Last year, passion for Doki Doki Literature Club was reignited when its creator, Dan Salvato, announced that it would be getting new content. Unfortunately — probably due to COVID-19 development delays — nothing has been released yet. Salvato says that, ideally, 2021 will be the year. The creator could use a break after his YouTube was demonetized because he was using his own music.

Despite looking the part of an innocent dating simulator, Doki Doki Literature Club is actually a disturbing visual comic that pushes our understanding of game development. It was so controversial in India that one news channel openly called it “a threat to children’s lives.” To remember what the light-hearted parts of Doki Doki were all about, here are incredible pieces of fan art.

11 Picnic

In the game, players seldom get to explore beyond the school where all the characters attend classes. However, since these ladies have been friends for some time, outings to local parks, bookstores, or poetry readings were probably a common occurrence.

With this in mind, Satchely creates a picnic scene for the viewer in this fan art. Sayori and Monika are the primary focus, sitting on a blanket amidst lush green grass and sharing cake. Yuri and Natsuki are seen in the backdrop, however, in a less serious show of fun and games.

10 Monika By The Beach

As the poster girl for Doki Doki, there are lots of reasons why Monika might be the player’s first choice. This gorgeous fan art by Twitter user @JaneNaneArt showcases her at the beach, wearing her school uniform but with wind-ruffled hair.

This artwork places the viewer in a quiet moment, as if they have glanced to the side and caught Monika gazing wistfully through the waves. The evening’s final sunbeams light up her features, and one might almost forget what she’s done.

9 Festival Celebrations

The ending to Doki Doki that the player is promised is a literature festival for the whole club. Though fans never received this alternative ending, it hasn’t stopped them from dreaming about what might have been.

Toiame portrays the festival as an after-hours event, lit up by candles to keep the darkness at bay. The player isn’t present in the scene — it’s as though they’ve just entered, to find the other members setting up for their arrival.

8 Winter Wonderland

Natsuki, Doki Doki’s short and feisty love interest, is thought by many to be the best of the group. Her endearing traits — including curt, to-the-point poetry and a fondness for cute things — come to be seen over time, especially if the player pursues her.

In this artwork by TakuyaRawr, Natsuki is glowing in the light of the storefront window, reaching out to take the viewer’s hand. Her hat and skirt, and the stuffed animal in the window, denote her begrudging appreciation of cute things, and the player is tempted to reach out and warm up her cheeks, flushed red from the cold.

7 Tea Party

Doki Doki is full of loveable, well-written characters, all of whom this artwork showcases perfectly. Each girl holds up the poem they write in-game, and their faces (especially Natsuki’s sharp frown) match perfectly to their personalities.

Suzanna8767 showcases the ladies here at a tea party — it is a literature club, after all, and any bookworm knows that a cup of tea with your favorite novel is the perfect treat for a day off. Any uninitiated player seeing this art might scoff, assuming they know all there is to know about this dating sim.

6 Photographer

TakuyaRawr brings out a happier, flowery side of Sayori in this artwork than what the player gets to see in the game. Her early death meant that most gamers didn’t get to learn all the interesting details about this sweetheart before they were wrangled into Monika’s traps.

Re-imagined here as a young woman in the Japanese country-side, Sayori leans towards the viewer, eager to take some snapshots during golden hour. The scene is rather otherworldly, as her skirts are picked up around her waist. Could this be paradise?

5 Sirens

The main characters of Doki Doki go through hell over the course of the story, there’s no denying it. Alternate reality artworks of them are found all over the internet, as players attempt to shove these lovely ladies into a less disturbing setting.

In this gorgeous set of fan arts, GigaMessy reimagines Sayori, Natsuki, Monika, and Yuri as mermaids using each girl’s favorite color. They perch on rocks (though not Ariel-style, unfortunately), with only the waves and a cloudy day as their backdrops.

4 Music Of The Universe

The end of Doki Doki Literature Club is a heart-grasping, breath-holding experience for every first-time player. As Monika explained her plans to jaw-dropping fans, they were simply meant to stare at the hotel room she set up for them to talk in.

HoneyBunny-Art decides to place a piano there in this gorgeous fan art. In some of Monika’s dialogue, it’s revealed that she’s an avid pianist — the music the viewer can practically hear coming from this artwork seems to remove all the sting of the tragic finale.

3 Dressed Up

At the end of the game, Doki Doki players were promised a literature festival that would never come to pass. The downhill slide began with Sayori’s death, which was the first cue to the gamer that something was not as it appeared.

Not one to let a good thing go, Twitter user @sagabonne took the opportunity to illustrate this lovely art of Sayori, dressed up in Japanese-style clothes, jewelry, and flowers for the occasion. This fate would have suited lovely Sayori much better.

2 Yuri Christmas Core

Yuri is Doki Doki’s quiet bookworm, much more content to read on her own than to bounce about with the other girls. As such, it’s easy for the player to miss some of the details that make her special. However, when gamers do get to know her, they’ll discover the old saying to be true: still waters run deep.

In this fan art, SquChan depicts Yuri against a backdrop of the heavens, holding a carefully wrapped Christmas package. The cheery Santa hat pairs well with the red blush in her cheeks as she musters the courage to give the player her gift.

1 If Only Time Could Stop

Monika is a controversial character — though many criticize her for her actions over the game, many others adore her, sympathizing with a video game character brought to life in a stunning twist on the genre trope. Whatever the case, she’s an undeniably beautiful young woman.

In this gorgeous far art, TakuyaRawr depicts Monika dressed up for a festival, with a Kitsune Mask to boot. As the cherry blossoms seem to swirl around her, one might swear she was the center of the universe.

NEXT: 15 Doki Doki Literature Club Mods That Totally Change The Game