Emno: Third meaning in a screenshot of “Doki Doki Literature Club“
January 10th, 2018
(Spoilers and quotes will be marked with cursive. Quotes from this game might be offensive to some people.)
In the screenshot of the indie computer game “Doki Doki Literature Club”, which is part of the genre of “visual novels” 1 and in the style of Japanese animation (also known as “Japanimation” or “Anime”), we can see three young women or girls, probably in high school (judging by the desk chairs in the background).
The girl on the left with the pink hair and pink eyes (which adds to the surreal look of the picture, since pink and violet eyes aren’t naturally possible in real life without the use of colored contact lenses2) has her mouth open and is apparently saying something to the others, to which in turn the girl in the middle is somewhat taken aback and the girl on the right completely shocked by. Without the dialogue this picture could have many interpretations.
What could she be saying to her that shocks her so?
In the second picture we get to read her line. The girl supposedly called Yuri asks (supposedly) the girl with the long violet hair:
“Here’s a suggestion. Have you considered killing yourself?”
Whatever our preconceptions were of what they might possibly be talking about, this was surely not one of them. “Doki Doki Literature Club” is infamous for it’s “twists” and subversion of the “typical” storyline of a visual novel set in a Japanese high-school. Usually these games are narrated from the perspective of a young male going to a new school and meeting new people, usually women, who he can then pursue romantically or build friendships with.
In this game though, all that is thrown out the window when the characters start to become extremely hostile, showing signs of depression, mania and other mental illnesses. All the girls except one (who is the “puppet master” behind their behavior) “go insane” and start having more and more drastic behavior, specifically surrounding our protagonist (Quote of Sayori, the girl on the left: “I like you so much that I want to die!”; of Yuri, the girl on the right: “I’ll give myself paper cuts so your skin oil enters my bloodstream [talking about a piece of paper the protagonist touched]). The somewhat innocent “dating simulation” turns into psychological horror, when eventually all the girls except the one in the middle commit suicide.
Just by looking at the picture with no context, we cannot determine what it might be about, other than some preconceived notions of what these types of images are usually depicting.
After we are given context we start to see the second and third meaning behind the picture, especially in the character’s behavior and relation to one another.
1: novels which use audio and/or visual effects to enhance a reading experience primarily similar to the genre of “choose your own adventure” novels (the player is often provided a multitude of choices which decide the plot of the story, often encouraging multiple playthroughs and ranging from a very complex choice structure to the same outcome no matter the player’s choice)
2: Anime is notorious for using out of place or extremely rare colored hair, eyes, skin, etc.