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6 Death Note Facts You Probably Didn't Know

A notebook, a detective, and a mystery author.

デスノート · Since 2006 · Madhouse · Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata

  1. The writer's identity is a mystery

    Tsugumi Ohba is a pen name, and the writer has never appeared publicly. A long-running fan theory links Ohba to gag manga artist Hiroshi Gamo, but it has never been confirmed.

  2. Light is literally "Moon"

    Light's name is written with the kanji for moon (月) but read as "Raito." It's a deliberately unusual reading.

  3. Ryuk is addicted to apples

    Ryuk calls human-world apples "juicy," and goes into withdrawal without them.

  1. It was banned in parts of China

    In 2005 Beijing and several other Chinese cities banned Death Note after students began writing classmates' names in imitation notebooks.

  2. The same duo made Bakuman

    Ohba and Obata reunited for Bakuman, a manga about two teens trying to make it in Weekly Shonen Jump. Obata also drew Hikaru no Go.

  3. L sits that way on purpose

    In the story, L claims his crouched sitting position boosts his deductive reasoning by 40 percent.

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