After his initial success in the Comic Open contest, he began touring France in 1986, an event that became a significant point in his career.

Instead, he came in contact with Yasuki Hori, editor at Shogakukan, who pushed him to draw a manga about boxing, which became Zero and was published in the magazine Big Comic Spirits between 1990 and 1991.

Fusanosuke analyzes that these manga follow a path that has been developed after the success of Katsuhiro Otomo and are influenced by French bande dessinée.

[13] Matsumoto has cited Moebius, Enki Bilal, Katsuhiro Otomo, Shotaro Ishinomori and Tsuchida Seiki as influences on his work.

Matsumoto influenced younger manga artists like Eiichiro Oda,[16] Masashi Kishimoto,[17] and Daisuke Igarashi.