New World

Picking up on the spot, the standoff turns as forty seconds pass with no one dead. Near orders Mikami seized and reveals the trick: his agents had quietly switched the genuine notebook for a decoy, prompted when Mikami exposed its hiding place during Takada's abduction. With every name accounted for except Light's, the mask finally falls and Light stands revealed as Kira.

His protests of a frame-up convince no one, least of all after his premature boast of victory. Cornered, Light owns the role and tries to justify it, then stalls for a chance to scrawl Near's name on the scrap in his watch. Matsuda cuts him short with several shots, leaving him bleeding and trapped.

Unhinged by the sight of the wounded Light, Mikami drives his pen into himself, and the shock lets Light stagger out of the warehouse. Near waves off pursuit, judging the wounds enough to finish him, but Aizawa leads the others after him anyway. Atop a tower, Ryuk reminds Light of the bargain struck at the very start, that the shinigami would be the one to record his end. As Light slumps inside another building, Ryuk writes the name.

The closing montage scatters the survivors: Mikami's body abandoned, Misa drifting back to the old base in her maid's dress, and Light expiring on a staircase before a vision of L. Reviewers at IGN crowned the finale a flawless capstone and singled out the shooting as the series' great cheer-aloud moment, while other critics faulted Light's uncharacteristic collapse. This was the lone entry rated for mature audiences on its American release, and its final moon motif plays on the character whose given name is written with the symbol for moon.