Character

Teru Mikami

魅上 照

Mikami is a young man with shoulder-length black hair, who wears glasses. His typical attire consists of a black trench coat over a business suit. Mikami has a strong sense of justice that has developed over the course of his childhood. He detests crime and similar to Light, expresses a fervent passion for punishing evil. His sense of justice, however, has developed into a rather "black and white" understanding of people and he goes as far as to label everyone he meets as either good or evil. What Mikami has learned in childhood has also caused him to become obstinate about encouraging people to improve society, resulting in his disdain for "lazy people." However, while Light and Mikami have very similar ideals, the gap is evident through Mikami killing people who merely had a criminal record, even if they still do not commit crimes. Light disagrees with this because of how contradictory it is to Kira's purpose of deterring people to commit future crimes, so while Light is more interested in scaring criminals in order to prevent crime, Mikami is more interested in retribution. Mikami has a special interest in children and is interested in preparing children for becoming model citizens. The anime delves deeper into this concern, providing a scene of Mikami as an adult intervening when a group of young students bully one of their classmates.