Kiichirou Osoreda is a bank robber Light Yagami handpicks and scripts, down to the minute, to hijack a bus and force FBI agent Raye Penber to reveal his identity. He’s the first person Light kills using the notebook’s action-control rules rather than a simple heart attack — the test case that opens the door to everything Light does to the FBI afterward.
A weathered, disheveled middle-aged man with short dark hair and near-constant stubble, dressed in a dark baseball cap and zip-up utility jacket. In his final scene his eyes are wide and bloodshot, whether from withdrawal or sheer terror.
Unstable, desperate, and prone to violence — a drug addict whose actions are driven purely by survival and cash. His attempt at projecting authority during the hijacking barely masks a fragile psychological state, which shatters completely the moment he’s confronted with something supernatural.
After robbing a Tokyo bank on December 19, 2003, Osoreda becomes Light’s tool for a much bigger plan: Light writes his name specifying he’ll hijack a bus and die in a traffic accident the next day at 11:45 AM, after encountering a “monster.” Osoreda boards a bus to Spaceland and takes the passengers hostage at gunpoint — including Light, his date Yuri, and Raye Penber. Manipulated into touching a hidden Death Note scrap, he suddenly sees Ryuk, empties his gun into the Shinigami to no effect, and flees the bus in terror. He’s struck and killed by a passing car exactly as scripted. In the chaos, Penber is forced to reveal his FBI badge to calm the passengers — giving Light the name he needs to eventually kill Penber and eleven other agents.
The Bus Hijacking (Ch. 7–8)
Osoreda takes a bus hostage as scripted by Light, forcing Raye Penber to reveal himself. Osoreda dies in the scripted traffic accident — the first tactical use of “controlled death” in the entire series, and the move that leads directly to the deaths of twelve FBI agents.
Major: Ch. 7, 8.
Minor: Ch. 6.
Mentioned only: Ch. 41 (flashback).
Light Yagami
His unwitting executioner, who views him purely as a disposable tool.
Ryuk
The “monster” whose sudden appearance sends him into a fatal panic.
Raye Penber
A fellow passenger forced to expose his own identity because of Osoreda’s hijacking.
“Everyone stay where you are! Don’t move! I mean it!” — Chapter 7
“G-get away! Get away from me, you monster!!” — Chapter 8, to Ryuk
- Died December 20, 2003, at roughly 11:45 AM.
- His death proved the Death Note can force a victim to see a Shinigami by touching the notebook or even a fragment of it.
- Light deliberately chose a criminal who’d just committed a separate crime the day before, keeping police attention on the hijacking rather than the timing of his death.
🇯🇵 Japanese Voice Actors
Houki, Katsuhisa
🇯🇵 Japanese
🇺🇸 English Voice Actors
Dobson, Brian
🇺🇸 English