(stylized as ♡Just Art♡) is a YouTube channel that is home to animatic videos made by two sisters from Sri Lanka.Initially, the channel had some typical animation fanvids, but since June 2021, it has been focused on original skits (voice acted by them) based on their Doki Doki Literature Club! AU, starting with the first episode "If the DDLC crew filmed a movie!".
Are you still browsing tropes, Sayori?!:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Sayori has to stifle her laugh at the boy calling Yuri fat in "Summer Bummer".
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: The girls are basically just goofy teenagers here rather than the anime archetype deconstructions they originally were, so their psychological issues are also absent.
- Adaptational Heroism: Naturally with the trope above, Monika is not a villainous Yandere here due to lacking her original incarnation's existential crisis.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: While he's yet to physically appear in an episode, it is implied that Natsuki's Daddy Issues are completely absent and thus her dad is a much nicer person here.
- A Day in the Limelight: None of the Dokis appear in "Guy Time", and instead it's four guys connected to them in some way (Yuri's and Natsuki's older brothers, Sayori's boyfriend and Monika's love interest).
- Affectionate Parody: For the 1k subscribers special, the channel released a video of the Dokis singing "Butter".
- A Glass in the Hand: Or a cupcake in this case, which Natsuki angrily smushed because a customer refused to buy it.
- Alliterative Title: "Dokie Drafts".
- All There in the Manual: The episodes don't explain some things like how the Dokis know Kenaki or who the four men in "Guy Time" are. Instead, they're explained in the description of the videos.
- Alternate Reality Episode: "A tale of excellence" has Natsuki come up with a story set at sea where she and her friends are the characters.
- This also applies to the Christmas special, with Monika and Yuri being sisters named Bella and Rose, Sayori being Santa Claus and Natsuki being the The Grinch.
- Amicable Exes: This is averted with Yuren and Olivia, given that their relationship was very toxic.
- Answer Cut: Used in "Cupcakes Vs Muffins" at the very end.Yuki: Uh, girls?Jessica: What is it, Yuki?Yuki: Where's our tip jar?(Cut to the Dokis running away with the tip jar)
- Antagonist Title: "THE DOLL" featuring a Creepy Doll that is the Big Bad of the episode.
- Batter Up!: Natsuki's weapon of choice to fight the possessed doll is a baseball bat. She manages to smack it out of the window using it.
- Monika is briefly seen with a bat at the beginning of the 1k subscribers special of the Dokis singing "Butter".
- Beach Episode: Summer Bummer.
- Big Bad:
- The titular character in "The Doll".
- Captain Bluejay in Natsuki's story in "A tale of excellence".
- Black Bead Eyes: All the characters have their eyes drawn as this, though eye pops are frequent.
- Bland-Name Product: In "Sleepover", Natsuki says that she's got a box of Jenga for her birthday, but the actual box says "Tenga" on it.
- Brain Bleach: Natsuki says she needs one after watching the horror movie in "Sleepover!!".
- Call-Back: Monika immediately objects to talking about the Boogeyman in "Sleepover!!", referencing that they did that in "Dokis in the DARK".
- In "Dokie Drafts", When Yuri asks Sayori why she's recording her, Sayori replies that she's making a documentary on raccoons, referencing the second episode where Sayori jokes that Yuri is a raccoon.
- Canon Foreigner: All of the OCs, except for Roy who is stated to be Just Art's version of MC.
- Cassandra Truth: The Dokis were all pretty convinced that the Lub Dub Writing Club were copying them, but given the fact that Jessica says they never heard of the DDLC, it appears it was all just a big coincidence.
- Cats Are Mean: Natsuki's cat Cupcake who appears in "Zoom meeting" is seen messing her things up and judging by Natsuki's reaction, it isn't the first time.
- Cheated Angle: Sayori's hair bow switches the side it's on whenever she turns her head.
- Connected All Along: There's a subplot revolving around Sakura, a DDLC original character created by the channel's owners who is actually possessed by a demon of unknown origin with a taste for human flesh. Sakura used to go to the same school as the lub dub writing club but switched to the same school as the Dokis. It was also revealed by an Instagram post that the Creepy Doll appearing in "The Doll" was actually possessed by the same demon who was trying to possess Sayori but failed.
- Continuity Nod: Natsuki's dislike for Bluejay due to the events of "Order up" pops up again in "A tale of excellence" when she puts him in her story only to be beaten up.
- Cool Shades: All the girls are seen with color-coded ones in the Butter video. They're seen again in the Beach Episode, where Olivia is shown to have a red-colored one.
- Copycat Mockery: Natsuki does this to her counterpart Saki in "Cupcakes Vs Muffins" when Saki showed shock at being accused of copying the Dokis, Natsuki mockingly repeated "Copying you?!" in an annoying voice then told them not to feign stupidity.
- *Cough* Snark *Cough*:Yuri: Can we all just focus on finding a new spot now? Without talking about less important things. Not pointing any fingers but (fake cough) Sayori.Sayori: HEY! IS YOU TALKING CRAP ABOUT ME?!
- Creepy Doll: "The Doll" centers around Sayori finding one of these in a yard sale, then it begins to haunt the girls.
- Crush Blush: Kenaki gets those in "Car Ride".
- Damned by Faint Praise: When Jessica first sees the Dokis, she describes them as "interesting".
- Damsel in Distress: The second half of Natsuki's story in "A tale of excellence" has Mermaid!Monika being kidnapped by a rival ship planning to sell her, and she has to be rescued.
- Depending on the Artist: Natsuki's straps are usually drawn but sometimes they aren't.
- Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: In "I'm sorry, please repeat that!", Monika is very briefly heard humming the DDLC theme to herself before Yuri talks to her.
- Distinction Without a Difference: When Natsuki wanted to see what was on Kenaki's phone:Yuri: Natsuki, there's something called privacy.Natsuki: And there's something called minding your own business.Sayori: OH, BURN!
- Early Installment Character-Design Difference: In the first two episodes, Natsuki's hair decorations were drawn thick and dark red. Starting from episode four, they're now very thin and in light red.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Prior to "If the DDLC crew filmed a movie!", there were two videos on the channel starring the Dokis, one using JulianSmith.tv's "Malk" sketch and one using a 2000's-style pop remix of BLACKPINK's "Ice Cream", both of which are this due to art style differences, character design differences, and the generally different execution of them. It's hard to say whether or not they should actually be considered part of the series, though.
- Epic Fail:
- Yuri somehow managed to film herself for nearly the entire movie tape.
Monika: Well, that was a total bust.- Roy can't even crack two eggs properly. And that's nothing to say of how all the guys messed up cooking crepes completely.
- Everyone Has Standards: Played for Laughs in the Christmas special when Natsuki as The Grinch objects to the narrator making him sound like a monster.Okay, you don't have to make me sound heartless. I just don't like Christmas.
- Facepalm: Yuri in "Order up!" because Natsuki keeps messing around while ordering their food.
- Natsuki also gets one in "Bird-en" when Sayori starts playing peek-a-boo with Diego.
- Failed a Spot Check: Somehow, the Dokis failed to notice that there is a stand to buy muffins from right across from them, basically. Not to mention it's run by their doppelgangers.
- Feathered Fiend: Veronica's parrot Diego is a loudmouthed troll who doesn't act very nicely towards the girls.
- Food Fight: "Cupcakes Vs Muffins" culminates to one of these between the Dokis and the Lub Dub Writing Club.
- Funny Background Event: When Yuri notices the doll back inside the house, you can see and hear Natsuki and Sayori stilll arguing.
- Gag Series: While continuity is more or less maintained, the series' primary focus is the comedy and making the audience laugh with jokes.
- Gasp!: It's sort of the series' overall Running Gag.
- Yuri does a small one in "I'm sorry, please repeat that!" after Sayori and Natsuki call her a raccoon.
- Yuri and Monika do it simultaneously in "Order up" when Natsuki reads Bluejay's first reply. Sayori was too busy playing videogames and even questions if she was supposed to gasp too.
- Monika does it again in "Cupcakes Vs Muffins" upon seeing the Lub Dub Writing Club for the first time.
- Natsuki in "Sleepover!!" after Sayori calls her favorite anime Death Train cringe.
- Yuri gets another one in "Summer Bummer" when a little boy calls her fat.
- Genre Blindness: Sayori gets a really bad case of this in "The Doll"; she doesn't believe the other girls when they warn her that the Annabelle-esque Creepy Doll she just bought is cursed/possessed, not even after seeing how it keeps reappearing inside her house after the other girls try to get rid of it. It's not until she sees the doll moving on its own that she changes her mind.
- Getting the Boot: Happens to the Dokis after annoying Kenaki so much that he literally throws them out of the car.
- Got Volunteered: This happens to Yuri in "The Doll". After hiding in the closet from the doll, the girls hear the doorbell and conclude that someone has to go check. Sayori suggests Yuri, who's about to protest but she was already pushed out.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Natsuki's Pre-Mortem One-Liner as she's about to flush the doll down the toilet is "Sayanora, Satan".
- Green-Eyed Monster: Olivia thinks Yuren broke up with her because there's something between him and Natsuki. In reality, their relationship was very toxic.
- HA HA HA—No: Natsuki's first response to Sayori asking to buy the doll.Hehe, not in a million years.
- Here We Go Again!: Two weeks after disposing of the doll, Monika's mother finds it and brings it home, much to Monika's chagrin.
- Identical Stranger: In "Cupcakes Vs Muffins", the Dokis meet the Lub Dub Writing Club, another literature club who resemble them a lot.
- Idiot Plot: In-Universe. A Running Gag in "A tale of excellence!!" is the cast lampshading the incompetence of the ship's captain (who's Sayori) in Natsuki's story.
- I'm Not Doing That Again: When Sayori brings up the Boogeyman in "Sleepover", Monika sharply interjects with this.
- Interactive Narrator: In the Christmas Episode, the girls frequently talk back to the narrator. At the end of the video, they break into the narrator's studio and wish him a merry Christmas against his will.
- Invisible Parents: There hasn't been any implication that someone has some sort of parent trouble but they remain to be seen. Only ones to appear are Monika's mother and Akito's parents. Bluejay's are only referenced in the description of his first video and Natsuki's mom was shown to leave a note on the fridge in "Order up!". Yuri's mom has actually appeared in a video noncanon to the main series.
- I Was Just Joking: In "Order up!", Bluejay starts roasting Natsuki after she spoke rudely to him while ordering. Monika gives Natsuki a rather harsh insult to say to Bluejay, but she's shocked when Natsuki actually sends it.Monika: (While sobbing in a Troubled Fetal Position) I can't believe you actually said that to him!
- Jerkass Has a Point: Right from the start, Natsuki was right about the doll.
- Jumpscare: We have two instances:
- In "Car Ride", a bird smashes into the window where Monika is sitting, prompting her to scream and scare her friends.
- In "Zoom call", Sayori is about to share her poem...but she holds her bag of chips with her arm as she leans down, popping it.
- Kids Are Cruel: One boy that the Dokis encounter on the beach in "Summer Bummer" calls Yuri fat, completely unprovoked.
- Knight of Cerebus: So far, the only episode you could call serious is "THE DOLL" due to the titular antagonist actually providing nightmare fuel by being creepy and possibly possessed.
- Malaproper: Sayori mistakenly says "imaginistic" instead of "imaginative" in "A tale of excellence". Immediately lampshaded by Monika.
- Medium-Shift Gag: At the end of "Car Ride", we don't see Kenaki actually kicking out the Dokis out of his car. Instead, it's implied by the use of this trope, showing the girl running the channel throwing four dolls out of a car.
- Movie-Making Mess: The plot of the first episode revolves around the Dokis trying to adapt a novel called "Sharel & Josh" into a movie, with Yuri being the director, Monika and Sayori as the titular characters respectively, and Natsuki as the camera person (though Yuri is the one holding the camera). In the end though, it's all for naught because Yuri failed to realize that she was recording herself the whole time.
- Mythology Gag: At the end of "Zoom meeting", Monika pulls a Screw This, I'm Outta Here because everyone else is not taking the meeting seriously and goofing off, and when she does this, Sayori automatically becomes host. A lot of fans immediately pointed out how this references Sayori gaining Monika's Reality Warper and Noticing the Fourth Wall ability in the game after the latter is deleted by the player.
- A potentially unintentional example. In "Dokis in the DARK", after Yuri brings up the crooked man and jokes about summoning him, Monika objects and says that "the only person crooked here is gonna be Yuri after I snap her [neck]". After hearing that, the image of Natsuki with a broken neck from the game might've came to your mind.
- Named by the Adaptation: All the dokis (who went by No Last Name Given in the game) were given last names here, revealed by this post.
- Narm: This is how Natsuki sees the "Sharel and Josh" novel in the first movie: a cringeworthy love story.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Played for Laughs. The Dokis were pretty insistent that the Lub Dub Writing Club were copying them, despite it being clear that it's not the case, which led to the rivalry that ended in a No MacGuffin, No Winner sort of way explained below.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Rivals!: The Cupcakes Vs Muffins rivalry between the Dokis and the other club made selling near impossible for both camps, eventually escalating into a Food Fight. Though the Lub Dub Writing Club consider themselves the winners because their competition bailed, the DDLC crew ultimately got the last laugh by stealing their tip jars.
- Nightmare Retardant: In "Sleepover", Yuri is unimpressed by the horror movie they're watching, even though the other girls are, and according to Natsuki, it's trending at school right now.
- No Antagonist: The series doesn't feature any character you can outright refer to as evil. In episodes where the conflict isn't brought by the Dokis on themselves, it's likely that they would be dealing with an antagonistic character who is a Jerkass at worst.
- "THE DOLL" is the first episode to feature a character who might be genuinely evil.
- In "Order up!!", the only reason Bluejay antagonized the Dokis was because Natsuki did that to him first for no reason.
- Similarly, the lub dub writing club only instigated the rivalry which didn't exist in the first place was because the Dokis refused to believe it was pure coincidence that they look alike and we're selling muffins across their cupcake stand.
- Olivia establishes herself as a jealous, arrogant jerk in her first appearance and she causes problems for the Dokis by kicking them off the spot they found first.
- No Title: The DDLC animatic series was never given an official name by the creators, though some fans dub it "DDLC: The Animated Series" or something alike.
- Noodle Incident: "Sleepover!!" reveals that Natsuki has a lot of silverware under her bed. When she's asked why?Natsuki: Reasons!
- Natsuki seem to have a knack for these. "Car Ride" has Sayori mentioning that she got into a fight with a customer earlier that day before Natsuki interrupted her while flimsily trying to deny it.
- No, You: Monika does this twice in "Cupcakes Vs Muffins" to her counterpart Jessica. First, when Jessica clarifies that her club is not copying the Dokis, they're trying to get people to eat muffins cause they're healthy, Monika retorts "You're healthy! Oh, I just roasted myself...". The second time is slightly better, as Jessica chides the Dokis for trying to sell cupcakes as they can cause diabetes, Monika shouts "You have diabetes!".
- Obnoxious Entitled Housewife: Due to her being very bratty while ordering, Natsuki gets called a Karen by Bluejay, much to her anger.
- Oh, No... Not Again!:
- Monika has this reaction to her mom bringing the doll home after she got rid of it two weeks ago.
- All of the girls have this reaction in "Sleepover!!" after the power goes out, a Call-Back to "Dokis in the DARK".
- Paranormal Episode: "The Doll". Doubles as Unexpectedly Dark Episode, because the paranormal in this case is a demon doll that can grow spider legs and terrorizes the girls.
- Psycho Poodle: Sayori has one of these, as seen in the zoom meeting episode.
- Punny Title: The title of the episode "Bird-en" (burden).
- Puppy-Dog Eyes: Sayori is usually the one to pull this off. In "Cupcakes Vs Muffins", Naomi and Saki also do it, with the latter even competing with Sayori over who can succeed at selling using them.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Once the doll reveals its true nature, its eyes turn red, much to Sayori's horror.
- Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: Monika tries to ask an elderly woman on the beach if she can move so they have a spot to sit, but the woman interrupts her and tells her to shoo before Monika can even finish talking. She gets sand kicked at her for her trouble.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Done by Monika in the Zoom meeting after she fails to get the other three to share their poems.
- All the Dokis do this at the end of "Cupcakes Vs Muffins" when their rivalry with the Lub Dub Writing Club escalates into a food fight, but not before stealing their rivals' tip jar.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story:
- The movie shooting episode. Yuri only recorded two scenes of Monika and Sayori OOC...then recorded herself for the rest of the video.
- Natsuki's story in "A tale of excellence". The mermaid dies due to lack of water.
- The Beach Episode "Summer Bummer". The girls find a spot, Yuri's brother's jealous ex kicks them out of it, they struggle for half an hour to find another spot, and they do. Then they decide to go home after being splashed by an oncoming wave.
- Small Role, Big Impact: The woman who tells the Dokis about the Lub Dub Writing Club has a few seconds of screentime but she's the reason the rivalry between the two clubs started in the first place.
- Slice of Life: The series puts the girls in humourous day-to-day situations. So far, the only episode to subvert this is "The Doll".
- Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: In-Universe example. Sayori and Monika have an argument about what kind of story to write because Monika wants to stick to writing something more realistic and a real piece of literature while Sayori thinks the story needs spice and that fantasy is what it needs to work.
- Slumber Party: The girls have one at Natsuki's house in the aptly titled episode "Sleepover".
- Spiders Are Scary: The Creepy Doll somehow becomes creepier by growing spider-like legs and doing a Wall Crawl.
- Spit Take: Monika does one in "Order up" when Sayori tells them about Bluejay having a big following on Instagram.
- Spoof Aesop: The conclusion of the first episode.Natsuki: I guess the moral of the story is to not make movies out of cringy books.Sayori: Oh, and that Monika's chunky.
- Stealth Insult: Yuren gives an excellent one to Natsuken in "Guy Time" while they're preparing the batter for crepes and Yuren pours more flour than needed:Natsuken: Dude, it said one freaking cup!Yuren: Well, that's one cup for a giant.
- Tempting Fate: Kenaki seeing nothing wrong with giving the Dokis a drive. He later gets fed up with their fighting in the back and kicks them out.
- That Came Out Wrong: Monika says this verbatim in "Dokis in the dark" after saying "No man exists".Context
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night: In "Dokis in the dark", the girls talk about the Boogeyman and other men in horror stories like The Crooked Man.
- Throw the Book at Them: When Yuri loses her patience with Monika messing with her, she uses a book that she was holding to smack her from behind.
- Title Drop: Done in "A tale of excellence" by Natsuki.
- Toilet Humor: Monika thinks Jessica's brown hair looks like "doodoo".
- Transplanted Character Fic: In service of these being Slice of Life skits and Rule of Funny, the setting of the original game (with all its metafictional and dark aspects) is completely done away with aside from the existence of the titular club.
- Troll: The whole point of "I'm sorry, please repeat that!", Monika (acting like Siri/Alexa for some reason) strings Yuri along by pretending she cannot hear/understand her. And when Natsuki asks Monika the same question, she agrees with her side instead of Yuri's.
- Unreliable Narrator: A brief gag in the Christmas Episode, where the narration claims that Bella heard a noise and woke up, only to then realize she didn't actually wake up.
- The Unreveal:
- We never find out who rung the bell of Sayori's house in "THE DOLL".
- "A tale of excellence!!" ends with Natsuki ending her story with the mermaid (Monika) dying of dehydration. We don't know what story they turned in.
- In "Zoom meeting", we don't get to hear Yuri's poem (just the title "Sweet As Sugar") because she forgot to unmute herself before reading. When she fixes that, she suddenly leaves the call, THEN her connection messes it up. As Monika says, no one heard a single thing.
- Similarly to Yuri, we only get to know the subject of Sayori's poem before she's interrupted by the arrival of her vicious dog. With Natsuki, we don't even hear the title.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: When her mother brought the doll back home after the got rid of it weeks prior, Monika decides to finish it once and for all by burning it. Unbeknownst to her, the demon possessing the doll changes the body to something else...her classmate Sakura's body.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Monika, Yuri and Sayori to Natsuki for insulting Bluejay with no reason, thus stalling their food delivery.
- Wait, What?: Yuri's reaction to Natsuki correcting a kid who called her fat by saying that Yuri is actually thick.
- You Are Fat:
- Sayori says that she can't lift Monika in the movie shooting episode is because she's too chunky to hand, which offends Monika.
- Natsuki's first response to seeing her lookalike Saki is to call her a fat old lady.
Monika: Woah, no mercy, huh?- See Stealth Insult above for a more clever example of this trope.
- You Do Not Want To Know: Kenaki tells the girls not to look through his phone because there are some "cursed" stuff there. This only makes Natsuki want to see more.
