Welcome to the Anime Walk of Fame, a series of retrospectives on the many characters of the anime world. You'll see all your favorites along with a few that deserve more than their reputations give.

So sit back relax and enjoy the show.

Not Near's Fault He's Not L

Going through unpopular opinions and hot takes you start to see a few repeat ones that aren't as true as you might think.

Near is the successor to L after he is killed by Kira, the response to the character was about as welcome as you expect having to take the mantle of such a major popular character in Death Note meant Near never really had a chance to be liked and those who were more accepting hated Mello more.
In most arguments, Near is too similar in demeanour, personality and almost mannerisms as well but the fundamental difference is that rather than quirky habits, he treats everything like a puzzle, including the case that ultimately brings down Light Yagami, each puzzle resembling a toy from your average toy box.
In fact his detective skills turn out to be better suited for taking down Light as opposed to L who engaged Light more directly, the downfall of Kira being the grand finale we deserved.
Had L not been such a good character, Near wouldn't get such hate and will probably be respected with the same grandiose as L did.

Matt is Anime's Most Pointless Character

We've done a useless character with Leena Toros, how about a pointless character.

Matt is Mello's friend, he likes computer games, is quite lazy and is the 3rd most intelligent out of Wammy's orphanage behind Mello and Near.
He begins by failing to keep track of Misa Amane, Mogi and Aizawa, then in a final scene he's shot dead during the kidnapping of Takada.
His entire manga presence is 12 panels while his anime screentime is 69 seconds, barely over a minute long.
His popularity in the fandom is odd, I suppose he's a good character to work off for a prequel but even then, his impact on the story is so low that you wouldn't miss him if he were cut, especially when you consider Mello is the type of character who wouldn't have friends with his horrific inferiority complex.
It's even suggested by the author that Matt was created just to give Mello a friend.
So that's Matt. Side characters in OVAs have more impact than he does.