Get Adobe Flash player


How does the Death Note work?

The human whose name is written in this note shall die. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected. If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen. If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack. After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. One page taken from the death note, or even a fragment of the page, contains the full effects of the note. The instrument to write with can be anything (e.g. cosmetics, blood, etc) as long as it can write directly onto the note and remains as legible letters. Even the original owners of the death note, gods of death, do not know much about the note.



Other rules

Throughout the series, other rules are revealed, such as "When the same name is written on more than one Death Note, the Note which was first filled in will take effect, regardless of the time of death." This rule played an important role in the movie, as L used this rule to prevent Kira from killing him. A few of them match the rules Ryuk wrote inside the Death Note, but most of them are rules that are not known by humans and in some cases, even the Shinigami. These rules are revealed at the end of certain chapters in the volume format of Death Note and the beginning of the Jump format chapters, on black pages that contain only the rules.

In the eyecatches of the last chapter/episode (then, the two last eyecatches of the series), the "rules" revealed are not Death Note rules, but the rules of life itself, as it says:

All humans will, without exception, eventually die.

After they die, the place they go is Mu. (Nothingness)

Both rules are central to the chapter/episode, as it remembers that even Light, self-proclaimed "God", will die one day as all humans.



How to kill a Shinigami

Rem is one of the few Death gods to discover how to kill a Shinigami. If a Shinigami uses the Death Note to extend the life of a human they care about, they will die since they have failed in their eternal mission of shortening human lives. This was stated by Rem when she claims she would kill L for Light; she initially states that it would make no difference as it was to protect Light, who she did not particularly care for. However, since she then had such an attachment to Misa (who would inevitably die if L wasn't killed), she would die. Rem reveals this to Misa, who later reveals it to Light and Ryuk.

A Shinigami could end up killing itself as well, if it neglects to continue filling its Note with the names of humans. If it fails to do this then it will cease to lengthen its lifespan, and eventually run out completely.

A Shinigami may be killed by execution as well, in the Shinigami Realm. If a Shinigami breaks the laws of the Shinigami Realm, it is subject to one of nine levels of punishment, starting with level eight at the lowest infraction, going up to level one, and then the "Extreme" level. If a Shinigami is subjected to levels three or above, it will die after it is finished being punished. This is why Shidoh stops himself from telling Mello where the other Death Note is, after reading this rule in the scrolls he was given for his mission to retrieve his own Death Note.