Touta Matsuda

Touta Matsuda (松田 桃太, Matsuda Tōta) (romanized as "Tota Matsuda" in the Japanese manga) is the youngest, yet most outspoken member of the Kira investigation team. He takes the alias Taro Matsui (松井 太郎 Matsui Tarō) while working with L, and also becomes Misa Amane's manager once she and Light join. Despite working to capture Kira, which he knows must be done, Matsuda admits that a part of him recognizes the good that Kira is doing, even if he knows it is the wrong way to go about it. As such, he is somewhat supportive and sympathetic towards Kira's followers, though he doesn't let it get in the way of his work. Despite his excitable, naïve personality, Matsuda manages to stay alive through quite a few dangerous times, staying alive far into the future of the series. He is voiced by Ryō Naitō in the Japanese anime and Vincent Tong in the English dub. In the film, he is played by Sota Aoyama.

Obata described Matsuda as "hard to predict and thus hard to draw." Obata said that Matsuda's character concept consisted of an "average young detective" and that Matsuda's character had "nothing unique about his features and his actions weren't consistent, so I didn't like him. [laughs]" Obata added that he was a "Matsuda-type" person and therefore did not like seeing "my own inconsistency" in Matsuda. Obata described Matsuda as the sole character who "looks younger" during the Near and Mello arc.