Matsuo

Matsuo (魔津尾) is an esper and a former member of Claw. He was part of the upper echelon called "Scar".

Appearance
Matsuo has untidy black hair, prominent lips, and a vertical scar passing through his right eye. He wears a green striped collared shirt, a black jacket, dark pants, and a black belt with many capsules.

Personality
Matsuo usually has an eerily calm demeanor but can be dramatic when provoked. People around him tend to find him creepy. He keeps evil spirits as pets and names their cute things like "Cookie-chan".

7th Division Arc
In Matsuo's first appearance, he confronted Dimple and tried to defeat him with his pet spirits. Matsuo fell for Dimple's clever ruse, but after revealing that he was carrying at least ten evil spirits, he defeated Dimple and trapped him in a container with other ravenous ghosts.

Later, he attempted to attack Mob and Reigen with five evil spirits, which Mob exorcised immediately, and the powerful evil spirit Candy-chan, which Reigen eventually exorcised. In the end, Matsuo was defeated by Dimple in one hit.

Keiji Mogami Arc
After the 7th Division of Claw was disbanded, Matsuo tried to make a living as a legitimate psychic. By coincidence, he worked alongside Reigen and Mob at the Asagiri mansion to cure Minori Asagiri. After witnessing the evil spirit Keiji Mogami, Matsuo decided he wanted him. He aided Dimple in bypassing Mogami's barrier to the mental world and indirectly helped in Mogami's defeat. After Mogami was released from Asagiri's body, Matsuo captured him in a vial and named him "Pudding-chan."

World Domination Arc
Matsuo reappeared when Mob was fighting Minegishi. He dropped a sticker-covered container after getting punched, and despite his warnings, a Claw lackey opened the container and released Mogami, inadvertently leading to Minegishi's defeat.

Powers & Abilities


Matsuo can capture and control evil spirits. He captures them by weakening them with his existing spirits before sealing them in a vessel fed with his own power; they soon obey his every command. Matsuo carried a sticker-covered jar during the 7th Division arc, which contained most of his spirit pets, and he would also release them individually from within film canisters. After the 7th Division arc, he is seen to have traded the jar for a sticker-covered flask instead. He can also send his spirits some psychic energy to boost their strength in a pinch. Despite his impressive ability to control spirits, Dimple states that he is a weak esper, since all his evil spirits return to him after attacking, likely for defense. This is proven true when he panics after Dimple prepares to attack him without the immediate protection of his evil spirits.

Quotes

 * "How about you become my pet?"
 * "You are the one who is looking down on me. Who told you I only keep two pets?"

Etymology

 * Matsuo means "devil, evil spirit" (魔) (ma), "haven, port, harbor, ferry" (津) (tsu) and "tail, ridge" (尾) (o).

Notes & Trivia

 * Matsuo had another mighty spirit he called "Marshmallow-chan". However, he never gets the chance to release it onscreen as Dimple emerges from his jar instead, having eaten all the other spirits within. It's also possible that Matsuo planned on naming Dimple himself "Marshmallow-chan", but Dimple resisted his control enough not to let this happen.




 * Matsuo is seen with a new set of spirits when he appears to assist Mob. In the manga, these spirits were easily defeated by the artificial espers of Claw; however, in the anime, they were eradicating them, but were defeated by Toshiki.
 * Matsuo's method of capturing spirits, by weakening them with his own creatures and then throwing a canister at them, is similar to the central idea of the Pokémon franchise.
 * Matsuo constantly urges to capture powerful evil spirits whenever he sees one.
 * If Matsuo focuses on one evil spirit too much, it makes the others jealous (and can lead to spirits cannibalizing each other). Matsuo didn't mind this, though.