Misa Amane

Misa Amane (Japanese: 弥 海砂, Hepburn: Amane Misa) is a fictional character in the manga series Death Note, created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. A famous model, Misa seeks out mass-murderer Kira (Light Yagami) as she supports his cause to "cleanse the world of evil". Using her own Death Note, a notebook that allows its owner to kill anyone simply by knowing their name and face that she received from the Shinigami Rem, Misa does everything she can to aid Light. This includes shortening her own lifespan by half, twice, in order to receive the eyes of a Shinigami, giving her the ability to learn a person's name just by looking at their face. Although Misa fills the traditional role of the love interest, her relationship with Light is one-sided as he uses her simply for his own gains.

In the anime adaptation, Misa is voiced by Aya Hirano in Japanese and by Shannon Chan-Kent in the English version. In the live-action adaptations, she is portrayed by Erika Toda in the films,^[1] by Fuka Yuzuki in the musical, and by Hinako Sano in the television drama.^[2] Margaret Qualley will be portraying Mia Sutton in the upcoming American film version.^[3]

Creation and conception

Tsugumi Ohba, writer of Death Note, decided to create Misa to be the second Kira before the serialization began. Ohba felt that having the story solely consist of males would be "boring" and wanted "a cute female." Ohba, intending to introduce her with the Shinigami Eyes, described her as having to be "spontaneous and not too bright" and that he determined her personality "from the start." Since Light Yagami would never want to trade for the Shinigami Eyes, Ohba wanted another character to use to trade for the eyes, so Ohba decided to use Misa.^[4] Ohba said that the conception of the name Misa "was kind of random but I think it was from "kuromisa" (Black Mass). It must have been based on something".^[5]

Ohba ultimately decided to introduce Misa after the death of Naomi Misora. Ohba and Takeshi Obata, artist of Death Note, wanted to use the gothic lolita design to convey "gothic imagery of the Shinigami and that world".^[6] Ohba said that they're "into that fashion" and that having Misa first appear in unusual clothing would be "more interesting".^[4] Obata, imagining a mix of an "energetic Japanese artist" and a "foreign rock and roll singer", felt "set" when he drew Misa for the first time. Obata said that he felt "apprehension" regarding the length of Misa's hair; personally he wanted her fringe (bangs) to be "straight across" but believed that creating Misa completely within the bounds of gothic lolita style would be "too much".^[4][6] Therefore, Obata designed her so she looked "a little more natural" and to appear "cute" to people who "weren't into the Gothic Lolita style".^[6] Obata revealed that his editor warned him that the scene with Misa in restraints in chapter 33 was on "morally thin ground for a children's magazine," so they placed the title logo over the middle of it. This was a surprise to the artist, as he said he "held back" when drawing it.^[7]

When the Near and Mello story arc began and Misa became a top idol, Obata decided to drop the gothic lolita style and make her look like "a popular actress". Obata said that he remembered "having a lot of fun" while looking through gothic lolita magazines and drawing Misa.^[6] In response to a question inquiring about which characters the creators faced the most difficulty in creating, Obata selected Misa. Obata said that he had difficulty comprehending the concept of "doing anything for the person you love" and that he felt like the character controlled him when he drew her. Death Note 13: How to Read also states that Misa "required a lot of artistic variation" because of her "many expressions" that ranged "from goofy to serious".^[8]

In the manga, Misa wears jewelry with a crucifix theme; in the anime adaptation, she wears fleur de lis jewelry, although the cross is retained on the collector's figure included with Volume 5 of the DVD series.

When designing color images, Obata assigned colors to characters to "get the atmosphere right". Obata assigned pink and black to Misa.^[7]

Appearances

Misa as she appears in the Death Note anime

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.

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.^[9] According to Ohba, Light sees Misa as a "bad person" who killed innocent people, so he acts emotionally cold towards her and manipulates her.^[10] 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. That is to say that if her original lifespan was to live to be a hundred, after trading for the eyes twice, her lifespan is shortened to twenty-five years. However, it is later revealed that if a Shinigami dies while protecting a human, that human gains the Shinigami's remaining lifespan. Thus, as Rem died while protecting Misa, her natural lifespan was extended. This is coupled on top of the fact that another shinigami, Gelus, already gave her his life span when he saved her from being killed by a stalker a few years prior, so even after the trades it is likely she still has a substantial lifespan remaining.

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.

Misa loses her memories related to using the Death Note at Light's orders and retains her love for him, although the rest of her 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.^[11] The author speculated that after someone "like Matsuda probably let it slip" that Light died, Misa fell into despair and "committed suicide... something like that."^[11] Her death date is given as slightly over a year after Light's.^[12]

In the anime's finale, Misa appears 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.^[13]

Film

Erika Toda as Misa in the Death Note film series.

Misa is portrayed in the films by Erika Toda. In the film continuity, Misa has a brother, who is murdered along with her parents. Misa's personality is altered slightly from the manga. In addition, her appearance is slightly modified: while Misa has blonde hair in the manga and anime, she has brown hair in the films.

She is first seen filming a dorama called "Misa-Misa's Happy Sweets", where she states that she is baking treats to make her enemies fat. After filming of that section ends, she expresses support for Kira to a journalist. Her supervisor asks that the statement be cut due to controversies. Misa's attacker, Ryotaro Sakajo, the assistant director for "Happy Sweets", dies from a heart attack when Gelus writes his name inside of his Death Note. Gelus' Death Note then falls in front of Misa, who immediately picks it up. After reading the notebook, she finds Rem.

In the second film, Mogi replaces Ukita as Misa's victim during the Sakura TV incident. Additionally, Misa first learns of Light's identity as Kira when Soichiro rescues Sayu.

Misa is present at the final confrontation between Light and the police force, though she is handcuffed and restrained by another officer. When Light dies after Ryuk writes his name down in the Death Note, Misa breaks down emotionally. Her memory of the Death Note is erased, but she retains her obsession with Light, wishing him a happy birthday through a mini-shrine dedicated to him.

Erika Toda said that, prior to filming, she felt "a lot of pressure" due to the character's popularity with audiences. She said the pressure vanished when filming began. In an article in The Star, a Malaysian newspaper, writer Kitty Sensei theorized that Toda did not have "the time to think much about how fans would react", citing film shoots that Kitty Sensei described as "physically and mentally exhausting" such as the straitjacket scene. Toda said that undoing the straitjacket took a lot of time, and at times she waited in the jacket between takes. Toda also said that on one occasion, she wore a blindfold for an hour during filming.^[14]

Toda reprises the role in the sequel, Death Note: Light Up the New World.^[1] Ten years since Light's death, Misa continued her work as an actress while her activities are secretly supervised by police officers. She regains her memories after cyber-terrorist Yuki Shien returned her Death Note. Initially refused to cooperate due to Light's death, she eventually made another eye trade from Ryuk and help Yuki escape with the six Death Notes he collected by killing two of the Task Force investigators. Although failed to kill Ryuzaki (whose name written on a Death Note prior similar to L), she committed suicide by writing her own name, scribbled "Misa Amane died in Light Yagami's hands".

Drama

In the live-action drama, Misa is portrayed by Hinako Sano. Unlike the manga and anime, she has a red death note. Her hair is also brown instead of blonde, similarly to the live-action films. When she goes to dig up her buried Death Note, Mikami's assistant steals it, and Mikami uses it to help Kira. Her Death Note is burned by a fire set by Mikami; consequently, her memory of the Death Note is erased.

The Musical

In the musical, Misa is portrayed by Fuka Yuzuki.

Yonkoma

Death Note 13: How to Read describes Misa's "sexiness" in the Death Note yonkoma as receiving a "power boost compared to the main series".^[15]

Reception

Briana Lawrence of Anime News Network felt that even though Misa was the typical annoying girl clinging to the main character, "In a series full of geniuses it was amazing to see an average person get a hold of the Death Note. Her presence made things even more complicated for Light and she kept him on his toes as much as L did (maybe even more than L did)." Lawrence was disappointed that the epilogue of the series did not show Misa's ultimate fate.^[16]

In a Salon.com article, Douglas Wolk 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 added that the reader could "watch her measuring how much quasi-innocent charm to pour on in every situation".^[17]

Tom S. Pepirium, an editor of IGN website, describes Misa in a review of the Death Note anime episode "Performance" as being the "show's weakest and most annoying character". Pepirium points out the tone in which the character is written, feeling that her motivation and obsession with Kira are "in league with Death Note's dark sensibilities." He says that when Misa spouts her deep and fully realized affection for Kira in "her wacky, excited, poodle-like way," the information "loses all impact." Pepirium uses "girly sophomoric pink fluff" and "Jar Jar" (a reference to Jar Jar Binks) as figurative descriptors for Misa.^[18] He has also compared Misa to Dot from Animaniacs.^[19] Pepirium said that he wished that Misa was a more serious character at times, instead of being a "silly lovesick, big-eyed anime characterization".^[20]

Erika Toda said that she views Misa as a "complicated and fascinating" character. Toda said that she does not comprehend why a person would willingly use a Death Note, but added that she admired the fact that Misa "does everything she sets out to do," though that the actions of Light and Misa are criminal.^[14]

Christy Lee S.W. of The Star said that Toda's portrayal of Misa in the second film "may seem rather annoying for being overly bubbly and cute at first" and that the character grows on the viewer "after a while". Lee stated that at the end of the film she saw the character of Misa as "quite endearing."^[21]

See also

• List of Death Note characters

References