Sayori

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## Sayori

### Relationships

* MC (Childhood Friend, Love Friend)
* Monika (Best Friend)
* Yuri (Close Friend)
* Natsuki (Close Friend)
* Boyfriend (Close Friend)
* Girlfriend (Friend)
* Zipper (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)

## Appearances

### Appears in

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

### Debut

September 22, 2017

**Sayori** (*サヨリ*) is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Monika), as well as the optional final antagonist of the 2017 visual novel, *Doki Doki Literature Club!*.

She is Nana's best friend, and is one of the five main characters in the game, and one of the five members and vice-president of the Literature Club in Act 1. After Monika is deleted in Act 3, she replaces her as the club president in Act 4 and serves as one of the three characters for whom the player can write poems. She is also the protagonist's childhood friend.

Upon inheriting the position of president, she started displaying self-awareness patterns quite similar to Monika when she was the club president.

## Physical appearance

Sayori is an 18-year-old girl who has strawberry coral pink hair, cut chin-length and slightly curled at the ends, with a large red bow on the upper left side of her head. Like the other female characters, she has two prominent strands of hair beside her bangs, and her eyes are a bright sky blue. She is of short-to-average height, which makes her the second-shortest character in the game, before Natsuki.

When in school, she wears the standard issue female school uniform consisting of a warm gray blazer fully unbuttoned and untucked, brown sweater vest, white shirt slightly unbuttoned and crooked at the collar and tucked, red ribbon that is displaced, dark blue pleated skirt, white knee-high socks and white uwabaki slippers with sky blue tips. Sayori is the only member of the Literature Club to have her blazer unbuttoned.

When outside school, she wears a pink shirt with rolled-up long sleeves and blue shorts. On the morning of her death, she is seen wearing her pajamas, consisting a brown collared white dress shirt, which has a pocket on each side, brown folds and six black buttons, the top one being unbuttoned, slim-fitting red shorts and is depicted barefoot.

## Personality

Initially, Sayori is portrayed as the epitome of a Genki Girl, expressing an optimistic and cheerful disposition. Like Nana, she has a heightened sense of clumsiness, noted for finding methods to accidentally inflict self-harm or to drop random things. Regardless, she is shown to be a cunning individual who can trick others to get food, shown after managing to eat Natsuki's cookie without her permission. Sayori has also been known by the protagonist to obsess over activities that she loses interest in later. She states that writing poetry and studying literature is different to her than those other interests because it helps her explore her feelings.

However, it is later revealed that she suffers from chronical depression, also referred as "rainclouds," and applies hard work to make the people around her cheerful to cope with her own lack of self-love amongst other things. She is also typically the only character, other than the protagonist, shown to break up arguments, Monika noting that her sentiments are necessary to retain a relaxing atmosphere in the Literature Club. This is proven by her absence in Act 2. Monika notes that while she might look like a good leader, Sayori is typically superior when it comes to dealing with people, notably at meditations. She tries her best to make everyone have bright smiles and dislikes attention directed at her well-being because she feels unworthy of anything that others have to offer her.

Sayori is also introduced as the protagonist's childhood friend. The protagonist seems to perceive her as an airhead and slightly annoying at the beginning of the game, but starts to sympathize with her after she confesses about her depression. The Ice Climbers and Mr. Game & Watch have especially noticed this (especially Nana, among the three), and make sure to remove her depression by all means necessary.

Sayori's depression makes her disorganized, and she often cannot find a reason to get out of bed in the morning when she tries to wake up, which is the reason she is typically late for school and "oversleeps" later on in her life. Her room, which the protagonist regularly cleaned for her, is also noted to be untidy. The protagonist notes how there hasn't been much change in her, and the changes the protagonist notices in her later are due to Monika's interference, amplifying her depression and suicidal tendencies. However, Popo and Nana have immediately noticed this tradegy, and revived Sayori after witnessing her dead body a day before the festival, and have confronted Monika for her deadly interference with her, avenging Sayori.

Her depression seems to make her believe that she does not deserve to be loved, but at the same time she wants to be loved, especially by the protagonist, whom she has a crush on. When the player chooses to pursue one of the other girls, Sayori seems to suffer because she secretly wants the protagonist to love her while simultaneously experiencing guilt for feeling bad in the first place. Her depression is also gradually amplified by Monika at this point. However, if the player actively chooses to pursue Sayori, she will still experience guilt since she doesn't believe that she deserves to be loved. Regardless of the player's choice, Sayori will kill herself the day before the festival. Her relationship with the protagonist and other people's happiness are her fundamental coping mechanisms since she believes that if she makes everyone else happy, she will not have a reason whatsoever to be unhappy.

It is worth noting that Act 1 establishes that Sayori oversleeps because of her depression, which is the reason she is often late for school. In Act 4, however, Sayori tells the protagonist that she has been waking up on time recently. This implies that her depression has been alleviated to some degree. Sayori is also seemingly a crybaby, like Yuri, as shown in the side story "Trust" in *Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!*, but is relieved after her friends comfort her.

In *DDLC Plus*, Sayori is presented with a comparable personality to her former self in the original *DDLC* - a forthcoming and cheerful personality, albeit with a few notable differences. She enjoys learning about other people and their interests, and would often go out of her way to find out why it interests them, as seen in the side story "Understanding." She also has a liking for poetry, teaching Monika how to write poetry and writing plenty of poems herself, mentioning that it allows her to be more expressive with her true feelings in the side story, "Trust."

As with the game's protagonist, Sayori reveals to Monika that she has depression, and admits that she possesses suicidal thoughts and/or tendencies, hoping that Monika would reciprocate and open up to her as well. She explains that opening up to others is an extreme difficulty for her, that she gets upset when other individuals are worried for her, and that if she can be vulnerable, then Monika could be too. In order to combat her feelings of worthlessness and self-loathing, she often undergoes tireless effort to retain a relaxing atmosphere and happiness among other people, and is able to effortlessly break up arguments between the members. Monika looks to Sayori for reassurance, comparing Sayori's ability to diffuse situations to her own.

Sayori is also shown to have a heightened level of enthusiasm and clumsiness, forgetting her belongings on her first day in the Literature Club and being described by Monika as a "hug monster." Initially, her personality is regarded as intense by other members of the club, chiefly Natsuki in Balance, who is lacks usage to open friendships, and by Yuri, who misunderstands that Sayori simply wants to make her feel welcomed into the club and that she wants to learn about her interests. Sayori reveals that the contrasts in personality in the club allowed her to understand that people have different needs, and that confiding in Monika helped her cope with her own self-deprecating thoughts.

## Powers and abilities

After becoming the new club president after Monika's deletion, Sayori gains self-awareness and knowledge of the game's code. Her powers include:

* **Breaking the Fourth Wall:** Sayori is aware of the fictionality of her universe.
* **Resistance to Plot Manipulation:** Sayori managed to break out of the script of the game via her knowledge of the fourth wall, something not even the player is able to do.
* **Script:** She can edit the "script" of the game at will, therefore deciding every event that happens within the game.
* **Erasure:** She can "erase" the file of anyone, which results in their erasure of the entire history of the world, leaving it to adapt to their absence. However, Sayori herself is unaffected and can still remember their existence and bring them back at will.
* **Non-Corporeal:** Through unknown means, Sayori can keep her conscience and ability to affect reality even after having her file (and thus, her entire existence) is deleted. Though not demonstrated directly in-game, she can likely bring her own file back to existence as Monika did with her friends, as long as she keeps a "back up" of her own file.

## Trivia

* According to **MickMick247**, the Ice Climbers were perfect in befriending the club members in respective orders reflecting their own personality and physical appearances. In Sayori's case, she and Natsuki are befriended by Nana the most, reflecting their younger and childish demeanor.
	+ 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, while Nana and Natsuki both have pink colorations to their attire, along with similar skin colors.
		- In addition, if Nana's name is combined with the title of the heavily distorted version of DDLC's main menu, "Sayo-Nara," by replacing the second word of the song's original title within Sayori's death scene to "Sayo-Nana," the title can easily be replaced with Nana's name by shifting the letter "r" in the word "nara" to "n."
* Sayori's DDLC character file can be decoded into an .ogg file, which seems to be a recording of high and muffled screeching. Running the audio through a spectrograph will reveal a QR code, which leads to the Project Libitina website.
* As also noted in the fan pack booklet, Dan Salvato chose Sayori as the character who inadvertently sets off the sudden shift to psychological horror of the game, especially because he had the knowledge it would hit anime fans the hardest, i.e., witnessing the archetypal girl who wants everyone to be happy be the one to commit suicide.
* In a livestream celebrating the first anniversary of the game's release, Dan cited the character, Yui Hirasawa, from *K-On!* as an inspiration for Sayori's character.
* If Monika's character file (monika.chr) is deleted before the first run, Sayori appears to realize that she is trapped in a game. She will then force the game to close and delete the other character files, including herself. If the player opens the game after this occurs, a black and white screen with her hanging will appear instead of the quintessential opening and main menu. After 10 minutes pass, text written in her handwriting will show up on the right of the screen that reads "*Now everyone can be happy*."
	+ If Sayori is deleted during Act 1, the black and white screen with her hanging herself will also appear immediately if the player reopens the game.
* In Act 4, Sayori is programmed to be the president of the club. However, as president, Sayori starts to exhibit self-awareness as Monika did and begins breaking the game. It is of interest to note that she does not delete Natsuki or Yuri for unknown reasons, but she tries to form an ending with just herself and the player. However, she is prevented from getting too far by Monika, who realizes that there is no means of happiness and then deletes the entire game.
	+ After achieving the special ending, Sayori will thank the player for spending time with all of the characters and will not break the game.
* When the game proceeds to Act 2, Sayori's sprite in the main menu will be replaced with an amalgamation of all the other characters present (Yuri, Natsuki, and Monika) instead.
* Sayori's version of "Okay, Everyone!" involves a soft flute accompanied with a ukulele and snapping in the background, most likely referring to her Genki Girl-esque personality.
* Dan Salvato stated in the fan pack booklet that Sayori's name is a fusion between 'Sayuri' and 'Saori,' thus it has no traditional meaning. However, "Sayori" (さより) *is* an actual Japanese girls' name (as well as the name of the Japanese halfbeak fish), albeit an uncommon one, as seen with the voice actress, Sayori Ishizuka, as well as the pseudonymous artist behind *Nekopara*.
* Sayori and Yuri are the only characters to actually die in the game, while everyone else (specifically Natsuki and Monika) were all deleted from the game (although, Yuri and Sayori were deleted as well after death).
	+ Although there is no salvation for Sayori's death in DDLC, Sayori's life was actually rescued in Sayo-Nana, where Popo detaches the noose hanging onto Sayori's neck, resulting in immediate resurrection.
* Sayori is the only character whose blazer is opened.
* Sayori's favorite flavor of ice cream is cookie dough, as revealed by Natsuki in the side story, "Respect."
* The most important thing to Sayori is the happiness of the individuals around her.
* She is the first person to join the Literature Club.
* Sayori has her favorite foods meticulously organized by category, such as snacks versus full meals, or foods associated with breakfast.
	+ Her favorite fruit is cherries, and she has strong reactions when Monika lies about not liking them.
* Sayori, at the start of Balance, does not know what "shipping" is. She figures it out off-screen.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.deviantart.com/mickmick247/art/Sayo-nana-Pt-4-985363205
2. ↑ The letter "r" in Sayo-Nara can easily be replaced with an "n," spelling the word as "Sayo-Nana." The second word is Nana's name in *Ice Climber*.

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