Those who have seen Death Note will be familiar with the enigma that is L. The renowned detective makes little known about his past or specifics about his personality, such as his real name.
Given the situation amounting in the show, this is quite a smart strategy, however, it leaves a lot up to the audience to work out themselves. Later in the show, L is seemingly outsmarted by Light which results in his Death, however, it can be quite confusing to understand the circumstances surrounding this event.
Obviously, we’ll be delving into series spoiler territory explaining how L came to be defeated so if you are yet to watch the series make sure to do so before reading on.
How Does L Die in Death Note?
Ultimately, L is killed by the Shinigami Rem at the request of Light who manipulated her by explaining that with L alive Misa would be in danger. This came after Light had put action in place that would incriminate her as Kira.
L does an impeccable job of keeping his name hidden throughout the series so that he can’t be killed via the effects of the Death Note, however, with her Shinigami eyes, Rem is able to see L’s name and ultimately writes in down herself.
While it was a game of whit between Light and L, in the end, there was nothing L could do to outsmart the abilities of a Shinigami even with knowledge of its existence and having come face to face with Rem prior.
How old is L in Death Note?
During the events of the show, L is 24 – 25 years of age.
While the show may not provide an explicit answer to this question, thanks to the manga and the extended information provided in other written content we know exactly how old this detective mastermind was during the show.
In Death Note 13: How to Read, the series encyclopedia-style guide states that L was born on October 31, 1979, and died on November 5, 2004. Using simple maths we can determine that L was 25 years of age at the time of his death which means during the main event of Death Note he was 24 years of age.