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In the Death Note 2015 series, some people sometimes speak English. For instance when Raye Penber and Bell talk and when Lind L Tailor comes out on TV, it's in English.

The Death Note anime of course acknowledges the existence of the English language, like in the first episode, when people with English names are written down in the Death Note and when Near says 'Mister' Aizawa, but a lot of English speaking people instead speak Japanese.

So this got me to thinking,

  1. Are L, Mello, Near, Watari, Beyond Birthday et al Western people (See here for Wammy's House question) who just so happen to be fluent in or at least sufficiently speak and understand Japanese?

  2. L once adopted the alias Ryuga Hideki. How would anyone think that a Western-looking person has a Japanese name? Is his cover story that he was adopted by a Japanese family or something?

  3. Are they necessarily British just because Wammy's House is in England?

  4. In general, is there anyway to know for sure what language is being spoken between a Western person and an Eastern person in the Death Note anime? For instance, when Light and L talk, are they talking in Japanese or English? How about when Near and Light talk?

BCLC
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    It goes without saying, but the anime probably works that way for the same reason the British Waver Velvet (who apparently doesn't have the best Japanese skills) speaks Japanese in _Fate/zero_. Anyways, interesting question! – Maroon Oct 15 '15 at 02:08
  • with 2) Light's monologue explains that if L's name was really Ryuga then there was a risk the real Ryuga's face would appear in his mind and accidentally kill him and i have seen of a show like Dr Oz or Dr Phil that there were 2 women in the US who had the same first and last name so there is a chance that 2 people can have the same names. though in the anime i only remember people questioning if L was the Ryuga they know – Memor-X Oct 15 '15 at 02:11
  • @Memor-X I mean why pick a Japanese name? He could've called himself someone with the same name as a popular British celebrity maybe. To me it seems very suspicious that a British looking person would have a Japanese name – BCLC Oct 15 '15 at 02:17
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    @BCLC i suspect L had the same thought as Light's monologue. he already concluded that Kira needs a name and face so even with L's face had Light tried to test his name out the real Ryuga may have died and that would not only limit the number of potential suspects but increase his own suspicion of Light. he could have probably used a British star but probably wanted someone Light would know already – Memor-X Oct 15 '15 at 02:22
  • @Maroon Japanese because it's an anime, I get that. Just liked in dubbed anime everyone speaks English. But in-universe, there has to be some explanation. Haven't seen f/z or f/sn yet, but I'm guessing in-universe, Waver was either speaking English or knows some Japanese...right? – BCLC Oct 15 '15 at 07:19
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    @BCLC: I'm actually not sure---I mostly know of that detail because I heard about a drama CD where his lack of proficiency comes up. There are always interesting problems in anime with overtly "multicultural" settings though (e.g. here, or in Black Lagoon), where from the voice-acting it's hard to tell what language is actually being used. – Maroon Oct 15 '15 at 07:39
  • @BCLC You are looking **way too much** into this. When you see a hollywood movie featuring foreigners, they speak English with a foreign accent (on purpose), but you never question where they had learned English from. Sometimes you let them speak a foreign language to make it sound cooler, but in comics you don't have subtitles. I mean, heck the American president in Death Note was speaking Japanese, which he obviously isn't capable of, but imagine how weird it would be if Ohba would write whole chapters in English. Do you think his audience would like that? – Peter Raeves Oct 15 '15 at 10:24
  • @PeterRaeves I dont expect those parts to be in English. Obviously he did speak English. I guess we'll never know what language Light and L spoke to each other. Some important parts I guess however would be the degree of fluency of Japanese of L. When L is listening to the Yotsuba conversation, does he understand? If there is no indication of language difficulty, it seems that he is fluent in Japanese. Is he? Can't find any official source. Anyway, how about the DN 2015 series? You would be fine with lind l tailor speaking or raye penber and bell conversing in Jap when they look western? – BCLC Oct 15 '15 at 10:29
  • @PeterRaeves also what about the SPK? Do they know Japanese? When Light makes his speech at the end, is it in English for the sake of the Western people in the room? – BCLC Oct 15 '15 at 10:35
  • @BCLC Why does it even matter? Obviously in a real setting they would have language barriers. The SPK would not understand Japanese, neither would L. Japanese is not part of any country's curriculum, while Japan on the other hand, has English in its curriculum, so Light would be able to fluently speak English, being the genius that he is. So Japanese people would speak Japanese among themselves and Light would speak English to L, N and M and then translate it to the others. – Peter Raeves Oct 15 '15 at 11:04
  • @BCLC "Would you be fine to see a westerner speaking Japanese?" I don't really understand the question. Why wouldn't I be fine? Especially in a fictional story with fictional characters made by a Japanese artists for Japanese people. I would honestly not be fine if he would speak English all of a sudden. In the DN 2015 series I assume they would use Japanese actors, like they did with Attack on Titan, where Asians are almost extinct. – Peter Raeves Oct 15 '15 at 11:08
  • @PeterRaeves They used Western actors in addition to Japanese actors. L was Japanese though. Not a problem I'm guessing as he is part Japanese as stated below – BCLC Oct 15 '15 at 20:55

1 Answers1

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  1. At least for L, his official profile says that he's fluent in Japanese, Chinese, English, German, French and Russian. I wouldn't be surprised if the other high-IQ guys were multilingual as well.
  2. The author says L is quarter Japanese, and since he has black hair and black eyes, introducing L as Japanese shouldn't be that strange, I guess.
  3. Again, at least for L, his profile says he's British (イギリス国籍).
  4. Dunno.
Doncot
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  • 1 Source? 2 Thanks! 3 Thanks! 4 Thanks for confirming my hypothesis that it seems impossible to determine :)) – BCLC Oct 15 '15 at 18:02
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    Death Note 13: How to Read, if I remember correctly. – Doncot Oct 15 '15 at 19:13
  • @BCLC Actually the manga, anime and 2015 series confirmed the language they were speaking in though. In all those instances when Light and L talked to each other they were talking Japanese. – Peter Raeves Oct 15 '15 at 23:32
  • @PeterRaeves How do you know Light and L were speaking in Jap? Not surprising, but I don't see why they wouldn't speak English sometimes. What about L's first appearance on TV? What about L and the Japanese police in L's first appearance? Well I guess we'll never know. Hahahaha – BCLC Oct 18 '15 at 07:50
  • We do know. Ohba wrote everything in Japanese, didn't he? Every character he ever wrote always talked Japanese... I don't remember Ohba ever showing them speaking English, ever... Do you have a chapter where any of them spoke English? – Peter Raeves Oct 18 '15 at 15:49
  • @PeterRaeves ok fight Light and L may be speaking japanese to each other, but L's first appearance on TV and to the japanese police: both were in english? – BCLC Aug 01 '20 at 09:50