Matt

Matt (マット, Matto), is an accomplice with the Kira case, acting as Mello's backup.

Appearance
Matt has brown hair and dark blue eyes that are hidden behind goggles. He is seen wearing a red and black striped long-sleeved top, and dark pants. His hands are covered with black gloves that reach just below the elbow, and he wears black boots.

Most fans suggest that Matt has red hair, however in the anime, it was clearly stated that his hair color is brown. In a Death Note DS game, Matt has silvery-blue hair and wears a brown and white fur-trimmed vest, along with a white and blue striped long-sleeved top.

Character
Little is known about Matt, having only appeared in roughly twelve panels of the manga, and little over 3 minutes in the anime. Matt is intelligent, being known as third place at Wammy's, though he was not a successor to L. He is shown as having a dry sense of humor; asking, "Since when were the Japanese allowed to have such big guns?" while standing at gunpoint. His specialty is technology. In the manga, Matt's hideout is shown to be littered with junk food and a box of cereal. According to How To Read 13, Matt likes video games and dislikes going outside.

Plot
Matt is first seen in the manga as Mello's accomplice in spying on Misa Amane, and later, Mogi and Aizawa. Matt follows Misa and observes her shopping with Mogi, then calls Mello with his cell phone. Matt describes Misa as "cute" and states that her age appears to be anywhere from fourteen to twenty years old. Later on, Matt calls Mello again, having been watching Mogi and Aizawa via camera. He informs Mello that the two have come out of the building and are having what appears to be a serious conversation. Matt makes another phonecall to Mello after having let his guard down and losing track of Misa and Mogi who used a delivery truck as a disguise to sneak out of the building. Matt then follows Mello to Japan in their pursuit.

He is only seen again during Takada's kidnapping, where he distracts her bodyguards with a smoke grenade launcher, allowing Mello to kidnap her. When he was cornered, he tried to put up another smokescreen. Matt calmy surrenders but was shot multiple times. In the anime, he hid a gun inside the back of his shirt which he tried to take out. The bodyguards later state that they never intended on bringing him in alive because of their belief and loyalty to Kira, claiming that Matt wouldn't reveal anything about the kidnapping and that death was the only punishment for his crimes against Kira. Mello later sees the news of his death broadcast on TV, and apologizes for having gotten Matt killed.

Later in the manga, a TV broadcast reports that his identity is unknown, and that the bodyguards were forced to shoot because he was showing a dangerous and aggressive behavior.

Conception
In Death Note: How To Read 13, Obata describes Matt's concept as "a young man who loves gaming and doesn't really care much about the world."

Trivia

 * Matt appears briefly in the Death Note One-Shot Special during Near's flashback. He is seen at Wammy's, listening to L talk to the children.
 * In the anime and manga, Matt is left handed.
 * Matt, Wedy, Demegawa and Ukita are the only characters in the series shown to smoke. (Note: the scene in which Ukita smokes wasn't shown in the anime)
 * In the anime, Matt's car is a modified version of a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 454 with details similar to a 1968 Plymouth RoadRunner.

Quotes

 * "Bored out of my mind!"
 * (To Mello) "Anyway, it's too boring to keep watching something that has no movement."
 * (To Mello, about Misa) "Then why don't we swap our jobs? Yours would be better, since you can listen secretly to a cute girl..."