She Loves You

Art by: @ufordinaryart 

• How has DDLC impacted my work as an artist? DDLC has definitely influenced my approaches with storytelling and character design for when I was just getting started with art! Hell, it's what inspired me to start creating art in the first place. Not only is it personal to me due to the fandom and the game itself being a huge part of my childhood, but DDLC's format has also inspired me to code, write literature, and even be more socially extroverted with my interests! The plot was tragically beautiful, but chilling to everyone, including me, whom played it for the first time! Now, looking back on my progressing art and DDLC's old and new models, I can clearly see the relation and similarities between my art and the games art style. 

• About my submission and the choices I made: For this piece, I first thought of the East Asian myth, the "Red String Theory" believing that people who are destined to be present in each other's lives are connected by a red string, and life will bring them to meet again despite time, circumstance, or distance. Using this, I made sure to defiantly add the iconic final act where it's just the MC and Monika alone together. I connected the string to Monika's ring fingers, symbolizing wedding/promise ring culture between Monika and the MC. As for the others, I wanted to include their deaths in the final scene, painting a picture of "All of this, for you." In Monika's POV. I used the red string to symbolize these deaths, using it to sort of re-intact each one of their deletions. The red string recreating these deaths also do not connect to the MC or Monika, not only showing Monika's loss of connection to the girls, but her desire to keep them away from the MC. Sayori is on her lonesome to represent the way Monika would force self-isolation on her, rather than with Natsuki and Yuri, when she just made them relatively unlikeable to the MC.

• Social Handles: TikTok/Instagram: @ufordinaryart

Results are in! Go check them out!