Rem

Origin

A powerful female Shinigami, with a serious and stoic disposition, Rem observes another Shinigami Gelus, in turn observing a human. Deeply infatuated with this human, Misa Amane, Gelus sacrifices his life to save Misa's after a random violent encounter she was about to experience. Rem then acquires Gelus's Death Note & feels that it is Misa's right to be the new owner. Rem then descends to the world of humans and becomes attached to the human Misa. Rem becomes incredibly protective of Misa, and seeks to keep her from harm. This eventually bringing her into conflict with Light Yagami.

Creation

Rem was created by writer Tsugumi Ohba, and artist Takeshi Obata for the Death Note books. A Shinigami, Rem is a Death God. Artist Obata professes that or all the Shinigami, Rem is his favorite, as her character and nature is good. Rem was design to provide a stark contrast to Ryuk. Not just as far as personality wise, but her physical appearance, is white and bone like, where as Ryuk, is full and black. Rem's hair is also partially inspired, by the greek mythological creature Medusa.

Powers and Abilities

Rem is a Shinigami, and as such she is incredibly long lived, with the ability to fly. She does not need to eat or sleep. Although her powers are somewhat ambiguous, by virtue of being a death god, its reasonable to assume she has great supernatural power. Like all Shinigami, she can not be harmed by conventional human weapons. She is a rank four Shinigami, and so relatively of a higher status than most other Shinigami. Rem is especially intelligent and empathetic.

Character Evolution

Over the course of the Manga it becomes apparent that Rem is an unusually empathetic Shinigami. She is extremely fond of Misa Amane & is willing to do anything to keep her happy and safe. She demonstrates this devotion several times throughout the major story arcs. Some examples would include: Rem threatening to Kill Light Yagmi should anything happen to Misa. Rem becoming disgusted at the thought of Misa marrying Kyosuke Higuchi. Most notably Rem sacrificing her life to Kill Lawliet & Watari.

Major Story Arcs

Assault

Rems first appearance comes shortly after the Kira investigation team learns that Sakura T.V. receives a tape from an anonymous person claiming to be Kira. This anonymous person is Misa Amane making an attempt to fulfill Kira's will and kill L. It's soon discovered that the reason Misa was able to obtain a death note is because it was deliberately given to her by Rem.

Love

Rem continues to haunt Misa who has established herself as the second Kira. Misa's actions caught the attention of the real Kira just as Misa had planned. Misa wanted to meet Kira but could't figure a way to do it. While casually brushing her hair in front of the mirror, Misa discovered that she couldn't see her life span. Rem then disclosed to Misa that a human with the Shinigami eyes cannot see the life span of someone who owns a death note. this conversation allowed Misa to devise a plan to meet up with the real Kira discreetly.

Confession

Misa eventually finds out that Light Yagami is Kira and decides to meet him in person. However, their meeting didn't go exactly how Misa had planned initially. Misa wanted to become Light's girlfriend, as she had fell in love at the very sight of him. Light had other plans, threatening to kill Misa if she didn't obey him. Rem stepped in saying that she would kill Light if anything happened to Misa. Light reminded Rem that if she were to kill him, that would end up in her death as well. Rem retorted that she didn't care & that all she wanted was to see Misa happy. Rem also told Light that she could see Misa's life span and if for any reason she died before her time she would assume Light had something to do with it and kill him anyways. This was the first showing of how far Rem would go for Misa's happiness, as well as the power Shinigami have over human life.