Daphne (Daffy) Matsumoto is the youngest of the six LOCAS. Daffy is Japanese American, and comes from an upper class family in Huerta (Hoppers), California. She has two younger sisters, Nami and Noel.
In the 1980's, Daffy dresses in the same punk garb as her Locas friends, Maggie Chascarillo and Hopey Glass--though Daffy's stuff is often more stylish and expensive. She dyes her hair blonde because Maggie does so first, and she wears it in a frizzy, puffball cut for a number of years. As she reaches college age, Daffy goes back to her natural black shade. By the mid 1990's, Daffy is wearing conventional dresses. Daffy has the short, slight build typical of most Japanese women.
Daffy comes to know Maggie and Hopey in a curious way. Maggie and Hopey waylay the innocent Daffy and turn her over to Lois, a vicious woman with a taste for violent sex; but the two older girls have an attack of conscience and rescue Daffy from Lois' clutches.
Daffy remains a member of the Locas gang thereafter, but she seldom plays a vital role and often seems rather like a mascot. Daffy has an open, amiable personality and always retains a certain amount of innocence. Everyone seems to like Daffy--even the surly Terry Downe tolerates her--and she displays no snobbery towards the other and less wealthy Locas. Yet Daffy finds that her relative youth, inexperience, and sheltered background make her something of an outsider. She is somewhat timid, and more fearful of taking risks than her more rebellious friends. The other Locas take a protective attitude towards her but Daffy's innocence leaves her vulnerable, especially to men. She has an unhappy affair with a singer named Mike, a notorious "polar bear" who treats girls like dirt.
Daffy's only really annoying trait is her materialism. Whenever she sees something that one of her friends has (a pair of boots, for example), she wants to get the same for herself, no matter how expensive it is.
Unlike Maggie and Hopey, Daffy belongs to several other social circles. She is very close to two other punk Japanese girls, Itsuki Yeto and especially Kiko Kurihara. She is also a good friend of Tom-Tom, a punk girl of Daffy's own age who also comes from a wealthy family.
Though a lesser member of the Locas gang, back at her home Daffy is very much the older sister. She is considerably more mature than Nami, a spoiled girl who thinks only of herself and likes to manipulate men. Little is known of Noel, Daffy's chubby youngest sister.
Daffy leads the most conventional life of any of the Locas. She hopes someday to marry a nice, rich guy, and later she goes off to college. In her thirties she has a good job in the medical field and a steady boyfriend whom everybody expects her to marry.
Daffy is instinctively kind and helpful towards her friends, and they trust her. When Izzy Reubens is hospitalized for the second time, it is Daffy who visits Izzy and comforts her in in her illness. Daffy still stays in touch with Maggie and Hopey, serving as Maggie's bridesmaid at her wedding to Tony (Top Cat) Chase.
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