Rules of the Death Note

1.The human whose name is written in this note shall die.

2.This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person’s face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

3.If the cause of death is written within the next 40 seconds of writing the person’s name, it will happen.

4.If the cause of death is not specified, the person will simply die of a heart attack.

5.After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds


1.The notebook shall become the property of the human world, once it touches the ground of (arrives in) the human world.

2.The owner of the note can recognize the image and voice of the original owner, i.e. a god of death/shinigami.

3.The human who uses the notebook can neither go to Heaven nor Hell.


1.If the time of death is written within 40 seconds after writing the cause of death as a heart attack, the time of death can be manipulated, and the time can go into effect within 40 seconds after writing the name.

2.The human who touches the Death Note can recognize the image and voice of its original owner, a Shinigami, even if the human is not the owner of the note.


1.A Shinigami can extend their own life by putting a name on their own note, but humans cannot.

2.A person can shorten his/her own life by using the note.

3.The human who becomes the owner of the Death Note can, in exchange of half his/her remaining life, get the eyes of the Shinigami which will enable him/her to see a human’s name and remaining life span when looking through them.

4.A god of death cannot be killed even if stabbed in his heart with a knife or shot in the head with a gun. However, there are ways to kill a Shinigami, which are not generally known to the Shinigami.


1.One page taken from the Death Note, or even a fragment of the page, contains the full effects of the note.

2.The instrument to write with can be anything, ((e.g. cosmetics, blood, etc)) as long as it can write directly onto the note and remains as legible letters.

3.Even the original owners of Death Note, Shinigami, do not know much about the note.


1.The Death Note will not affect those under 780 days old.

2.The Death Note will be rendered useless if the victim's name is misspelled four times.

3.If the victim's name was misspelled on purpose four or more times, the user along with the victim will die.


1.If you lose the Death Note or someone has stolen it, you will lose its ownership unless you retrieve it within 490 days.

2.If you have traded the eye power of a god of death, you will lose the eye power as well as the memory of the Death Note, once you lose its ownership. At the same time, the remaining half of your life will not be restored.

(For a more complete set of rules go to http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/The_Rules_of_Death_Note)