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After watching the Netflix Death Note movie I was left with a interesting
question.

During the movie (from memory)

> **Light** ; What if I write your name into the death note?  
>  **Ryuk** ; Ha! I would like to see you try. Furthest someone got was two
> letters.

Was this also a possibility in the original manga/anime series? Or this
something totally original to the movie?

There already seems to be a similar question [Is there a way to kill
Shinigamis with a death
note?](https://anime.stackexchange.com/questions/14888/is-there-a-way-to-kill-
shinigamis-with-a-death-note) . This however only covers indirect usage of the
Death Note and not directly writing it down (which the op of that question
seems to debunk without a source)


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death-note
Can Ryuk be killed with the Death Note?


**You can't kill a Shinigami by putting down his/her name on a Death Note**

As stated on the anime/manga, the only _known_ way to kill a Shinigami/Death
god is for him/her to kill an human with a Death Note in order to expand
another human's life span. That's why Gelus died by expanding Misa's life span
:

> Rem recalls Gelus watching over a younger Misa Amane in the human world.
> Knowing that it was Misa's final day, she watches with him. Having fallen in
> love with Misa, Gelus uses his Death Note to kill Misa's destined murderer,
> against Rem's protests. Gelus is reduced to a pile of dust as punishment for
> extending a human life, leaving behind only his Death Note.
>
> [Death Note Wiki](http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Shinigami#Gelus)

Here's the clip of the episode where Rem explains to Misa how a Shinigami dies
:

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xzt4IL6AjXA>


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There is no definitive information in the anime or manga on this particular
question. So **it MAY be possible, theoretically** , to kill a Shinigami with
a Death Note. However, regardless of that, **in practice, it is impossible for
a human to do it** , for the following reasons:

**You don't have their name.** Humans have no way of verifying a Shinigami's
true name, much less its spelling. Correct spelling using the script in which
the name is "officially" written does seem to be required. Shinigami vision,
which always shows the name needed to kill, always shows the "official"
spelling. For example, when Misa views Light's name, it shows up not as the
English word it comes from, and not as the kana approximation, but as the
official kanji character, presumably because that's the way it is on his
documents/how he likes to spell it, etc. Even though this spelling makes her
confused as to how to pronounce it (she initially reads it as "Tsuki" in the
anime). On the other hand, the names of Western characters always show up in
Western script, not in Japanese approximation. The Shinigami would have their
own way of spelling their names as well. According to the manga creators, each
Shinigami has their "own written language", and some even use pictures (says
the wiki here: deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Shinigami). And misspellings are not
allowed: after 4 misspellings the target becomes immune from that Death Note,
and misspelling it knowingly more than 4 times (such as deliberate trial and
error) kills the Note's owner (Rule XXXV.1). Even with the Shinigami eye deal,
Shinigami names don't seem to show up, from what I've seen in the anime. So
**even assuming the Shinigami is stupid enough to tell you their real, full
name, good luck explaining to them why you need it spelled, in their native
language**.

**You don't have their face**. You need to visualize a face to kill. Many
Shinigami seem to wear masks/makeup that cover most of their faces. Who knows
if that's their actual true face or just a costume? Again, good luck asking
them and getting an honest answer.

**No cause of death.** Ok, this one is a little complicated, but here goes...
The conditions of death must be "physically possible" (Rule VI.1). If an
impossible cause of death is listed, or if none is specified, the cause
reverts to the default: a deadly heart attack (Rule I.4). In other words, the
person's blood is no longer being pumped and they quickly suffer brain death,
organ failure, etc., from lack of oxygen/nutrients. But we know for a fact
that it is physically impossible to kill a Shinigami this way. They are
spiritual beings that are able to phase in and out of the material world and
don't need to eat, so assuming they even have such an organ as a heart, lack
of physical pumping from it would not kill them. Thus **it is physically
impossible to kill a Shinigami with the known DEFAULT cause**.

**So you have to SPECIFY some other cause** that is actually known to kill
Shinigami. The only way we know is to make them kill someone with their Note
to extend another human's life (Rule XVII.1). **But that won't work either.**
**Here's why:**

**A. Bystander deaths are not allowed.** If you make the Shinigami write down
a random human's name, you run into Rule X.2, which prevents your Death Note
entry from being the _direct_ cause of death of anyone other than the people
you _specifically listed by name_.

**B. Double entries are not allowed.** If you try to work around that by
_specifying_ the name of the human the Shinigami is to kill, you run into Rule
XV.1, which states that if a name is written in 2 Death Notes, only the first
entry written takes effect. So the Shinigami's attempt to re-enter the
person's name will be void, no harm no foul, the Shinigami lives. Even if you
try to force them to do a split entry with you (allowed in Rule XXXII.1), YOU
initiate the split entry, the human becomes YOUR victim, the Shinigami's Note
is NOT the cause of death (yours is), so the Shinigami is still not
responsible.

**TL;DR Only someone who knows the Shinigami's true face, true name, and how
their body works, can possibly kill them with a death note** (or maybe even
without it). **That would most likely be the Shinigami king** , possibly some
of the higher ranking Shinigami. **Your only real option is tricking the
Shinigami** into doing something stupid like giving up their life voluntarily
or getting into big trouble with their higher-ups (they do have a death
penalty, per Rule XLVI.1).

(All Rules are here:
<http://deathnote.wikia.com/wiki/Rules_of_the_Death_Note>)

**Incidentally, the same basic idea applies to the Netflix movie version of
Ryuk.** We don't know anything pertinent about him either. He may threaten to
kill anyone who writes his name, just because he's miffed, but that doesn't
mean they have the ability to actually do it. In fact, someone did write "
_don't trust Ryuk_ " on the actual parchment pages of the Death Note, so
**technically he should be dead, because his name was put down in the Note. So
apparently it doesn't work on him.**


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No it shouldn't be possible to kill a Death God with a Note, since the very
first rule states that the _human_ whose name is written in this note shall
die, and Death Gods aren't human.


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Because shinigami will kill the owner before the owner will write shinigami
name. Ryuk said furthermost anyone written is two word which means he killed
the person before he/she finished writing the whole name of Ryuk.


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2018-11-24T23:09:40.520
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Rules in both manga and anime mustn't even be put into consideration for this.

**Ryuk tells Light both in chapter 1** :

> " _I'm in the Shinigami realm, so killing people in the Human world isn't
> any fun_ " " _...but if I write the names of the Shinigami into the book
> they don't die._ "

**Interesting change in current translation of chapter 1:**

> " _killing guys in the human world from the Shinigami world isn't fun at
> all_ " " _...and writing a Shinigami's name in the notebook won't kill
> them._ "

**in episode 1 (sub)** :

> " _...writing names of other Shinigami **doesn't work_** "

**in episode 1 (dub)** :

> " _even if you wrote the name of another Shinigami it would be pointless,
> because they wouldn't die._ "

**This is of course a translation, someone should confirm the exact Japanese
text, but if it follows the original kanji closely that would mean a Shinigami
can't be killed by the Death Note as far as Ryuk knows** (probably they tried
it out of boredom?). We aren't talking Shinigami king. He remains shrouded in
mystery, so that being might.

Also following the first line in new English translation a Shinigami can be
killed in the Human world, it's just no fun according to Ryuk. That can imply
the method of Rem, though that one is so unusual. It took Ryuk a bit by
surprise. I take from that there might be another way that Ryuk knows about
and it must be done in the human world.

Again, what are those two lines in original Japanese text? Anyone?


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