Reiji Namikawa is a minor antagonist in the manga and anime series Death Note. He is one of the eight members of the Yotsuba Group and is one of the people who was behind killing other company businessmen to help Yotsuba advance. He is later forced to work with L to stop Kyosuke Higuchi and is killed by Light Yagami after L's death.
He was voiced by Hirofumi Nojima in Japanese and Ted Cole in English. In the TV drama, he was played by Tomokazu Koshimura.
Appearance[]
Namikawa has smooth, black, long hair which extends behind his back. He has brown eyes and very long eyebrows. He is almost always seen wearing a black suit with a white tie.
Personality[]
Namikawa is by far the most charismatic of the Yotsuba group. He is an expert manipulator, even fooling Light Yagami and L, and due to his high intelligence, is respected by all the other members of the group. It is stated in Death Note 13: How to Read that he is the most talented of the members and can probably achieve success without the help of Kira. Nonetheless, he supports him until threatened by L himself. He is willing to do anything for success, including killing and betraying his partners. He hates useless subordinates.
Biography[]
Namikawa is a member of the Yotsuba group. He is first seen at one of the board meetings, where he and the other members decide who to kill using Kira. The meeting is interrupted by Matsuda, who convinces the group that he is Misa Amane's manager and he wants her to be a spokesperson for the company. At a party which Matsuda arranged, he fakes his death by jumping off the building, making the shocked group, including Namikawa, believe he died.
In a later meeting, one of the members, Arayoshi Hatori, wants to quit. The next meeting, Hatori is dead, having been killed by Kira. Namikawa and the other members move on from this death, disgusting L and Light. Light realizes that they can use someone in the meeting to get a voice in the meeting. They end up choosing Namikawa since he was the one with the most influence who was the least likely to be Kira.
Later in the meeting, Namikawa receives a call from Light Yagami, who is disguised as L. Light tells Reiji that he can see the entire meeting and tells Reiji that if he pushes off the murders by a month, he will spare all the other members of the group other than Kira. Namikawa agrees, and easily convinces the other members to push off the murders by a month; claiming that Coil's intel about L was reasonable enough to cut back on the frequency of murders.
On the night where Higuchi was going to be arrested, he meets up with Shingo Mido and Suguru Shimura to discuss Kira. All three members show their disgust for him, and they determine using process of elimination that Kira is most likely Higuchi. During this meeting, Namikawa gets a call from Light, who wants him to make sure that Higuchi watches Sakura TV. Namikawa tricks Light into telling him that Higuchi is most likely Kira. Namikawa tells them that the other members are most likely sick of Kira, and that he will get Higuchi to watch. He tells Higuchi to watch the whole time, and is one of the main reasons that Higuchi is defeated.
5 months later, there is another meeting between the remaining 6 members, who plan to rebuild Yotsuba as a more moral group. However, as Namikawa goes to shake Shimura's hand, he collapses, having been killed by Kira to silence him. The remaining 5 members are killed right after.
Other Media[]
2015 Television Drama[]
Reiji Namikawa plays a similar role in this as he did in the manga/anime. In this version, though, he is contacted by Near and works with him instead of with Light and L. Instead of calling Higuchi, he call Ooi and tells him to show the other members. He also survives the series with the other five members in this version.
Gallery[]
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 Villains
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Kira and his followers Shinigami Yotsuba Group The Mafia Criminals Others TV and film series | ||