Rei Matsumoto

**Rei Matsumoto** (まつもと 礼, *Matsumoto Rei*) is a one-shot character who features in the anime. Appearing in Episode 8 of the anime and Chapter 9 of the manga, she is a human girl whom Yuzu runs into on the beach.

## Appearance

Rei has chestnut colored hair with light brown eyes and tan skin.

In flashbacks, she wore a sailor fuku, while during her time spent with Yuzu, she is seen only wearing a dark blue, midriff-baring tank top and denim short shorts. Although she might not be aware of it, the tank top also shows her cleavage.

## Personality

Not much is known about Rei's personality apart from her tendency to daydream and her desire for friends. However, these two traits have proven very much incompatible for most of her life, as her fantasies have led her to make up stories and acquire the reputation of a liar.

 History

### Early Life

Most of Rei's early life is unknown, but as reinforced by her first actions in her debut, she had acquired a reputation as a habitual liar. In truth she finds the real world dull to a painful degree. In fact, Rei has been falling into depression, and has lacked a real hobby or interest. Once Rei lost the will to attend school, Tanabe, the girl who sat in front of her in class, had started to grow concern for her, and came looking for her on this day to bring the handouts from class, only to find Rei's shoes sitting abandoned at the top of a cliff by the sea...

### The Sound of Waves

In the same plane as Konohanatei, a young fox named Yuzu stumbled upon an unconscious Rei washed up on a shore close to Konohanatei. After Yuzu approaching her to check and see if she was okay, Rei panicked and scared Yuzu just moments after waking up, then chased her around the beach until finally she lost stamina and collapsed onto her back again.

Despite the fox's previous shock, Yuzu continued to express concern, asking if the Rei was alright. Rei initially claims to have been shipwrecked, to which Yuzu offers her a manjuu. Rei politely turns her down and admits to lying, instead claiming to be a lost mermaid searching for her friends. After Yuzu helped her search for a short while (in the process getting her tail grabbed and subsequently asked about in the human's fit of curiosity), Rei finally admitted to not only having lied about being a mermaid, but also having friends to speak of.

She henceforth opened up to Yuzu about her story, about how she doesn't get along with her parents and classmates due to her habitual lies, yet doesn't find not lying and living with reality any better. Yuzu brought up her own perspective, enjoying life due to how her job as an inn attendant allows her to meet many different guests, to which Rei commented Yuzu at least had a job she liked, and that she herself felt she had no real aspirations or prospects for the future beyond a monotonous, presumably white-collar life.

Unique to the anime, she also brings up interests in picture books and drawing, but lacks the confidence to aim for an art-related career.

Finally, Rei apologized for deceiving Yuzu and attempted to leave, but sensing some sincerity behind her lies, Yuzu finally manages to console her, telling Rei that the lies she told had no real negative consequences and reminding her that some lies can be fun. Rei wished for a friend just like Yuzu, to which the blonde in question brought up the possibility that there is such a person that Rei doesn't yet know about.

Contented by the benevolent fox's words, Rei faded from the border world, while Yuzu returned to her coworkers, who went looking for her.

### Aftermath

Rei woke in the mortal world to the sound of Tanabe desperately trying to wake her up. Seeing the bespectacled classmate worried for Rei's life and well-being, she apologized for frightening Tanabe and managed to amuse and comfort her, claiming that she tried to catch a flying fish that she saw before falling and swimming back to shore. The two girls left the beach in much better moods than previously, having made earnest friends with each other.

In the anime, it is shown near the end of the same episode that she was introduced in that Rei grows up to become a picture book author.

## Etymology

* The name **Rei** means "salute, bow, ceremony, thanks, remuneration" (礼).
* Rei's surname **Matsumoto** is written in hiragana (まつもと), which has no special meaning. However, when written in kanji (松本), it could possibly mean "pine tree, fir tree" (松) (**matsu**) and "base, root, origin, source" (本) (**moto**).

### Manga

* The name **Rei** means "salute, bow, ceremony, thanks, remuneration" (礼).
* Rei's surname **Hasegawa** means "long, chief, boss" (長) (**ha**), "valley" (谷) (**se**) and "river, stream" (川) (**kawa**/**gawa**).

## Trivia

* Not much is known about Rei due to only having one appearance in the anime and manga each, that being the chapter/episode of her debut
* By the fact that Rei tends to make up stories and finding the real world dull could be that Rei could most likely have chūnibyō, a made-up condition that is known to result in the individual making up stories and appearing that way by coincidence.
* Rei could be like an innocent teen girl version of Arthur Fleck from the Joker movie.
* Rei is the first of two strange visitors in episode 8.
* Rei lives with her mother and stepfather, but she said her mother called her a liar harshly and her stepfather is a workaholic. It is speculated that she found reality dull and painful as she was probably unable to adjust to growing up and losing the childish trait of mixing fantasy and reality. It's shown in the second portion of the episode that her mother married her stepfather when she was still a young girl and he was a workaholic who worked to earn money to provide for his family. She probably was lonely and kept making up stories to try and make friends but it caused the others around her to call her a liar and thereby creating a cycle where she lies to escape reality but ends up being lonelier because of her mode-up stories.
* By the appearance of Rei's chestnut hair once being dark, along with her brown eyes, she might have a mixed heritage, if her hair wasn't dyed. One contributor suspected her as being part-Japanese, part-Iranian, and part-German.
* When Rei appeared on the beach, some viewers of the anime were confused at first due to the fact Yuzu has lived in a mountainous region with dense forests. It could be that Yuzu coincidentally ended up there. The confusion was intro saying Yuzu meets a strange visitor in the Inn.

## Gallery

Rei about to FaintRei asking Yuzu about her tailTalking to YuzuRei finding a friend in one of her classmates.Rei chasing Yuzu