| Overview |
- "I have to find her. She's more important than any of you understand. But you'll see! You'll hear her music, just like I did! Then you'll see!"
- —Ota Matsushita, on To-Witter
Ota Matsushita (真津下 応太, Matsushita Outa), known online as Mato and tAotemAs, is a main character in AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES and a character featured in AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative. On To-Witter, his account is Mato @Ota_Matsushita, and on Discord, his account is @tAotemAs#3395.
Ota is a 24-year-old NEET and Mayumi's son. An enthusiastic follower of A-set, he often pushes the boundary between idols and fans. He writes his own light novels and gets editing advice from his friend Mizuki.
In AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES, he is a primary person of interest during the New Cyclops Serial Killings, marked as a witness, suspect, and even victim depending on the branching story.
Design
Ota is 24 years old. He has brown hair, which is smooth bangs on the front but spiky from the back, with the majority of his hair covered by his red cap, and his eyes are a pale brown.
He wears a long-sleeved light-blue hooded sweater with the word GEEK on the front. Over this, he wears a grey zippered coat with a white star inscribed in a red and blue circle below each shoulder. He wears a red cap with goggles strapped above the bill. He carries a black backpack and wears a Rider Belt based around Kamen Rider.
Personality
Ota seems to be a normal irritable teenage boy, as he's very uncooperative when you first meet him. He also seems to have a bit of a rebellious side, seeing how he has a cell phone even though his mom doesn't want him to. He's also a huge fan of A-set and is desperate to get her attention, to the point where he makes multiple accounts online in order to insult her, and defend her at the same time.
Story
Early Life
Ota was born to Mayumi Matsushita and Takero Matsushita on June 8th, 1995. He lived at the Matsushita Diner his whole life, and grew up gaining an interest in animated series, video games, and sentai shows.
As a child, he developed an interest in collecting Odoroki-man Chocolate stickers. One day, when Ota was eight years old, Mayumi tried to buy some of his favorite chocolate as a gift, but she bought a Momonoki-man chocolate instead. Ota yelled at her for getting the brand wrong. Takero suggested getting her a Mother's Day gift to make it up to her, so they bought her a floral knife with a custom engraving on the handle ("Mom, I love you always") and a floral-pattern apron. Mayumi was moved to tears, and the three took a family photo together.
In 2011, the Kabasaki Chemical Plant explosion occurred. Because Bloom Park closed down, the diner lost a large portion of its customers, and was forced to go out of business. However, Ota's parents were determined to support him, so they took out a loan and continued working hard.
In 2013, Ota left to college. After his father died a year later, he dropped out and returned home. He told Mayumi he wanted to focus on his career writing light novels, and that he knew a publicist who could help him get started. However, Ota never published anything during his time at home.
Befriending Iris, Mizuki, and Amame
This section is a stub. Expansion needed.
Some time in the past, Ota met Iris Sagan and Mizuki, and as their friendships grew, he began to grow feelings for Iris. Ota and Iris spent a lot of time hanging out together, either shopping or at each other's houses. Once Iris started her net idol career as A-set and her videos on her Lemniscate channel, Ota was one of her biggest supporters.
Shoko Nadami's Case
On November 1st, 2019, Ota got a call from Mizuki after 8:00 PM. She told him that someone sent her a NILE message calling her to Bloom Park's merry-go-round, and she wanted him to come along since the area was restricted and she was scared to go alone. They arrived around 9:00 PM and discovered Shoko Nadami's body tied to one of the merry-go-round horses. Ota panicked and fled the scene, leaving Mizuki alone. He dropped his phone in a puddle, so he called the police with a nearby payphone.
The next day, Iris asked him if he knew anything about Shoko's murder, as it had been reported on the news. He told her he found the body and explained the details of the crime scene to her.
While waiting for Iris to finish recording a podcast, Ota met Kaname Date in the Lemniscate Entertainment Offices lobby. Date discovered the To-Witter sub-accounts Ota used to bash A-set while defending her on his main account. When Date threatened to tell others about the sockpuppeting, Ota agreed to talk, and told him about Mizuki contacting him, and later finding the body. He also explained how he met Mizuki, and the proofreading she did for him.
Eventually, Iris returned from her recording session, and Ota introduced her to Date. He asked Iris questions about the case, and she explained that Ota told her about finding the body. Before Date left, Iris asked Ota to film a video of her hugging Date and begging him not to leave, then used the video to blackmail him into taking her along to the crime scene.
A: New Cyclops Serial Killer
A: Witnessing "Renju" and "Iris"
On Saturday evening, Ota went to Akihabara to buy a new phone. While he was there, he witnessed Iris coming out of Sunfish Pocket around 6:00 PM, along with Saito Sejima in Renju Okiura's body. A few hours later, Ota spotted Renju's car stopped at a traffic light. To his surprise, he saw Iris (who was actually Saito at the time) behind the wheel, and asked what she was doing. Saito made up a lie about running an errand for Renju, and asked Ota to keep it a secret, since an idol driving without a license could damage her career.
TBA
AB: Runaway from Marble: Ota's Death
TBA
AA: Runaway from Matsushita Diner: Rescue of Iris
TBA
AA: Interrogation and Somnium
TBA
AAA: Mayumi's Arrest and Investigation
TBA
AAB: Hospital Rest
TBA
B: Disappearance of Renju Okiura
B: A-set's Visitor and Date
TBA
BA: Operation: Iris Rescue
TBA
BB: Operation: Iris and Hitomi Rescue
TBA
BB: Part-Time Employment
TBA
Appearances
| AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Day 1: sigAI | |||||
| Absent | |||||
| BRaiN | |||||
| Absent | |||||
| Day 2: saikAI | |||||
| Appears | |||||
| PaiN | |||||
| Absent | |||||
| Day 2: meikAI | Day 2: keitAI | ||||
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| Day 3: syokubAI | Day 3: gyoukAI | ||||
| Appears | Appears | ||||
| VaiN | VILLaiN | ||||
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| Day 3: rihAI | Day 3: gumAI | Day 3: kyuusAI | |||
| Appears | Appears | Absent | |||
| Day 4: youdAI | Day 4: jukkAI | Day 4: syuurAI | |||
| Appears | Appears | Appears | |||
| SWaiN | CURTaiN | MaiN: 1 | |||
| Appears | Absent | Absent | |||
| Day 4: jikAI | Day 4: syougAI | Day 4: kikAI | Day 4: irAI | Day 5: kenzAI | |
| Appears | Appears | Absent | Absent | Appears | |
| Day 5: zugAI | Day 5: seisAI | Day 5: jinnAI | Day 5: dakkAI | Day 5: jutAI | |
| Appears | Appears | Mentioned | Appears | Mentioned | |
| SUSTaiN | REFRaiN | MaiN: 2 | MOUNTaiN | ||
| Appears | Absent | Absent | Absent | ||
| Day 5: syokuzAI | Day 5: ihAI | Day 6: kekkAI | Day 5: kokkAI | ||
| Appears | Mentioned | Absent | Absent | ||
| Ota: END | Day 6: hiAI | Annihilation: END | Iris: END | Day 6: sousAI | |
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| CAPTaiN | CHaiN | ||||
| Absent | Absent | ||||
| Day 6: sanpAI | Day 6: hakAI | ||||
| Mentioned | Appears | ||||
| Mizuki: END | Three Months Later: kassAI | ||||
| Appears | |||||
| Resolution: END | |||||
Gallery
Trivia
Etymology
- Ota's online nickname, Mato, appears to be derived in a similar manner to A-set's fan name, Tesa, which is "A-set" in reverse. Mato is likely a reverse of Ota Matsushita.
- The last kanji in Matsushita (真津下), read "shita," can also be read as "ge," making his family name "matsuge" (まつ毛), meaning "eyelashes."
General
- Ota was originally planned to be a completely disproportionate character compared to the rest of the cast in the game (much like certain characters in the Danganronpa series). While all character models would be made with human-accurate proportions, Ota was planned to be in a completely different style, standing at around waist-height and having an extremely large head, which makes him somewhat resemble his father. His beta design was a long-standing design that Yūsuke Kozaki had been waiting to use on a project, and decided to try out for Ota. However, the disproportionate plan for Ota was scrapped, as it would be difficult to model and would look too detached from the other characters in the game, and they were not confident it would look good.[3]
- The team's opinion on the scrapped idea changed once the movie Spider-Man: Into The Spider-verse was released in Japan on March 8th, 2019. Seeing the various disproportionate Spider-folk appear next to each other in the movie in a way that looked great made the team realize that the idea was possible. However, by then the game was nearly done, with the Lemniscate video series already airing for over a month.[3] For AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES - nirvanA Initiative, a character with a disproportionate appearance was created seemingly inspired by the film and their previous attempts with Ota.
- In the chapter saikAI, Aiba states that Ota is registered as a "person of interest" in the MPD database. It's unclear what exactly he has done in order to be present in their database to begin with.
- Ota's Rider Belt appears to be based around the Kamen Rider transformation belts, specifically the Double Typhoon, worn by Kamen Rider V3 in the Kamen Rider series.
- Ota's laptop has various stickers placed on its cover, a decent number of them being A-set memorabilia.[4] These stickers are the same ones to be included in the Special Agent Edition of AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES.[5]
- According to an interview with Siliconera, Ota is Director Kotaro Uchikoshi's favorite character among the greyed out characters at the bottom of the cover art. Since Assistant Director Akira Okada answered Aiba, a character not included among the greyed-out characters, it was unclear on how specific Uchikoshi's answer was, until the Q&A panel at Anime Expo 2019, where he stated that, if he had to choose, his favorite overall character would be Kaname Date.[3]
- However, he has stated numerous times that he loves all his characters, so any answer would potentially change at any given moment.
- Ota's exact sexual orientation is unclear. His ARG counterpart has implied that he would devote himself to Iris regardless of gender[6], and his game counterpart has made a handful of suggestive jokes at Kaname Date throughout the game. The Lead Editor for the game, Alex Flagg, has stated, "When you're as horny as Ota, sexuality loses all meaning." However, any exact statements have gone unconfirmed.[7]
- In a fan-made Character Poll for AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES held on Twitter, Ota Matsushita came in 14th place, tying with Saito Sejima. Ota himself on To-Witter found himself surprised at how low he was on the popularity rankings.[8]
- Based on references and mentions he has given, it is possible that Ota is a fan of the following franchises:
- Re:Zero –Starting Life in Another World–[9][10]
- Kill la Kill[9]
- The Sword Art Online franchise, particularly Sword Art Online Alternative Gun Gale Online[9]
- Oreimo[9]
- Eromanga Sensei[9]
- The DARLING in the FRANXX[9][11]
- SSSS.GRIDMAN[9]
- The Kamen Rider series[9]
- Virtual YouTuber "Kizuna Ai"[9]
- Virtual YouTuber "Nekomiya Hinata"[9]
- Virtual YouTuber "Kaguya Luna"[9]
- Virtual YouTuber "Mirai Akari"[9]
- TRIGGER anime studio[9]
- J-LIST online store[9]
- FAKKU Hentai Publisher[9]
- Vocaloid "Hatsune Miku"[9][12]
- The Danganronpa series[13][14][15]
- Don't Toy With Me, Miss Nagatoro[16]
- The Pokemon franchise[17][18]
- My Neighbor Totoro[19]
- The Simpsons[19]
- My Hero Academia[19][20][10][21][22]
- NieR:Automata[23][11]
- King of the Hill[24]
- Fate/Grand Order[25]
- Cowboy Bebop[26]
- Kantai Collection[26]
- Girls' Frontier[26]
- Azur Lane[26]
- The Love Live! School Idol Project franchise[27]
- KonoSuba: God's Blessing on this Wonderful World![28]
- Team Fortress 2[29]
- Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?[10]
- Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai[10]
- Steven Universe[18]
- Log Horizon[30]
- Mob Psycho 100[31]
- The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, specifically the anime[32]
- Pop Team Epic[33]
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure[34]
- One Punch Man[34]
- Ghostbusters[35]
- New Game![36]
- Satoshi Kon and his films, specifically Perfect Blue[37]
- The Yu-Gi-Oh! anime[38]
- Cardcaptor Sakura[39]
- John Mulaney[40]
- Outlaw Star[41]
- Space Battleship Yamato, in particular the reboot Space Battleship Yamato 2199[41]
- The Zero Escape series[41]
- Punch Line[41]
- The Office[41]
- K-On![42]
- The Eric Andre Show[43]
- The Science Adventure series, particularly Steins;Gate[44]
- Super Smash Bros. series, particularly Super Smash Bros. Ultimate[45][46]
- Undertale[45]
- The Emperor's New Groove[47]
- YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World, particularly the 2017/2019 remake[48][49]
- Laid-Back Camp[50]
- The YouTube channel Fredrik Knudsen and its "Down the Rabbit Hole" series[51]
- The Atelier series, particularly Atelier Ryza: Ever Darkness & the Secret Hideout[52]
- SpongeBob SquarePants[53]
- Hunter × Hunter[54]
- Ghost in the Shell particularly the Stand Alone Complex Series
- and more (to be added)
- According to Kotaro Uchikoshi, Ota would be a fan of Black Mirror if he watched it, particularly Series 5 and the episode "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too", which released during the events of the Lemniscate YouTube series. The episode deals with fans wanting to interact and befriend their favorite pop idol, while also dealing with sci-fi elements in its story, reminiscent of Ota's relationship to Iris.[55]
- Ota's sockpuppetting accounts, Pongo Ponko, Optical protein fiber, and KetoneGrade, have a secret message hidden in the numbers marking their followers and follows. Pongo Ponko's followers are 912 and its follows are 1522, optical protein fiber's followers are 525 and its follows are 1521, and KetoneGrade's followers are 618 and its follows are 21389. Combined together, all the numbers are 9121522525152161821389, and applying a Letter-to-Number Cipher to the numbers result in the sentence "I LOVE U FR UCHI", confirmed to be intentional by Uchikoshi himself.[56]
- One of Ota's sockpuppetting accounts, KetoneGrade, is an anagram of "Ota", "Geek", and "Nerd". The word Geek appears in Ota's laptop as a sticker, which was also sold as part of the Day One edition of AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES.[56]
References
- ↑ Tweet from JP A-set
- ↑ Tweet from JP A-set
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Spike Chunsoft's Anime Expo 2019 AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES panel
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 2nd
- ↑ A-set video: "Sneak Peek at AI: THE SOMNIUM FILES LE/Day One Edition!"
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 29th
- ↑ Alex Flagg on Discord: "When you're as horny as Ota sexuality loses all meaning"
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: October 21st
- ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 Mato's list of accounts he follows, which contain official accounts of many anime series and other pop-culture media.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: April Fool's
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: April 14th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: April 2nd
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: February 22nd
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: April 10th (1st half)
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: May 17th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: February 26th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: February 27th (1st half)
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: April 6th
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 1st
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 30th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: April 12th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2020: February 3rd
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 9th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 11th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 12th
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 Mato: "Those 'who would win in a fight' questions are boring. We get it already. The real important question is: Pirates vs. Ninjas vs. Knights vs. Samurai: who is SEXIER?" (Mar 12th), followed by Mato: "I mean I'm kinda leaning toward pirates because" [image included with tweet] (Mar 12th)
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 13th (1st half)
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 28th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: March 31st
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: April 9th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: May 11th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: May 12th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: May 14th
- ↑ 34.0 34.1 To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: May 19th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: May 20th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: May 24th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: May 28th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: June 5th (2nd half)
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: June 18th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: July 12th
- ↑ 41.0 41.1 41.2 41.3 41.4 To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: July 16th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: July 19th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: August 23rd
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: September 3rd
- ↑ 45.0 45.1 To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: September 4th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: October 8th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: September 12th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: September 25th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: October 2nd
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: October 14th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: October 31st
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: November 19th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2020: January 14th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2020: February 11th
- ↑ To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: June 12th
- ↑ 56.0 56.1 To-Witter Archives Tesa 2019: November 29th
