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Well, he apparently has to know their face, and name. So if he doesn't know one or the other, he can't kill them. That's the whole reason he didn't kill the detective after finally meeting him, was that the detective went by a fake name.

Oh, just to clarify, Shinigami eyes are something that you can make a deal with the shinigami ( The real force behind the deathnote, kinda like their log on who they killed and whose life span they took. ) to use.

They allow the user to see a person's life span, name, and age. All of which appear above the person's head in letters and numbers.

It is actually a very interesting anime.

Yes, Much different. These shinigami are more evil looking, although Ryuk seems to be more sadistic than evil. he also has a fun side and is addicted to living world Apples. ( The food in the Shinigami realm, Which looks like a large desert in eternal night, is all roten. ) Ryuk is about twice as tall as anyone in the anime, Although he does appear to shrink over time. ( Probably due to artist's fault ) But he has a blue skin tone, blueish purple lips, jagged teeth, spiked up purplish hair, a black leather skin tight suit, and he looks to have feathers stapled to his colar bone completely arround his neck. ( Which turn into two wings on his back that he can use to fly around )

No. If anything the shinigami has the human under their thumb. Because by picking up the deathnote the human already signs their life away. The shinigami can technically just take the book, write the human's name in it, and receive the life force that the human had. But normally the Shinigami allows the human to play around with it, mostly because the shinigami can only write so many names in it, and they run a chance of dieing due to lack of life. ( Ryuk and another shinigami reference an "Old Man" who seems to regulate their activity. ) So the human kills some people building up a nice little storage of life so the shinigami doesn't have to worry for a while.

Now, What I meant by Deal is the human can give the shinigami half of their life force and in return the human receives the ability to see the afore mentioned things. ( Basically their life span is cut in half. )

And to add on to what's been asked, how on earth did L die?

As I recall, he died when Yagami finally got around to tricking the OTHER shinigami into believing something or other. I think that he was going to harm the girl or something along those lines, and the shinigami raged and killed him.

Sick...

This is why I like naruto, it is much simpler,,, Naruto punches the bad guy, stuff happens, Naruto wins, Saskuie (Am almost certain I spelled thay terrible wrong but I hope you know I am talking about Naruto's bestses emo friend in the world xD) is the only weird unertain part about the show...in my case I just act like he isn't around untill I am forced to acknowledge he exits... I don't like those parts of the show ):

prime example why Death Note is the best. its story requires you to actually think, something i personally love. plus, the strategy and psychology in it just makes it more awesome. add a bit of supernatural elements and character as epic as L, and you got yourselves a perfect anime. at least, in my eyes cool

hell, i got one of my ex girlfriends, someone who doesn't even like anime at all, addicted to it. she always used to watch it along with me.....then the show ended and she got back off anime. a lost soul, i must say. let us give a moment of mourning emo

on a separate note: you don't like Sasuke? dude....just dude.... confused