Minoru Tanaka

**Minoru Tanaka** (also known anonymously as **A-Kira**) is a fictional character from the Death Note universe, being the protagonist of the one-shot manga "Death Note: Special One–Shot," which was published in 2020 as a sequel to the original Death Note series. Minoru is introduced as an extraordinarily intelligent but academically mediocre high school student who is chosen by Ryuk to inherit the Death Note, a supernatural notebook that allows the user to kill anyone whose name is written in it. Unlike his predecessor, Light Yagami, Minoru takes a more unorthodox approach to the Death Note, choosing to auction it off to the highest bidder rather than wield its power himself.

## What Makes Him Magnificent?

* Minoru is portrayed as more realistic and relatable than his predecessors, as rather than possessing ideological goals to the point of delusion, Minoru is only interested in financial gain. He doesn't display any hubris or overconfidence that Light previously exhibited, and he appears to take into account the practical implications and risks associated with the notebook.
* On that note, he is effectively the most successful Death Note user. Despite acknowledging the challenges of using the Death Note in an age where everything is recorded and monitored, Minoru bypassed the heightened security successfully, exploiting the limitations of Ryuk's movements to infiltrate a TV station and using it to deliver messages on live broadcasts.
* His series of messages managed to provoke entities as wealthy as entire nations, specifically a bidding war between US and China, with US winning with a bid of 1 quadrillion yen which equates to over 900 billion US dollars.
* After receiving the money, Minoru avoids any risk of implication by arranging for the money to be equally distributed to the bank accounts of every Japanese citizen and erasing his own memories of the notebook, eliminating any and all traces leading back to him.
* He manages to keep his identity hidden even from Near, the successor to L and one of the most brilliant detectives in the world and responsible for defeating Light Yagami previously.
* He only meets his fate to supernatural interference, as the Shinigami King added a rule to kill whoever buys or sells the notebook and retroactively makes an example out of him despite it already being too late to change his plans.
* Despite his untimely death, the consequences of his actions live on, as his plan resulted in a significant boost in Japan's economy by financially securing its citizens. He also effectively revitalized Kira's name in an unanimously positively light, which is a contrast to the original Kira's divisive stance of being either revered as a god or being considered one of history's greatest villains in documented history posthumously.

## What Makes Him a Baddie?

* Despite the altruistic twist of distributing the auction's proceeds to the Japanese public, his initial reason for selling the Death Note was personal gain. He doesn't seem bothered by the fact that he's enabling a future filled with sanctioned murders, as long as he isn't the one pulling the trigger.
* As it's been stated in-universe that the country that wields the notebook would establish dominant power, Minoru's decision to auction the Death Note to the highest bidder among nations could be seen as a recklessly dangerous move that jeopardizes world stability. The country that secures the Death Note gains the power to kill anyone, effectively throwing international relations into disarray.

## Trivia

* He and L Lawliet are the only characters from Death Note (not counting Jump Force version of Light Yagami) to be Magnificent Baddies.
* He is the only Death Note MB who takes on a Kira identity.
* His actions lead to the addition of new rules to the Death Note by the King of Death, impacting its future use.