I’m not exaggerating when I say that Death Note wouldn’t have lasted even five episodes if Higuchi had been the human Ryuk gave the Death Note to. From his very first appearance, it’s painfully obvious that he’s the Yotsuba member who has the notebook, even though the story later tries to sell it as a plot twist.
All the other members either look genuinely uncomfortable during the meetings or simply suggest and discuss potential victims they could profit from killing. By the other hand, Higuchi, literally in his very first scene, straight-up asks who they want Kira to kill and warns those who show doubt or fear that they could end up dead if they don’t cooperate with Kira. On top of that, he clearly understands the rules of the notebook far better than his colleagues do
Seriously, if I watched some of the Yotsuba scenes out of context, I’d be 100% convinced that Higuchi had told his colleagues from the very beginning that he was Kira, and that his role was to explain how the notebook worked and threaten them if any of them tried to do anything that didn’t align with his plans. At this point, if I were one of the other members, I’d have said, “Higuchi, bro. You can just tell us you’re Kira. We’re not gonna judge you.”
The funny thing is that, even though no member of the Yotsuba Group could have evaded L and Light, I think almost any one of them would have done a much better job of keeping their identity as Kira a secret. Namikawa, for example, would have made an excellent Kira.
It’s pretty obvious that Higuchi, much like Light, suffered from a superiority complex that made him careless. The difference is that Light was at least smart enough to maintain the appearance of innocence most of the time, rather than making his guilt so obvious at every turn.
One example of Higuchi’s lack of caution can be seen when an agitated Namikawa called him and told him to turn on Sakura TV to watch Matsuda’s interview. When Higuchi tuned in, he initially thought it was just another piece of sensationalist garbage from Demegawa’s network. Higuchi should have known perfectly well that Namikawa was far too intelligent to fall for the kind of misleading crap that the channel was known for.
If Higuchi had been the first Kira, L would have quickly discovered the connection between the victims and the Yotsuba Group, ordered cameras to be installed in the meeting room, and deduced in a short time that Higuchi was by far the most likely candidate to be Kira.
Although there's no denying that Light is a genius, I think even someone of average intelligence would have tried harder to hide the fact that they were Kira. I honestly think Higuchi genuinely wanted to reveal himself as Kira, which I can understand given his ego.
Even child Taro Kagami strikes me as a more subtle Kira than Higuchi 💀