Sayori (Doki Doki Literature Club!)

Sayori is a character in the 2017 video game Doki Doki Literature Club! She is the childhood friend and neighbor of the protagonist, pushing him into joining the literature club, of which she is a member. Over the course of the game, Sayori's cheerful personality is shown to be forced, with symptoms of depression becoming more evident. This culminates in Sayori committing suicide and being deleted from the game by the game's antagonist, Monika. She is ultimately restored by the end of the game, though her fate depends on the player's actions.

Of the cast, Sayori was the character who had the most real-world influence, with creator Dan Salvato noting that her depression inspired by those in his life. He found that, as he wrote the cast, he found himself recognizing their "reality," wanting to explore that. Critical reception of Sayori was positive, with the way her depression was depicted being praised for its accuracy. Some critics saw themselves in Sayori, with commentary about how Sayori's depression was not something that could be fixed by the player.

Concept and creation
Sayori is one of the characters created by Dan Salvato for his video game, Doki Doki Literature Club!. She is the neighbor of the player's character, and is noted by her positive personality, clumsiness, and tendency to be late. As the player progresses through the game, they discover that Sayori suffers from depression, exhibiting symptoms like forced positivity, overeating, oversleeping, forgetfulness, difficulty getting out of bed, and suicidal thoughts.

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. When writing the game, Salvato found that he was recognizing the "reality" of characters like Sayori. He wanted to connect more with the characters, and thus explored things like their "insecurities and realistic personality traits" on top of their "stock archetypes." She was the strongest case of real-world inspiration, with her being inspired directly by those around Salvato with depression. Due to Salvato's lack of artistic skills at the time, he created the designs of Sayori 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. Her final design in-game was handled by freelance artist Satchely.

Appearances
Sayori is one of the four non-playable characters in Doki Doki Literature Club, alongside Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika, all of whom belong to the literature club. She is the best friend of the protagonist, and convinces him to join the club. She, along with other members, write poetry throughout the game, with Sayori's poetry progressively revealing darker feelings of depression. She eventually confides in the protagonist, telling him about her depression, and later confessing her love, which he can either accept or reject. Regardless of the response, she commits suicide by hanging, causing the game to restart after the protagonist finds her corpse.

When the game is reopened, Sayori's existence is removed. Monika eventually deletes Yuri and Natsuki, revealing that she has an obsessive love for the player as opposed to the character they controlled. She also reveals that she went into the game's code to modify the parameters of the characters in order to make them less appealing, causing her depression trait to increase. Afterward, Monika's file is deleted by the player, which ultimately causes her to regret her behavior towards the player and the game's characters. She restores the game to its previous state, minus herself.

There are two possible endings, both of which involving Sayori becoming self aware like Monika after becoming the club President in Monika's stead. In one, she behaves similarly to Monika, prompting Monika to delete Sayori and then the rest of the game, believing the game couldn't continue to exist. The other is achieved by seeing all content by the player reloading their save before Sayori's death, where Sayori thanks the player for making everyone happy. A third earlier ending may occur if the player deletes Monika before the beginning of the game, which causes Sayori to become self-aware in the first scene, panic, and ultimately close the game. If the player reopens the game, an image of Sayori hanging from a noose is displayed.

Sayori also appears in the enhanced version of the game, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, which features a side story that depicts how the four girls came to join the literature club.

Sayori has received multiple pieces of merchandise. She received two figures, one in the Pop Up Parade line and the other in the Nendoroid line, as well as a wrist watch themed after her. A Youtooz figure of Sayori was released in October 2022, along with figures for the other characters. A second figure was released in December 2023.

Reception
Sayori has been generally well received, particularly for how her mental illnesses are depicted. Kotaku writer Gita Jackson grew attached to Sayori, seeing "a little of my confused, sad teenage self in her." They discussed one of her poems, Bottles, which they felt spoke of Sayori's desire to make others happy, only for her efforts to be rejected, leaving her with no happiness for herself. They contrasted Sayori's depression to other visual novels; where characters will have emotional problems that need to be solved by the player, Sayori's is not so easily solved.

Fanbyte writer Kara Dennison discussed Sayori's depression, commenting that her aversion to being helped reflected her feeling that it's wasted on her rather than believing she's undeserving of love. She discussed how this is a real struggle that she herself suffered through, finding her story and characters valuable for both sufferers and those around them. She also felt that Sayori's story was an "intelligent take" on mental illness, where the rest of the game falls flat. Writer Sky LaRell Anderson, while feeling that the portrayal of her mental illnesses was accurate, begrudged that the game did not take advantage of the interactivity of its medium in depicting them.

The Daily Dot writer Ana Valens considered Sayori her favorite character in the game, interpreting her as a pansexual character. She cited a scene where Sayori called Natsuki cute and put her hands on her shoulders; while acknowledging that girls calling each other cute is normal for straight people, the physical interaction was less so. This, combined with a later scene, suggested to her that gender was not a relevant factor to attraction for Sayori. She also felt that this could be relevant to Sayori's depression, commenting that a society that expects women to date men can be difficult for non-straight women, feeling that Sayori mirrors herself in these aspects. Valens also felt that her struggles were the most memorable of the cast's, talking about how no matter what, Sayori will die, either to suicide or the game breaking. IGN Japan writer Shohei Fujita felt that the way the confession and suicide was handled was more ethical than how it could be, suggesting that being able to save Sayori by staying by her side would be objectifying.