She is hyperactive, impulsive, and otherwise childlike, evidenced by her tendency to speak in the third person. She attracts a large crowd while visiting Light near his school. Misa is very outgoing and is shown to be quite popular due to her career. She also has a cross on the collector's figure included with volume 5 of the DVD sets. Despite this, Misa is depicted with a cross in the first anime opening and in her model sheet image in the liner notes of the third anime soundtrack. Misa tends to wear cross jewelry, though the crosses were changed to " fleurs-de-lis" in the anime adaptations (most notably on the Misa finger puppet).
She also typically paints her nails bright red or dark purple and wears bright red lipstick. Misa often dresses in a Gothic and Punk fashion, though noticeably less after the time skip. Misa also appears to have black hair in the movie, which she was wearing in pigtails throughout the film. In the games, her eyes are usually light brown but have also been seen as pink. Her eyes turn bright red while using the power of the Shinigami Eyes, which allow her to see a person's name and lifespan above their head. In the anime, they alternate between light brown and blue. In the manga, her eyes are predominantly light brown however, they have also been shown as green. In the anime, it seems that she was a brunette at one point.
Misa is a short, slender, attractive young woman with long, straight, golden-blonde hair, most commonly styled with a portion of her hair in pigtails tied with red bands, but occasionally worn loose as well.