L

L is the world's greatest detective, a reclusive genius brought in to hunt down the mysterious killer known as Kira. He sits in a crouch instead of a chair, eats sweets constantly, and speaks in flat, unnervingly calm deductions. Hidden behind an initial and a screen at first, he treats the case as an irresistible puzzle rather than a moral crusade.

Kappei Yamaguchi gives L a voice that never rises even when the words are devastating, which makes his creepy stillness and childlike habits feel like two sides of the same relentless mind. The writing pits him against a protagonist as clever as he is, and the performance sells every silent, thumb-to-lip pause as a move in a game only he can see coming.