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ā€œ I'll kill anyone who gets in my way. I'll be number one. ā€ž
~ Mello

Mello is the secondary antagonist of the second half of Death Note. Mello is one of many children raised at Wammy's House to become L's successor. He found himself in fierce competition with Near, and was considered the second-smartest candidate after Near himself.

When told L has died and hadn't made a decision as to who would succeed him, Mello feels unable to work with Near and sets out to expose Kira on his own, joining up with the mafia in order to get his hands on the Death Note.

He is voiced by Nozomu Sasaki in Japanese and by David Hurwitz in English.

His Evil Ranking[]

His Villainous Deeds[]

  • While he does genuinely want to stop Kira, his motives are less about seeking justice than with beating his rival Near by getting Kira first.
  • He joins up with the mafia in order to further his goals, and is complicit in many of their crimes, which as stated by Matauda and Near in the manga are severe enough to get him the death penalty.
  • It's mentioned that he killed a rival mob boss to ingratiate himself with Rod Ross, even giving him the man's decapitated head.
  • He has NPA Director Takimura kidnapped and tortured into revealing information about the task force. When Takimura is killed by Kira to stop the trade for the notebook, Mello orders the kidnapping of Soichiro's daughter Sayu.
  • He calls Soichiro and tells him he will trade Sayu for the Death Note, threatening to kill Sayu if the police make any big moves against him. He also lies that he was the one who killed Takimura in order to scare Soichiro further.
  • He has his men hijack the plane Soichiro is on to bring him to the place where the notebook will be exchanged, with his accomplice even threatening to crash the plane if he's interfered with.
  • He has an accomplice threaten Sayu in order to coerce Soichiro to hand over the notebook, and shows no reaction to Rod Ross having two of his own men killed during the trade.
  • Even after releasing Sayu, he continues to threaten her in the manga in order to blackmail the task force into giving him additional information.
  • He has his associates use the Death Note to kill most members of the SPK in order to cripple Near's ability to get to Kira first. In the manga he even killed one of his own people in the SPK who had given him information.
    • In the manga, they also kill off anyone who was directly involved in the trade for the notebook.
  • In the manga he orders one of his associates to make the eye deal with Sidoh, even though it would cost half his lifespan. He later has Sidoh knock off the helmets of the special forces raiding his base so that they can be killed with the Death Note.
  • In the manga he blackmails the American president into funding his mafia group and giving him intel on his enemies, threatening to control the president into causing a nuclear apocalypse if he refuses. While this was impossible as the Death Note could not be used in this manner, it's not clear if Mello knew this, and it still traumatized the president and possibly drove him to suicide (though it's not clear if this was the case or if Light killed him in punishment for the failure of his raid on Mello's base).
  • He rigs his base with explosives, intending to blow up his mafia associates once he didn't need them.
  • When the task force raids his hideout, he threatens to blow up the base with them inside.
  • In a standoff with Soichiro, who's threatening to write his name in the Death Note, he either planned or allowed his accomplice Jose to shoot Soichiro multiple times, which led to Soichiro's death later, even though he admits he didn't want Soichiro dead.
  • He holds Near at gunpoint for treating him like a "tool to solve his puzzle" and only backs down when told that if he shoots Near he in turn will be killed. While he then gives Near some helpful information, he still taunts him as he leaves, asking who will get to Kira first.

Why He Doesn't Stand Out?[]

  • Despite passing the baseline for killing SPK members, he still fails the in-story Heinous Standard to Light Yagami, Teru Mikami and Kyosuke Higuchi, who did far worse than him (with the latter himself failing the Heinous Standards).
    • Him threating to start a nuclear war was just a bluff considering he read the rules of the Death Note, he knows it can't be done, and while he had the Death Note for a short period of time, the aforementioned villains also killed dozens to hundreds of people in the same timeframe, so ultimately he does not pass it even when resources are taken into account.
  • He genuinely admired L and was outraged when he was killed by Kira, and part of his motive is to be the one to avenge L's death.
  • His insecurity at always being beaten by Near is played for sympathy, which makes it understandable why he wants to be the one to catch Kira.
  • He's a well-intentioned extremist as he wants to stop Kira, and states that he didn't want Soichoro or Sayu to die, which means his threats to harm them were likely bluffs in order to get the notebook and he didn't really want to hurt them.
  • He's honorable and shows respect to several people, even his enemies:
    • He's genuinely affable toward Soichiro Yagami, telling him that he does not wish to take his life or that of his daughter, and does release Sayu as promised once he has the notebook. He also apologizes to Soichoro right before his death and says he never wanted to kill him.
    • He's somewhat affable toward Sidoh despite him being a Shinigami, as he shares his chocolate with him.
    • In the manga he's also respectful toward the American president after his death, as he ponders whether he took his own life to ensure he could not be controlled into pushing the nuclear button, and concludes that he was a great president if that was the case.
    • He tells Near about the fake rules in the Death Note to repay his debt for Near keeping his photograph safe from Kira.
    • He has a genuine friendship with Matt and is saddened by his death, stating he never meant for him to be killed.
    • He allows Takada to keep a blanket after removing her clothes to give her some dignity.
  • He eventually accepts that he needs to cooperate with Near and the SPK and grudgingly makes peace with them, and is willing to share information with them despite still wanting to get to Kira first.
  • He redeems himself with his final actions as he puts himself at great risk and sacrifices his life in an attempt to expose that Takada was the one really doing the killings for Kira, which ultimately results in Light's downfall and saves Near and the Japanese task force from being killed. Near even states that Mello came to understand they had to work together to surpass L, and says Mello was ultimately the one who deserved the most credit for stopping Kira.

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Kira's followers
Misa Amane | Kiyomi Takada | Hitoshi Demegawa

Shinigami
Shinigami King

Others
Mello | Minoru Tanaka

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