Yuri (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

Yuri
Doki Doki Literature Club! character
Yuri in Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!
First appearance	Doki Doki Literature Club! (2017)
Created by	Dan Salvato
In-universe information
Nationality	Japanese

Yuri is a character in the 2017 video game Doki Doki Literature Club! She is a shy girl and someone romantically interested in the protagonist of the game. Over time, her mental illnesses become evident, including her self-harm tendencies. Described as both a dandere and kuudere, she is a member of the literature club, and a frequent rival to fellow member Natsuki. Her self-harm tendencies become more pronounced due to the game's antagonist Monika influencing the in-game files, which culminates in her stabbing herself to death after confessing her love for the protagonist.

Her mental illness, particularly her self-harm tendencies, have received commentary from critics, with one writer identifying her death as one of the most shocking moments in a video game. One discussed how it contrasted Sayori's "intelligent" depiction of mental illness, while another felt that her behavior later in the game was out of character compared to her behavior in the beginning.

Concept and creation

Yuri was created for Doki Doki Literature Club! by Dan Salvato. She is a shy girl, and someone who is romantically interested in the game's player character. As the game progresses, signs of mental illness become more evident, including her obsessing over the player character and exhibiting self-harm tendencies, concealing her cutting with long sleeves. She also displays signs of co-dependency. These traits become more severe due to Monika's interference with the video game and Yuri's files.

When designing the cast of Doki Doki Literature Club!, Salvato created stock characters based on anime archetypes that were given Japanese names to emphasize a pseudo-Japanese atmosphere. To emphasize this, he also had the characters' dialogue read as though it was poorly translated from Japanese. Salvato began to recognize the "reality" behind Yuri and the others in the game. He sought to connect with the characters, and thus explored their "insecurities and realistic personality traits." He noted that Yuri was influenced by the depression those in his life suffer from.

Due to Salvato's lack of artistic skills at the time, he created the designs of Yuri and other characters in a free anime-creation program, which were used in a test version of the game. Salvato recognized that a product of such quality would not satisfy potential players, so he made a request to his friend, a translator for Sekai Project, for sketches of school uniforms and hairstyles for the characters. Salvato then handed initial visual development over to Kagefumi, who left the project very early on. After Kagefumi's departure from the project, Salvato contacted the freelance artist Satchely, who created the final character sprites over the course of the following few months. Yuri's sprite was created in several parts to give the poses more variety.

Appearances

Yuri first appears in the video game Doki Doki Literature Club!, one of the four girls who belong to a literature club that the player character joins. She is accompanied by Sayori, Natsuki, and Monika, frequently feuding with Natsuki over the protagonist's affections. He may either help either Yuri or Natsuki during the cultural festival, with both attempting to kiss him depending on who is chosen, only to be interrupted by Sayori.

While Yuri exhibits self-harm tendencies, these become more amplified later in the game after Monika attempts to modify the code. The player also finds that, if they attempt to choose to spend time with Yuri, Monika will interfere. Yuri eventually decides to confess their love for the protagonist; however, regardless of whether they are reciprocated, Yuri begins to stab herself to death. The player is unable to leave the room, forcing the protagonist to sit there and watch her corpse decompose over the weekend. When Natsuki eventually shows up, she throws up at the sight of Yuri's corpse, before Monika deletes both of their files from the game due to wanting the player all to herself. After Monika is deleted by the player, she expresses regret for her actions, restoring Yuri and everything else, but without her.

From here, there are two possible endings. In one ending, Sayori becomes self-aware and megalomaniacal like Monika, leading to Monika deleting the entire game. In the other ending, where the player witnesses all scenes of the characters in the first act, Sayori is still self-aware, but is able to control herself, allowing Yuri and the rest to live.

Yuri also appears in the enhanced version, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, where the origins of the literature club are explored.

Yuri has received multiple pieces of merchandise, including a Nendoroid figurine by Good Smile, a wrist watch themed after her, and two Youtooz figures.

Reception

Writer Christopher Patterson noted how Yuri and Natsuki contrast each other. He described her as both a dandere and kuudere, comparing her to the character Rei Ayanami. Destructoid writer Charlotte Cutts considered Yuri's suicide to be one of the most shocking things she has ever seen in a video game, IGN Japan writer Shohei Fujita discussed how Yuri's character is affected by Monika's influence, though commenting that with the nature of the game, it could be said that this is true even without Monika's influence. He particularly noted how out of character her cruel commentary towards Natsuki and her eventual suicide are. VG247 writer Ana Valens described her as "the classic shrinking violet," discussing how her traits begin to be corrupted by Monika over time, eventually turning her self-consciousness into self-harm.

Fanbyte writer Kara Dennison felt that Sayori's mental illness was depicted with intelligence, which contrasted Yuri, whose depiction was a "stereotypical, horrific parody of herself." Because Sayori is shown to have been depressed before Monika modified her data, she assumed that this was the care for Yuri's self-harm tendencies, citing a poem in the first act by Yuri that discusses the adrenaline of self-harm. She felt that the depiction of Yuri was disrespectful, but that the point was that it was Monika disrespecting them rather than Salvato. Writer Fanny Barnabé discussed how Yuri's death is unavoidable regardless of the player's decision, as well as how Yuri dominates the second act of the game due to her obsession with the player character.