L Lawliet

L is a very slim, pale, tall young man with messy neck-length black hair and black eyes. One of his most noticeable features is the shadow below each of his eyes, a result of him being an insomniac. He is always shown to be wearing a pair of blue jeans and a long sleeved white shirt. He almost never wears shoes or socks, preferring to go barefoot, even while in public.

L also tends to hunch over when walking and prefers to sit in a crouch rather than a traditional sitting style, believing his reasoning ability would drop 40% if he did so. Among his many other quirks he bends to hold objects between his thumb and forefinger, he chews his nails while in thought, dislikes physical contact, and prefers to eat only sweet foods. He is often seen arranging objects and very intently stacking, or in other ways playing with, his staple food items.

L can be deceptive and willing to take drastic, even unethical, measures to solve a case, feeling a singular and obsessive purpose in solving the crime set before him. Due to his extremely high intelligence, L is a social and tends to speak bluntly, even calling out personal observations that might offend others. He struggles to make meaningful connections and prefers to isolate himself rather than observe social etiquette.

Despite his high intelligence L tends to second guess himself, preferring to be meticulous and certain of his deductions before speaking on them. He is also shown to have a dry sense of humor, and he isn't above making sarcastic remarks to people. Although he tends to be polite, to some L can seem condescending at times, mostly due in part to his last of social development. With his status as the the world's greatest detective, he has a very sensitive pride, being afraid to be wrong in his deductions and theories, evident through his drastic measures and lethargic behavior during his investigation.

Using subterfuge, misinformation, disinformation, and an analytical knowledge of human nature to help lure a suspected murderer into a false sense of security and possibly make him carelessly overconfident, L sometimes gets what he wants through abnormal or possibly criminal channels. Whenever L gives percentages to indicate how much he suspects a person of committing a crime, such as "five-percent", he may in fact be over ninety percent convinced of their culpability.