Natsuki

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## Natsuki

### Relationships

* MC (Potential Love Interest)
* Yuri (Best Friend)
* Monika (Close Friend)
* Sayori (Close Friend)
* Boyfriend (Close Friend)
* Girlfriend (Friend)
* Mr. Game & Watch (Close Friend)
* PAC-MAN (Best Friend)
* Rayman (Close Friend)
* Cuphead (Close Friend)
* Mugman (Close Friend)
* Ice Climbers (Close Friend)
* Popo (Close Friend)
* Nana (Best Friend)
* Ness (Best Friend)
* Lucas (Close Friend)
* Sunday (Kith)
* Kapi (Likes his appearance)

## Appearances

### Appears in

* Doki Doki Literature Club!
* Friday Night Funkin' (as multiple mods)
* Doki Doki Literature Club Plus! (2021)

### Debut

September 22, 2017

**Natsuki** (*ナツキ Kaju*) is one of the two tritagonists (alongside Yuri) of the 2017 visual novel, *Doki Doki Literature Club!*.

She is Yuri's (and Nana's) best friend and former rival. She is the tritagonist in the game's Act 1 and Act 4, and the deuteragonist in Act 2. She is also one of the three characters for whom the protagonists can write poems. She is introduced to play off the trope of small-but-feisty *tsundere* girl, as discussed by Monika in Act 3. Natsuki and Yuri are typically playing together and sometimes Yuri can abuse Natsuki on some occasions and vice versa, Natsuki can abuse Yuri too. However, Yuri thinks that Natsuki is perfect and that she is a good friend.

## Physical appearance

Natsuki has straight pastel-pink hair, cut around chin-length, and pink eyes. Her bangs are swept to the right, having two prominent strands of hair beside them. Her accessories consist of a red Japanese-style crossed hairclip, as well as two red ribbons tying two small ponytails on either side of her head, with the rest of her hair left down. Her canine teeth are longer than the rest of her teeth, making them visible when she opens her mouth wide enough. She is the shortest character in the Literature Club, a feature that results in people commonly mistaking her for a first-year student. Her short stature is suggested by the protagonist to be because of her being younger than the rest of the club members, but is implied by Monika to be from malnourishment (because her father refused to give her lunch money for food). However, she is not the shortest member of the Indie Cross team, as Olimar is the shortest of the team instead due to being drastically shorter in terms of height.

While in school, she wears the standard-issue female school uniform consisting of a warm gray blazer fully buttoned and untucked, brown sweater vest, white shirt slightly unbuttoned at the collar, red ribbon, dark blue pleated skirt, white knee-high socks and white uwabaki slippers with sky blue tips.

While out of school, she wears a short-sleeved white shirt with a light pink cat-symbolized face decoration on the left side with light pink trims lining the edges of the sleeves, light pink ruffled skirt with a black trim. Under the shirt, two black-bra straps can be seen.

## Personality

Fittingly for a quintessential tsundere, Natsuki is a brash, blunt, seemingly arrogant girl with a cute, softer interior as a result of insecurity. This causes Monika and Mr. Game & Watch to class her as the embodiment of a "tsundere." Because of the protagonist's interest in Japanese media, he also recognizes this when interacting with Natsuki early in the game. Her defensive nature is a side-effect of interactions with one of her separate friend groups, and her father likely also plays a part in this. While she is impulsive and can speak without thinking, Natsuki truly cares about her friends, especially Nana and Popo. Even when she has obvious issues with her anger, she is not entertained within fighting or arguments with people, as Natsuki and Yuri end up getting punished by the Ice Climbers after their arguement over their respective writing kinds, also referred as "wobbling time." Over the course of the game, it is shown that she worries about Yuri and on one occasion, gives the protagonist a note asking him to assist Yuri, fearing that if she spoke out, then it would cause more arguments. Natsuki is super stubborn and has difficulty expressing how she feels and what she wants. When repeatedly challenged, she often becomes awkward and tongue-tied, then aggressive, and then simply bursts into tears, displaying the much more fragile interior she restrains from everyone.

Natsuki is also shown to have an increased atmosphere of relaxation and reduced assertiveness when she is outside of school, as mentioned by the protagonist when she visits his home. She is also known to be skilled in baking, similar to Mr. Game & Watch, as she made delicious cupcakes for when the main character first arrives in the Literature Club, and for the festival.

Her cute interior also involves a love of manga and anime, especially those in the slice-of-life genre, and baking. She has been known to store her manga collection in the Literature Club out of embarrassment, and while the rest of the club obviously knows about her interest, she is still hesitant to talk about it. Another reason (hinted at) is because her father would become vexed, and she is still hesitant to talk about it. Natsuki also likes cute things, like cupcakes with cat-depicted faces. She also likes poems with cuter, happier words, though her own poems are still about depressing themes, such as being persecuted for your hobbies and "things she likes about papa." Natsuki believes that it is important to be able to express something deep with few words. Her simplistic writing kind puts her at odds with Yuri, who has a more extravagant kind. In Act 1, the protagonist is tasked with siding with Natsuki, Yuri, or asking for Sayori's assistance after an argument between Yuri and Natsuki regarding writing kinds. Choosing Yuri will cause her to be offended, and the player attempts to read Natsuki their poem, Natsuki will immediately shoo them away. If the player calls for Sayori to diffuse the situation, Sayori will compliment both Yuri and Natsuki on their writing and capabilities. The argument will dissolve afterwards and both Yuri and Natsuki will be satisfied with Sayori's response, yet embarrassed simultaneously. She also compares her figure to Yuri's, which causes the protagonist to response that some people are into a petite figure like hers.

Natsuki dislikes being called cute, even when she behaves as such, or pulls off performances reflecting that, and will deny all claims from others relating to this. Nevertheless, she is much more comfortable exposing her delightful interior once she knows people aren't going to tease her about it. Natsuki hates it if she isn't taken seriously, whether it is her writing, her hobbies, or just her overall demeanor. It is likely Natsuki learned to be ashamed of herself and her hobbies, because her classmates judge and ridicule her and her implied abusive father, making her abrasive nature a coping mechanism. This is also implied in a secret poem, "Things I Like About Papa," which is most likely written by her. It is shown that she is an isolated person who desperately craves affection from anyone. One example is during the third poetry-sharing session: if Natsuki has liked all the player's poems to date, she outright questions the protagonist if he thinks her poems are the best, which quickly shifts to her begging him to respond that they are, even if he hates them.

During Act 2, Natsuki retains most of her personality in Act 1, although it slowly reveals more of her secret about her father. If the player writes a poem for Natsuki, the protagonist will read manga with Natsuki, and during the middle of the session, she will fall asleep. The protagonist will attempt to rouse her, and she will glitch out, with a mass of black glitches covering her eyes and mouth, and her dialogue will be distorted. Monika will find them and ask about her current wellbeing, to when Natsuki doesn't respond, Monika will throw her an energy bar for her to eat. Monika then tells the player that Natsuki is malnourished, which could potentially be due to her father. This can also be the reason for her lack of height and her small body, and more personality-wise the reason for her refusing to open up sometimes.

Act 2 also displays a more possessive Natsuki, as shown in the scene when she argues with Monika over getting new members. She doesn't have a lot of places that are safe for her, so when she does have one, she prefers for it to remain intact. According to Monika in this Act, Natsuki is potentially more harsh than before, such as being less malevolent in a flirty manner and more in a jealous manner. It could be from her father’s amplified actions in terms of personality inflicted on her and/or being jealous of Yuri for spending more time with the player. If Natsuki is written another poem in Act 2, Natsuki will show immediate jealousy for the protagonist spending time with Yuri. She will show the main character her poem, which is written in Base 64. She will then start asking the player if the player just wants her to suffer, and telling him that he should stop hanging out with Yuri, and to spend time with her instead. A distorted version of "Okay, Everyone!" will play, and Natsuki's facial features will become a mass of black glitches, and blood will rush down her face, to resemble crying blood. She will then yell, "PLAY WITH ME!!!" with a sadistic smile and her neck will snap abruptly, and will rush towards the screen.

In her next “poem,” Natsuki, similar to Yuri, is shown to be somewhat self-aware of Monika’s influence around everyone, in which Natsuki is concerned for how Yuri isn’t acting as her traditional person and how Monika brushes off Yuri’s issue. She tries to come to the player about it for assistance, suggesting them to give Yuri a therapist and offering to make cupcakes for the player, though, like Yuri, Monika finds a method to prevent it. After this, the screen will glitch for a few seconds and show a faceless, pale-skinned Natsuki. She will tell the player to ignore what they read and tells them that all of the problems will go away if they just spend time with Monika. She then repeats this three times with various option selections of “Just Monika” making appearances.

Like Nana, Natsuki is also shown to be sympathetic and emotional. As Natsuki discovers Yuri's decomposing corpse three days later to the festival after committing suicide alongside the Ice Climbers, Natsuki vomited, but did not run out of the classroom, and instead bursted into tears due to the tragedy of the fact that Natsuki lost her best friend, similar to Popo, and blames herself for Yuri's death due to Natsuki's vulgar abuse against Yuri, which amplified her insanity and suicidal tendencies, similar to Monika's interference with Sayori, amplifying her depression and finally driving her to suicide.

In *DDLC Plus*, Natsuki appears to be confident, friendly, chill, and mature - a little different from her original personality in *DDLC*. She is eager to attempt and clock each member of the Literature Club's favorite ice cream, and cheerfully gets Sayori's and Monika's exactly right, although she guesses Yuri's favorite is green tea (she responds she takes a lot of online quizzes, which are typically accurate). However, she is hesitant to admit that she doesn't read much literature apart from manga, and immediately becomes defensive when Monika and Sayori don't seem to take it seriously. In addition, Natsuki will never have the motivation to forget manga, as Natsuki lightheartedly teases Yuri about the enormous books Yuri reads; it subtly escalates into Natsuki responding she finds Yuri's books boring in "Reflection." Because of this incident, Monika's inspired to lecture the Literature Club about debate, neutral language, and communication - but this goes vice versa, and it ends up with Natsuki believing Yuri sees her as immature. She quotes she is chill with this, though; that she wondered about it for a while now and it was good to have her suspicions confirmed.

*DDLC Plus* expands Natsuki's concern with the other members of the Literature Club compared to the original *DDLC*. In "Three-Dimensional Love," Natsuki questions about Mr. Game & Watch's wellbeing after referring him as the "silent queen" during her and Yuri's hangout with him, in which Mr. Game & Watch responds that he never lives a "three-dimensional" life as a reflection of his two-dimensional figure unique to humanity, along with stating that he lacks cheerful expressions and referring himself as a "shadow of his former self." Natsuki and Yuri brush this off and cheer up Mr. Game & Watch, in which the latter is relieved from the two, responding that Natsuki and Yuri "fill the tip of his mug."

## Powers and abilities

* **Self-awareness**: After Natsuki's second poem in Act 2, Natsuki gains self-awareness of Monika’s influence around everyone, in which Natsuki is concerned for how Yuri isn not acting as her traditional person and how Monika brushes off Yuri’s issue. She tries to come to the player about it for assistance, suggesting them to give Yuri a therapist and offering to make cupcakes for the player, though, like Yuri, Monika finds a method to prevent it.
* **Baking**/**Cooking**: Natsuki is shown to be a professional at cooking/baking, materializing delicious cupcakes for the protagonist in Act 1.
* **Persecution**: From Act 2 onwards, Natsuki became a ostentatious persecutor as she bullied Yuri on numerous occasions:
	+ Upon preparing to return home in distress, Natsuki leaves the Literature Club despite Yuri's sympathetic and worried callouts for her, in which Natsuki ignores and leaves Yuri upset.
	+ During the heated argument between Natsuki and Yuri over their writing techniques, Natsuki stated that "her breasts magically grew larger" since the presence of the protagonist in the Literature Club, drastically humiliating Yuri.
	+ Natsuki refers Yuri as a "wannabe edgy bitch" and warns her that "she will cut herself on the edge," which aggravates Yuri by a considerable degree.
	+ After their arguement, Yuri apologizes to Natsuki for her actions, in which Natsuki refers her as "the kind of person who worries too much about little things," traumatizing Yuri.

## Trivia

* Natsuki has a Twitter account under the alias, lilnatsuki3. According to **MickMick247**, the Ice Climbers were perfect in befriending the club members in respective orders reflecting their own personality and physical appearances. In Natsuki's case, she and Sayori are befriended by Nana the most, reflecting their younger and childish demeanor.
	+ Nana and Natsuki both have pink colorations to their attire, along with similar skin colors. In addition, both characters like similar things in their favourites lists, such as cute things and reading entertaining novels related to manga. Meanwhile, Nana and Sayori both have a rentless level of happiness and optimism, but are both crybabies, due to the former being depicted bawling when losing a match in *Ice Climber* NES and the *Super Smash Bros.* series, and the latter being brought down by her "rainclouds" in DDLC.
	+ This is also because if Nana and Natsuki's names are combined together, it makes "Nanatsuki," the main title of their crackship. This particular title originates from Yayoi Nanatsuki from *Genshin Impact*, Nanatsuki Seiji from *Tokunana*, and a virtual youtuber named "Nana Nanatsuki."
* It is implied that Natsuki has an abusive father, ranging from medium emotional abuse and extreme level of strictness in Act 1 to extreme physical abuse in Act 2, after Monika begins fiddling with the code:
	+ Natsuki prefers to remain at the Literature Club rather than at her home and is visibly worried about fading into the background if more people were to join the club, even asking Monika to let her know in advance if a new member joins.
	+ Natsuki implies that her father finds manga useless and childish, fearing what would happen if he caught her reading it. This would also explain the reason she retains her manga collection in the classroom's closet.
	+ The father wants her home no later than a specific time.
	+ When preparing for the festival, Natsuki states that her father would kill her if she brought a boy to their house, which is the reason she went to the protagonist's house to make cupcakes. This implies that he is controlling over her sense of friendships, or having relationships. By extension, she implies that she "can't do anything" when her dad is home.
	+ Monika's alterations to Natsuki's negative traits in Act 2 intensify her father's abusiveness, evident by Natsuki's bolded "**My dad would beat the shit out of me if he saw this**" comment and Monika's "guess" that Natsuki's father does not give her money or lunch as she departs to school, resulting in her malnutrition and short stature.
		- Related, Natsuki passes out in the Literature Club's room, prompting Monika to give her a protein bar, saying it happens often enough to have Monika keep one in her bag in case it happens again.
	+ Natsuki's insecurity being the fuel to her "tsundere" archetype and boastful attempts at superiority as she looks for approval and jeers from others without being laughed or mocked at, a common symptom for victims of child abuse.
	+ Another circumstantial point, but if the player writes poems for Natsuki in Act 2 the day before and the day of the festival planning, then the interaction between Yuri and Natsuki changes on the day of the festival planning and takes a darker turn: Natsuki apologizes for being so aggressive the day before and leaving the club, and Yuri responds that "Nobody cares. Why don't you go look for coins under the vending machines or something?" Natsuki is shocked and angry at first and tries to speak, but instead, she runs out of the clubroom, crying. Despite this, the rest of the events for that day proceed as traditional, and Natsuki will still give the player her "poem" about attempting to help Yuri, stating that she doesn't trust Monika. The jab by Yuri, though, further alludes to the possible fact that Natsuki's father doesn't give her lunch money and thus encourages the concept that Natsuki's father is abusive.
		- In a similar vein, Natsuki's responses to Yuri during their argument over their writing kinds, such as "I wasn't the one whose boobs magically grew a size bigger as soon he started showing up!" and referring her as an "wannabe edgy bitch." The jab by Natsuki, although Natsuki herself is unaware of such cause, indirectly amplifies Yuri's obsessive nature and insanity, drastically to the point that she commits suicide by stabbing herself with a knife after the protagonists responds to her love confession near the end of Act 2. This further alludes that the concept of Natsuki's "tsundere" character encourages herself to become an abusive intimidator against Yuri, as a result of her abusive father giving her the feeling of high arrogance and insolence against those who attempt to interfere with her own personality.
			* In the first part of Loss of a Friend, even with the intensity of Natsuki's bullies against Yuri, Natsuki nevertheless sympathizes for Yuri's death after discovering her decomposing corpse in the clubroom. Unlike in *Doki Doki Literature Club*, where Natsuki immediately discovers her corpse and becomes frightened, vomits and leaves school right after, Natsuki becomes worried about Yuri's whereabouts after the weekend, becomes nervous, then becomes horrified when she discovers Yuri's corpse before Popo and Nana do, and although she vomits after Monika makes her presence in the room, she does not leave in the first page of Decomposition.
				+ Instead, Natsuki falls into tearful depression and bursts into tears, suffering from not only the tragedy of the loss of Natsuki's best friend, Yuri, but also because she states that her behaviour as a "tsundere" have caused such scene of horror. Although she blames herself for Yuri's death, this is alluded to the possible fact that Natsuki's abusive father initiated this and thus encourages the concept that Natsuki learned such behavior and actions from her father in complex. This is further alluded as Natsuki states that "What if I done the same to Sayori as well, and she'll end eventually end up like Yuri too, huh?"
	+ Theoretical at best, but by connecting the symptoms of insecurity from real-world abuse victims and how such relationships tend to begin, Natsuki pressuring to go home for dinner after saving her appetite, feeling insecure about her underdeveloped size and stature, and her boasting about how she can overcome such a flaw with minor acts of feat, the father is likely critical of her stagnated growth and wants her to eat all provided meals so his efforts are worth the fortune that Natsuki does not become more dependent on him and become a greater drain on his resources, time, and energy.
* Natsuki's version of "Okay, Everyone!" involves a much simpler tune consisting of a recorder xylophone duet, though it is slightly off-tempo, representing her childish and simplistic nature.
* Her poems are typically the shortest and most "childish" of the group, with playful and simple music, contrasting with the messages of her poems, which are usually more hard-hitting and serious.
* In the manga *Parfait Girls*, Natsuki's favorite character is a girl, named Minori, who she claims to be particularly unlucky.
* Dan Salvato has stated that he wished he could have applied additional content to Natsuki's character.
* Natsuki is the only girl who lacks a death scene.
	+ Natsuki snapping her neck to the side during her corruption in Act 2 could be disputed as Natsuki's self-destruction, but the act has temporary and inconclusive consequences.
* Natsuki is the only female character whose bangs are swept to her right rather than to the left.
* The sprite of Natsuki throwing up might have been inspired by "vomit-chan," a famous *Yume Nikki* fanart image that features the protagonist, Madotsuki, throwing up.
* Natsuki's file can be changed into a .png file, inverted, and then put on a cone to show a neon-blonde woman with no pupils.
* Some of Natsuki's glitches/corruptions involve her eyes being "darkened" out, such as her possessing black-shifting-pixels, her eyes popping out, and her ghost appearance on the main menu with no eyes. Some of them also revolve around her skin being paler.
* Natsuki's favorite flavor of ice cream is strawberry.
* Natsuki tells Yuri that she has online friends.
* Natsuki tells Sayori she doesn't want her to see her locker, implying that it is a mess.
* In chronological order, Natsuki is the second character after Monika to learn about Sayori's depression.
* Natsuki is the only character whose bangs are swept to her right rather than to the left.
* Known manga in Natsuki's closet includes the *Parfait Girls* series; a book that Sayori looks at and reads, "...Shouldn't this girl be wearing more clothes?"; and a romance-comedy called *Love is Another Word for Luck.*

## References

1. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Natsuki-s-Smash-Advice-976153126
2. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Coldfight-Pt-3-Wobbling-Time-992620205
3. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Loss-of-a-Friend-Pt-1-996216823
4. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Loss-of-a-Friend-Pt-2-996216659
5. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Three-Dimensional-Love-980931608
6. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Nanatsuki-Nana-x-Natsuki-CRACKSHIP-966992706
7. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Nanatsuki-DDLC-x-Ice-Climber-974216429
8. ↑ https://virtualyoutuber.fandom.com/wiki/Nana\_Nanatsuki
9. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Loss-of-a-Friend-Pt-1-996216823
10. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Decomposition-GORE-WARNING-989629085
11. ↑ https://doki-doki-literature-club.fandom.com/wiki/Easter\_Eggs#Secret\_Poems

Monika • Sayori • **Natsuki** • Yuri • MC