Misa Amane - Character

Character

Within the Death Note universe, Misa is a famous model, singer and actress who is infatuated with Light Yagami. He has been shown to slightly consider feeling some type of affection for her when first meeting as she blushes at him when he compliments her on explaining, however he feels that "developing feelings is how most idiots screw up" as he says in his head. She usually refers to herself in the third person by calling herself "Misa-Misa" to be cute, although this is omitted in the English dub of the anime, and she tends to be hyperactive. Despite her hyperactivity, she rarely, if ever, allows her personal feelings about anyone to interfere with Light's plans, showing her unflinching loyalty to him. She, like Light, is corrupted by the power that comes with owning a Death Note. However, unlike Light, she neither wishes to become a god, nor loses her original personality. Despite this however her playfulness hides a deeply twisted and disturbed girl. Because of Light's cruel and manipulative nature, she's just another one of his victims, albeit a very dangerous one.

Douglas Wolk of Salon describes Misa as being drawn in a "Japanese comics' tradition of cute, tiny, airhead girls with big eyes" and being a "lot cannier than she pretends to be". Wolk adds that the reader could "watch her measuring how much quasi-innocent charm to pour on in every situation".

She decides to devote her life to Light because he punished the criminal that killed her parents when she was younger in front of her eyes. Misa, unable to forgive the killer and wanting to kill the burglar herself, saw multiple delays in the killer's trial and the possibility he could get off before Kira killed him. According to Ohba, Light sees Misa as a "bad person" who killed innocent people, so he acts emotionally cold towards her and manipulates her. Light and Misa both act together as Kira for over five years, until Light decides that it is too dangerous for Misa to be Kira with members of the taskforce suspecting him and tells her to give up the notebook. During the series, Misa performs two eye trades, cutting her lifespan in half twice: the first, with Rem; the second, with Ryuk.

The Shinigami who follows her is Rem. Not long before Misa's introduction to the series, Misa was attacked by an obsessed stalker. Unknown to her, a Shinigami named Gelus had fallen in love with her, and was watching her during the attack. In order to save her life, Gelus wrote her stalker's name into his notebook, killing him. Consequently, Gelus himself died, since shinigami exist only to take human life, not extend it. Rem, who witnessed the whole event, then took Gelus's notebook which had been left behind and gave it to Misa. The two eventually grew to care for each other.

According to 13: How to Read, Misa loses her memories related to using the Death Note at Light's orders and retains her love for Light. Misa falls into despair after someone "like Matsuda" "probably let it slip" that Light died. Misa's fate is not shown in the manga at all; she was last seen staying at the Teito Hotel. Ohba stated that this was simply because he did not have a situation to fit her in. Misa commits suicide a year after Light dies.

At the anime's finale, Misa appears dressed in Gothic Lolita clothing, standing outside the safety rail on the edge of a skyscraper and looking into the sunset. The official anime guidebook lists her date of death as "unknown", leaving Misa's fate in the anime open to interpretation.

Misa, born on December 25, 1984 in Kyoto.