#Mihael is actually a South Slavic form of Michael so it is a real name too! (Is he built different or is he just Hravatski? lmao)

[overkeehl]

I remember reading something about Ohba choosing the nonsensical names so as not to inadvertently have a real person’s name written in the death note which is kind of a nice touch, considering the in-world implications. I always chalked up Light and Misa’s names to main character syndrome which is pretty par for the course anime-wise; the task force all have pretty normal sounding names (maybe the kanji used are unusual? no idea, I’m just going by the romanized translation) I also think a lot of the English names were also just never written with an English translation in mind (Ill Rat as a name for the mole is only an easter egg if it’s not in English lol.) Chapters were written on an insane weekly basis so i imagine they were just churning stuff out.without thoughts of translation potentials. if you gotta fill up that death note with names in a language you don’t speak and neither have the time nor the desire to research/care, theyre gonna get weird pretty quick!

quick thought before i log out: death note english names are meant to be nonsensical (raye penbar, rester, mail jeevas etc) because the japanese counterparts are as well (amane misa, yagami light are not real japanese names). all names in death note are made up in an alternate universe where names are fundamentally different because names play such a big role in the world itself