Kira Task Force:

Light Yagami Starting with Light as the main character, his pronoun of choice is 僕 (ぼく/boku). Boku is typically used by boys and young men. It's considered polite and humble. If I'm not mistaken only 2 other characters in Death Note use boku (Matsuda and Hatori from Yotsuba). It's a fitting pronoun for the perfect student and son, Light Yagami. It also gives a funny contrast to his ego-driven Kira speeches.

There is a couple of situations when Light uses 私 (わたし/watashi) (because it's gender neutral, and more... neutral in general). It's when he acts as L or Kira on the phone with someone, so in situations where he's trying to hide his identity.

L L uses 私 (わたし/watashi). It's gender neutral and usually used by men in formal settings. L comes accross as wanting to sound polite (he always uses honorifics for people, even correcting himself one time when he forgets to do so with Matsuda).

He yells out "Matsuda", but then corrects it to "Matsuda-san". He also calls Light "Light-kun" or "Yagami-kun". It's a funny contrast that he cares about this, because otherwise he isn't very polite (especially to Matsuda).

In the anime (sadly I don't think he uses any pronouns in that scene in the manga) when he calls Matsuda (who's in Yotsuba building) and pretends to be his friend he uses 俺 (おれ/ore).

Matsuda As I said earlier, he uses the same pronouns as Light - boku. He's the youngest member of the Task Force (save for Light and L) and his pronoun gives him that youthful feeling.

One situation I've heard him use a different pronoun was when he got busted by the Yotsuba Group, and introduced himself with 私 (わたくし/watakushi) - an even more polite version of watashi. Oh, he also uses watashi on Sakura TV, for similar reasons to Light's usage of watashi.

Soichiro Yagami 私 (わたし/watashi). I don't think he's ever shown using a different one? We only see most of the Kira Task Force at work, so it's expected that they all use formal pronouns.

Aizawa 私 (わたし/watashi). Except for when he's quitting the Task Force, then he switches to 俺 (おれ/ore). Ore is a masculine informal pronoun, considered more rude and rough. He's angry at L and it shows.

Mogi 私 (わたし/watashi), I think, but he doesn't talk much.

Team Kira:

Misa Amane Misa's main pronoun is her name. She basically talks about herself in 3rd person, which might sound silly in english, so most translations don't include it. It's cutesy and childlish and she probably does this as part of her idol persona.

She also uses 私 (わたし/watashi) at times (which is basically the most common pronoun used by women). As I mentioned before, it's considered formal when men use it, but for women it can be both formal and informal. Well, she uses it formally (when it's weird to just use Misa) for example in the Yotsuba interview. And of course, just like Light she uses watashi when posing as Kira (on the tapes in Sakura TV, on the phone in the 2nd part of the series).

Here's Misa using watashi during the interview:

Teru Mikami 私 (わたし/watashi)

Kiyomi Takada 私 (わたし/watashi)

Shinigami:

Ryuk 俺 (おれ/ore)

Rem 私 (わたし/watashi)

Yotsuba Arc:

Most of my research comes from Yotsuba arc (like all the specific examples above...) so I'm including the Yotsuba Group guys. But first, others from this arc.

Aiber 俺 (おれ/ore) usually, 私 (わたし/watashi) when acting as Eraldo Coil.

Wedy 私 (わたし/watashi)

Yotsuba Group: First I have to say that we see them most of them only at work, so they're going to use formal pronouns.

Hatori 僕 (ぼく/boku), but he uses watashi once when keeping watch on Matsui.

Takahashi He doesn't use any in the Kira Meetings (because he doesn't talk much). I'm pretty sure I heard him using ore (maybe at the party?), but I couldn't find it in the manga.

Namikawa 私 (わたし/watashi)

Mido 私 (わたし/watashi)

Shimura He actually is only shown using 俺 (おれ/ore). Even at the meetings. He's a very unassuming guy, so I feel like there's a contrast with him using the informal ore with his coworkers, when most of the others use watashi.

Namikawa and Mido still use formal watashi, even when the three of them are hanging out at Mido's house. The only one using ore is again, Shimura.

I think thanks to his kind personality his usage of ore gives a sense of familiarity, instead of sounding crass.

Ooi 私 (わたし/watashi) in the meetings. In a call with Kida, he uses 俺 (おれ/ore). I want to add that in a work setting ore can be used by people that are either older or in superior positions. Ooi is the oldest in the group, and de facto leads the meetings, but idk if it means anything. Maybe he uses watashi with the group, but ore one-on-one? Maybe that's the etiquette?

Kida 私 (わたし/watashi)

Higuchi We get more scenes with him and we get to see him switching pronouns. One of them is 私 (わたし/watashi). He uses it in those situations: - talking to Rem (and/or himself). He seems to respect her so he's usually formal when talking to her. This might be also him talking to himself, but since Rem's there let's assume it's at least half-aimed at her... Anyway, here Higuchi talks about marrying Misa:

Even when giving this ego-driven speech (again, about marrying Misa and some more...) he uses watashi:

Talking with Rem in the car:

- thinking. He's kinda inconsistent because he thinks with both watashi and ore. Mostly watashi though. Maybe he uses ore when he feels more confident? Here after confessing to Misa he's Kira:

And some more:

At least in two of those he's like "my life is over, i'll lose my job... oh and go to jail and maybe die... but my job...!"

- in formal/business setting. Ok that's a stretch, but before making this post I was convinced he used it more in the series. We can assume he would in a formal situation, but it doesn't happen in the manga so I have no proof. Huh. Here he pretends to be a lost businessman before shooting Light's dad:

Then there's 俺 (おれ/ore). It's typically used by men around family and friends. It can sound cocky, and indicates a sense of masculinity. Situations where Higuchi uses ore include:

- talking to coworkers. Higuchi doesn't talk that much during meetings and if he does he doesn't use any pronouns. I was wondering if he's more like Ooi (watashi during meetings, ore outside meetings) or Shimura (always ore). I think it's the second based on these two panels:

At least I think it's him talking to Shimura? This moment was cut from the anime so we don't know who's saying it, but it fits Higuchi (and the person saying it uses ore so that excludes most of the people there). The panel below it shows him responding to Mido with ore.

Below are other moments he uses ore with coworkers, during the Misa interview and on the phone with Mido:

Like with most things Higuchi does I think he's going for nonchalant, but it comes across as sloppy and disrespectful. Just look at him here:

His chair is so far back, he's leaning in it with crossed arms. He's trying to show how much he doesn't give a fuck about this interview... Even if it's in his interest to get info about L from Misa! Talk about posturing.

- date with Misa, including his Kira confession. I think it's common for men to use ore when talking to women they're pursuing? I've read about a shoujo manga where the male lead usually uses watashi, but it's a big moment when he switches to ore with the female lead to show he's serious about her (/interested in her romantically).

- thinking. This one happens before he confesses he's Kira:

And he uses ore after making the eye deal when he's like "I'm invincible" (lol). I don't know what to get from this, but there's like 3 panels where he thinks with ore as compared to 6+ with watashi.

Wammy's house:

Near 私 (わたし/watashi)

Mello 俺 (おれ/ore). He's the odd one out when compared to formal L and Near. Well, he is a thug and works with the mafia.

Matt 俺 (おれ/ore). I was surprised to find it so easily considering his lack of screentime.

“After work?”

“How can you think about work right now!”

Sighing, Mido opens her cabinet and takes out a bottle. Hmm. Not much left. “I’ll be here waiting.”

“Thank you,” Shimura says fervently, “I’ll be over in—”

She hangs up.

-

Shimura shows up on her doorstep in less than half an hour, which is unsurprising. More surprising is that he's also dragged Namikawa in. His hair is sticking to his cheeks with rainwater, giving him an extremely sodden-cat look, which may be the one good thing about this morning so far.

“I grabbed him on the way here,” Shimura explains.

“I really didn’t want to meet either of you like this again,” Namikawa complains.

That makes three of us. “Here, slippers.” She doesn’t wait for them to kick their shoes off before heading to the living room, grabbing one extra glass on the way there.

They follow her in soon enough. Namikawa actually snickers at the bottle on the coffee table. “It’s nine in the morning.”

“It’s five p.m. somewhere,” Mido says, pouring whiskey for the three of them.

Shimura takes his glass with a quiet thank-you, but stares into the depths instead of sipping.

“We,” he declares miserably, “are fucked.”

“We aren’t dead yet,” Namikawa points out, ever the optimist.

“He only started killing again yesterday!” Shimura counters. “You think Kira is going to spare people who know how his killing works? We’re the only ones to know that he can kill without heart attacks. Maybe he’s already written us down for disease or something.”

“What is there to do?” Mido murmurs.

Shimura drags a hand down his face. “I don’t know. I was hoping you two would!”

“I agree that we shouldn’t just lie down and die,” Namikawa says. “But…”

“Do you still have L’s number, Namikawa?” Shimura asks. “He said he’d protect us, right?”

Mido almost snorts. “And how is L going to do that?”

“I do,” Namikawa says, ignoring her. “I could try, I suppose.”

They sit in silence until the call goes to voicemail.

“Alright, something else,” Shimura tries. “The newest Kira has to be human, right? Higuchi wouldn’t have acted like that if he was just being possessed or something. And if Kira’s human, then he can be stopped.”

Namikawa nods. (Their combined hope is sort of admirable and incredibly exhausting. Mido takes a sip of her whiskey.) “We have to use our knowledge against him.”

“I have a copy of the rules in my room,” Mido offers.

Shimura blinks. “I thought Ooi said to destroy all evidence?”

“I wrote it in code, obviously.” And almost thrown it into a fire on at least three different occasions, but they don’t need to be aware of that.

“We also know” — Namikawa continues ticking off on his fingers — “that Coil failed to catch L, but knows we wanted him to, and that L knows everything we do, since he was listening in to those meetings.” Mido notices Shimura shiver a little. “L thought Kira was Higuchi, and came up with a plan to catch him. But Higuchi died, and Kira is active again.”

Mido hums. Despite it all, she does like theorizing. “So, the power to kill switches to a new person as soon as the current one dies?”

“That would mean the one before Higuchi is also dead, right?” Shimura taps his fingers on his knee nervously. “Then L’s caught Kira twice by now.”

“Or the original person with Kira’s power died of other reasons. Perhaps it’s already happened multiple times. It’s not like the public would know.” Namikawa scowls. He’s more ruffled than Mido’s ever seen him, now that she thinks about it, though maybe part of that is the alcohol. “Which would mean we miscalculated.”

Shimura looks up sharply at that. “What?”

“Higuchi was under control,” Namikawa says. “He needed us for his judgments. Now that someone else entirely has the power, we’ve become disposable.”

A short silence rings. They all remember what happened to Hatori.

Shimura looks like he’s opening his mouth to speak when Mido’s phone boops with a message. “Excuse me,” she says, pulling out her phone.

It’s Ooi. There is no actual text attached to the message; all he’s sent is an image macro of a bundle of kittens clinging onto a tree branch labeled, HANG IN THERE KIDS!

Mido huffs, turning her phone around to show the others. They both crack smiles. Ooi has that effect on people.

“I texted him to see if he’d come along too,” Shimura says, “but he said he was done thinking about Kira forever.”

“I wish that were me,” Mido mutters as she types back a ‘Thank you. Appreciated.’

Shimura pauses. “Wait. If the new person is someone completely random, would that mean we’re safe? I mean, no one knows we were involved other than L, or the people working for him.”

“But we don’t know that it’s completely random,” Mido says, sending her text and then leaning forward to run her hand through her bangs. “If the power to kill is a physical object, someone on the police might have gotten it…”

“The police don’t know about us either,” Namikawa points out.

More silence.

“My luck isn’t this good,” Shimura mutters. “It just isn’t.”

Mido nods in silent agreement.

“Luck has nothing to do with it,” Namikawa proclaims. Then, sounding more genuine if only due to his frustration: “I suppose there really isn’t much to be done for now. We’d be best off first gathering information on the target demographic of this new Kira.”

“And in the meantime?” Shimura asks.

“In the meantime we go to work,” Namikawa says heroically.

Mido rolls her eyes a little. “I called in sick today.”

“Ah. I did too.”

“Same here,” Shimura says.

Another silence, this one expectant.

“Fine,” Mido relents. “We can finish the bottle.”

It’s nice being complicit in something that isn’t murder. She can admit that much.