Obata said that he felt too afraid to design the King of Death; he said that he considered placing the King of Death on a book spine but felt that the spine would not have enough space to depict the King of Death. The King of Death is included as a figure with the Japanese release of the final volume of the DVD series, and is mentioned in both the one-shot set three years after the manga's finale, and in the one-shot set eight and then ten years after the manga's finale.