Zombies Ruin Everything

I’m all for variety, but can I just get these out of the way? The show has been over forever, they’ve all been typed to death (pun?) but I haven’t been able to put my mark on them.

One of the great things about the show is the number of personalities it deals with. While some have complained that the characters don’t ever change and there was a lack of development, I’ve gotta say, it’s what I thought was interesting. Everyone’s lives are put on hold because of Kira and the world changes rapidly due to his rule. Ain’t no time fer yer special moments, there’s a crime to solve! Yee-ha! WoOWWoaijovna’o fbfnffasdflkjh

Here are the characters that have already been typed, followed by the others-

L

Light and Near- A Comparison

Light is an ENTJ

Mello

Ryuk

Misa Amane- ESFP

Loud, good looking, bright and dull at the same time, Misa is pretty much a stereotype of the ESFP for better or worse. She’s even a friggin’ pop star and we all know how much Hollywood and the movie industry loves those. SeFi will have somebody going with their feelings and hardly stopping to think twice unless somebody bugs them about it. Misa didn’t seem to think twice about giving up half of her life (twice) and killing anyone as though she were making a jump in Checkers.

ESFPs are known to not only do things as the thoughts enter their brain but also to severely misjudge the intentions of others by thinking to highly or too lowly of them. In Misa’s case, she had a god-like view of Light from the start and allowed herself to be used with intent of dying as his wife/servant. All this while she had Rem trying desperately to keep her safe from him, yet she seemed more interested in dying for Light.

I’ve heard her typed ENFP, I don’t know where people get Intuitive from. It may be a case of over thinking everything she does or how she romanticizes everything as ENFPs are known to do. But that ain’t enough to tip the scales in Idealist favor.

Rem- INFP

One of the most somber characters out of many, Rem is god of death that’s ironically trying to keep someone alive and in the process gets herself killed. While the most prominent Shinigami Ryuk was outgoing and ecstatic about all the chaos created in the human world, Rem acted more like a bodyguard to the one she possessed. INFPs are highly protective of those around them and take this care to a level few other types can be made aware of, much less understand.

And also like an INFP, much of the actions taken place in the series are due to Rem threatening Light’s life if he lets Misa die or become imprisoned. But with Te as her tertiary, it wasn’t until it was too late did Rem realize Light’s plan was several steps ahead of everyone else’s, including her own and she willingly sacrifices herself, Watari, and L to save a girl that didn’t even care about her.

Watari- INFJ

Watari is simultaneously the easiest and toughest to type as he’s not in the series that much, yet plays the very mysterious, friendly, quiet sage to L and the others. Though it’s within the INFJ’s long-term vision and love of people to house the most brilliant orphans in the world and raise them to be crime-stopping super detectives, isn’t it? Far-fetched sure, but what other type would do anything relatively close? An INTJ may have concocted a plan like this but without the overall “father” feel that Watari has to him. At least in the anime.

In the manga, everything and everyone is a little colder but in the anime, on the day of L’s death when he seems to know what’s coming, he’s found standing behind Watari in Watari’s operating center. We’re not shown what’s next but Watari’s simple question of “What’s wrong?” lets us know that, like an INFJ, the plan is secondary only to the people that are a part of it.

Soichiro Yagami- ESTJ

Gotta love this guy. His wife and daughter practically abandoned, his son is suspected of (and is) Kira, his detective team is going nowhere, yet you’ve gotta love Soichiro’s dedication. Like a good ESTJ, he’s stern, lawful, and sees things through. He’s loyal too, as he does everything crazy thing he asked to do by L and all for the sake of the son that he doesn’t know is guilty.

Aside from being the head of a task force that has basically been told not to catch the man they’re after, Soichiro is steadfast and makes it clear to anyone he feels is questioning him that he will not surrender his morals and values for the sake of safety. All of this is ESTJ to a tee as their lives are built around security. If not for themselves, then for others. While ISTJs become agitated with those who don’t listen and it eventually spews out when they can’t take it anymore, ESTJs will yell it up front and if nobody listens, nobody gets out alive.

Soichiro is one of the less intelligent main characters on the show considering the main cast are a bunch of geniuses, but at no point is he entirely outclassed due to his rock solid ideals of a truly peaceful world.

Touta Matsuda- ESFP

Speaking of less intelligent characters, Matsuda may take first place on this one as far as the task force goes. Another character often typed as ENFP, Matsuda shows no signs of constraint when it comes to his thoughts and feelings. Yet like a true ESFP, nobody saw it coming when he pumped Light full of lead in the finale. This could be partly because he seemed the most useless through the duration of the series, but also because he openly supported Light more than anyone other than Light’s own dad.

ESFPs are often unpredictable in nature not in the way an ENFP might come off, where their Ne has them bouncing all over the walls with ideas, but in the way that their emotions often get the better of them and they can’t think of a reason to not go with it.

Matsuda also played an interesting role in that aside from supporting Light, Matsuda was the only task force member to openly suggest that Kira isn’t all evil. Not because he liked what Kira was doing, but he saw the good that had come out of it all too. ESFPs are generally laid back individuals that see the good in things that many don’t, as they’re naturally in tune with the physical world around them. While his co-workers were going in accordance with the law, Matsuda had to voice what felt right.

Naomi Misora- ISFJ

Quiet in her demeanor but steady in her resolve is the ISFJ and none more so than the ISFJ on a personal mission. Your mission, full of confrontation and uncertainty? No, that’s not them. But their own mission, where they can do what they need to uninterrupted? Oh yeah. Naomi’s unfortunate death so early on in the series proved to readers/viewers just how far Light had fallen already. We know this because of how quick he was to determine that Naomi would die. And all because he killed her husband in the first place.

ISFJs are called the “Protectors” for a reason and while ESFJs may get a ‘mama bear’ nickname, ISFJs are like a feral cat that scratches when you get too close. Naomi was determined, as ISFJs get, and was well on her way to figuring out who killed her husband thanks to her days as a detective. Si can be a real strength and a weakness. Amirite? Amirite?

Teru Mikami- ISTJ

“Mikami is so methodical it’s almost obsessive.” -Light

While ISTJs make up a good percent of the population and get the stigma of being the boring common man, people tend to forget about their near scary, compulsion to logic. While other types are more prone to seeing that logic can be fallible, the ISTJ has a way about them and sticks with it like no other. With robot-like accuracy, the ISTJ doesn’t like to be taken from their routine and will verbally (or otherwise) bite the head off of the miscreant that tries to derail them. This is how Light knows that Mikami will be a perfect Kira.

While others have their various ways of doing things and certain behavior patterns that can’t always be predicted, Mikami was a sure thing. From his ideals, belief, routine and mindset, once the instructions went through, it wasn’t until the very end that Mikami needed any other word. Doing everything by the literal book and doing it with creepy efficiency, it was only too bad for him and Light when a wrench was thrown in their plans.

Kiyomi Takada- ISFP

Death Note’s stats for Takada include the category of “Grace.” And guess what? She’s a 10/10. There’s really only one type for someone as quiet, values driven, and as beautiful as Takada is meant to be. ISFPs are all about their principles but being a part of the Artisan group, looks and their sensory entertainment is a must. And with Takada as a national spokeswoman for Kira is fitting for ISFP like a big stupid glove on Ronald McDonald.

All Artisans are also fans of “creature comforts” due to Se and you may have noticed that Takada is never without a nice fur coat, in a nice penthouse, or without a glass of wine. While not all ISFPs are as materialistically minded, Artisans are generally fans of generosity; either giving or receiving. Ironic that she died naked in the back of a truck with no one there when she was so used to being surrounded by fans.

Japanese Task Force- SJ/Guardians

While Soichiro, Aizawa, Mogi, Ide, Ukita, and Matsuda all have their own personalities (some more than others), the team itself is very much of the Guardian variety. Soichiro is a good poster boy as well, leading the team and representing the ideals well; “It may be wrong to the rest of the world now that the majority listens to Kira- but we know how we were raised, dammit!” And like the Guardians tend to do, even what would be an exciting race to the finish to see who catches Kira becomes a normal job.

One thing that was certain for the task force, things were going to be done by the book. While they had no plan of what to do if Kira was actually captured, they were trying their hardest to get him anyway. Aizawa’s loyalty to the chief and pre-Kira law was also strong as he went out of his way not only to contact Near but to then tell Light about it afterward. Loyalty and the law, baby- the Guardian’s two Ls

SPK- SP/Artisans

While Near of course is an INTJ, the team of hotshots he’s assembled; Gevanni, Rester and Lidner, are all of the SP types. They break rules, disobey instructions by higher authorities, and man, don’t they just look cool? They’re the closest Death Note gets to those team of super elite teams we see in Hollywood movies every summer. Heck, I’d watch a movie with them in it.

Speaking of breaking rules, Lidner even breaks Near’s rules to meet Mello outside of Near’s instructions- talk about a rebel. The team seemed to thrive on doing things dangerously and taking risks with following Mikami, copying the notebook (in a freaking night!), escaping the mob in disguise and finally…meeting face to face with Kira for a showdown.

Shinigami- SPs/Artisans

On the flipside to the dangerously living SPK team, we’ve go the lazy ass Shinigami- sleeping and gambling all day long. No wonder Ryuk was bored. But SPs, who live a life of reckless abandon, also don’t mind taking it easy and doing nothing all day. I want to say that the IS-Ps are more likely but man, do I know some lazy ESFPs.

Not only are the those ESFPs lazy, but like the Shinigami who play all day, they laugh at people who work “too hard” for what they want; as though the world is taking advantage of them.

This entry was posted on 11/13/2013 at 4:19 am and is filed under MBTI Artisans, MBTI Guardians, MBTI Idealists, MBTI Rationals, MBTI Stuff with tags death note, esfp, estj, infj, infp, isfj, isfp, istj, mbti in fiction. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.