Gingerbrave

**Senpai** is the primary antagonist of **Week 6**. His tracks include **Senpai** and **Roses**.

## Appearance

Senpai appears as a young, light-skinned man with a constant blush and parted strawberry blonde hair. He wears a partially tucked-in periwinkle blue button-up shirt, a loose pink tie, grayish-purple jeans held up by a black belt with a silver buckle, and grayish-purple shoes. He carries a brown backpack in his right hand over his right shoulder and holds a pink microphone loosely in his left with his thumb and index finger. His head sparkles whenever he is not singing. Fitting his dating sim origins, he stands and stares forward in the player's direction instead of towards his opponent.

His previously happy expression changes to a more discomforted and menacing glare in his second track, with the upper part of his face appearing blueish-purple, shadowing his eyes. His tie appears bent. He now clutches his microphone fully in his left hand. The sparkles around his head are now gone. His forward-facing stance remains the same, but his eyes are now focused squarely in **Boyfriend's** direction, even while singing.

## Story

A long time ago, someone was forcefully trapped within the confines of a dating simulator game by **Daddy Dearest** under unknown circumstances. Now stuck in the game without any hope of escaping, he would possess its programming and lay dormant until someone arrived.

The dating sim video game belonged to **Girlfriend**, and she used to play it a lot. While hanging out with **Boyfriend**, she finds it and decides to play it with him. However, they both ended up being pushed into the game by **Daddy Dearest**, likely as another attempt on Boyfriend's life. Soon after, they meet Senpai, and he chivalrously challenges Boyfriend. After being bested, he suddenly breaks character, quickly becoming angry and vulgar.

Having lost twice, Senpai is seen writhing before something violently bursts out of his face and destroys him. **Spirit]**, the one trapped in the game, finally emerges in Senpai's place, causing the once bright location of the school grounds to become desolate, deserted and dark. He reveals that he has been trapped in the game without contact from other humans for so long. Despite this, he reveals that he recognizes **Girlfriend** and remembers how her father was responsible for his imprisonment. He also states that he is not the only person who has met this cruel fate by her father's hands.

With the last song **Spirit** plans to win against **Boyfriend** in a rap battle so he can take over both his and **Girlfriend's** bodies (and leaving them to take his place inside the game in return) to finally escape and enact revenge against **Daddy Dearest** for his and everyone else's suffering. Despite his hostility, he may not be entirely ill-willed at either Boyfriend and Girlfriend but simply wants out by any means possible, even if his freedom would result in others suffering the same way he did.

## Trivia

* Senpai is:
	+ The first character to not follow the main art style of the game, instead being portrayed in a 32-bit style.
	+ One of the first characters to provide an extra layer of lore to the game.
	+ The first antagonist to die.
	+ The first antagonist to have dialogue boxes.
	+ The first antagonist to change appearances on each song.
* In **Story Mode's** week selection menu, Senpai appears in a CRT gaming TV hooked up to a video game console with a controller and an open game case. This makes him the first character to include extra art on his Story Mode character render.
	+ The console itself bears a strong resemblance to the **PlayStation**, and its controller resembles the **DualShock controllers**.
	+ There are **schoolgirls** in the background of **Senpai** and **Roses** with different facial expressions depending on the song. They are amusingly named "bgFreaks.png" in the game's files, standing for "Background Freaks".
* Senpai is the third character to not have a "danger" icon in their sprite, the first being **Girlfriend**, the second being **Daddy Dearest,** and the fourth being **Spirit**.
* On a Twitch livestream, it was clarified that Senpai isn't controlled by **Spirit** and are entirely **different characters**.
* The original idea of Senpai's week was a **Dragon Quest-esque game**. Later, it was decided to be a dating simulator instead to fit the romance theme fully.
* Senpai was **confirmed to be 18 and a senior in high school** by **Moawling** on Twitter.
	+ Senpai being a senior is hinted at by his name, which means "upperclassman" in Japanese. *Senpai* (先輩) is also an honorific for a senior or superior.
* As shown in a piece of concept art, Senpai was originally going to have **heterochromia**, as confirmed by **PhantomArcade** in a **Twitter Post**.
* **As shown in a Tweet** by **PhantomArcade**, one of the references used for the aesthetic of **Senpai's week** and his first song, **Senpai**, is from the 1994 Japanese dating simulator, **Tokimeki Memorial**.
* It was heavily rumored that Senpai's design was inspired by Jacob Couch, a man who appeared in Judge Judy and has been seen as almost the exact same as Senpai in terms of appearance. People pointed out the similarities between Jacob and Senpai, like how they're emotional wrecks, 18 years old and looked like womanizers. Unsurprisingly, **ninjamuffin99** has denied this on a **Reddit AMA**, stating that it was nothing more than an amusing coincidence.
	+ Additionally, ninjamuffin99 denied Senpai's relations to Doki Doki Literature Club's **Monika** in that same AMA. Despite fan perception of them being siblings, they're both separate A.I.'s from different games that have nothing to do with each other.
	+ Senpai is also noted, specifically by the Virtual YouTuber community (including Japanese VTubers who have played Friday Night Funkin' before), to bear a heavy resemblance to the VTuber, **Yukoku Roberu**, whose appearance, like the previously mentioned Jacob Couch, bears a heavy resemblance to Senpai. Like Senpai in-game, Roberu has a talent for singing, as he has four songs in his discography. However, much like the Jacob Couch example, the resemblance is likely just a coincidence.
* Although Senpai was the first antagonist to die, he was the second character to die in general, the first being **Mall Santa** in **Week 5**.