How Canon Is It That L Dislikes Being Touched? I've Seen It Mentioned A Few Times And I Think It Might

how canon is it that L dislikes being touched? I've seen it mentioned a few times and I think it might be in the how to read but the how to read also has a few contradictions to canon. all I can remember without rereading the whole manga is that he definitely touched light during the yotsuba arc... does he actually dislike people aside from light touching him or is it a fanon thing?

Hello!

L's true feelings are usually left pretty ambiguous and up for interpretation for most things, and much of the time all the audience can do is guess about it based on his behaviour and his body language. He doesn't make physical contact with anyone in the manga too often, so it's pretty easy to remember the rare moments when he does. I personally don't really see him as completely touch averse, though he probably also isn't that used to physical contact with others. He might just be acting more reserved due to the specific circumstances of the Kira investigation, too. We must remember L is mostly interacting with everyone in canon either as their colleague/boss or because they are his suspect, so it is hard to know if he would behave differently in different circumstances. But he doesn't seem to balk at casual things like shaking hands with Light after the tennis match, for example:

Nor about slyly snagging Misa's cell phone from her back pocket (and maybe goosing her on purpose at the same time):

The other main instances I remember of L being touched are:

-When Aizawa grabs his shoulder during Misa's first broadcast. L appears to be distressed and to shy away from it/fold in on himself more, but this is possibly just due to the stressful nature of the scene or because Aizawa was being fairly aggressive about it:

-When Misa kisses him on the cheek and grabs his hand to dance. He appears to get a bit flustered, but he is also still making ironic jokes about their "friendships" (I think he is being sarcastic for the vast majority of this scene), so make of that what you will:

-When Light fist-fights with him, and when Light grabs him by the shoulders to make important points to him:

L is never the one to physically start the violent altercations with Light, but he isn't shy about fighting back with all his might either. And I think he might even purposely antagonize Light into these fights sometimes with his insulting words as well, but it's not something that we know for sure.

-There is also a moment in the manga where L grabs Matsuda's hand to stop him from telling Light the truth when he is in confinement:

-And a moment where L leans on Light's shoulder in a genuinely friendly way when they're making a breakthrough in the case:

I think the anime also added a few quirks to L regarding his physical contact with others. The anime put in a scene of him shyly tugging on Light's shirt sleeve to get his attention, and a scene of him looking lustfully at Misa's TV commerical / taking his frustration out on a banana peel, and of course the scene where he gives Light a foot massage on the stairs. The Relight anime OVA also showed L wiping his hand clean after shaking hands with Light, which I thought was a bit too campy/unsubtle for him, more like something Beyond Birthday would do 😆

Overall I think it's easy to interpret him either way about this stuff, but in the manga I don't find he comes off particularly phobic about it. He is probably a bit shocked and suspicious about affectionate gestures from his suspects, and he is defensive when being touched aggressively, and civil when being touched civilly. None of his reactions are unusual considering the context of the interactions, and he doesn't appear to think twice about the little ones he instigates like handshakes or shoulder pats, either.