Monika (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

Monika is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the visual novel Doki Doki Literature Club! The character was created by Dan Salvato and voiced by Jillian Ashcraft. While Monika initially appears as the main tutor and supporting character that guides the player on their path to romance the three provided love interests, she is later revealed to be self-aware of her existence as a video game character; her words, actions and surroundings become increasingly malicious as she makes her intentions clear. She is apparently deleted at the end of the game, but returns to destroy the game itself to protect the player after the character Sayori becomes sentient in Monika's absence.

The inspiration for the character's creation extends Salvato's concept of an innocuous romance game that slowly falls apart over time as horrible things begin to happen and one girl takes control. The physical appearance of Monika went through several designs, one of which featured a chibi effect. Monika has been well received by critics and gamers, some of whom called her disarming, passive-aggressive, tragic, sinister and witty. She is considered one of the greatest video game characters, particularly among those created in the 2010s.

Concept and creation
Monika was created by Dan Salvato for the video game Doki Doki Literature Club! She serves as the tutorial character who guides the player through the narrative. However, as the game progressed, the other characters in the game became erratic, with Monika turning out to be sentient, manipulating the files of other characters to make them unlikable to the player. Writer Christopher Patterson describes her as a yandere, a type of character who becomes madly in love with someone to the point of being sickly. Salvato stated that he began to see more "reality" in Monika's design when writing her, wanting to explore her as more than just a generic anime character.

Discussing the creation of Monika and her abilities, Salvato explained that he was inspired by "things that are scary because they make you uncomfortable, not because they shove scary-looking things in your face." To achieve this, Salvato developed the façade of a cute setting, which would break down over time along with the behavior of the characters, and eventually the role of one evil character (Monika) who had seized control of the game from the player would be revealed.

In creating the game's horror elements, Salvato drew inspiration from Yume Nikki and Eversion, emphasizing to his team that he wanted the market for visual novels to become much more daring and less reliant on the same plot concepts. The game's other stock characters, namely Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki, were based around standard anime archetypes (such as childhood sweetheart, girl next door, tsundere and manic pixie dream girl) and were given Japanese names to emphasize a pseudo-Japanese atmosphere characteristic of Western-produced visual novel, with each character's dialogue being written as though poorly-translated from Japanese. The sole exception to these formats is Monika, who received an English name and speech pattern as a hint to her individual nature compared to the other characters. Salvato discussed how, by the end of the game, Monika comes to respect the game she is in. When localizing the game into Japanese, the localizers had difficulties with the "Just Monika" translation, ultimately settling on "Monika dake" as an unofficial translation.

Because Salvato lacked artistic skill, he used a free online anime-creation program to create the initial character design of Monika and the other characters, and applied these designs in test versions 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 character. 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. Monika's sprite was created in several parts to give the poses more variety.

Appearances
Monika is one of the four members of the literature club in Doki Doki Literature Club!, serving as its president and the designated nice girl preparing for an upcoming festival. She is in this group alongside fellow members Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki, with the newest member being the protagonist. However, she experiences an epiphany that leads her to discover that she and all of her friends are characters in a dating simulator video game. This drastically changes her attitude towards the other girls upon realizing she was not available to be picked as a romance option by the protagonist, having been written to be a two-dimensional supporting character. She discovers that, as the president of the club, she is able to manipulate the script and code of the game and break the fourth wall, leading her to manipulate the script to do things like emphasizing the negative traits of the other characters Sayori and Yuri (respectively depression and self-harm), in the hope that the player would choose her instead of them, only for the player to turn to the "worthless" Natsuki for platonic companionship.

Monika ultimately manipulates Sayori's code to have her commit suicide by hanging, which causes the script to break and for Sayori to be removed from the game before the game restarts. Due to Monika's manipulation of the script, from this point onward there are a variety of "glitches" in the game, and she manipulates Yuri and Natsuki to make their behavior more erratic. She also tries to prevent the player from choosing Yuri or Natsuki, with the phrase "Just Monika" appearing at one point. This leads to Yuri killing herself due to her obsession with the protagonist growing too intense, after which Monika deletes the Yuri and Natsuki files. The game restarts with just the protagonist and Monika, with her emphasizing that rather than loving the protagonist, she loves the player. From this point, she will discuss various topics such as love and vegetarianism, going until the player deletes Monika's file from the game.

Monika is initially furious about being deleted, but ultimately grows to regret how she treated the others. She opts to bring the other three back while removing herself. From here, there are two possible endings. In the normal ending, Sayori, now having become the president, gains self-awareness and Monika's powers. After attempting to trap the player as Monika did, Monika decides to delete the entire game to protect the player. Monika communicates with the player vocally, singing the song "Your Reality" and playing the piano while deleting the files. In this ending, she leaves a note explaining her actions. The other ending requires that the player spend time with Sayori, Yuri, and Natsuki equally in the first act. This causes Sayori, when she gains self-awareness, to learn from Monika's mistakes and thank the player for treating them so well.

Monika later appears in the enhanced version of the game, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!. In it, she is shown to genuinely care about the other members, and it is shown how the four of them came to create the club.

She has received various pieces of merchandise, including a Nendoroid figure by Good Smile, a Youtooz figure, and merchandise at Spencer Gifts. She also received multiple accessories, including a wrist watch and tote bag.

Reception and analysis
Monika has become one of the game's most popular characters, with several memes (such as "Just Monika") being made about her. The meme persisted for years. This level of popularity was surprising to creator Dan Salvato, to where he questioned whether her sociopathic behavior is justified, or whether she was redeemed in the end. In a poll of ITMedia readers, Monika was by far the most popular of the game's cast. She received nearly half the total votes, with many respondents replying with "Just Monika".

Monika was identified as one of the best video game characters of the 2010s by Petrana Radulovic, discussing the epiphany Monika has about showing her love for the player by allowing them to be free. GameSpot writer Jordan Ramée criticized the handling of Monika's twist in the console versions of the game, stating that it took away the sense that Monika was taking over the player's PC. He discussed how he felt fear while playing the PC version, but not the Nintendo Switch version, saying she doesn't seem as alive. Game Informer writer Jacob Geller drew parallels between Monika and the concepts of Westworld. He questioned the concept of whether Monika was human or not, discussing the idea of whether a copy and paste of a human mind could be considered human. Fanbyte writer Kara Dennison discussed Monika's personality; she called her "pretty, intelligent, athletic, and motivated," though noted that she exhibited tendencies that may be symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. These traits include her constant need for attention, identifying others as not being real, and ability to delete her friends without any concern. Additionally, she discussed a tactic narcissists may use to get attention, where they defame others, drawing contrast between defaming posts on social media to Monika modifying the others' code.

PCGamesN writer Mitch Jay Lineham considered Monika's story tragic, discussing how she is just a side character in a video game, and how the player and the real world represent a place she can be more than that. IGN Japan writer Shohei Fujita talked about how the moment where Monika and the player are left alone as being frightening, worried that things like glitches or startling elements might occur. Fujita noted that he spent 30 minutes listening to her talk, finding what she said thought-provoking. He identified Monika as one of the best aspects of the game. Destructoid writer Charlotte Cutts regarded Monika as a "detestable character," stating that from the beginning of the game, something felt off about her. Writer Sunayoshi Izumo considered her both the best character in the game, as well as one of the best female characters of the past 10 years. They discussed Monika's loneliness, stating that her feelings resonated with them. They also commented that Monika's final words at the end of the game struck them, and encouraged lonely people to play the game so they could hear Monika's words too.