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"Mature Content Warning!" |
| “ | There's no reason for me to question. God is absolute. My job is to do as God wishes. | „ |
| ~ Teru Mikami. |
| “ | Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, Delete, DELEEEEEETE!!! | „ |
| ~ Teru Mikami when writing the names of everone in the warehouse name on his notebook. |
Teru Mikami is the deuteragonist of the final arc of the anime/manga series Death Note. He is one of Kira's followers, selected by Light Yagami to become a proxy Kira during a time when the Kira investigation mounts heavy suspicion on Light.
Light apparently chooses Mikami due to Mikami appearing to be someone who "worships Kira from the bottom of his heart".[1] Mikami sees Light as his god and acts decisively as the new Kira, feeling that "he too had become a god".[2] However, this ability to act decisively proves to be his and Light's undoing when he accidentally exposes evidence that implicates the both of them. He commits suicide in the anime, while he dies in prison after becoming insane in the manga.
He was voiced by Masaya Matsukaze in the Japanese version of the anime, and the late Kirby Morrow in the English version, the former of whom also voices Illumi Zoldyck from Hunter x Hunter. In the 2015 TV drama, he was portrayed by Shugo Oshinari. In the 2016 Death Note movie, he was portrayed by Kensei Mikami.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
- His worldview is largely lethal, believing that any adult (as he says that once someone reaches adulthood, he would be less likely to ever be reformed) who commits any crime or doesn't contribute to society, deserves to be "deleted" so the good people can live, as he considers that the world consists of only good and evil and people either fall in one category or the other.
- While he never started to kill them, he had a hate even for lazy people, meaning he could have planned to punish them once he "deletes" all evil people.
- In the manga, he also announces that Kira will kill those with a criminal record even if they do not commit crimes anymore. While he also never started to kill them, it's likely he may have attempted to do this had Light not told him not to.
- His mother dies in a car accident along with four of Mikami's bullies. Although Mikami initially mourned his mother’s death, he was content in the knowledge that his classroom became more peaceful as a result of his enemies' deaths.
- After Light chose him as the new kira and sent him a Death Note, he mercilessly killed hundreds of people with it, and even helped, on Kira's orders, Light Yagami and Kiyomi Takada to commit many heinous acts as well.
- In the manga, he kills a reporter who tried to investigate one of Light and Takada's meetings, even though the reporter was only accused of "breaking and entering" and legally considered innocent.[3]
- He kills Demegawa and his men for deviating from Kira's word, though even the Kira task force felt they deserved this.
- He killed a Sakura TV host to scare the Task Force, allowing Light to distract them so he can talk to Takada without being watched.
- After Light ordered him to send the Death Note pages to Takada and let Takada do the killing, he would agree assisting Takada's killing by sending her the list of the criminals' names and photos, therefore he also indirectly contributed for some of the kills of Takada and Light.
- For example, he sends to Takada (who has the real notebook) the name and photo of a man who tries to sexually assault a woman in the bus (although he did deserve it), while he himself writes the man's name on the fake death note, this act makes Gevanni convinced that Mikami is the one killing the criminals, while in fact it was a trick.
- He, not knowing Light has already killed Takada with his piece of the notebook, writes down Takada's name using the real notebook.
- Called by Near, he wrote down the entire Task Force and SPK team except Kira in the fake notebook and excitedly waited for them to die.
- While many of his crimes were under Light's orders just like Takada, he also stands out as having others of his own heinous acts (even being so quick to announce a start to killing lazy people and those who have criminal records that Light himself is pragmatic enough to get him to go back on), and with that, he passes the in-story standards.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- He is ultimately a tragic figure. As a child, he desired justice but faced severe bullying (he was beaten countless times, hung up to a tree and stripped naked, as mentioned in the manga) and social isolation. Targeted by his peers, he endured physical and emotional abuse for years, which only worsened as he grew older. Tragically, he also lost his single mother as a middle schooler, when his school bullies ran over her with their car, which resulted in a fatal accident.
- This relentless cruelty and injustice instilled in him an extreme hatred for evil, shaping his worldview to adopt a black-and-white view of morality, which directly affected his tendency to immoral ideas, believing that all bad people should be “deleted” and going as far to sacrifice half of his lifespan to achieve this goal, a testament to the trauma from his childhood.
- He is genuinely loyal to Light Yagami, genuinely considering him as a god passing righteous judgment, willing to risk his own welfare to ensure Light's safety, defending him during TV’s broadcasts or staying true of his word when Light forbids him from asking about his identity when calling Takada.
- This does not last in the Manga but does in the Anime, though this could be because he killed himself before he says anything about Light's betrayal.
- Even in the manga, his reaction of resenting Light is reasonable, as Light denied him as his ally at first then pathetically begged Mikami to help him despite the fact his hands were handcuffed and the Death Note is fake.
- He can be honorable, as he most notably has standards against bullying and seems to respect children, not wanting them to go through what he went through.
- He has a special interest in children and is interested in preparing children for becoming model citizens, as he believes only adults are depraved of this possibility to reform if they are criminals.
- In the anime, he showed some standards when he is seen intervening to stop a group of children on the bus from bullying another child. Upon reflecting on the bullying he went through himself as a child, Mikami stated that hearing words of gratitude from bullying victims he used to defend at school made him want to save them again and again, showing he retained his standards against bullying from his childhood.
- He still remembers his past of him standing against bullying as he remembers when he went to protect a boy from a group of bullies in a flashback, thus he doesn’t wish for it to happen to others.
External Links[]
- Teru Mikami on the Villains Wiki
- Teru Mikami on the Death Note Wiki
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 Near Pure Evils
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