Matt (or his real name Mail Jeevas [canon] Maile Jeevas [headcanon]) is a Death Note character that first appears in Chapter 83: Delete, and during the second half of the Death Note anime, Episode 32: Selection. Along with Mello & Near, he is a part of the 4th generation of Wammy's House successors, coming in 3rd place. (or, at least thats what the whole fandom agreed on >:D)(canon only states he grew up in Wammy's with them). Wammy's House is an institution/organization run by Quillish Wammy & Roger, an orphanage for gifted children (and out of all of them, only a few are selected to be L, the greatest detective in the world's possible successors/heirs). Anywho, lets get to the interesting stuff!!

I haven't read the entirety of the Death Note manga, and haven't accumulated every volume yet, but I can account for his time in the anime. He is the Coolest Two Minutes Of Your Life TM (insert image that i am referencing here) (actually 1 minute and 9 seconds, but that'll be elaborated somewhere else on this page). He appears with Mello in a shabby apartment playing a DS, and then absolutely SLAYS his time in episode 35.
He successfully kidnaps Kiyomi Takada (a thing Mello and him arranged to do to provoke the other Kiras into giving more info on the death note. which worked btw, Mikami made an unnecessary killing of Kiyomi, leading to Near & Mello finding out more about the death note, ultimately leading to the Kira's defeat. i yap a lot, but seriously, Mello did so much of the work for the Kira case, and i wanna highlight it. anywho this page is about Matt) and he does it in his cool ass fucking car and he's shooting security guards out of his car window BOOMBOOBOMBOBMOBMOMPEWPEWPEWWWWWWWWWW PWNEDDD WE DONT PLAY NO GAMES HEREEE and he's driving like a crazy person but like he probably aint even got a license and just fucked around and found out when he first drove a car so. but THEN oh SHIT the police corner him!!!! D: but does that shake him?? NOOOOO!!!!!!! he goes and DRIFTSSSSSSSSSSS like fucking crazy into the police cars surrounding circle. the car went SCREEEEEEEEEEEECH. the car said u do not fuk with MATTTT. and despite being pointed at by like. 47 huge guns by the Japanese Police. oh and btw this is all happening in the Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo. and despite that he's like "heh im totally gonna survive these guys" he still did not have a single shooketh in his bones!! and then stepped out of the car and was like
"C'mon, gimme a break! Since when were the Japanese allowed to carry such big guns? Ya caught me. I'm a part of this whole kidnapping incident. I'm sure you've got a lot of questions to ask. ... You won't shoot-"
and he was SHOT and he was SHOT and he was SHOT and he was SHOT and he was SHOT and he was SHOT and he was SHOT and he was SHOT and he was SHOT and he was SHOT.
Even after the first few shots though he still stood straight up. maybe his spine was clandestine and we never knew. Still nonchalantly smokin his cigarette. crazy. he showed up and didnt play no games i tell ya folks. well. maybe he's a little reckless BUT he never backed down never what??? okay anyyways after that he ended up falling backwards towards the ground witha little thud. one bullet too many. the blood was permanently painted on his vest. And so many of us death note fans saw this CRAZY appearance and were like... okay some of us didnt actually remember the scene, but many of us were like. WHO IS THIS RIDE OR DIE WHERES WALDO GOGGLES NINTENDO DS MAN??? he just went and did allat?? we need more coverage and explanation!!

And thus, many diehard Matt fans were born. Including me.

Yk what drove many of us even crazier (in a good way)?? He's Mello's friend. The only person who wasn't his stern rival (Near), or just a pawn in his game (people of the mafia, etc). Someone he possibly confided in off camera, someone he probably had a deep soft spot for. Someone that loved Mello for who he was. Someone that was left of Mello's true family.

That part is really important to me, honestly. Mello was struggling, emotionally/mentally, and... he wasn't alone. He had someone to come to. He had someone to hug.

Mello is already a character who made me feel seen (which I will elaborate on when I work on the "Why Mello is a comfort character of mine" section on his page), and seeing someone that like. possibly stayed with him through thick and thin, and being possibly all accepting and all loving for him, just. It means so much to me, to know that even if I struggle with emotions sometimes (i have gotten soooooo much better with them over the years, and am great at dealing with my anger now) and go through mental instability, I am still loved, I am still valid, and I do have friends that have been with me through thick in thin in real life.

Overkeehl on tumblr actually explained this very well as well, for why mello & matt's dynamic is so captivating, and relatable on a deep level, for so many death note fans. I'll link the post they made here sometime, as it's just sooo good!

He may have only appeared for a mere minute or so, but he touched the hearts of many of us.

(Not trying to make him seem like a real life person by the way im wording this, it's just. ITS TRUE!! he DID touch my heart man. and hey, we all have our own super cool interpretations of characters, even if they are minor side characters. so yea!!!!!!)
Also, I think he's badass ngl.

For the record, Matt has many more appearances in the manga and you see his personality and etc. more in the manga, so thats where a lot of things we have gathered about him come from as well :)

+ Matt's birthday is on February 1st, 1990.
+ Matt's character was made mainly so that Mello wouldn't be lonely and would have someone to bounce back off of/assist him.
+ Matt has had multiple different depicted hair colors and color schemes for his character, fanon and canon. I like to call it his hair lore xD
+ Matt's death day is on the exact day Mello dies as well (January 26th, 2010). (isnt that so gay... shush tsugumi ohba a mellodramattic truther is speaking)
+ He has exactly 69 seconds of screentime in the anime.
+ Matt's car model is a 1968 Chevrolet Camaro RS/SS in the manga and a 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner in the anime. (AND I THINK HIS CARS LOOK SUPER AWESOME I LOVE THEM AJKHEFSFFSKFSAKSFKjkshdjfalfasfjahfjajfkasfjdjffjksfjfj)

Here's his car in the manga...

*insert anime pictures here. I HAVE TOO MANY TABS OPEN OF THIS MAN OKAY?!... ill put the images here tmrw or soon, trust*

...and here's his car in the anime :3c

Apologies for not citing the chapters like I did for the Mello shrine, I couldn't find them automatically when typing these quotes word-for-word from deathnote.fandom.com's page for Matt . I'll scavenge for where they came from myself, fear not. And, I'll add commentary for these quotes sooner or later. :)

"Bored outta my mind!"

"How many damn bodyguards does one woman need anyway?"

(To Mello)"It gets boring watching something that never changes."

"Since when were the Japanese allowed to carry such big guns?"

(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."

(His famous last words), "You won't shoot!"

Matt is one of my comfort characters, due to things I mentioned in the last paragraph, but I also personally relate to him a bit. He plays video games, he smokes, and... does both things A LOT. I don't smoke, but I do play video games. And, I personally have the tendency to get addicted to things, especially video games. I relate to him having coping mechanisms, and unhealthy ones too. I personally do my best to have healthy coping mechanisms though! I want what's best for me, and not what hurts me. Some examples of my coping mechanisms can be obviously video games, drawing/art, listening to music (I headcanon Matt's a huge music enthusiast like I am too!!) reading books and writing things, and just expressing myself through art really. and of course, death note characters. they make me so happy. matt make me so happeyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy. mello make me so happi. wammy house charactrers maek me so hap. i explode into confetti when i see them.
Other things I relate to Matt about and really like about his character are the goofiness/sarcasm he shows during his time. It's refreshing and unique to see from all the other death note characters who are all serious and whatnot!! And, I also tend to be a pretty goofy person. I also sometimes make careless mistakes like he does, especially with living with ADHD.
SPEAKING OF ADHD, I headcanon Matt has ADHD, which makes him 600 million times more relatable to me, and it makes sense for his character for some reason. Living with ADHD is a living hell for me, especially when it comes to doing stuff like school. It's hard to even function and do things living with it, and it's adding insult to injury when everyone around me says im r*tarded, lazy, stupid, or making excuses. I end up believing it a lot. But then I remember, hey, Matt goes through this too!! It makes me remember I'm not stupid, im not worthless, and im not alone. It's like im being given an indirect but warm, fuzzy hug remembering my blorbos (which includes Matt) in trying times.

Another huge headcanon I have given Matt is making him transgender. Believe it or not, Mello & Matt for some reason play a big part in the discovery of my gender identity, along with cosplaying them on roblox and finding out i feel euphoric when people call me he/him or assume im a guy because I'm cosplaying a guy. I ended up discovering I was trans around August-September 2024 (specific months, because saying "a few months ago" doesn't make sense because this is 7-8 months ago not 3-4 months ago lol). And, being transgender in a transphobic world, without supportive/understanding parents about it, or a supportive environment except for my best friends, is painful beyond words. So, I decided to have Matt experience the same thing. It helps a LOT to have Matt as a transgender comfort character honestly. He reminds me my gender is valid and that things will get better eventually and I can express myself when I have complete autonomy. (i know this sounds cheesy, leeb me alone!!)

I may have more things to add here later, cause I definitely have more to say about Matt and what abt him comforts me, but for now, I'll leave it at that. :)

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