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Nate River (ネイト・リバー, Neito Ribā?), universally referred to by the mononym Near (ニア, Nia?), is a fictional character of the anime and manga series Death Note and in the film L: Change the WorLd. Near is the younger of the two successors of L, and the leader of the SPK (Special Provision for Kira), an organization that looks into the Kira case and, in the end, succeeds in uncovering Kira's identity
In Death Note, Near is the younger of L's two successors raised in Wammy's House, Watari's orphanage for gifted children, in Winchester, England, United Kingdom. Of the successors, Near is more level-headed, calmly assessing the situation, while the other, Mello, is more emotional and quicker to act. Much like L, Near shows various odd behaviors during his normal life. He is usually seen hunched over rather than sitting. He also constantly plays with various toys, which he uses in his theories, as well as idly twiddling strands of his hair. In the epilogue of the manga, he is shown eating a bar of chocolate, as he pursues a new case, possibly in memory of Mello. He shows a great respect for L, basing much of how he solves crime on L's methods, even to the point where he only takes cases that he is interested with rather than trying to pursue justice. Near uses the Wedding text font "N" and "L" to represent himself and the fake L, respectively. But later in the aftermath, he used Old English MT font "L" like the original L did. He is voiced by Noriko Hidaka in the Japanese anime, and Cathy Weseluck in the English dub.
Sometime after L's death, he works for the United States under the SPK (Special Provision for Kira) team that is established to investigate Kira without the help of "L". He soon manages to deduce that Light Yagami, posing as L, is actually Kira. After he finds that Teru Mikami is Light's proxy and Mello kidnaps Kiyomi Takada, Near is able to switch Mikami's Death Note with a forged one, allowing him to set up a final confrontation that leaves Light exposed. Ryuk kills Light soon after. Near says that neither he nor Mello could surpass L alone, but have managed to do so by inadvertently working together. Near soon takes L's alias, and keeps on the surviving members of the SPK as his subordinates.
Tsugumi Ohba, writer of Death Note, said that Near "becomes less likeable" as the story advances, citing Near's plan to take the notebook at a later point in the story. Ohba said that a negative reaction originated from "the difference in their attitudes" and that people may have viewed Near as "a cheat". Ohba added that Near's "cheeky behavior", intended to "reinforce his childishness", had been construed as "annoying".[1]
In the final chapter Near brings finger puppets to the Yellow Box Warehouse. Takeshi Obata, artist of Death Note, said that Near first bought the Kira finger puppet and drew on it with a magic marker. Obata then said that Near must have created the other puppets afterwards. Obata views Near as not liking L much so Obata had Near depict L as "ugly", and that Near "worked hard" on Mello's puppet as Near "liked Mello".[1]
Obata said he enjoyed drawing Near and that Near is also one of his favorite and his least favorite characters,[1] considering him to be the smartest character in the manga "because he cheats".[2]
When asked about which character was most similar to himself, Ohba indicated Near and "maybe Light". Regarding Near, Ohba said that he does not leave his house often
Personality
It is stated in "Death Note: How To Read 13" that "his calmness in situations is even above that of L's".[page needed] Effectively, Near is shown very calm and emotionless in both attitude and expression regardless of the situation he is put in. (Even when nearly all the members of the SPK got killed he was simply observing.) However, it is shown that he is worse at cooperation than L was. "He was even willing to use forceful tactics that were barely in the law" and that "he values results above all else".[page needed]
Even though his intelligence is that of a genius, and is extremely analyctical and calculative, he lacks social knowledge and is bad at interacting with others, so "he is only able to release his true powers when he has the support of his members."[page needed]
[edit] Interests
With extremely child-like interests, his surroundings always have toys, dice, or darts strewn about. Even though he is only playing, piecing together a patterned puzzle starting out of nowhere and the like easily shows a sample of his abilities and intelligence.
Normally, his fixation with toys is light, but he does seem to have things that he particularly likes, since he has taken these with him when he had to escape. Three years after the main story, Near takes an interest in building Tarot card stacks. Of course, these structures are far beyond normal size, easily covering an entire room. It appears that Near would despise anyone who would knock down these structures, accidentally or intentionally. He also seemed to have a love for dice.
Although Near is always surrounded with toys, none of them are electronics. All of his toys are the types that need to be moved manually such as the action figures, darts and dolls (except for the remote-control rubber ducks powered with batteries). Near is never shown playing a video game, or anything of electronic screen-game sorts such as Game Boy, Playstation, or even Arcade games like Matt did. Whether he has no interests in video games, they're too much trouble to be carried during investigations, or he avoid the risk to harm his eyesight, it is unknown.
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