Mato
Kanji	マトー
Rōmaji	Matō
Characteristics
Race	Unknown
Gender	Male
Professional Status
Affiliation	Grand Magic Games
Occupation	Grand Magic Games' Official Referee and Mascot
Base of Operations	Sky Labyrinth
Personal Status
Status	Active
Debuts
Manga Debut	Chapter 266
Anime Debut	Episode 155
Portrayal
Japanese Voice	Keiji Fujiwara
Image Gallery

Mato (マトー Matō)^[1] is the official referee and mascot for the Grand Magic Games' events.^[2]

Contents 1 Appearance 2 Personality 3 Synopsis 3.1 Grand Magic Games arc 4 Trivia 5 References

Appearance

Mato's actual appearance is currently unknown, as he's often seen with his costume head of a giant pumpkin with large eyes and mouth. He wears a striped shirt with white cuffs, a black shirt underneath, a dark cape with white edges and white underside, a pair of white pants, white boots, white gloves, and a dark witch-like hat.^[2] On the backside of his cape the word "MATO" is written.^[2] In the third day, Mato's hat is bigger, with flaps coming out of his head. Strangely, Mato's appearance is apparently inconsistent: In the preliminary event, Mato is tall, with small eyes and his pumpkin head is completely round; In the first day, his eyes are larger, thinner, and his pumpkin is flattened on the poles; In the third day, he's small, doesn't have separated teeth, and doesn't have the thick black borders of his eyes. This last look, however, remains for the rest of the event.

In the anime, however, his looks don't change like they did in the manga. In fact, the anime's depiction is quite different from all the manga ones: It's similar to his Third Day's look, but taller, with larger head and mouth, separated teeth, smaller hands, and thick eye liners and lips.

Personality

He's often seen smiling and dancing, but has a bit of a dark personality, as he smiles when he announces that they won't take any responsibility for deaths in the labyrinth.^[2] He has the tendency to end his phrases with "Pum".^[2]

Synopsis

Grand Magic Games arc

He appears as a hologram floating above Crocus, announcing the start of the preliminary event of the tournament, Sky Labyrinth, and explaining its rules.^[2] He is later seen congratulating the teams that have passed onto the main event, including Team Fairy Tail A who he disappoints by informing them that they barely made eighth place.^[3]

During the first event, "Hidden", Mato calls for the participants to gather in the center of the field. Gray Fullbuster asks what kind of person Mato is, to which the latter casually replies that he is a pumpkin. Eve Tearm says that the same question is asked every year, and he and Beth Vanderwood bow towards Mato, remarking that such a costume is difficult to handle. Mato, however, says that he enjoys it. After this, he raises his hands, and a giant town appears, effectively beginning the Hidden event.^[4]

When Rufus Lohr states that the event wasn't interesting and that he would win it easily, Mato gets a bit constrained.^[5] After the event is concluded, Mato announces the next line of competitors for the first battle event, and invites them to the arena: Lucy Heartfilia and Flare Corona.^[6] He is later called onto the field after Orga Nanagear's battle with War Cry, as the Sabertooth Mage has decided to sing a song and requires a microphone. Handing a phone to him, Mato proceeds to watch the man scream and pump his fists, slightly confused by the action whilst the crowd screams and cheers.^[7]

The Second Day is Mato's day off, so he doesn't appear announcing events or refereeing the battles.^[8]

Upon Mato's return on the third day, he reveals the reason for his absence, and proceeds to explain the rules of the day's event, Pandemonium. He states that the ground for the Pandemonium event is inside a castle infested with monsters of varying strength, one of which is supposedly on par with the powers of a Wizard Saint, and the participants earn their points by defeating them. He later allows the competitors to pick their "challenge right" (the order in which they are going in), with Erza Scarlet drawing out number one. Mato taunts her, but is taken aback when Erza declares she will be taking on all 100 of the monsters.^[9] After Erza conquers the event, Mato announces to the seven remaining teams they have a prepared a simple game to decide their ranking.

The event is revealed to be the MPF Event. Mato explains that the players are to attack the magical device MPF, which, in turn, will measure the strength of their magic, and provide numerical representations where the rankings are to be based upon. He adds that the same order for the Pandemonium event is applicable.^[10]

Team Mermaid Heel's Millianna plays first and scores a good 365 points, followed by Nobarly, and Hibiki Lates. When Team Raven Tail's Obra only garners a total of four points, Mato states that there are no re-dos, while Cana Alberona steals his witch-like hat. He then announces the rankings thus far, as Orga Nanagear steps up and scores a whopping 3825 points. Orga begins to sing but is cut off by Mato.^[11] Afterwards, Jura Neekis asks for permission to go all out, to which Mato agrees. The Wizard Saint employs Rumbling Mt. Fuji, and manages a staggering 8544 points. Mato reveals such score makes a new record to the MPF game. At this, Cana steps up, and, to everyone's surprise, casts Fairy Glitter, which allows her a 9999—the highest possible score in the MPF system. Cana proudly exclaims about Fairy Tail's glory, and the crowd goes wild, but Mato suspiciously grins at Fairy Tail's scoring run.^[12]

On the third battle of the third day, a fight supposed to be held between Laxus Dreyar and "Alexei", the Raven Tail Mage uses his Illusion Magic to make the audience think that Laxus is being beaten, while he, revealed to be Ivan Dreyar, and his team secretly fight Laxus.^[13] Laxus, however, overpowers them, and manages to cancel the effects of Raven Tail's illusion Magic. Mato gets shocked upon finding out Alexei's identity, as Guild Masters are prohibited from participating in the Games.^[14] As the arena calms down once more, he proceeds to announce the fourth battle of that day, being one between Fairy Tail A's Wendy Marvell and Lamia Scale's Chelia Blendy.^[15] Watching the fight as the judge, Mato seems tense when Chelia appears to fall to one of Wendy's attacks, and when the girl does not stand for a bit, the pumpkin man steps forward to declare the fight over, only to be stopped when Chelia gets back to her feet to continue fighting.^[16] After the battle ends in a tie and Fairy Tail boosts their standings for the day, Mato comments on how unexpected it is, wanting to give it a thought.^[17]

At the end of the Fourth Day's Event, Naval Battle, Lucy Heartfilia, one of the competitors, is brutalized by Minerva before her defeat in the event. After Arcadios' order to stop the match immediately, Mato, in shock and fear, tells Minerva to stop.^[18] Mato announces the start of the fourth day's third tag battle involving Team Fairy Tail's Natsu Dragneel and Gajeel Redfox versus Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney from Team Sabertooth.^[19]

In the fifth and final day of the Games, Mato is introduced by Chapati Lola as the Day's guest commentator. Chapati asks him if it's alright for him to be a judge, to which Mato replies that it's fine, and tells the competitors to do their best. The final teams are then announced by Chapati, from the last one to the first one in the ranking. When Team Sabertooth enters the stadium with new looks, Mato gets excited and exalts the team.^[20]

In the final event, the competitors must defeat each other to earn points, as explained by Chapati. As they start to move around Crocus, Mato tells everyone to do their best.^[21] The events continue, after Mato reviews the rules of the Game ^[22]. When Rufus activates his Magic, Mato comments that it is very beautiful.^[23] Eventually, as the participants are defeated one by one, Mato also announces that the number of Mages in the event has quite decreased.^[24]

After Rufus's defeat at the hands of Gray, Mato becomes shocked with this outcome thinking Rufus was going to be the clear winner while Chapati and Yajima discuss Fairy Tail's advantage over the other teams.^[25] Later on in the event, Mato stands in absolute shock when Minerva interrupts an already tense battle between Kagura and Erza to make the fight a three-way struggle.^[26] As the three-way battle continues, Mato and his fellow commentators are astounded by Minerva's Yagdo Rigora after it devastates a part of the city.^[27] They are shocked even more so by Erza and Kagura's resilience, after seeing them rise from the attack unscathed.^[28]

As the event goes on, Chapati begins to worry about the conditions of the city. Mato tells him that it will be fine as they will just rebuild the city with Magic the day after.^[29] Later, with more fights about to commence across the city, Mato searches for Sting with the Lacrima cameras seeing how he is the only one yet to be located.^[30] When Kagura and Erza battle, Kagura decides to unsheathe her sword, and Mato covers his eyes in horror.^[31][32] Mato is amazed when he sees Erza seemingly win.^[33]

With the battle between Rogue and Gajeel well underway, Chapati is surprised to see this change in Rogue as he gains the advantage blind to the dark force behind his change. Yajima tries to give reason for this comeback while Mato is delighted to see some more action with his fellow announcers.^[34] After entering Iron Shadow Dragon Mode, Gajeel unleashes a powerful attack which defeats Rogue and creates a devastating impact, greatly shocking Mato.^[35]

As Jura, Laxus and Orga begin their battle; Mato is astonished to see Orga defeated in one attack by Jura, along with the rest of the spectators.^[36] He's later baffled as Laxus is also smashed into the ground by Jura, so much so that he even fails to say his catchphrase correctly.^[37]

As Gray and Juvia defeat Chelia and Lyon, and Erza defeats Minerva, Mato is left in shock as Fairy Tail gains a clear lead with still all five members left in the game. Mato is then left in disbelief over the thought of Sting taking on all five members of Team Fairy Tail by himself after Sting's chances are revealed.^[38] Mato, amazed to see that all of the members of Team Fairy Tail are still standing, watches in disbelief as the crowd viciously cheers for Fairy Tail.^[39]

Trivia

• Mato is the theme of some Grand Magic Games' merchandise, such as hats^[40] and costumes.^[41]

References