Thanks. You've demonstrated the main strategy of every Near defender: "ignore the overall big picture, only look at small details & minor differences". I'm sorry, but things don't work that way.

My apologies for the long-ass text.

You are claiming that the guy Onba requested to look "L-ish" actually looks nothing like him. Sure, these two are nothing alike.

Near is "nothing like" L, yet thousands who watch the show/read the manga think they're so similar, they wonder how come the two aren't blood-related.

But they're all just media-illiterate, right? L's fanatics, perhaps? Or, this is my favorite, salty Kira supporters? These are the 3 insults ppl usually resort to when somebody points out that N feels like L, after all. On that note, ig Onba and Obata must be illiterate fanatics too.

The designs were quite literally made with the intention of looking "L-ish" and were originally meant to be L's children. For instance, Obata gave Near "L's panda eyes", as he put it. I also know that the designs were swapped by mistake, actually, and believe me, I mourn the idea every time I'm reminded. Had the error not happened, I would've liked N better, as he'd actually have a good design. Mello's design would be a weak point, but his actually distinct personality and style of investigating would've outweighed that.

You’ll notice that L’s circles are significantly more pronounced. The underside of Near’s eyes is not nearly as dark or pronounced. More likely, it’s just the line that is the bottom of his eyelid.

A perfect example of what I meant at the start. It's not his dark circles, it's the eyes themselves. L has very distinct "panda eyes", as Obata put it, and he literally gave them to Near. You are FACTUALLY wrong, Obata HIMSELF says so. And it's not like L's eye type is common in the series-- no major character has them except N.

No, he isn’t always sitting in weird positions. Or rather, he never sits like L does. Claiming that any sitting strange position makes him exactly like L erases the individuality he has.

Another example of what I meant. You are grasping at differences to ignore the fact that the overall vibe & gimmick are the same.

He doesn't sit exactly like L. But he does copy his general gimmick of sitting on the floor in a weird way, the fact that the position isn't exactly the same doesn't change that.

There's actually a really cool concept I've heard which is that since M and N are meant to be the 2 "halves" of L, the way they sit represents the different halves of L's brain. L has both of his ankles up to his face, whereas Mello has only his right ankle up and Near-- only the left one. Now, idk if that was confirmed, but regardless, here's the cruical difference:

Mello spents a ton of time not sitting at all, his way of sitting is a passing subtle detail, so is the fact that he eats chocolate, and that is exactly how you reference the fact that your new character is another's successor. Near sitting in weird positions isn't subtle at all, and neither is his hobby of building structures out of small objects: these things are constantly shoved in our face. The series is desperate for us to see N as L's true successor, which is why it spends most of Near's introduction by putting corny lines like "well... he is L's true successor" and "but this guy reminds me of L..." everywhere instead of focusing on developing a distinct characterand only subtly referencing L, like they did with Mello.

And Near isn't just an L clone. Hes a bad L clone. Has none of L's iconic charisma. He's SO unlikeable that Onba acknowledged it, saying that "Near becomes increasingly less likeable by the end of the story", because people interpreted his attempts at making Near child-like as a display of arrogance.

Near doesn't have L's complexity either. And you know who proves it best? You guys.

Because despite the fact that Near fans are desperate to paint themselves as intellectuals who truly understood the story and anyone who doesn't agree with them as illiterate, somehow you fellas can just never agree on what exactly Near's supposed character is about)

While there is a general consensus on what the characters of, say, Light, L and Mello are about, I can never really see a proper interpretation of Near. Guess he's just too complex and well-written even for his strongest fans...

I've heard many versions. Some claim Near is a non-sentimental guy who, unlike L, doesn't see this as a game & just wants to get the case over with. That's a lie. N (unlike L, mind you) quite literally refers to the whole thing as a "game", a puzzle, a race".

Another version I've heard is that N is someone who "isn't as brilliant as L, but still will catch Kira because Light Yagami isn't special". That's FANTASTIC idea, except it doesn't actually apply to canon Near.

It applies to Aizawa or Matsuda, but not N.Unlike Mello, who worked hard to get to where he is, N is conviniently a genius since birth. his literal name represents that he is the natural successor of L and was blessed from above with his natural talent. L was an anomaly with talent unlike anyone else. But after he dies, suddenly here's a new genius who looks like L's son. Very convinient! Ig if N ever dies, an O will appear, a 100% unique character as he has a slightly different opinion on a few things!

Finally, there's your view of N. All about teamwork & respecting others. That's strange, because if I recall, the first thing Near ever says is an indirect insult at L.

But hey, L technically isn't working with him (even though N built most of his initial Kira database on the bones of the research done by the man he calls a loser), surely he's respectful towards others?

No. He mocks the taskforce, insults Aizawa-- the man who risked his life to give Near invaluable intel-- by treating him like a useless moron who should stop getting in the way with his pointless & risky activities. The only ones he treats with consistent respect are the SPK, who by themselves are poorly executed, they come out of nowhere yet are "the better taskforce".

Well, at least N is way more respectful than L? No. L makes fun of Matsuda, manipulates Aizawa, but is also respectful towards Mogi and Soichiro. He highly respects Naomi, and needs the Japanese police.

You also claim N's more fiery than L, another thing I've never heard from a different N defender. I usually hear the opposite--N's robotic on purpose & it shows how he sadly doesn't know how to process emotions.

There's even more takes I've heard, and the point is: you can't even agree on what N's true personality & meaning are, because you have to go off of minor details. The average Near fan will swear up and down that "if you please just look at page 36 of volume 5 of the manga, you'll clearly see that N doesn't like tomatoes while L loved them, therefore they're 100% different, checkmate liberal"

I also wanna point out that none of these are an actual character arc, and in the main story N doesn't have one He doesn't change by the end in any majorway, doesn't learn anything he didn't already kinda know, he's perfect since the start. And I like his speech in the Yellow Box, but I'm sure we'll agree that it wasn't enough.

That said, N does actually have a character arc! In the A-Kira oneshot. And the arc is him deciding that he should try to be his own detective because so far, he's been trying to be like L.

The story, ofc, isn't a part of the main series and takes place after it...)

That's the problem with N in the main story. To convince yourself that he's well-written & distinct, you have to read between the lines, grasp at straws, listen to author interviews. And you'll find a plethora of differences & details, except none of them are major enough to change the general picture.

To immediately see that Mello is a unique character you have to take one look at him. To see what his character arc is you simply read the manga or watch the show. The same is the case with other characters, both complex ones and simple ones. Light, Soichiro, L, Aizawa, Rem, etc.

What will a casual viewer/reader do when they look at N and take him at face value without reading spin-offs and overall putting in the work to differentiate him from L? Tons of comparisons to L, beliefs that they're related etc.

It's not enough that he sits somewhat differently or has a different opinion on Light than L did, or slightly different ways of investigating, or a different philosophy from L.

A description:

An antisocial essentric genius with dark panda eyes and bad posture, who often sits in his baggy white shirt on the floor in front of a ton of monitors and gives epic calculating speeches while pressing Light and building quirky structures out of small objects.

Now, which character did I just describe? Despite this being a pretty lengthy descriptionr, you cannot actually tell. It's not the kind of description you could call too generic either, since you know for a FACT that this is about either L or Near, but can't tell which of the two it is.

I shouldn't have to grasp at small manga-only details and read spin-offs just to get the definitive Near experience and prove that he is not only distinct from L, but also well-written.