Light Yagami

Light Yagami (夜神 月, Yagami Raito), also going by the alias "Kira" (キラ) is the protagonist of the manga and anime series Death Note. He is an extremely intelligent, athletic, popular, but bored young man who finds the "Death Note" dropped by the Shinigami Ryuk by sheer chance.

Character description
Light was born on February 28, 1986. He is a third year high school student (12th Grade) at Daikoku Private Academy (大国学園, Daikoku Gakuen) who also attends supplemental classes at Gamou Prep Academy, in the beginning of the story. Light's father, Soichiro Yagami, who is a member of the investigation team opposing Kira. In addition, Light has a mother, Sachiko Yagami, and a younger sister, Sayu Yagami. In Spring 2004 Light becomes a first-year student (freshman) at To-Oh University (東応大学, Tōō Daigaku), becoming one of two freshman representatives; L is the other freshman representative. During a tennis game with L at To-Oh, spectators reveal that Light was the junior high school tennis champion in 1999 and 2000; After his 2000 victory, Light quit tennis as he entered high school.

Light's life is considered "ruined" once he obtained the Death Note, and that Light became a victim of the Death Note "in many ways," Ohba described Light as bearing good faith intentions and having a "very conceited" nature. Ohba also describes Light as having a "warped" "desire to be godlike," bearing love for his family, and intending to transform the world into "a better place." In the Death Note manga volume named Death Note 13: How to Read also states that Light, "uncompromising" when achieving his ideals, "sullied" himself by using the Death Note and that his actions "may have been the result of the purity within him" prior to obtaining the Death Note. Douglas Wolk of Salon describes Light as "coldly manipulative," "egomaniacal," and "an unrepentant serial killer, a butcher on an enormous scale" who is not "a Freddy Krueger, a monster who represents pure evil, or a Patrick Bateman, a demonic symbol of his age." Wolk describes Light as "the good guy, more or less" who genuinely believes that he holds "the moral high ground."

Light constantly tries to evade the suspicion of L while both maintaining his identity as "Kira" (the name derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "killer" (キラー, kirā) and cleansing the world of crime. The fact that he is a genius also adds to his notion that only he is fit to judge humanity and steer it on a proper moral course.

In Super Smash Flash 2
Light was the first character confirmed to be an Assist Trophy in the Smash Flash DOJO!!! for Super Smash Flash 2. When summoned by a character, Light appears alongside Misa Amane, who searches for an opponent with her shinigami eye. Once an opponent is spotted, Light will write their name in the Death Note, proceeds to laugh maniacally and then disappears with Misa. A countdown timer appears above the head of the spotted opponent, starting from ten, and once it reaches zero, the opponent is instantly KO'ed, no matter what. Unfortunately because of this, Light is the rarest Assist Trophy to appear. One can escape by staying out of Misa's sight, though, and if no one is spotted they will both just disappointedly disappear; it can be done more easily in larger stages, as Misa cannot move. It is a good strategy to try to keep your opponents near them, namely by (chain) grabbing them.

Originally, as showed on his original DOJO!!! update prior his addition into SSF2 Demo v0.7, Light was supposed to appear alone, without Misa, and would simply write the name of an opponent on the Death Note. Then, Ryuk the Shinigami would appear behind Light and would drag the opponent selected off-screen, KO'ing him instantly. It is unknown why this was changed, but it is possibly due to the fact there was no way to escape this using a slow character. A fast character like Sonic could keep running around which could either generate bugs or make room for cheating. Additional reasons is that in the manga: Light didn't really use Ryuk to kill people. Also, Light did not have the ability to see the names of intended targets; however, Misa possessed such an ability. It was the result of writing someone's name in the Death Note that doomed them to die; as such is the nature of the book's rules.