Near (Death Note)

Nate River
Death Note character
Near, drawn by Takeshi Obata
First appearance	Chapter 59: "Zero" (零, Rei?)
Created by	Tsugumi Ohba Takeshi Obata
Voiced by	Noriko Hidaka (Japanese) Cathy Weseluck (English) Michael Strusievici (English dub of L: Change the World) Daisuke Sakaguchi (Death Note: New Generation)
Portrayed by	Narushi Fukuda (L: Change the World) Mio Yūki (TV Drama)
Profile
Aliases	Near N L Babel (バベル) (TV Drama) B (TV Drama)

Nate River (Japanese: ネイト・リバー, Hepburn: Neito Ribā^?), exclusively known by the mononym Near (ニア, Nia), is a fictional character in the manga series Death Note, created by Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata. Near is the younger of the two successors to L who was investigating the methods of identifying Kira, the name given to the mysterious serial killer who murders criminals by means of the eponymous Death Note. He becomes the leader of the SPK (Special Provision for Kira), an organization that looks into the Kira case, and in the end, succeeds in uncovering Kira's identity as Light Yagami.

In the anime adaptation, Near is voiced by Noriko Hidaka in Japanese and by Cathy Weseluck in the English version. He is portrayed by Narushi Fukuda in L: Change the World and by Mio Yūki in the television drama.

Tsugumi Ohba, writer of Death Note said that he introduced Near and Mello together as L individually could not defeat Kira. Ohba felt that introducing one character individually would produce a "repeat" of the struggle between Light and L, so he instead wanted a story involving three combatants fighting each other. Ohba said that he let Obata create the character designs and asked him to make both characters look "a little "L-ish"". Ohba said that he "wavered" in their ages and considered making the characters the sons of L. Ohba added that he did not initially develop their personalities as he wanted to "reveal" them through their actions.