They are both one step ahead of each other, this makes them equally good, but we have to take in count the fact that L knew that light was Kira from the start. And light used the help of ryuk and missa and the death note it self, on the other hand L only used his knowledge and some help of the police.
Forget near lmao that dude came out of nowhere istg
L is probably the smartest, him surviving against a magical notebook that kills people for as long as he did and discovering it is a pretty big achievement.
Though Mello is my favourite, I love his chaotic and unpredictable nature, too bad the anime really did him dirty.
Light is the smartest. He was using the notebook pretty well until L appeared. Light found new ways to use notebook even the god of death was amazed. The way he made memory loss plan just before L locked up Light with himself was super amazing. The way he predicted what's going to happen next was marvellous. Even at a point L taught Light is not kira after all and he released him. Btw L was just guessing Light is kira, he had no proof. Light almost won against Near too. Anyway L was the real reason behind Light's madness at the end.
Of course it's Light, a man who killed people when even the police doubted him and killing a gami and other. Don't what to involve spoiler.
Light is the smartest character who went up against the world and fought toe to toe with the smartest detective of the world.
L. No contest. Light had the power of literal gods on his side and was getting outwitted by L. And near had data and knowledge before he went toe to toe with Kira and mellow on his side and the US.
personally i'd say near. the difference between near and the other 2 is that near doesn't reveal himself or any of his plans before being 100% sure that it's gonna work. that's why i think near is way smarter than the other two
L in my opinion. Even though I don't necessarily love death note's characters or the show in general, I have to admit that most of them are very well written.
But L I think. I mean both L and Light were pretty equal, but L had it figured out pretty easily, he was just missing some points and just had to have some solid proof.
Light is really smart, but he had the advantage of having supernatural help, with the Death Note and Ryuk and then Rem.
When he lost his memory, his intelligence really shined but I still think L was smarter, he just lacked motivation since things didn’t go as he wanted them to.
Near is really smart too, but he really lacks decision making abilities, he only won at the end because he and Mello worked ‘together’.
I voted for Light by mistake thinking this was " who's your favorite" question. I think that L is the smartest character, the author even confirmed that.
Well yeah because he came out of nowhere.He had a headstart to capture Light because he already knew about the Death note while L didn't and L already suspected Light WITHOUT THE DEATH NOTE!
As an edgy teen with nothing but hatred thoughts the world wanting nothing more than to watch it burn, I obviously thought Light was right on his way of doing stuff, even if it meant taking away innocent lifes in the process, but as I grew up I realizes more and more that my decision was mostly driven by raw emotions, but looking at it more objectively I can safely say that Light's means where way too violent and he was most definitely consumed by power, clouding his own judgment and making him the true indisputable selfish villain, now I'm more on L's side and agree with he's philosophies much more.
Well yeah because he came out of nowhere.He had a headstart to capture Light because he already knew about the Death note while L didn't and L already suspected Light WITHOUT THE DEATH NOTE!
stay mad L is dead Near isn't. L literally just had a bigger ego and that was part of his downfall
Near was pretty much omnipotent at the end, pretty much pulling the old “I knew you knew I knew you knew” on Light. But L was more intelligent than Light
It's ryuk by far, can't u see it was all his plan to make his life intresting and all he did was drop his note and watched the game from sidelines. It was a perfect win for him
This order may be controversial but I'd say that, exclusively going off of information presented in the show, Light is the most intelligent of the three, then is Near, and that L is the least intelligent. I'll try to explain my reasoning for where I ranked each character, but be aware that my explanations will probably contain spoilers if you haven't finished the series yet.
As we know, Light is an exceptional student (I believe his mother even stated that he has the highest grades in Japan), he's able to think quickly to manipulate a situation in his favor (such as when Misa pretended to be Kira, revealed the existence of Shinigami and showed up at his house) and can mentally go toe-to-toe with L (such as immediately figuring out what L is planning, eg. knowing that L wanted him to slip up and reveal details about the Kira case that a normal civilian wouldn't know).
He was also able to avoid detection during the years after L's death. Or at least he did, until Near showed up, but we'll get to that eventually...
While L is definitely a genius (we know that he solved every previous case he was part of, plus he managed to match Light's test scores and become the joint To-Oh University freshman representative), he does also display some minor flaws in his deductions. The most obvious of these is probably that he didn't believe that the "shinigami" mentioned by the Second Kira were literal shinigami, although given the circumstances that is admittedly an honest mistake.
The main reason that I'd say that Near is smarter than L is that L himself consistently thought that the chance of Light being Kira was between 1 and 5%, whereas Near immediately put the chance at 7% IIRC, which is 2% more accurate. Of course, there are a few other factors that lead me to suspect that Near is smarter than L, so I'll briefly discuss those now.
Not much is stated about Near's past, so I'm not sure if he's academically gifted like Light and L, but one thing's for sure - He's just as skilled in the field of detective work, if not more. As I stated previously, he initially put the chance of Light being Kira at 7%, which is slightly higher than L's estimate.
Near was also able to figure out immediately that Mello was leading the team that kidnapped Light's sister and that Light, the New L and the original Kira were all the same person, as well as that Misa was the Second Kira, a fact that L was only able to definitively confirm after using DNA profiling.
It goes without saying that Near was also the one who formulated the plan that eventually led to Light's death, which was very convoluted and complex. I would explain it for those who haven't seen the series recently and don't remember the details, but when I say "very convoluted", I mean very convoluted. (I did actually begin typing out an explanation, but I quickly found that it was too hard to explain, so I scrapped it all, LOL.)
But to answer your question of who is the smartest character in Death Note, I'd say that it's actually someone who you haven't accounted for in your choices...
Rem. Simply due to their more complex understanding of the Death Notes (and the human and shinigami realms in general), it is very easy to say that a shinigami is the smartest character in Death Note, so it becomes a contest between Rem, Ryuk and Sidoh (does anyone remember him? LOL).
Ultimately, I had to say that Rem was the smartest of the three, due to the fact that she seems to know (slightly) more about the Death Notes than Ryuk does, and she's also able to deduct what Light is planning with scary accuracy...
Wow, most people probably responded with one or two sentences, and I responded with a bunch of paragraphs explaining my reasoning. Maybe I should become a detective? LOL.
Kuroni_Kuru said: This order may be controversial but I'd say that, exclusively going off of information presented in the show, Light is the most intelligent of the three, then is Near, and that L is the least intelligent. I'll try to explain my reasoning for where I ranked each character, but be aware that my explanations will probably contain spoilers if you haven't finished the series yet.
As we know, Light is an exceptional student (I believe his mother even stated that he has the highest grades in Japan), he's able to think quickly to manipulate a situation in his favor (such as when Misa pretended to be Kira, revealed the existence of Shinigami and showed up at his house) and can mentally go toe-to-toe with L (such as immediately figuring out what L is planning, eg. knowing that L wanted him to slip up and reveal details about the Kira case that a normal civilian wouldn't know).
He was also able to avoid detection during the years after L's death. Or at least he did, until Near showed up, but we'll get to that eventually...
While L is definitely a genius (we know that he solved every previous case he was part of, plus he managed to match Light's test scores and become the joint To-Oh University freshman representative), he does also display some minor flaws in his deductions. The most obvious of these is probably that he didn't believe that the "shinigami" mentioned by the Second Kira were literal shinigami, although given the circumstances that is admittedly an honest mistake.
The main reason that I'd say that Near is smarter than L is that L himself consistently thought that the chance of Light being Kira was between 1 and 5%, whereas Near immediately put the chance at 7% IIRC, which is 2% more accurate. Of course, there are a few other factors that lead me to suspect that Near is smarter than L, so I'll briefly discuss those now.
Not much is stated about Near's past, so I'm not sure if he's academically gifted like Light and L, but one thing's for sure - He's just as skilled in the field of detective work, if not more. As I stated previously, he initially put the chance of Light being Kira at 7%, which is slightly higher than L's estimate.
Near was also able to figure out immediately that Mello was leading the team that kidnapped Light's sister and that Light, the New L and the original Kira were all the same person, as well as that Misa was the Second Kira, a fact that L was only able to definitively confirm after using DNA profiling.
It goes without saying that Near was also the one who formulated the plan that eventually led to Light's death, which was very convoluted and complex. I would explain it for those who haven't seen the series recently and don't remember the details, but when I say "very convoluted", I mean very convoluted. (I did actually begin typing out an explanation, but I quickly found that it was too hard to explain, so I scrapped it all, LOL.)
But to answer your question of who is the smartest character in Death Note, I'd say that it's actually someone who you haven't accounted for in your choices...
Rem. Simply due to their more complex understanding of the Death Notes (and the human and shinigami realms in general), it is very easy to say that a shinigami is the smartest character in Death Note, so it becomes a contest between Rem, Ryuk and Sidoh (does anyone remember him? LOL).
Ultimately, I had to say that Rem was the smartest of the three, due to the fact that she seems to know (slightly) more about the Death Notes than Ryuk does, and she's also able to deduct what Light is planning with scary accuracy...
Wow, most people probably responded with one or two sentences, and I responded with a bunch of paragraphs explaining my reasoning. Maybe I should become a detective? LOL.