Team Salvato's Doki Doki Literature Club quickly became a hit with those who enjoy visual novels, games that subvert expectations, and well-written, lovable characters that we just want to protect. Out of all of them, though each are tragic in their own ways, perhaps the girl who leaves the biggest mark on the player is none other than Sayori, the childhood best-friend and one potential love interest. She hides her crippling chronic depression behind wide, beaming smiles, over-enthusiasm and a desire for everyone around her to be happy.
Today, we'll be taking a look at ten facts that even hardcore fans might not know about the girl who's all sunshine and rain clouds, Sayori.
10 Wardrobe Differences
All of the club members, aside from Monika whose appearance is altered slightly herself for story reasons, wear the same school uniform, but Sayori's is just a little bit different.
Aside from her overall uniform looking slightly sloppier than the other members, which also is a nice subtle hint at her depression as she doesn't properly take care of herself, she also doesn't button her blazer. MC actually tries to, at one point, to which she replies it's 'stuffy' and immediately undoes it again.
9 Cute Yet Cunning
Sayori appears klutzy and a bit air-headed, as well as incredibly easy to excite, but there's a lot more to her character than that. What some fans might not be aware of is just how cunning the genki girl next door really is, as she's actually known to be quite cunning- at least, when it comes to getting her afternoon snack.
She has been shown to trick others to try to get food (or food money) from the protagonist so often that he could see through her act.
8 Unlikely Leader
Although Monika is the leader of the Literature Club, even she remarks that she believes Sayori is the true foundation of the club and the glue holding everyone together, even if she's oblivious to this fact. She's usually the only character besides the protagonist seen breaking up arguments, and is unarguably the best character in the series when it comes to dealing with other people- something that the ever popular Monika admits herself.
We find out at the end of the game, however, that with Sayori gaining the Preisdent spot comes Monika's self-awareness, something too heavy for any of the girls to bear.
7 Coping Through Relationships
We learn during Act 1 that the things that make Sayori seem klutzy, sloppy and lazy are all actually serious symptoms of chronic depression, something that she notes she's struggled with her entire life. The player's view then shifts to be more sympathetic, and hints are dropped at how Sayori's coped with these hidden feelings for so long.
She copes through her relationships and by making others happy. By doing so, she naively and earnestly believes that she won't have a reason to be unhappy herself, which is such a tragic way of thinking.
6 Just Sayori?
Whenever Monika finally decided to make sure her and the player were the only ones left, she deliberately made sure to delete Yuri and Natsuki's character files, as well- but in Sayori's case, things are a little different when she becomes President. It's pretty interesting to note that instead of deleting them like Monika did, Sayori instead simply tries to trap the player with her forever without paying any mind to the other two girls.
This could potentially show that Sayori really didn't feel connected to the other girls, which is another common depression symptom.
5 Natural Sentience
We touched before on the fact that Monika and Sayori are the only two girls to have taken the role of President at one point or another, and thus are the only two girls to have gained self-awareness as to their situation as characters in a visual novel. What's interesting to note, and something that's easy to dismiss without connecting the dots, is the fact that the two girls who gained awareness about their fake reality are also the only two to have natural eye colors, being green and blue respectively, making them seem more like real people than Yuri and Natsuki.
Their problems, depression and loneliness, are also much more realistic than the overly yandere and tsundere performances from the other girls.
4 Meaning...? Of A Name
Most characters aren't named without meaning, and names can often hide some of the biggest, most hidden secrets about a character simply from their meanings. It's always a joy getting to decipher what a character's name means and how it relates to them.
Sayori is a bit of a different story, and it's honestly refreshing to see a character named this way. Dan Salvato himself admitted that her name is just a mash-up of the names 'Sayuri' and 'Saori', and thus has no traditional meaning. Surprisingly, though, it is still a real (albeit extremely uncommon) name!
3 Sacrificial Lamb
Most players feel absolutely horrible for Sayori, who ends up taking her own life as a result of being unable to handle her own amplified, overwhelming feelings, and it turns out that's exactly how Dan Salvato had it planned from the very beginning.
As noted in the fan pack booklet, Salvato chose Sayori as the character to set off the horror side of the game because of her cheery disposition- it's the horror and cruelty within the duality of her character shift that makes it hurt so much, as opposed to it having been one of the other girls that the protagonist has less history with.
2 Self-Loathing With A Smile
Sayori's so bright and cheerful at the beginning of the game that it's tough for some fans to understand her 'transition' into full-blown suicidal, but there really wasn't a transition at all. From the first moment we see her, Sayori's smile is mere more than an act.
See, Sayori has virtually no self-esteem, and doesn't feel deserving of anyone's attention, concern, or care. What better way is there to ensure no one gives these things to her than by acting like she's completely fine without them? It's why as soon as things start to go south, she does too- the mask she finely crafted to keep concern away doesn't just crack, but shatters completely. It's also worth mentioning there are fan-made mods that show what Sayori would be like without her mental ailments, and even ones where we properly get to help her work through her problems.
1 Comfort Food
It's well-known to fans that Sayori loves food, and it seems that she tends to gravitate towards sweets and snacks the most- things that are generally considered 'comfort food' by most. While having a fondness for food isn't a sign of a bigger problem in itself, in Sayori's case, her love of comfort food is probably to help combat her depression.
When we deal with crippling sadness for no reason, we try to look for things that help ease the blow of that sadness, especially if we aren't being honest to others about our feelings. The protagonist mentions Sayori's scary appetite at one point, which more likely than not is actually her over-eating because of her depression.