Reiji Namikawa

A dark suit set off by a white tie is Namikawa's usual attire. His black hair falls long and sleek down his back, framing brown eyes that sit below slender, tapering brows.

Within Yotsuba's boardroom Namikawa stands out as the sharpest operator, the Vice President of Sales whom the supplementary guide rates as the one member capable of reaching the top entirely on his own merits, no Kira required. He feels no real hesitation about bankrolling murder, backing the killings until L reaches out to him directly. His gifts run to intellect and persuasion in equal measure: a Harvard business graduate who passed six years living in America, a shogi player of professional rank, and a manipulator skilled enough to bait Light, then masquerading as L, into naming Higuchi as the chief suspect, a trick that needled the genuine detective. He has little patience for subordinates who cannot keep up.

At first Namikawa lends his support to the Yotsuba Kira, but a phone call from Light Yagami prompts him to pull back and merely look on at the group's deadly meetings. On the night Higuchi is captured, Shingo Mido and Suguru Shimura draw him into a private huddle to puzzle over Kira's identity. Light, still posing as L, rings him with instructions to tip Higuchi off about a special broadcast on Sakura TV and to keep the other executives from interfering. Barely five months past L's own death, Light eliminates Namikawa along with the rest of the surviving Yotsuba members. The anime stages the moment with grim flourish: as Namikawa steps over to shake Shimura's hand, he collapses against him, blood spilling from his mouth. The 2015 drama spares him, however, swapping L's caller for Babel, an alias of Near, and letting all seven board members live.