Nate Rivers

Nate Rivers, also known as Near and later L, is one of the main characters from the Death Note anime and manga.

Near is the younger of L's two successors, raised in Wammy's House—Watari's orphanage for gifted children in Winchester, England. After L's death, Near begins his investigation of the Kira case, gathering evidence over a period of four years. Near takes his findings to the President of the United States and reveals himself to be the true successor of L. Soon after, Near becomes the head of the Special Provision for Kira and continues the hunt for Kira. After making contact with "L" (Light Yagami), Near begins to suspect that the current L is also Kira.

Appearance
Near is a young man with white shaggy hair and gray eyes. He is only seen wearing a white, long-sleeved pajama top and white pajama pants. In the anime, Near's pants are light blue. In the Death Note One-Shot Special, which takes place three years after the end of the Kira case, Near is shown to have sharp bags under his eyes, slightly longer hair, and to have undergone a growth spurt. He sits in a posture similar to L's and is often seen being expressionless.

Personality
Near is very intelligent, although his childish appearance and demeanor can cause others, such as David Hoope, to question his abilities. He has an obsession with solving complex problems and views an investigation as solving a puzzle. He is highly observational and was once seen piecing together a puzzle that was almost entirely colored white. He is proficient when it comes to multitasking and is able to monitor multiple computer screens at once. Near also appears to be ambidextrous, playing darts with his left hand and stacking dice with his right.

Despite his genius abilities, Near has a low social knowledge and is bad at interacting with others. As stated in Death Note 13: How to Read, "he is only able to display his true deductive powers when he has the support of his members." The book also states that Near is distant from people because he is sensitive. Near is rather codependent, as seen when he asks Rester to accompany him on his flight to Japan due to having never flown alone.

Near is very calm and stable, a trait that is described in Death Note 13: How to Read as potentially being "above that of L's." He is also rather devious and isn't above using tactics that are "barely within the law," as he "values results above all else." Although a seemingly straight-faced individual, Near will often smirk when getting something right and does so many times while trying to corner Light during their conversations. He is also shown to have a sense of humor, such as when he stated that Light was "popular with the ladies" while discussing with Rester the roles of Misa Amane and Kiyomi Takada in the Kira case. Near shows much more emotion and displays far more facial expressions in the manga than he does in the anime. For example, when the SPK members were killed around him in the anime, Near keeps a stern look, but he is visibly upset in the manga. (However, in the anime, it is possible he did get genuinely affected by the deaths of the SPK members, as he started to berate Light for giving away the notebook just after they die, when immediately after that Near acknowledged himself that with the circumstances Light faced, anyone would have given away the notebook.)

Trivia

 * At the end of the manga, Near is shown eating chocolate in homage to Mello.
 * Near's tendency to smile whenever he gets something right was used as a foreshadow in the final episode. Unbeknownst to Light, Near's smile during his direct confrontation with Light was used to indicate that he was able to see Ryuk and thus prove to himself that Light was Kira.


 * Near was one of the Death Note characters made into Nendoroid figures, but he was only made into a Nendoroid petite. Light, L, Misa, and Ryuk were the only characters made into the primary Nendoroid figures, but they were also made into Nendoroid petites.
 * In the Italian version, when referred to as "N," rather than using the letter "N" to spell his name, the phonetic spelling "Enne" is used.