Is the one in left. The pink-haired. The short. What? Did you forget her?
| “ | I don't know how else to bring this up. But there's been something I've been worried about. Yuri has been acting kind of strange lately. You've only been here a few days, so you may not know what I mean. But she's not normally like this. She's always been quiet and polite and attentive...things like that.
Okay... This is really embarrassing, but I'm forcing myself to suck it up. The truth is, I'm REALLY worried about her. But if I try talking to her, she'll just get mad at me again. I don't know what to do. I think you're the only person that she'll listen to. I don't know why. But please try to do something. Maybe you can convince her to talk to a therapist. I've always wanted to try being better friends with Yuri, and it really hurts me to see this happening. I know I'm going to hate myself later for admitting that, but right now I don't care. I just feel so helpless. So please see if you can do something to help. I don't want anything bad to happen to her. I'll make you cupcakes if I have to. Just please try to do something. As for Monika... I don't know why, but she's been really dismissive about this. It's like she just wants us to ignore it. So I'm mad at her right now, and that's why I'm coming to you about this. DON'T LET HER KNOW I WROTE THIS!!!! Just pretend like I gave you a really good poem, okay? I'm counting on you. Thanks for reading. |
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| ~ Why can' you be like Natsuki, Mine?!! |
I AM ALIVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!
Why have I spent so long without making any proposals? Well, the reason begins with "sch" and ends with "ool". But anyway, I bring you a new proposal.
Yes, you might be thinking that power has gone to my head just because my Ryuko proposal was approved, but when I remembered this character's accomplishments, I thought she deserved at least one proposal. I checked to see if she was on the list of disallowed pages, which she wasn't, and since as far as I know, you don't need to ask permission to propose if the character is Heroic Benchmark, I thought it wouldn't hurt to at least try. So let's remember this girl's heroism and, as The Pro-Westler likes to say... let the trial commence!
What's the work?
Doki Doki Literature Club is an excellent indie game from 2017, which uses the dating simulator style to tell a story where you are a high school boy who is best friends with a cinnamon roll named Sayori and, at her request (*cough* *cough* insistence), you join her club, the Literature Club, where you meet three other girls: The president (and main antagonist), Monika; the more mature and shy one, Yuri; and the youngest and candidate for this proposal, Natsuki. It seems like just another innocent dating simulator at first, but as the story unfolds, the game reveals deeper layers and sadder elements... until it reveals itself to be a huge psychological horror made to make you suffer watching the girls suffer. This game is very good and was a huge success, so much so that later games like MiSide would acquire a similar style.
Who's the candidate? What have her done?
Natsuki is the youngest member of the literature club and the girl who likes manga. She expresses herself through poems with simple and direct language. These two elements often lead her to conflict with Yuri, who prefers horror literature and expresses herself through complex poems with metaphorical language.
She has many elements of the tsundere archetype, such as being hot-headed and always choosing denial as her first alternative when she feels cornered. However, later on, this rude and ill-tempered behavior is presented as nothing more than a facade, for the most part. I'll get to that later.
Anyway, let's start at the beginning: The Doki Doki Literature Club Plus shorts.
She seems excited to join the literature club, but Monika says she shouldn't bring her mangas, as they don't fit with the club's idea. After some effort from her, however, Monika allows her to read her manga at the club. However, Monika, in a subtle way (but not really), again says that Natsuki's mangas don't fit with the club. This obviously makes the little pink girl offended, she says that Monika should be direct about not wanting her there and gets out. The next day, Monika finds out that some people were bullying Natsuki because of her love of manga, which is why she always gets defensive when someone points it out. Our favorite president then convinces the pinkette to tell the club why she loves manga, and later, Nat vents to her and apologizes for blowing up at her. Monika then plays a song and they stretch, thus making the literature club officially have its four classic members.
However, in "Reflection", Natsuki and Yuri have a disagreement regarding their opposing tastes in literature. However, when Sayori meets Nat, she reveals that she is completely sad with the situation and that she feels guilty about the incident. She confesses that she acts the way she does because she wants to be better than those who look down on her, and so she blames others for it. Sayori reassures her, and she later makes amends with Yuri when he apologizes to her through a letter.
Now let's to the original Doki Doki Literature Club.
In Act 1, you can interact with any of the girls (minus poor Monika), including Natsuki. However, since her actions here are mostly just kindness, I'll go straight to Act 2.
After the game gets all screwed up and you've had more than enough scares to last a lifetime, you can once again exchange poems with Natsuki. She acts relatively normal, but when she hands over her paper, it's clear that it's not a poem, but rather a warning and a plea for help. Natsuki swallows all her pride and begs the protagonist to convince Yuri to go to therapy, and tells him not to let Monika know, already knowing more or less that she's the one behind the mess. Unfortunately, Monika's omniscience realizes this and she corrupts Natsuki, making her tell the protagonist to forget about it and saying the classic "Just Monika" over and over again.
After Yuri's suicide, Natsuki is horrified to see his corpse and vomits before leaving. Monika then "deletes" them all to be left with only the protagonist.
After Monika is deleted and she realizes her mistakes, she restores the game without her, where Natsuki acts like she did in Act 1, but much kinder. If you got the Bad Ending, Sayori becomes self-aware and Monika saves the player, deleting everyone so that no one else will suffer. If you got the Good Ending, however, Sayori just thanks you for making everyone happy and we get a happier ending.
Admirable Standards
I know this will be a controversial point, considering that she has two competitors:
- Monika: The club president, who made all the characters close friends and erased the world to avoid further suffering.
- The Protagonist: The guy who deleted Monika and put an end to all the bad things, and who, depending on the player's choices, can cause the good ending.
However, I personally don't think it's fair to compare Natsuki to either of them. The reason? Resources.
Monika is simply the most powerful character in the game. She can alter the world, tamper with files, corrupt characters and codes, and her power extends to world manipulation, as she can destroy and recreate her own world.
The Protagonist is also very powerful, since being an avatar of the player, he can also manipulate files, which basically amounts to manipulating reality.
Meanwhile, Natsuki is just a high school girl without any knowledge that her world is a game, which already causes a huge difference in resources.
So, I'm going to say something that many will call stupid, but I'm going to say it anyway... Natsuki doesn't fail the Admirable Standard.
Why? Well, I believe that her attitude in Act 2, of writing that message to the Protagonist begging him to convince Yuri to go to therapy, helps her to surpass not only the baseline, but also the Admirable Standard of her own franchise. This is not generic kindness, she wanted to protect Yuri's mental health. She also realized that there was something wrong with Monika and tried to avoid her. This can't even be called Refrigerator Brilliance, because even though she didn't know that it was all a game, she desperately warns the Protagonist not to let Monika know, which shows that she had already realized that she was behind the bad. She may have been stopped by Monika, but she still did it.
"Then why didn't she go talk to Yuri herself?" Well, as she said, she was afraid that Yuri would get mad at her, and she thought that she would listen to the protagonist because she loved him.
Now, I know that usually breaking through the Goodness Zone once isn't enough to qualify, but as we've seen from Papyrus, Sass, and Nathalie, it's not impossible (all these links go to other users' proposals, so all credits to them. This is not plagiarism, I'm just using the characters in the proposals as arguments.). Since Natsuki doesn't have the resources to be as admirable as Monika or the MC, I think she manages to stand out enough, since Sayori and Yuri's heroism basically consists of generic kindness.
Mitigating factors
This will also be difficult to counter-argue. Yes, she has some mitigating factors, but I'll get to those later.
Her page on the Heroic Benchmark Wiki uses the argument the moment in Act 2 where she taunts Yuri for cutting herself. Look... I don't think it's fair to use EVERY moment in Act 2 as an argument to warn her, because as we know, Act 2 is when the girls' personalities are being sabotaged by Monika. Sure, there are things that are true, like Yuri's self-harming tendencies and Natsuki's jealousy and bad temper. However, I interpret moments like Yuri ordering Natsuki to collect lost coins from the vending machine or Natsuki teasing Yuri for cutting herself as sabotage by Monika, and things they wouldn't say in their right minds.
Furthermore, she overcomes this when she tries to convey the message to the protagonist, and what happened next was mind control by Monika. Furthermore, it is quite clear in the game that her arrogance is a facade to cover up her insecurities, so much so that in the end, she almost always apologizes for the stupid things she does. Furthermore, as shown several times by her interactions with the girls, outbursts and the message in Act 2, although she is arrogant, Natsuki is not selfish. There is a difference between the two. So yes, she does not have enough factors to demean her.
What Prevents Her From Being Pure Good?
Well, despite everything, Natsuki is still a tsundere, so of course she has her jerkish moments that prevent her from being Pure Good. Even in her right mind in Act 1, she has these moments, like teasing Yuri about her breasts while they're fighting, getting mad at the Protagonist if he prefers Yuri's poems, and throwing a cookie in Sayori's face. However, I don't think this disqualifies her from being Near Pure Good because most of these moments are meant for laughs and she almost always apologizes for them afterwards.
"But Julio2319, you proposed Mine (Akame ga Kill!) as Inconsistently Admirable for the same reasons, so why is Natsuki Near Pure Good in your eyes?".
Well, Natsuki's jerkiness is much more "mild", so to speak. When she gets angry, Mine doesn't hesitate to slap, kick and even try to shoot Tatsumi when she gets mad at him, there's even a scene in the manga where she threatens to send him to die in the world of other violent mangas. Natsuki, even at her worst, simply makes generic rude comments, with the only exception being the cookie moment with Sayori, and even then it wasn't that hurtful. And like I said before, she apologizes at the end most of the time. But not all of the time, which stops her from being Pure Good.
Final Veredit
I will say yes, but what about you guys?