Death Note (TV)

The chant at the beginning of the first episode is in fact chanting the "Kyrie eleison" which is a part of the ordinary of the catholic mass. Kryie is greek for, "Oh lord," the complete text of the Kyrie Eleison is, "Lord have mercy; Christ have mercy; Lord have mercy."

On episode 2, investigators from various countries were gathered in a council room and had a small sign with their names and the flag of their country on it placed on the desk infront of them. All those names were actually names of soccer players from the same country as the country the flag on the sign represents.

On several episodes, closely following (or followed by) the announcing of the sponsors, is the sound of someone biting into an apple (the apple being a significant motif in this anime).

The font L uses for his L logo is Old English Text MT.

In the opening song on episode 8,Watari started to change his clothes.

Hirano Yoshihisa, one of the composers for Death Note, also composed many of the songs from Ouran High School Host Club and also some songs for Midori no Hibi (Midori Days).

In episode number 12 when Misa is eating, her hand nails have red polish and at the next second she doesn't have any nail enamel. (more or less at 20:10 minutes)

On episode 14, Light is using a search engine named Gentle. The font and colors used are a clear reference to the Google search engine.

On episode 15, Misa's Cellphone ringtone is actually "Alumina" by Nightmare. Which is the Ending theme for the show.

The glass that shatters on a red-and-black checkered floor at around 0'51" (51 seconds) of the first opening theme is actually a figure of Light Yagami

Light and L are supposed to be polar opposites, so much so that when they use computers, L uses a Mac and Light uses a PC.

One written rule states that once the cause of death is written, details should be written within the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds. In The Bible, six is man's number, and forty refers to a length of time a punishment or journey lasts. 6 minutes and 40 seconds is also 400 seconds, ten times as long as it would take if the cause of death was not written.

L's quirks and personal behaviors all line up with Asperger's Syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder characterized by heightened intelligence, awkward physical movements, obsessive attention to detail and fascination with particular subjects, and difficulties in social situations. He has enough symptoms to diagnose him with the disorder. Near also has some of the symptoms, but not necessarily enough. Mello, however, has none.

In the first ending theme you see light holding an apple but behind him you can see misa on a huge TV on a building.

When Light sees the Death Note falling, it lands with the front cover facing down, but when Light goes to pick up the Death Note, the front cover is facing up.

When Ukita is killed, he falls in front of Sakura TV's doors. When the two other officers arrive, as when Chief Yagami arrives, Ukita's corpse is nowhere to be seen.

Watari's laptop that is used to communicate with L early in the series is missing the "up" key at the bottom right.

Is banned in China.

In episode 4, the bus driver says the bus's number, 174. This is a reference to the famous Brazilian bus jacking and its documentary film named "Bus 174".

In episode 7, Naomi Misora's ID reveals she was 26 before her untimely death.

In Episodes 13 and 15 the song "Alumnia" by Nightmare is heard in the background. First when Misa is searching for Light's profile on the internet you can hear it on the background, then in episode 15 as Misa's ringtone.

In episode 19 when Matsuda was being questioned by two people from Yotsuba, his phone rang (at around 9:45 minutes). The ringtone is actually "Alumina" by Nightmare, which is the ending song for the series.

In Episode 20, when Misa talks about how "with our powers combined..." her pose is very similar to Sailor Moon's "I shall punish you" ("oshiokiyo") pose.

Making various appearances, quite notably in episode 25, the giant TV screen that Misa stares at before her song (around 3:31, not including the opening theme) is a parody of Panasonic, cleverly written as Fanasonic.