Raye Penber is the FBI agent assigned to tail Light Yagami during the Bureau’s secret probe into the NPA — and the first major investigator Light completely outmaneuvers. Forced to expose his own name through a hijacking Light staged, then blackmailed into killing eleven fellow agents with his fiancée’s life as leverage, Penber’s death is what pushes his fiancée Naomi Misora into her own dangerous investigation — and forces L to finally show himself to the Japanese Task Force.
A tall, athletic Western man with short dark hair in a neat side part and sharp, focused eyes, almost always in a dark trench coat over a professional suit.
Dutiful, cautious, and genuinely protective — he urges his fiancée Naomi to leave the investigation for her own safety, and after tailing Light, honestly concludes he’s just a “normal, hard-working student,” not Kira. That same decency is exactly what Light exploits: Penber’s devotion to Naomi and his professional predictability make him easy to manipulate into a trap.
Penber arrives in Japan in December 2003 to tail Light Yagami, concluding after days of surveillance that the boy is beyond reproach. Caught in a staged bus hijacking, he’s forced to reveal his FBI ID to calm the passengers, unknowingly handing Kira his real name. A week later, on December 27, an anonymous voice — Light, over a transceiver — threatens Naomi’s life unless Penber boards a specific train and follows exact instructions. Under duress, Penber receives a file with every FBI agent’s name and face in Japan and is forced to write them all into a hidden Death Note fragment, killing eleven colleagues. Moments after completing the task, he suffers a heart attack on a train platform — and in his final seconds, sees Light standing nearby and understands exactly what happened.
FBI Training
Skilled in clandestine surveillance, tailing, and intelligence gathering.
Firearms Proficiency
Carries a standard-issue handgun, used only as a last resort by his own account.
Professional Discipline
Maintains the physical and mental conditioning expected of a federal field agent.
vs. Kiichirou Osoreda — The Bus Hijacking (Ch. 7–8)
Penber manages the hijacking without blowing his cover, but is ultimately forced to show his badge to reassure Light — compromising his identity in the process.
vs. Kira — The Yamanote Line (Ch. 59–62)
Light backs Penber into a psychological corner on a crowded train, using Naomi’s life to force him into executing his own colleagues. Penber loses completely, killing eleven agents before Light kills him too.
Major: Ch. 7, 8, 12, 59–62.
Minor: Ch. 5, 6, 9, 42–44.
Mentioned only: Ch. 1, 10–26, 41, 45, 46, 52, 54, 56–58, 63, 108.3.
Naomi Misora
His fiancée, whose life Light uses as leverage against him.
Light Yagami
His surveillance target, whom he cleared of suspicion right before Light destroyed him.
Steve Mason
His superior, whose orders sent him to Japan.
L
The detective he worked for remotely, without ever meeting face-to-face.
“I only take out the gun as a last resort…” — Chapter 39
“Why can’t I remember whose voice this is…? Who the hell is it… Damn Kira.” — Chapter 62, his final thoughts
- Died December 27, 2003.
- Among the twelve agents, he was the second to receive Kira’s file (15:21) but the ninth to actually die (16:42).
- L’s eventual realization the “13-day rule” was fake was partly driven by the timeline of Penber’s death relative to the FBI’s deployment.
🇯🇵 Japanese Voice Actors
Ishikawa, Hideo
🇯🇵 Japanese
🇺🇸 English Voice Actors
Adamthwaite, Michael
🇺🇸 English