#I love MES but DDLitG did it first actually

[anothermonikan]

Doki-Doki Literature Girls did Metaverse Enterprise Solutions first, send post

[dokidokiliteraturegirls]

It’s that time of the year again! In today’s Behind The Scenes we delve into what is one of the most popular antagonists of DDLitG. Because she’s the only one!

That’s right, today we’re talking about

Details about her design, inspiration, and place in the story under the cut!

Character’s Bio

The Perfect Yuri (TPY) is what Yuri became after all her stats (Physical Aptitude, Intelligence,  emotional intelligence, appearance, cuteness, obsession, manipulation, love, compassion, and creep factor). She was born out of Yuri’s desperation to fit in, and has a twisted philosphy. According to TPY, a person’s worth is only that which they give back to society as employees. To her, friendship, hobbies, and love are all irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, as they only represent temporary distractions that keep one from reaching the truth: a person is ultimately worthless, and admitting that one’s own feelings don’t matter is the first step for becoming an adult. Yikes!

Writing TPY was kind of difficult, because I had to consider all the factors written above in making her personality. As for “love” and “compassion”? She believes that she is in the right, and that convincing the rest of the girls to follow her philosophy is doing them a favor.

TPY’s place in the story

TPY is the polar opposite to Yuri’s insecurities. During the build-up to her summoning, Yuri was worried that she didn’t know how to deal with people, that she was getting behind in all the things she should know how to do at her age (like ask for a pizza delivery), and that she was bad at everything she tried. TPY, on the other hand, is smooth in her delivery, is good at everything, and is decided to be a responsible member of society.

Overall, as her name implies, she represents the dangers of seeking perfection. Truth is, during our lives, society asks a lot of us. Most of it being “be good at everything you do, you can’t make mistakes, don’t let your personal feelings get in the way, produce money”. And sometimes, this gets to us. We get sad because we can’t work hard enough. We feel guilty for not being able to deliver what we’re being asked. TPY is not “perfect” in the sense that she’s good at everything, she’s perfect in the sense that she’s what everyone is supposed to become in a capitalist society.

TPY’s inspiration

The Perfect Yuri’s name was inspired by Red Velvet’s album, The Perfect Red Velvet.

When I found out this existed, after it was recommended by a friend, I thought it was the COOLEST NAMING CONVENTION EVER. You’re taking a name that already exists and adding “The Perfect” at the beginning to show its improved quality?? I LOVED IT!!

People have speculated about her appearance a lot, ranging from DBZ to Hatsune Miku, but the truth is that I picked that colour just because I liked it xD

I had already messed with Yuri’s hair colour in a previous update, and I wanted to see how pretty I could make it look by editing it more and adding effects.

It also looked like an “improved” version of Yuri, which was exactly what I was going for~

TPY’s return

After TPY’s arc ended, I felt satisfied that the first “original character” I introduced had been a success without overstaying their welcome. She did what she had to do, and left when she had to leave. However, after some time, I thought that the pacing of the arc was a little off. I spent way too much time building her appearance, only for her to be defeated in less than a week. And I put so much thought into writing the character that it felt wrong to just leave it at that, so I decided to re-introduce TPY, not as Yuri being taken over by her wish to attain perfection, but as a representation for her intrusive thoughts. There is a reason for this.

TPY in real life

The Perfect Yuri, as a character, came from a very personal part of my life.

In her first iteration, she was based on my fear and stress coming from studying in college. I was scared, I was over-stressed, I lacked sleep, and all I wanted to do was lay down and cry.... but I didn’t have time for that. I had to ignore my own feelings and push forward, or I would fail the program, lose my possibility to get a job, fail to become a productive member of society. TPY during her arc was based on those feelings, and the fear that things would only get worse, and that I would have to live like that my whole life.

When she came back to whisper to Yuri, she was based on something else. I’ve had anxiety for most of my life, and whenever I did something wrong, no matter how small, I could hear a voice inside my head giving me hell for it. If I felt too depressed to get up in the morning, they would say “you’re so lazy, you’re not going to improve like this”, etc. If I ate a snack out of time, they’d tell me “you’re going to gain a thousand pounds, you’re eating unhealthily”, etc. No matter what I did, I would hear this absolute bastard of a person telling me I was doing it wrong. I decided to express these feelings through the re-introduction of TPY.

And to be honest? It did help me feel better! Now when I hear the voice I just think “shut tf up, Perfect Yuri, you have no idea what you’re talking about” and just go ahead with my day.

Is The Perfect Yuri a character?

This might seem like a strange question, but... I don’t really know if I can consider TPY an actual character in the story. Is she someone with her own motivations and internal logic, working to lead Yuri astray? Or is it just Yuri telling bad things to herself due to her anxiety?

What I’m trying to say is... is The Perfect Yuri at this point of the story a person, or a visual representation of an abstract concept?

...I think it’s better if we leave it up for each reader’s interpretation ❤️

And that’s it for The Perfect Behind the Scenes! Admittedly, there were not nearly as many things to say as they were with Ako and Friendship, but I still find TPY an interesting character with some curious bits of trivia about her.

I hope you all enjoyed this and that I didn’t make too many typos due to how incredibly SLEEPY I am while writing this xD

See you all soooon!!

- Yui ❤️