Ryuk (リューク, Ryūku) is a Shinigami who indirectly gives Light Yagami a Death Note after becoming bored with the Shinigami Realm. In an effort to amuse himself, he steals a second Death Note and drops it into the Human World for someone to find. This Death Note is discovered by Light, who uses it in an attempt to cleanse the world of evil and injustice, satisfying Ryuk's need for entertainment.
Ryuk is different from most Shinigami in that he does not want to simply pass time away in the Shinigami Realm but find something to relieve his boredom, and he is unaffected by the mocking he receives from other Shinigami for it.
Ryuk regards Light as "interesting," specifically due to his experiments and the loopholes he discovers regarding the Death Note's rules and instructions, occasionally discovering abilities of the notebook even Ryuk did not know existed. Though he finds Light interesting, he does not care whether Light lives or dies and does not actively assist him. At times, he withholds important information from Light and only assists him when he has something to gain from it. As his only purpose in dropping the notebook was because he was bored, most of his actions are primarily motivated by wanting to see something interesting, as he sees Light's use of the Death Note and the way humans react to it as truly entertaining. Ryuk is intelligent, but Light's ability to understand his desires easily makes him able to be manipulated.
Ryuk has a great fondness for apples, stating the addiction to be an equivalent of cigarettes and alcohol for humans. Shinigami apples are withered and taste like sand, as he shows Misa at one point, which is why he prefers apples from the human world. He suffers certain symptoms of withdrawal if he goes too long without eating them, involving twisting himself up like a pretzel and doing handstands. He also states that he is shy around girls, revealed when Misa regains her memories and hugs Ryuk in excitement.
Ryuk is fond of video games, first shown in the omake eight-panel comic series, where he asks Light for a Silver Game Boy Advance SP for Christmas.[3] On another occasion, Ryuk asks Light if he wants to play Mario Golf (changed to "video games" in the anime), but receives no answer, since Light's bedroom is bugged with microphones and rigged with cameras.
Ohba said that he always mentioned apples in the thumbnails because he wished to use "the dying message that Shinigami only eat apples" and therefore he needed Ryuk to hold apples and that "There's no other reason." Ohba also said that he specifically chose apples as the red "goes well" with Ryuk's black body and that the apples "fit well" with Ryuk's "big" mouth.[1] When Obata informed Ohba that apples held religious and psychological significance and that a person could "read a lot" into the inclusion of apples and that he assumed that was the reason why Ohba included the apples, Ohba said that he did not "think about that at all" and that he believes that "apples are cool... that's it. [laughs]" Ohba added that he felt including aspects that could become later plot points was beneficial, and the apples were used as a point when Light asked Ryuk to search for the cameras in exchange for apples.
Obata said that he encountered difficulty in designing Ryuk. He said that his original idea of Ryuk consisted of Ryuk looking like a "young man similar to Light" with black hair and wings. Obata said that he had the idea of Shinigami looking like "attractive rock stars." Obata felt that if Ryuk appeared more attractive than Light, he would "appear to be the main character" and "things wouldn't work as well." Obata said that he decided to erase the previous design and use the final design in which Ryuk has a reptile-like appearance when his editor told that Ryuk did not have to appear human. Obata said that he liked the "monster"-like appearance and added that, with his face, "you can never really tell what he is thinking." Obata said that he encountered difficulty while drawing Ryuk in the pilot chapter since he did not "have a good handle" on the "bone structure of his face." Obata said that during serialization he became "so used" to the underlying structure that he could visualize it. Obata describes Ryuk's face as appearing different between the pilot chapter and the actual Death Note series. In 13: How to Read Obata thought of an idea involving Ryuk's face being a mask, and under the mask would be an "attractive" face.
When designing Ryuk's Death Note Obata thought about the appearance of Ryuk's handwriting. Ryuk wrote the words "Death Note" on the cover of his own notebook, and when he took possession of Sidoh's book he wrote the same words on the front cover.
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