Hirokazu Ukita

Small in stature and still young, Ukita wears his black hair in a tight crop above small, dark eyes. His standard look pairs a business suit with a necktie.

Determination and outright bravery define Ukita, who sticks with the Kira investigation through its deadliest stretch while many others walk away. The same nerve carries a short fuse and a readiness to act on feeling instead of caution, the very impulse that gets him killed. Obata, his artist, called him an emotional, easy-to-read sort of person.

Ukita's role on the Task Force is to field whatever calls come in for the group. Soon after Naomi Misora vanishes, he gets her mother onto the phone and links her with L. The turning point comes when Misa Amane, working as the second Kira, has a threatening message aired over Sakura TV; with no one ordering him to, Ukita bolts to the broadcaster to shut it down. Because Misa wields the Shinigami Eyes, one look at his face suffices, and she strikes him dead the instant he reaches the locked entrance and lifts his gun toward the glass. That killing matters, teaching L that this Kira can murder from a face alone.

Screen and stage both spare him. In the live-action film an older Ukita, played by Ikuji Nakamura, lives, with Kanzo Mogi dying in his stead. The musical likewise keeps him alive: offered the chance to resign after the FBI agents die, he sings about his family in Change the World Reprise yet stays on the hunt for Kira.