Shinigami eyes

Within the fictional universe of the manga and anime series Death Note (written by Tsugumi Ohba, mangaka Takeshi Obata), , also referred to in the series simply as "the Eyes" or a "death god's sight," are the special power of a Shinigami (or "death god") to see a human's name and remaining life-span. Ryuk the Shinigami explains that Shinigami use their eyes to find the names of and kill humans to get the human's remaining lifespans added to their own. For example, if a human's natural life span is 60 years, and a Shinigami kills them at 30, then the Shinigami receives 30 years of life. This is done because Shinigami, despite being god-like, can die natural deaths; that is to say, they have a lifespan of their own that eventually runs out if not extended using the Death Note.

How the Shinigami Eyes work

The Shinigami Eyes allow the user to see the real name and remaining lifespan of the person they are currently looking at. The Shinigami Eyes can be traded for by the owner of the Death Note giving half of their remaining life span to the Shinigami. The Eyes are lost once the owner loses possession of the Note. The owner can trade again, but the same rules apply, and their lost lifespan will not be returned. The lifespan is given in Shinigami time, which has about 3556 days for every standard Earth day. The person receiving the Shinigami eyes automatically gains the ability to understand Shinigami time, making this a non-issue for them. While the Eyes are portrayed as being red in the anime, Shinigami Eyes look just like normal human eyes to other humans, and there is no way for another human to determine whether someone has the Eyes or not. The Eyes are red in the anime simply to clarify when someone has them, or to add drama to the whole aspect.

In order for the Eyes to function properly, the user must be able see the victim's entire face: staring at the back of the head or a face obscured in a significant way will produce nothing. The most important aspect are the eyes: so long as the eyes remain uncovered, the Shinigami Eyes will generally function as intended. In addition, the Eyes will only work when looking at genuine images of a face. Photographs, television broadcasts, and other such recording methods capture real life, and hence can be used, while drawings cannot be considered genuine, no matter how accurate the image is. In addition, if the victim is already dead, a genuine image will display neither name nor lifespan, as it is no longer relevant.

Humans with the Shinigami Eyes cannot see the lifespan of a human who owns a Death Note, including themselves. This allows those with the Eyes to discern Death Note owners from normal people; Misa Amane found Light in a crowd of people by looking for the person with no lifespan. Naturally, Shinigami do not have the same restriction.

The trade can be made as long as the human owns the Death Note. Knowledge of the trade is usually not disclosed until a Death Note is in the ownership of a human. Although the eyes are lost if ownership is discontinued, the reduced lifespan is not recoverable. Even if ownership was to be regained, the owner would have to trade again, thus losing one half of his or her remaining life span again.

Characters that have been offered the trade
Six people in the anime and manga are offered the trade: Light Yagami, Misa Amane, Kyosuke Higuchi, Kal Snyder, Soichiro Yagami, and Teru Mikami.
*Light refuses the deal, despite being offered it repeatedly by Ryuk; Light states that he wishes to rule over his utopia as God for as long as possible and therefore halving his life-span is out of the question. As a result, he is forced to rely on subtle tactics and the help of allies with the Shinigami eyes to determine the names of enemies such as Raye Penber, L, Near and Mello.
*Misa makes the deal twice. The first time is with Rem at some point before the Second Kira incident. After giving up ownership of her Death Note, she loses the eyes, and makes the deal again with Ryuk.
*Higuchi makes the deal as a desperation move while being chased by L's squad, leaving them to protect their faces with helmets.
*Kal Snyder is threatened into making the deal, and is offered an important position in the gang for doing so.
*Soichiro makes it with Ryuk in order to see Mello's true name, with the intent of writing it in the Death Note if necessary.
*It is revealed in volume 10 that Mikami made the deal with Ryuk so that he could be of further assistance to Kira. In volume 7, L deduces the existence of the trade for the Shinigami eyes through various clues dropped during his investigation. When he tries to confirm all details of the trade, Rem tells him that it is only something that an owner of the Death Note can be told.

Matsuda, Aizawa, Mogi and Ide all know of the trade; they were told of it by Ryuk when they gained possession of the Death Note in volume 9.

In the films, Light and Misa are offered the eyes. Light refuses the eyes while Misa accepts the eyes.

Misa Amane's lifespan

Misa Amane's lifespan has been both decreased and increased. In the anime and manga, Misa makes the deal twice and two shinigami's lifespans are added to hers: Jealous's and Rem's. In the film she makes the eye trade once and has two lifespans added to hers. According to Rem, when a Shinigami intentionally saves a human's life by killing that person's future murderer, the Shinigami dies, turning into a sand-like substance. This is because their purpose is to take life, and so extending human life out of affection is unfathomable.

Once the Shinigami dies, his or her lifespan is added to that of the human that he or she saved. The only way for this to be possible is for the Shinigami to have feelings for the human they are saving. Both Jealous and Rem perform the action; Jealous saves her from murder out of love, and Rem saves her to spare Misa the death sentence by killing Ryuzaki/L and Watari; in the film Rem kills Watari but cannot kill L because L already had written his own name in Misa's Death Note to thwart any attempts to kill him.Death Note: How to Read 13 indicates that Misa commits suicide in the end of the Death Note manga. Misa does not commit suicide in the film version. Her fate is not explicitly explained in the anime version, but the final episode indicates that she probably committed suicide after Light's death.

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