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| “ | If there's one thing that can make my reading time here any better, it's a nice, sweet cup of tea. | „ |
| ~ Yuri |
Yuri is the secondary antagonist of the 2017 psychological horror visual novel, Doki Doki Literature Club!, and is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Natsuki) of its 2021 remastered expansion, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!.
Yuri is a shy and sophisticated shrinking violet who serves as one of the five members of the Literature Club, later replacing Sayori as the Vice-President in Act 2 onwards after she was deleted by Monika in Act 1. Yuri joined the Literature Club out of her interest in fantasy and psychological horror novels. As of Act 2, she became the game's secondary antagonist, although she is only a villain by proxy in reality, and is just a victim.
Yuri and Natsuki are typically seen playing together and Yuri can occasionally exploit Natsuki at times, and vice versa, Natsuki can abuse Yuri as well. However, Yuri truthfully adores Natsuki, thinking that she is perfect how she is and also believes she is a good friend.
Appearance[]
Yuri is a young woman who expresses both maturity and sophistication throughout all of her performances. She has waist-length dark purple hair that reaches her upper thighs, along with disheveled bangs and a pair of forelocks close to her face. She wears a pair of shiny purple/magenta barrettes, one clipped on each forelock next to her head, though often, only the left barrette is visible to the player. Like Monika and Natsuki, Yuri’s forelocks form arches on top of her head, which slightly resemble cat-looking ears. She has light purple eyes (which are narrower than the other club members' eyes), and she wears a purple barrette on the right side of her head, positioned upon her right prominent strand of hair beside her bangs. She is of above-average height, tied with the protagonist as the tallest character in the Literature Club. Yuri blushes easily and turns away when embarrassed. Her accessories include wearing purple barrettes on both sides of her head, positioned upon a pair of prominent strands of hair beside her bangs.
Yuri has a more mature figure than Sayori, Natsuki, and to a minor extent, Monika. The protagonist describes her movements as surprisingly elegant due to her long legs. As such, Yuri is the most physically developed, supplementing her traits of maturity and insecurity. Yuri prefers sitting on the floor to read because her large bust causes frequent backache that is exacerbated by hunching over when using the desks. According to Natsuki, Yuri began padding her breasts in order to impress the protagonist after he joined the Literature Club, though Yuri denies this.
While attending school, she wears the standard-issue female school uniform consisting of a warm gray blazer extensively buttoned and untucked, brown sweater vest, white shirt slightly unbuttoned at the collar and tucked, red ribbon, dark blue pleated skirt, white knee-high socks and white uwabaki slippers with sky blue tips.
While out of school, Yuri is casually shown wearing a long-sleeved beige turtleneck sweater with black yoga-esque leggings.
In Act 2, her face often appears scrambled. Her eyes, typically a bright orchid, will widen when she is heavily stimulated, and occasionally turn a duller shade of purple, possessing a hyperrealistic appearance and moving independently of the rest of her sprite. One of her early Act 2 glitches gives her a "dragon" form, where her hair is black, her uniform blouse bright red, and her eyes a darker red with slit pupils.
Personality[]
Yuri is characterized throughout the prevalence of the game as the fitting epitome of a shrinking violet: being shy, generous, polite, apologetic, heavily intelligent, mature, eloquent, and passionate about topics she is interested in, although she is also heavily insecure, awkward, and has a tendency to act slightly condescending and patronizing to mask her self-doubt. Her façade of passivity and level-headed nature occasionally breaks, however, as Yuri does argue passionately and aggressively with Natsuki over their differing opinions on writing techniques and themes of literature. Yuri has a deep desire to be liked by others and is afraid to speak her mind on certain matters as she believes it will make her seem unlikable. Due to her social ineptitude, she can be innocently insensitive, but once she realizes what she said could be considered rude, she almost immediately apologizes, repeatedly saying she did not mean it. As stated by the protagonist, Yuri likes to think before she speaks.
Yuri prefers to blend in with the scenery than to attract undesired attention. The attribution is also because of being shy to discussions beyond her category of interest, her interests being literature, horror, and general surrealism, which she examines and articulates expertly and encourages others to follow as well.
Yuri's love of surrealism seems to be foreshadowing further events of the game, with Yuri's surrealistic eyes and the game's sudden shift to horror after Sayori's suicide, as well as her stating that "stagnating air is common foreshadowing something terrible is about to happen," days before Sayori commits suicide under Monika's influence. Yuri prefers poetry that makes usage of metaphorical symbolism and is entertained in collecting unorthodox ornate knives, which are implied to be intended for self-harm. The detailed summaries of the Portrait of Markov novel in the first and second act, when also taking the scattered dialogue references into account, all end up tracing back to her unstable nature and unhinged personality.
Yuri takes great pride in her poetry and perceives her poetry as being superior to that of the other club members, especially Natsuki. According to Dan Salvato, this is a coping mechanism for her deep insecurity and self-doubt, convincing herself that she is the sophisticated, mature one and that her critics or rivals are immature and childish. This can make her seem arrogant and patronizing to those unfamiliar to her, with the slight exception of Natsuki. This desire to seem intellectual is reflected in her poetic technique. Her poems are so full of metaphors and advanced language that the meaning is often obscured, or even lost. In Monika's Talk, while talking about Yuri's habit of drinking tea while reading, Monika wonders whether Yuri is as passionate about certain topics as she makes out, or whether she is "just concerned about appearing sophisticated to everyone else."
Though typically shy and heavily apologetic, Yuri can be heavily talkative and enthusiastic when it comes to her favourite subjects, such as writing strategies and books she has read. As a result, Yuri has trouble making and retaining friends, as she tends to come on too powerfully, due to her intense desire to be liked. She used to be judged for her appearance and mannerisms, providing another possible explanation as to the reason she secludes herself to her introverted lifestyle. This is is a similar situation Natsuki deals with, whose classmates judge her and her implied abusive father, making her abrasive nature a coping mechanism. She is, however, a generous and giving person, exemplified by her giving a copy of Portrait of Markov to the protagonist and for bringing tea to the Literature Club to help soothe the mind and help remain focused during reading, as well as planning to buy Natsuki a new manga. Yuri eats lunch alone at school, but claims she has company in the characters in her books. To that end, Monika warns the player that pursuing her will potentially be hassle, as Yuri potentially has a fictional boyfriend. On weekends, Yuri prefers spending time with one or two friends, performing peaceful activities at home, rather than outdoors.
As stated by the protagonist, Yuri tends to think before she speaks as to avoid conflict with her clubmates, as it has been shown repeatedly that when she blurts out whatever is on the top of her head, Yuri can sometimes be quite rude or upset people she is interacting with. Because of this, she has a deep desire to be liked by others and is afraid to speak her mind on matters as she believes it will make her seem unlikable. Because of her passionate and slightly obsessive nature, Yuri can come on powerfully when discussing about her favourite hobbies, steering the flow of conversation and bombarding other participants in said conversation. This becomes much more evident once her obsessive tendencies is amplified in Act 2, causing her to hoard the protagonist to herself in a destructive manner and snapping at those who attempt to obstruct her or haul the protagonist from her.
The protagonist learns her favorite genres are fantasy and horror, because she is entertained with stories with a well-crafted and absorbing universe. Yuri also likes watercolors and aromatherapy, and occasionally makes oolong tea during club meetings using materials she retains in the classroom. The other club members consider her the most talented and artistic, and Monika assigns her the task of preparing decorations for the school festival due to her beautiful handwriting.
Yuri's poetry makes usage of figurative devices and somewhat sophisticated language. She values diverse vocabulary and believes word-choice is important in conversation. This often leads to arguments with Natsuki, who prefers a more honest and accessible manner of writing and speaking the others often deem childish. However, despite their different rhetorical techniques, Yuri and Natsuki often touch on similar themes in their poetry, such as respecting the interests of other people, even if unorthodox. Yuri's poem, "The Raccoon," touches on this subject, specifically her affinity for ornate knives, which she admires for their "combination of craftsmanship and feeling of danger."
She retains at least one of these knives on her person, and it is implied when she visits the protagonist's house in Act 1, that the full-length sleeves she typically wears might be hiding evidence of self-harm. In Act 2, she admits to cutting herself with her knife collection, and claims to make usage of all knives an equal amount so that none of them are "lonely."
In Act 1, Yuri tries to stifle her emotions and is heavily bashful about her romantic interest in the protagonist. During Act 2, however, Monika amplifies Yuri's negative characteristic traits, causing her crush on the protagonist to become a destructive obsession: at one point, Yuri admits that she masturbates herself with the pen she took from him, and her existing hobby involving knife collecting further becomes a love of self-harm, to the point where Monika suggests that Yuri cuts herself due to a fetish. This also causes her to become invasive and condescending to the other club members, asking Natsuki, "Why don't you look for coins under the vending machine?," which causes Natsuki to cry and run away. In one occasion, Yuri shows a poem to the protagonist with stains of blood and urine-looking waste on it, telling him that she has 'put her scent on it.' Yuri will then glitch and realize what she has truly done and leave the club, stating that she is going to vomit. All in all, Yuri finds herself progressively excitable around the protagonist (which Natsuki becomes concerned of), and begins cutting herself several times when overstimulated. Monika suggests this is potentially for the endorphin rush it provides. According to Yuri's unorthodox description of and reaction to Portrait of Markov in Act 2, it is possible she might derive sexual gratification from blood, knives, or sadomasochism (in simplistic terms, sexual feelings from sadistic and masochistic situations) in general.
During Act 3, Monika claims that Yuri is an example of a "yandere," but this is debatable since Yuri never inflicts physical harm on other people, excluding herself. Instead, Yuri's characteristics are a combination of the dandere and kuudere, rendering her as the shrinking violet of the the club members due to her constant apologetic nature. The attribution is also because of being shy to discussions beyond her category of interest, her interests being literature, horror, and general surrealism which she examines and articulates expertly, encouraging others to follow as well.
History[]
Yuri was born in 1999. During her childhood, she became fascinated in reading books and participating in literature, and became childhood friends with Natsuki. In 2017, Yuri and Natsuki both joined the Literature Club at their high school. Yuri had trouble making and retaining friends due to her tendency to be too enthusiastic when it comes to her favourite hobbies, as well as behaving condescending to those unfamiliar to her or who she finds childish or immature. This is fleeting, however, as Natsuki interacted with her years after their childhood and influenced her to join the Literature Club, where she became friends with Sayori and the club president, Monika, although the two have been in conflict with their differing interests of literature and poetic techniques. The former invited the protagonist to join the literature club, which attracted both Yuri and Natsuki's interest onto him.
During Act 1, Natsuki and Yuri get into a debate about their different writing techniques. Choosing to side with Natsuki will cause Yuri to shy away from the player, and if the protagonist attempts to read their poem to Yuri, she will not be responsive to it, which will cause the protagonist to decide it is best to leave her alone. Natsuki then reluctantly apologizes to Yuri. Choosing Yuri will cause Natsuki to be offended, and the player attempts to read Natsuki their poem, Natsuki will immediately shoo them away, only for Yuri to show remorse for Natsuki. If the player calls for Sayori to diffuse the situation, Sayori will compliment both Yuri and Natsuki on their writing, appearance and capabilities. This strategy will satisfy both girls, but also leave them embarrassed.
On the third day, Yuri and the protagonist continue where the two left off in the book from the second day. Yuri requests to sit against the wall on the floor, rather than at the desks, hoping that the change of seating will help her to ease her frequent backache. The protagonist suggests that this is due to her bad reading posture, which Yuri goes along with, though it is implied to be caused by having an above-average bust in reality. Yuri goes to get tea with the protagonist, but Monika interjects, stating that it is a one-person thing, to which Yuri scornfully responds that it is none of her business. Once in the hallway, Yuri immediately regrets what she said and the protagonist immediately reassures her. Yuri notifies that he is being nice to her and states that she likes being friends with him. When they get back, the protagonist offers her some chocolate, and Yuri expresses how she cannot hold it while holding her book, prompting him to feed her a piece of chocolate. When the protagonist does feed her chocolate, Yuri gets embarrassed, but Monika interrupts them before further events occur.
When sharing poems, Yuri is even more impressed with the protagonist's poems, notifying all the different techniques the protagonist used. If the protagonist sided with Yuri during the argument, Natsuki immediately realizes that his poem was written for the former and angrily dismisses him.
On the fourth day, after Monika goes over to talk to Sayori about her depression, the protagonist notices Yuri staring at him from behind her book. When he asks her about Sayori, Yuri states that she also noticed Sayori's awkward behavior and told the protagonist that Sayori could be harboring feelings for him and that Sayori is heavily fortunate to have someone like him care about her. She then has a heart-to-heart talk with him about her love for books and the characters inside them, and how she struggles with talking to realistic people due to her social anxiety, as well as her low self-esteem. She also tells the protagonist that all these feelings have faded over the week because of the protagonist treating her like everybody else. Unlike Natsuki, she is extremely eager to show her poem, but just like Natsuki's poem, it is a tribute to the protagonist. When the protagonist finishes her poem, she becomes exceptionally flustered and looks away, but he reassures her that he likes it. Like Natsuki, when he hands her back her poem, she returns it to him, asking him to retain it. Natsuki angrily dismisses the protagonist and refuses to share poems. Sayori reacts as she did if the protagonist pursues Natsuki.
Upon Sayori's departure from the literature club after Monika's interference with her, Monika gives each club member an assignment related to the upcoming festival, including Yuri. Monika will be printing pamphlets to promote the club, Sayori will be helping her design them, Natsuki will be baking cupcakes, and Yuri will be creating banners to set the atmosphere for the clubroom, leaving the protagonist to decide on whom to help. If the protagonist chooses to help Monika, Natsuki and Yuri immediately disagree and tell Monika that her job is the easiest. On top of that, she has Sayori in her assistance, so the requirement of a third partner to help her out is not obligatory. This causes Monika to defend herself further, rebutting that the two of them also have ulterior motives. Natsuki and Yuri then tell Monika to be more responsible, stating that being alone would lower the standards of their work and that the club's resources should be fairly divided. Monika finally gives in, but even though she agrees, she is upset that she is unable to spend time with the protagonist. The same event happens if the protagonist chooses to help Sayori. Natsuki and Yuri comparatively state that Sayori and Monika would be working together, therefore, she would require the least amount of help out of anyone.
If the protagonist picks Yuri, she is taken aback and becomes flustered again. Natsuki claims to not care about the protagonist's decision, but everyone knows that she is miserable about it. Yuri eventually tries to cheer Natsuki up, praising her for her talent in baking, which appears to encourage Natsuki, but makes the protagonist feel that she is acting like Sayori. The protagonist then exchanges phone numbers with Yuri. If the protagonist picks Natsuki, she is delighted, even though she did not require such assistance. Yuri becomes passive-aggressive and jealous, stating that she is accustomed to working alone by now. Natsuki tries to cheer up Yuri, which surprises the other club members. The protagonist then exchanges phone numbers with her.
After the protagonist leaves Sayori's house to check out on her wellbeing, he finds Yuri already at his house, waiting for him. The two go inside and start preparing the items needed for the decorative banners. To cut ribbons, Yuri takes out a small pocketknife and goes on to tell the protagonist about her slight obsession with knives. When the protagonist leaves to collect water and returns, he finds Yuri happily unrolling her sleeve. This is potentially a hint that Yuri cuts herself, but Yuri immediately ends the conversation before being capable of asking further questions. Eventually, the protagonist accidentally gets paint on Yuri's face, and the former wipes it off of the latter's face with a warm towel. Upon finishing making the banners, Yuri states that she wishes she had more time to spend with him. The protagonist suggests hanging out another time, and a grateful Yuri moves closer to the protagonist, presumably for a kiss, but is interrupted by Sayori, causing Yuri to become flustered and rush home.
After Sayori's suicide and upon beginning Act 2, Monika amplifies Yuri's negative characteristic traits, causing her crush on the protagonist to become a destructive obsession: at one point, Yuri admits that she masturbates herself with the pen she took from him, and her existing hobby involving knife collecting further becomes a love of self-harm, to the point where Monika suggests that Yuri cuts herself due to a fetish. On the second day of Act 2, the same argument between Yuri and Natsuki and their differing writing techniques will occur, but with a more intensive and darker turn due to Sayori's absence. Monika eventually takes the player out of the classroom and into the hallway. She then waits for a while before deciding that it is safe to go in. Suddenly, Natsuki will burst into the hallway, crying in fear. She rushes past the player, and upon returning to the classroom, Yuri will repeat: “I didn’t mean it,” and continues to ask the player not to hate her for it and hopes that Natsuki will forgive her tomorrow. Monika will then comfort Yuri by telling her that Natsuki will forget all about it tomorrow, implying that Monika will erase the memory from Natsuki’s character file.
On the third day, Natsuki will no longer remember the argument that she got into with Yuri the day before, and when Yuri attempts to apologize, Natsuki responds she doesn’t remember what happened the day before, intimidating Yuri. Then, while reading with the protagonist, Yuri gets heavily excited and leaves the classroom to get water from the drinking fountain, though in reality, she sneaks off to go cut herself again. When she comes back, she gives the protagonist her poem, which is titled, Wheel. It is made up of several fragmented sentences, which almost all contain vague and unexplained concepts, such as "Exponential gearbox" and "God disproving the existence of God."
On the fourth day, Yuri will obsess over the player's physical poem by breathing into it and asking to take it home. She then offers her poem in excitment, titled mdpnfbo,jrfp, which has blood and yellow waste stains on it and is written in the Damagrafic Script Font, making the poem nearly illegible. Most of the words are randomized or not words at all, but the last few sentences detail someone taking pleasure in stabbing a teenage girl to death. Afterward, the screen becomes hazy and dark, and Yuri gets extremely close to the protagonist, stares directly at him with frighteningly realistic eyes, and asks if he likes it. She tries to explain what the poem is about, but spouts random letters and characters instead. She also explains that she has "endowed it with her scent," implying that the yellow stains are urine. She then glitches and realizes what she has truly done, and states that she is going to vomit before leaving the clubroom.
If all three poems are written for Yuri in Act 2, the scene where Yuri is discovered to be cutting herself will happen once more, but then will show Yuri with blank eyes and a glitching sprite. Afterwards, she will be mildly unsettled, mentioning that she had some serious deja-vu. She then will talk about how she is typically despised how she got a little too excited about certain topics that caused her to isolate herself from other people. She then becomes sentient of Monika and asks the player about her, and how she is changing from a sweet girl to more manipulative. Afterwards, she will state that they are finally alone, away from "Monika's slimy tongue" and Natsuki who is a "pathetic child." Then, she will attempt to convince the protagonist to remain with her, and will seem to be overtly excited, with randomly glitching pupils. Monika's sprite will also slowly fade into view, covering Yuri while her dialogue continues.
Near the climax of the fourth day, a heated quarrel occurs over who the protagonist should help in preparation for the festival. Whereas in Act 1, the player was able to choose who to help, three buttons appear, reading Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika. However, in this act, the cursor is forcefully moved towards Monika. If the player manages to press Natsuki or Yuri, a white screen will appear, with Yuri's realistic purple eyes staring directly at the player. After a few seconds, the default “choice” screen reappears, but this time, with randomly generated text at the bottom, and the only choice buttons are “Monika,” filling the entire screen top to bottom. If the player selects Monika instead, the game continues normally. After said quarrel, and after the player inevitably chooses Monika, Yuri ejects Natsuki and Monika from the room, and confesses her love for the protagonist in an obsessive manner.
Yuri eventually becomes self-aware throughout Act 2, recognizes that something is wrong with her and that her comments and behavior are inappropriate (such as when she mentions masturbating to the protagonist's poetry using his pen and acting condescending and rude to the other club members), enough so to feel something bad will happen despite her happiness. She is ultimately unable to control her obsessive outbursts, no matter how hard her efforts are to do so. It reaches a certain point where, after ejecting Monika and Natsuki out of the classroom the day before the festival in Act 2 and confessing her love to the protagonist, she stabs herself to death, regardless of whether the player accepts or rejects her love. She confesses her desire to commit herself fully to the protagonist and stabs herself to death after her confession and the response after from feeling either too excited or from not being able to handle her rejection. Yuri's body is left decomposing for three days, and is then discovered by Natsuki, who screams at the sight of her corpse, immediately vomits and runs away. When she is discovered by Monika, both Yuri and Natsuki's files are deleted, leading to Act 3.
Yuri and Natsuki reappear in Act 4 with a much more friendly disposition to one another. If the player achieves the normal ending, Sayori will attempt to perform Monika's actions, but the latter will delete her and the existence of the entire game before she successfully does so, along with Natsuki and Yuri. If the player achieves the good ending, Sayori will not attempt to continue where Monika had left off in Act 3, instead thanking the player for being thoughtful about making everyone happy, thus retaining the existence of herself, Natsuki and Yuri.
Trivia[]
- On the second day of the game, Yuri describes the book she lends to the protagonist, "The Portrait of Markov," which also happens to foreshadow the dark events that will happen in the game. However, on the second day of Act 2, her description of the book changes drastically, becoming more and more of a horror novel, much like the game itself.
- Despite possessing a large collection of knives, Yuri stabs herself with a large, simple kitchen knife, rather than an intricate and exotic one, like the one she shows to the protagonist during Act 1. Dan Salvato confirmed in a Reddit AMA that this is an artistic error.
- Yuri's file is written in Base 64. It can be decoded to a story.
- Yuri is known to suffer from frequent backaches:
- The protagonist assumes the cause to be her "bad reading posture."
- Previous conversations with Yuri, as well as her awkwardness leading up to his assumption, imply that it is revealed to be due to her large breasts.
- Another circumstantial point, according to Natsuki, Yuri began padding her breasts in order to impress the protagonist after he joined the Literature Club, though Yuri denies this. However, this is circumstantial, as Yuri's crush on the protagonist becomes an destructive obsession in Act 2. The jab by Natsuki, though, further alludes to the possible fact that Yuri has trouble making and retaining friends, as she tends to come on too powerfully with her favourite hobbies, due to her intense desire to be liked from other people, including the protagonist, and thus encourages the concept that Yuri used to be judged for her appearance and mannerisms, providing an explanation as to the reason she secludes herself to her introverted lifestyle.
- A piece of evidence leads to the assumption that Yuri is one of the two characters, the other being Monika, to have a voice associated with them, but also be the only character in the game not to have an explicit connection to the individual credited, Jillian Ashcraft. During Yuri's confession to the protagonist in Act 2, "
10-yuri.ogg" would play, which contains giggling from a female representing Yuri's unhinged state of mind. Since the connection between the vocals, Yuri, and Ashcraft are not explicit, it cannot be determined if it was from Ashcraft or a free stock sound effect. - In the "main menu" artwork, Yuri seems to have a pair of right feet. This is likely an artistic error.
- In the scene where Yuri is stabbing herself, the knife’s handle is black, but when the player witnesses her corpse on the ground later on, the handle appears to be brown. This is either an artistic error, or because the handle became covered in dried blood.
- Yuri and Sayori are the only characters to actually die in the game, while everyone else (specifically Natsuki and Monika) were deleted from the game (although, Yuri and Sayori were also deleted from the game after death).
- Coincidentally, both Yuri and Sayori died in the same day of the club festival.
- On the PS5 and PS4 versions of DDLC+, Yuri's death has been slightly altered. When Yuri stabs herself, her blood is replaced with a black, ink-like substance. In the PS5 version, Yuri's blood was censored in her stabbing scene as a result, her blood is black instead of red. However, the following scene with Yuri's corpse remains intact. This was done to satisfy Sony Interactive Entertainment's policies[1] regarding violence.
External Links[]
- Yuri on the Love Exalted Wiki
- Yuri on the Villains Wiki
- Yuri on the Villainous Benchmark Wiki
- Yuri on the Heroic Benchmark Wiki
- Yuri on the Doki Doki Literature Club Wiki
References[]
[]
 Heroes
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Monika | Sayori | Natsuki | Yuri | Protagonist | ||