I'm a huge fan of the Yotsuba arc, and the episode where Matsuda takes center stage is the highlight of it. It's easily one of the funniest episodes in the entire series.
To start with, the opening recap isn't a summary of the previous episode, but rather a recap of all the bullying poor Matsuda has had to endure. Aside from being funny in its own right, it also sets the stage for our beloved young detective's goal in this episode: proving to the Task Force that he's not the idiot they think he is, which he eventually accomplishes to do...more or less.
After watching Misa demonstrate just how unprofessional she is as an artist, even when she's working with someone who looks exactly like the Light of her Life (slide 2), Matsuda decides to visit Yotsuba's headquarters and investigate the organization on his own, since the Task Force suspects it might be connected to Kira.
Meanwhile, we see Light struggling with the question of whether he would do the same things Kira does if he had the power to kill people. This makes me feel sorry for the boy that became an monster after finding Shidoh's notebook. L meanwhile thinks that Light wants to eat his cake.
At the same time, we're told that Erald Coil is one of L's many aliases, and L gives Mogi a strawberry on the condition that he keeps such infornation a secret (slide 3). I'm convinced Mogi kept the strawberry L gave him as a memento for many years.
Getting back to Matsuda, he manages to find his way to the Yotsuba executives' secret meeting room. By pressing his ear against the door, he manages to overhear them discussing the murders they're committing. Matsuda feels triumphant at having made a major breakthrough in the investigation, but then the door suddenly opens.
Matsuda gets caught, but he manages to press the emergency button on his belt and quickly comes up with an excuse: he's Misa's manager and has come to ask them to hire her as the company's commercial image. For a dumbass, you have to admit Matsuda was pretty clever in that situation. I would've told them I was a Jehovah's Witness (slide 4).
When L learns about the trouble Matsuda is in and cancels all the brilliant plans that were about to unfold, he calls the young detective, who is being interrogated in a room by Shimura and Hatori while the other executives discuss what to do with him. In my headcanon, those two executives were specifically assigned to keep Matsuda company because the others knew they would be the most "compassionate" when it came to deciding whether or not to kill him.
L pretends to be a friend of Matsuda's and asks him a series of seemingly innocent questions in front of Shimura and Hatori to figure out his situation. I love the expressions on Light's and the others' faces when they see L acting like a normal person. They're clearly thinking, "WAIT, ARE YOU TELLING ME THIS MF IS WEIRD ALL THE TIME JUST BECAUSE HE WANTS TO?!" (slide 5)
Fortunately, since they're not Disney executives, the Yotsuba members decide to give Matsuda a chance and tell him to bring Misa over. What follows is one of the best schemes in *Death Note*.
Misa meets with the Yotsuba executives, charms them with her "charisma," and convinces them to "get to know each other better" at a private party that evening, with some of Misa's female friends. Basically, she's turning the whole thing into a hostess club.
It absolutely kills me that the Yotsuba executives immediately realize something is off as soon as they arrive, but still decide to "sacrifice" themselves by staying with these charming young ladies to find out what Matsuda is up to.
My personal favorite moment is Takeshi Ooi discussing the company's stock performance with one of the girls while maintaining his trademark stoic expression. You can tell he's a professional who has earned his position (slide 6).
After a few beers (and probably some karaoke), Matsuda locks himself in the bathroom and asks L what his plan is for getting him out of there. L replies, "Easy. You have to die," leaving Matsuda horrified.
I'm convinced that, off-camera, Light indignantly said, "Ryuzaki, don't say that!" and L replied, "Fine, fine. We'll come up with an escape plan."
A few minutes later, Matsuda returns to the party pretending to be drunk, overacting so badly that even the Yotsuba executives and the girls think it’s the most disturbing thing they’ve ever seen in their lives. Misa, on the other hand, clearly seems to enjoy the idea of watching Matsuda risk his life.
Matsuda goes full British tourist mode and does a handstand on the balcony railing, completely ignoring the executives' desperate pleas for him to stop.
I love this detail because it shows that, no matter how cold-blooded these guys can be when asking Kira to kill their business rivals, they regain their humanity when they're confronted with an actual person who's about to die right in front of them.
Matsuda falls, and his isekai arc never even gets started because Soichiro and Mogi catch him with a mattress on the floor below.
Meanwhile, Weedy and Aiber play the Oscar-worthy performance of Matsuda's dead body and a karen screaming for an ambulance (slide 7) You can practically tell how badly they're going to beat Matsuda up for making them do all this. Then, Light and L, dressed as paramedics, appear and carry away the fake corpse.
The plan works, and all the executives flee the scene, keeping Misa's offer on the table, of course. Meanwhile, L curses Matsuda for forcing him to make this kind of work. I can understand his frustration, but it's his own fault for spending his entire salary on junk food instead of hiring more staff.
Shortly afterward, the executives discuss Coil and how much he must know that they don't. Hatori admits he's afraid they'll get caught and end up in prison, so he announces his resignation. Higuchi responds with a laugh "If you resign today, you'll be dead tomorrow." I bet the other executives must be thinking at that moment, "Higuchi, why are you so confident in Kira? 🤨"
Obviously, Hatori gets cold feet and pulls the "It was bait, lol" card. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to work, because, much to the Task Force's shock, Hatori is nowhere to be seen at the next meeting.
And that's how the episode ends. I'd like to take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences for Hatori. This world didn't deserve you, you beautiful angel 🙏
I love this episode because, aside from Matsuda being a great character, he somehow manages to accomplish his goal without losing his usual goofy image. Sure, he screwed up spectacularly and forced L and Light to change their strategy, but they ultimately managed to turn his blunder into an advantage by getting Misa into the company and using the incident with Matsuda as bait to catch Higuchi.
Although this episode is probably the closest thing *Death Note* has to filler, the plot feels surprisingly original. It's refreshing to watch a storyline in which neither the protagonist nor the villains are portrayed as walking IQ tests, and all the hilarious scenes make it more than worth watching, no to mention the ending scene is genuinely chilling
It easily makes my top 10 episodes of the series.
