Nate River (ネイト・リバー, Neito Ribā?), universally referred to by the
mononym Near (ニア, Nia?), is a
fictional deuteragonist in
anime and an antagonist of the
manga series
Death Note, only after the 4-year timeskip and supporting
protagonist 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.
Character
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.
[3]
[edit] Conception and development of Near
Ohba said that he introduced Near and Mello together as L individually could not defeat Kira. Ohba felt that introducing one character individually would produce a "repeat" of the struggle between Light and L, so he instead wanted a story involving three combatants fighting each other. Ohba said that he let Obata create the character designs and asked him to make both characters look "a little "L-ish"". Ohba said that he "wavered" in their ages and considered making the characters the sons of L. Ohba added that he did not initially develop their personalities as he wanted to "reveal" them through their actions.
[4]
Ohba said that he gave Near a hobby of playing with toys and stacking "things" as a development from L's hobby of stacking sugar cubes and little food cups. Ohba included the match and the dice towers in his thumbnails. Ohba said that he thought about Obata encountering difficulty in drawing the dice towers and felt surprised when he saw the dice towers in the final work.
[5]
The
given name "Nate" comes from the word "natural" and "River" is to symbolize that Near's talents flow from L. Therefore Near is the natural successor to L. The name is "supposed" to show that Near is a "natural genius blessed from above".
[6]
Obata said that, since Ohba wanted to "include a little L" in Near and Mello, he tried to keep "the weirdness and the panda eyes". Obata added that since L was an important character he felt that he made Near and Mello look too much like L. He described the character designs as "a major struggle". Obata said that, when he first heard about Near and Mello, he assumed that Near and Mello would join as a team and work together, so he envisioned the two as twins when he created the character designs.
[7] Obata stated that he originally thought about creating Near as "a bit more mature mentally". Obata said that he created a "cooler looking version of L" design and considered using a younger version of that design. Another design Obata created for L included a "really innocent and cheerful character" and he felt that the design could work for Near; he said that he "quickly abandoned" the idea.
[8]
Obata said that when he first saw Near he "didn't even know what the heck he was wearing". He said that "it was tough" drawing Near's clothes as he did not understand the assembly of his clothes. Obata said that he settled for
pajamas and "things got a lot easier".
[8]
Obata added that the designs for the characters became switched at the design phase; the final Mello had Near's design and vice-versa. Obata said that when he created a depiction of the designs his editor wrote the wrong names accompanying the designs; then when Obata received approval he could not say that the labels were incorrect. Obata said that, for him, Near was "more evil". He felt that "it's better" that the switch occurred.
[8]
Obata stated that as he drew Near the concept of his immaturity became "stronger and stronger" as he believes that such traits are best revealed "gradually". Obata cited the fact that in the beginning Near's sole toy consisted of
darts.
[9] He felt he could express "negative" parts of Near with the puppets. Ohba added that one could see "his dark side in his kind of puppets he used".
[10]
[edit] In Other Media
[edit] L: Change the World
Near, as portrayed by Narushi Fukuda, in
L: Change the WorLd In
L: Change the World, L gives a talented Thai boy with a gift for calculations the name "Near." L hopes for the boy, the sole survivor of a Thai village ravaged with a deadly disease, to succeed him as L, knowing that the rules of the Death Note will kill the experienced detective within a short period of time. Near does not speak much in the movie (during the movie, he only says numbers and letters) and when he does he speaks only in English. Like many of the characters during the transition from animation to live action, Near is portrayed with black hair instead of white hair as seen in the anime. Near is portrayed by Narushi Fukuda in the film and voice by Michael Strusievici in the English Dub. For some unknown reasons, even though L was shown giving him the name of "Near", he was listed as "BOY" in the credits.
In
L: Change the WorLd novel based on the film, Near is described as being the original Near as he appeared in the original Death Note series. However, due to the plot in which
Kira killing L is absent, the requirement of an immediate nominee as successor is not necessary. As a result, the eight-year old Near is claimed to be working on a different case involving the prevention of
World War III since this the timeskip present in the original series is absent. The plot in which Near was a Thai boy is also completely absent from the novel due to plot changes made as a result of severe dissatisfaction with Near's depiction in the film by fans.
[citation needed]
