm | 5' 6¼" | 5' 5" |
| Jack Neylon | 168 cm | 5' 6¼" | 5' 5" |
| Kiyomi Takada | 166 cm | 5' 5¼" | 5' 4" |
| Arayoshi Hatori | 166 cm | 5' 5¼" | 5' 4" |
| Hitoshi Demegawa | 164 cm | 5' 4½" | 5' 4" |
| Sayu Yagami (adult) | 163 cm | 5' 4¼" | 5' 3" |
| Hirokazu Ukita | 161 cm | 5' 3½" | 5' 3" |
| Sachiko Yagami | 158 cm | 5' 2¼" | 5' 2" |
| Near | 155 cm | 5' 1" | 5' 0" |
| Misa Amane | 152 cm | 4' 11¾" | 5' 0" |
| Sayu Yagami (child) | 147 cm | 4' 9¾" | 4' 8" |
Trivia
- Included within is a special character card, which reveals L's true name.
- The Japanese release also includes 5 finger-puppets as seen in the Death Note series in Near's possession:
- This is the final volume of the manga series, but the guidebook for the anime series, Death Note /A Official Analysis Guide of the Animation, is designed to go after it. The "/A" in the title is meant to resemble the number 14, following volume 13.
Gallery
| Death Note books |
|---|
 blanc et noir 2006  Death Note 13: How to Read 2006  L FILE No. 15 2008  Another Note 2006  L: Change the WorLd 2007 |
