Takato Matsuki

Takato Matsuki, known as Takato Matsuda (松田 啓人 Matsuda Takato) in Japan, is a fictional character in the Digimon Tamers series.

Takato is a cheerful person and loves Digimon, loving to play the Digimon card game and drawing Digimon he made up. One such Digimon became his partner; Guilmon. He became fast friends with Henry Wong and his partner, Terriermon. He has a crush on Jeri Katou (Juri Katou) but is also shown throughout the series to have a bit of a liking towards Rika Nonaka (Ruki Makino) as shown in the 2nd special. Takato was voiced by Makoto Tsumura (Japan) and Brian Beacock (English).

Digimon Tamers
Takato is an only child, he comes from a low-income family who runs their own bakery, Takato is extremely imaginative, one day he draws Guilmon on a notepad and his recently acquired digivice scans the drawings to create him.

Battle Of Adventurers
Takato took Guilmon with him to Okinawa, where he was to stay with his cousin, Kai, and his grandfather. Initially, Takato didn't want to go but he soon after liked the experience of the islands. When Digimon started showing up in Okinawa, Takato, Guilmon and Kai took up battle with several of them. After saving Minami, the daughter of the creator of a V-Pet, Takato looked after her until she was kidnapped by rogue Digimon and taken to VP Labs. Takato, Growlmon, Kai and Seasarmon, Minami's "partner", took after her and rescued her and her father before engaging Mephistomon in battle. Henry, Rika and their partners soon joined the battle against the Ultimate Level Digimon. Takato was present when the battle continued into another dimension where WarGrowlmon, Rapidmon and Taomon created the "Trinity Burst" to defeat Gulfmon.

Runaway Locomon
Takato was phoning Rika and let it slip that the others were planning a surprise party for her. To try and make up for it, he suggested they go look at cherry blossoms together instead, but the appearance of Locomon thwarted the idea. Takato and Growlmon were separated after the initial attack on Locomon, with Takato ending up onboard one of the Digimon's carriages. Rika and Renamon soon joined him onboard, but Rika was soon overtaken by Parasimon and was made to attack Takato. Guilmon, who had caught up to Locomon, helped free Rika from Parasimon's control and Takato Biomerged with him to become Gallantmon to save Rika from another Parasimon. Finding out that Locomon's destination was a portal to the Digital World that was allowing an invasion of Parasimon, Gallantmon, MegaGargomon, Sakuyamon and the other Tamers teamed up to defeat the incoming Parasimon. When the battle became too much, Gallantmon Mode Changed into Crimson Mode and used his power to seal the gate just as Locomon went through it. Afterwards, Takato attended Rika's birthday party and when Rika left he followed her, but Renamon stopped him from going to her and let her be alone.

Triva
Takato's role as the "innocent young boy thrown into a fight where he reculant to fight back" is homeage to Shinji Ikari. Even his partner's evolved forms are homeage to EVA Unit 01.

Fandom
Takato is the lead male of Tamers and so gets a large share of fanfiction devoted to him. He is usually paired with either Rika or Jeri, but a small number of Fanfictions have appeared which pair him with Renamon. The Takato/Rika pairing (called Rukato by Fanshippers) is the most popular of the two pairings between Takato and either of the two female Tamers (other is Jurato by Fanshippers). A rare few fics have appeared pairing Takato with the mysterious Alice, a girl who only briefly appeared in the series.