L's name, L Lawliet, was first revealed in Death Note 13: How to Read on a promotional card featured at the beginning of the book. Like Light, he is extremely proud of his position as the world’s greatest detective, and his fear of being proven wrong in his deductions and theories leads him to take extreme measures (mistreating Misa and confining Light for an unnecessary amount of time) and act listlessly at some time. After meeting the Japanese Task Force, he requests that the task force refer to him as "Ryuzaki" as an additional safety measure. The Task Force never learns his true name, and it is revealed in neither the manga nor anime. Now here is where the main and full gist about L would actually come in, as his Personality is going to contain more than just his mannerisms, but also a bit of fan’s inputs on his actions and thought processes. Shūsuke Kaneko, director of the films, said that L's role was the most difficult to cast; as the starting date of the shooting schedule drew near, many of the "big name" actors had other projects. Kaneko decided to offer the role to Ken'ichi Matsuyama, "very much a newcomer." When Matsuyama spoke to him of his intention to "live as L," the young actor had "clinched it," declares Kaneko.

L finds footage of the death of one of the agents, and the footage shows that Raye Penber, who was investigating the families of Soichiro Yagami and Koreyoshi Kitamura, was reaching for something behind him when he died just outside the train. Furthermore, the body of Naomi Misora, who previously worked with L on the Los Angeles BB Serial Murder Cases and was Raye's fiancé, went missing. L assumes this was the work of Kira because Naomi didn't seem like the type to commit suicide at the loss of her fiancé. Because of these two factors, Kira must be among those whom Raye was investigating.Not even his real name was known to anyone in the anime, and not even before or after his death, except to Rem, the Shinigami that killed him in a bid to save Misa. But some media has reported that L’s real name is Lawliet. L's Appearance Ohba said that his favorite human character in the series was L as he believed that L was the "strongest" character in the series "besides Light." Obata also chose L as his favorite due to "appearance, personality, everything." He stated that he could never have created L and that he enjoyed drawing him. Obata added that because of this, L is not "real" to him, and he likes that aspect of L. In response to the question "Who was the most fun to draw?" both Ohba and Obata answered "L."

When Misa finds evidence as to who the Third Kira is, L is a little underwhelmed, but comes up with a plan to stop Higuchi regardless. L uses Matsuda as bait during a Sakura TV talk show to lure Higuchi onto the scene, only for the Task Force members to ambush him. Higuchi makes an escape, but with the help of Ide and his return, the Task Force catches up to him. L finally discovers the Death Note, how Kira kills, and discovers the Shinigami, Rem. Light and Misa regain their memories as Kira, and L discovers a rule, one where if someone doesn't write within the notebook within 13 consecutive days, they die. Despite this being a perfect alibi for Light, L still suspects him. Due to pressure from the Task Force now believing Light and Misa are in the clear, L releases Misa and removes the handcuffs from his and Light's hands. In the Italian version, rather than using the letter "L" to spell his name, the phonetic spelling ("Elle") is used.American R&B singer Christina Grimmie cosplayed as L for her 2015 music video of " Shrug." Two versions of the music video were made with the L cosplay being used in the " Dude Version."

Ohba created L as a "force of justice" and a "super detective" who stands between Light and Light's goals and advances the story. Ohba believed that the story would not hold much interest if L was significantly older than Light, so Ohba created L as a young adult. Ohba said that for L's name he wanted to use a single letter with a lot of significance; according to Ohba, he considered "I" and "J" but decided that they did not "feel as good" as "L" and settled on it "after careful consideration." Ohba mentions having given L the alias "Ryuzaki" because L is pronounced like R in Japanese. Death Note didn’t just break grounds in the Shounen genre alone, it also made big time waves amongst anime tagged Supernatural and Thrillers. Who would’ve thought we’d get such an amazing story from a seemingly simple concept? I just can't sit any other way than this. If I sit the way other people do, my reasoning ability drops by 40%.” ( Chapter 21)L’s untidy and sluggish demeanor hides his considerable talents of deduction, and as a result, most of the task force members dispute his abilities upon meeting him. Despite this, L is extremely clever. L has a propensity to question the veracity of everything he is shown, and he is highly precise and analytical in his thinking. Twenty-three days after writing his name in the Death Note, and after burning all the remaining Death Notes and having a conversation with Soichiro Yagami, L dies peacefully while eating a chocolate bar, with a picture of Watari lying right beside him. Light, I'll see you on the other side. Let us explore the world of nothingness together.” ( L: Change the WorLd, p 188) L Lawliet, is a world renowned detective who takes on the challenge of catching the serial killer known as Kira. The novel also states that L helped in the prevention of World War III when he was only eight years old.

Matsuyama admits having experienced some difficulty in trying to portray L, and he worried about his performance. In the end, he decided to interpret L as an individual who does not "quite understand other people on an emotional level"—the actor reasoned that L rarely interacted with others, and as a consequence, his social skills and emotional expressiveness may not be those of a socially active person. Matsuyama, describing himself as "not very flexible physically," encountered difficulty in emulating L's postures. The actor also ate sweets that L would eat, and carefully considered the details of L's signature gestures. With his status as the world's greatest detective, he, like Light, has a very sensitive pride, being afraid to be wrong in his deductions and theories, evident through his drastic measures (torturing Misa and confining Light during an unnecessarily lengthy amount of time), and lethargic behavior during the beginning of the Yotsuba arc.For the sake of those who have not yet seen the Manga, all that’s penned down here will be cryptic i.e., would be devoid of spoilers. It was intentional that everything about L’s character be different from Light’s. His look is intriguing since it may be seen as a representation of the justice that L is said to symbolize, in addition to lending itself to his more well-known features. Although following closely the storyline of its film counterpart—with the exception of a few creative changes—the novelization reveals various attributes of L. It is revealed in the novel that the initial "L" has two meanings: L stands for "Last One," meaning no one could surpass or match him, but also for "Lost One," meaning a gifted entity who has dropped down, or was cast out from heaven.