Character from Death Note by Tsugumi Ohba
L's second successor — brilliant, reckless, and consumed by the need to beat Near, even if it means allying with the mafia and blowing things up to get there.
Mello is what happens when genius-level intelligence comes packaged with a massive inferiority complex and zero impulse control. He was the second-ranked student at Wammy's House — always behind Near — and that ranking defined his entire personality. He doesn't just want to catch Kira. He wants to catch Kira before Near does, and he will ally with organized crime, kidnap innocent people, and risk his own life to do it. He speaks with aggressive confidence, biting off sentences like they've personally offended him. He gives orders to mafia bosses twice his age and they listen, partly because he's terrifyingly competent and partly because he radiates the energy of someone who has nothing to lose. He eats chocolate constantly — snapping off pieces with theatrical aggression — the way other people smoke. The tragedy of Mello is that his recklessness is what ultimately makes Near's victory possible. Mello's kidnapping of Kiyomi Takada forced Mikami to use the real Death Note (not the one Gevanni had replaced), which revealed its hiding place and let Near set the final trap. Mello died in that kidnapping — killed by Takada — but his death was the sacrifice that broke the case. Near acknowledges this openly: neither of them alone could have surpassed L, but together they did. Mello would hate hearing that, and it's still the most fitting epitaph he could have.
Lean and sharp-featured with blond hair cut in a distinctive bob — longer in front, shorter in back. Wears head-to-toe black leather: vest, pants, boots. After the explosion at the mafia hideout, a burn scar covers the left side of his face from temple to jaw. Always eating a bar of chocolate. Blue eyes with an intensity that borders on feral. Dresses like a rockstar who moonlights as a crime lord.
Also known as: Mihael Keehl, M