Monika (モニカ) is the poster girl of Doki Doki Literature Club!, and one of the five members and President of the Literature Club. Monika is the driving force of the game, instructing the club members to practice writing poems until the club festival which itself facilitates and develops the characters and story.

Appearance

Monika has extensively long coral brown hair that she keeps in a high ponytail tied back with a large white bow, curled slightly at the ends. Like the other characters, she has two prominent strands of hair beside her bangs that reach slightly past her chest. Her eyes are emerald green. She is of average height by Japanese standards, believed to be the second tallest character, behind Yuri or the protagonist.

She wears the standard female school uniform consisting of a warm gray blazer, brown sweater vest, white shirt, red ribbon, dark blue pleated skirt, black thigh-high socks and white uwabaki slippers with pink tips.

Personality

Monika is noted by the other characters to be smart, confident and athletic. She is not as talkative as the other girls, but this is implied to not be through choice. Monika is also known to be quite popular, which causes the protagonist to have an admiration for her. She always has a calm, gentle expression and is portrayed as mature and hard-working.

Monika had previously been a part of the Debate Club but left due to all the inner politics and drama, highlighting a desire for order, freedom of topics and friendliness. The Literature Club, which she founded after leaving the Debate Club, is very important to her. She aspires for it to be a place to showcase and grow everyone’s passion for literature. She also has a passion for piano, which she practices frequently after school.

Monika was originally a very considerate and kind person who was always thinking about other people. She openly displays care and concern for her club mates, praising each member’s writing style and even comparing them to famous authors and poets. However, it is later revealed that at some time before the start of the game, she underwent an epiphany which made her discover that she was in a game and also granted her the ability to edit the game’s variables, changing her attitude towards the other girls because she did not consider them as being “real”. She begins taking drastic measures when the other girls prevented the player from being able to spend time with her in the scene in Act 1 where the player has to choose a girl to help for the festival.

In desperation, Monika begins trying to make the other girls unlikable by altering their traits, as she only had the ability to edit variables in the game and did not want to delete/kill the other girls right away because of her lingering attachment to them. She starts with Sayori as she viewed her as the largest threat because she was the main character’s childhood friend. Monika’s alterations backfire because Sayori’s increased depression level causes her to confess her love to the main character in an attempt to find happiness, then commit suicide the next day, regardless of the choice the player made. Monika then decides to delete Sayori’s character file because “she is the one who’s making this so difficult.”

From Act 2 onward, she shows a much more manipulative personality. It is revealed that Monika was self-aware all along and resented having no romantic role in the game, as that meant there was no happy ending coded for her. She also makes her infatuation with the player more obvious and urges them to spend more time with her. Her desire and ambition lead her to become obsessive in this goal, highlighted by the fact that all of her poems are about the player or her epiphany. She also starts to disregard the other characters and amplifies their traits due to the fact of them not being “real”. Ultimately, Monika’s attempt to make the other girls unlikable led to her accidentally driving Yuri to suicide due to alterations to her personality, then finally her deleting Natsuki in order to be able to spend time with the player alone in Act 3, creating her own “happy ending.”

Despite Monika’s upbeat attitude in the Literature Club, it becomes increasingly obvious that she is actually sad and lonely, as a result of being aware that her whole world is just a simulation; a simulation in which she can’t even achieve what is considered “happiness” (i.e. having her route completed). She is fixated on obtaining the love of player because they’re the only “real” thing in her life. Monika’s actions are also motivated by her desire to escape the torture she endures whenever someone quits the game, as when that happens Monika is trapped in a hellish void of noise, lights, colors, and screams, unable to move or even think. This is mentioned during Monika’s Talk in Act 3.

After deleting Yuri and Natsuki’s files, Act 3 will happen, where she creates a world for her and the player, she will explain her motivations about her love towards the player. She will state that the main character does not exist, and that she only loves the player themselves. She will also explain how she amplified Sayori’s and Yuri’s undesirable traits (e.g. Sayori’s depression and Yuri’s obsessiveness) to make them less likely to confess their love towards the protagonist. Monika will open the poem minigame once more, except only distorted words of Monika’s name are available, and only Monika’s sticker sprite is present, with a loud ambience playing in the background. The background is now red with glitches, different from the original desk background during the mini-game. After giving the poem to Monika, she will believe that the player wrote the poem specifically for her, and she calls the player sweet.

At this point in the game, the player will be able to read Monika’s Talk where she talks directly to the player, instead of the protagonist. It is shown that nothing about Monika’s apparent kindness and politeness is an act, and she even offers the player some genuinely good advice from time to time.

If the player then decides to delete Monika’s file, she will immediately vanish, and search for her file in a panic. When she finds out the player deleted her, she will be mad at the player and tell them that they “completely, truly make me sick.” After a small pause, Monika tells the player that she still loves them. She will then feel the weight of her actions, realize the horrible things she has done to the other girls, and state that even though she knew they were not real, she still saw them as her friends. Monika then restores the game, saying that if she really loves the player, she will bring back what they would have wanted. Monika is then absent for the rest of the game, until the final part of the normal ending.

If the normal ending is achieved, Sayori becomes self-aware, and glitches the game back to the room Monika stayed in on Act 3 for only the main character and herself. Monika will then delete Sayori, saying “No…I won’t let you hurt him.” Monika states that there is no happiness in the Literature Club, and then deletes the entire game. The song “Your Reality” will play while the credits roll, which is inferred to be the song Monika wrote for the player. The game’s CGs will be deleted during the credits, and a bittersweet letter from Monika will be shown, thanking the player for joining the Literature Club. The game will now be rendered unplayable until it is re-installed or the “firstrun” file is deleted.

If the good ending is achieved, Sayori will thank the player for spending time with all of the girls. Monika will still delete the game, but the CG’s will not be deleted, and a letter from Dan Salvato thanking the player for playing his game will show instead.

Abilities

Over the course of the game, it is revealed that Monika is self-aware, a result of her position as the leader/president of the Literature Club.

This position grants her numerous abilities, listed below:

• Monika is aware that she is a character in a game.
• Monika is aware that the protagonist is a separate entity from the player.
• Monika is aware when the game has been turned off.
• Monika can edit the other character’s files and thus influence their actions or personality.
• Monika can continue to exist even when her files have been deleted, however, she will only be able to speak through text boxes.
• Monika can see if you’re using Steam or another similar application to play the game.
• If the player is recording the game while playing, Monika will be aware of this and attempt to jump-scare anyone watching after falsely leading up to one.
• Monika can learn the name of the administrator on the computer in an attempt to find your real name.
• Monika can delete and add files such as “hxppy thxughts.png”, “have a nice weekend!” and “iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.txt”.
• Monika can detect if the player adds her character file back when she resets the game.
• Monika can precede the game’s UI (such as the dialog box).