Lunar Month > Death Note > Characters > Shuichi Aizawa
NAME: Shuichi Aizawa.
GENDER: Male.
SPECIES: Human.
Shuichi Aizawa is a member of the Kira investigation team that leaves the team under the guise of needing to support his family because the Japanese police cut their funding (it is only after he leaves that it is revealed that L would have supported them had he stayed). Aizawa uses the alias Aihara to protect his identity. Aizawa returns after L's death, where he is one of the first to suspect Light of being Kira (although he continues to act compassionately towards Light until he is cornered, and goes mad), and helps contribute to his eventual defeat. He becomes the leader of the investigation team afterwards. Ohba decided to make Aizawa the chief of the NPA because he did not want to create a new character in the final chapter, and because he felt that Aizawa is the best candidate because of his connections to the police and Near. He is voiced by Keiji Fujiwara in the Japanese anime and Trevor Devall in the English dub. In the film, he is played by Shin Shimizu.
During the first part of the story, Aizawa sports an afro-style haircut, but when he reappears during the Near and Mello arc, he has shaved most of his hair off and grown a small volume of facial hair. Obata originally did not plan to draw Aizawa for an extended period of time, so he did not put a lot of effort into the design. After Aizawa began appearing more often, he decided that Aizawa's face was not presentable for a main character, so he decided to gradually improve Aizawa and increase the volume of his hair. Aizawa was completely redesigned after L's death in order to have Aizawa look older and really show that four years had passed. Aizawa was easy to draw for him because people that "act consistently", a character trait he wishes more people in Japan would have, are easy to draw. Aizawa is described by Ohba as "basically a guy who yells at Matsuda for being a goof" and a "family man" who prefers his family over his job, though the latter aspect changes after Soichiro dies. His birthday is May 11, 1969.
