Yoshi Matsumoto

​Yoshi Matsumoto is a character in High School Life of Hell. He holds the title of Super High School Level Poet. . He began writing at a young age, and, with the help of his parents and a publishing agency, managed to work his way up to obtaining his title.

Appearance
Yoshi is a tall young man who usually dons a gray and brown scarf and black dressy school uniform. He has short, spiky purplish-gray hair and gray eyes. He always has dark circles under his eyes from a constant lack of sleep, and his stress and bad habits have left him somewhat underweight and malnoursihed. He's not very healthy, and has very pale skin because of it.

Personality
Yoshi is a temperamental, easily-bothered, and somewhat rude young man. He is normally pleasant, to an extent, but will often insult others or threaten them to get them to leave him alone whenever he is approached. He, in reality, just wants to be left alone, often times due to his stressed out state of being that makes him so touchy in the first place.

He, often times, doesn’t get enough sleep, due to his frequent insomnia brought upon him by his approaching deadlines and easily stressed mind set. This makes him easy to bore and even more easy to put to sleep, and he often dozes off without noticing in even odd places or settings.

Despite being often times seen as rude or touchy, he would never actually go through with his threats nor means any insults that leave his mouth. It just comes as natural instinct to him to be snarky and snap at others, when in reality he just needs someone to help him through his pressured life style. He feels he can rely on only himself, when someone to help him would really come as use to him.

He often times blushes upon being found sleeping, and will deny such a fact to the very end. He hates being called lazy or be taunted, and will retort the perpetrator until he eventually just storms off. He's very gentle, in all actuality, under his angry layer of personality, and can be very caring and sweet to the right person.

Pre-Imprisonment
Yoshi grew up with a normal childhood in Japan. He discovered his love for writing at a young age, being barely in junior high by this time. His parents helped him self-publish various works of his, and he became known as a prodigy within the poetry community.

His skill and hard work were soon rewarded with a sponsor. However, his love for writing was challenged after this. The numerous deadlines they placed on him began to pressure the youth, eventually causing him to come to forget what it was he was even writing for in the first place. He missed the times when he wrote strictly for himself and for fun, and now found his work much lower quality than before, even though his fans still loved any thing he published, regardless of if he thought it was garbage or not.

He often lost sleep because of such stress being put on him, and developed a loathing attitude. He now hates his title and what he does, and wishes he could go back to when he didn't have any fame or glory like that. When he was invited to attend Heaven’s Summit Academy, he readily accepted; hoping to rekindle his ability to express his real thoughts through his work in the hopefully peaceful environment. He attended Heaven's Summit at the age of 17.

High School Life of Hell
Yoshi was immediately angered when he came to know of Monokuma's plans, cussing out the creature and claiming he would 'tear him to pieces' at one point. Of course, his words were empty, as always, especially given the punishment that surely awaited him for attacking the creature.

He chose to stick to himself in the school, but still worried for the others despite his already independent nature. So, he stuck around them at times, regardless of telling them he just wanted to be alone. He slowly started to grow closer to them, even though he tried to hide it with insults and harsh words.

When he found out Daichi had died, he reacted in the only way he knew how. He became immediately angry beyond repair after learning of the crime, and wished to stop whatever murderer was loose among them. He helped the others investigate despite his inward want to run and hide, wanting nothing more than to find out who had killed his fellow captive. However, when he found it was Neil and learned of his reasons behind the murder, his blood lust faded. He didn't want any of this other friends to die, but there was nothing he could do anymore. He secretly held back his tears when the butler was killed, his inwardly gentle nature getting the better of the poet. He always tried to hide how rattled this situation made him, but it was times like this that tested his strength of will.

Although he usually isn't very social, the poet had fun at the pool party, spending time with the others and actually managing to ease his stress somewhat.

It was a repeat for Yoshi when Nobu and Shiori died; the male becoming enraged and ready to kill whoever hurt them, while covering up his own fear and hurt from their deaths. However, upon hearing Tsubaki's story, he could only feel even worse about the whole situation. Once she was executed, he felt somehow regretful.

The next trial was one that he wished he was never involved in. The school was not calm after Tsubaki's death, despite him wanting it to be. Charline had started spending a lot of time with him, and even watched over him while he napped. Neither of them seemed to like all the stress of being around the others, so started hanging out more, growing closer. They even explored the third floor together, and slowly he felt at ease with the fellow creative soul's presence.

However, then, he received a note to meet up with an apparent mole the night before Hana's death. He went to the meet up spot, the threat on the note that Charline would die if he didn't enough to make him take the chance. In the art room, a vanilla folder awaited him, a photo of him and Hana together, from some event he could not remember, and blackmail inside of it. The note promised that Charline would take care of their 'problem', and that they would escape together, but if he told anyone, he would be the one to die instead.

He was shocked beyond belief, and tried to sneak back to his room, scared out of his mind. However, he bumped into Katsuro, barely keeping his cool before all but running back into his room to hide. When the fire alarm went off, he already was on edge, not sleeping. He was not expecting Hana to die, but knew Charline was somehow behind this, and found himself watching her with worried eyes. She shot him glances as well, and he could see the insanity in her gaze almost. He was afraid.

The trial and investigation left him in no better of a mood. He tried to take the blame for Charline, after pinning it on Konan. He fought to try and hide her identity as the killer, not wanting his one close friend in this place to die. He couldn't succeed, however, and starting sobbing once she was found guilty, scared at her outbursts and visibly crumbling. He was surprised when Ichiro seemed almost concerned for him, but paid him no mind, hiding his face while Charline was killed, damaged beyond repair at the end of the event.

The next day, he hardly ate anything at breakfast, and ended up leaving before long, Ichiro not long after. He went missing for the whole next day, but Konan and Anastasia checked up on him, making sure that he was alive. He looked horrible, however, and seemed to be losing much sleep. The day Monokuma revealed his next motive was when Yoshi next appeared out of his room, drinking a bit of coffee Barry gave him but seeming distant otherwise and almost dead. Upon being given his motive, he tore up the slip and put it in the cup of coffee before limping out, presumably back to his room. Ichiro followed not long after, but nothing else is known at this time about how he was really feeling during all of this. Katsuro described him as looking "like a mess".

At the end of Chapter 14, it is noted a figure held a photo of him and Ichiro kissing.

Ichiro Yagami
From the start, Yoshi and Ichiro have been at each other's throats. Ichiro's prideful, uptight, and rude nature clashes violently wish Yoshi's own irritable, snarky, and angry one, and the result is almost always a fight. Threats have passed between them like the plague, and one can never seem the speak without the other having something to say about it. They are intense rivals, of sorts, or perhaps enemies.

Yoshi claims to not be able to stand him, and Ichiro does the same, but they have a certain type of chemistry between them at times that suggests something more. One such example is after Charline was found guilty. Ichiro was shown to be visibly affected by seeing Yoshi so upset, and even worried for him, something that seemed very odd for him. It was even more odd that Yoshi was shocked by Ichiro's own actions, then, but the truth behind this sudden change is still unknown.

Ichiro seemed to leave the room after Yoshi on both occasions he stormed out following the trial, and he seemed to show some sort of care and concern for him at certain points. However, he quickly hid it. A photograph of Ichiro and Yoshi kissing is seen at the end of Chapter 14, held by an unknown figure, but their current relationship is unknown.

Charline Morin
Charline and Yoshi were always sort of birds of a feather. From the very beginning of their imprisonment together, their artistic talents kind of melded together perfectly. They were always neutral towards each other, until after Tsubaki's execution. They started getting closer after that, and began spending more time together, so much so that Yoshi felt safe around her, despite the circumstances. He, in no way, had a crush on her, but she did on him, which he was not aware of.

Once he was shown of her plans to get them both out of the school, he was mortified. But, he was too afraid to do anything to stop it, and everything went by much too fast for him. The jealous and love-sick artist murdered Hana with the help of the mole, and he could do nothing but watch as she did. He tried to defend her during the trial, hoping that maybe if they escaped together that would be enough. However, it wasn't, and once she was found guilty, a part of him broke. She tried to tell him she loved him before she was dragged away, but didn't get it out, which might have been for the best since he didn't feel the same.

He was devastated after the trial, and not quite okay at all. He had lost his only friend, and blamed himself for it.

Hana Inoue
Yoshi and Hana were not very close while in the school, except for the occasional toss of insults towards one another. Hana seemed to love to pick on him, and he resented her for it. However, the photo of them together the mole gave to both Yoshi and Charline seems to hint that they had some sort of past together. What could it mean?