Yume Nikki Interpretations?

[The KGB]

I like this game. I have ideas about what the imagery could represent, but I don't even know where to start.
I have a background in fine art, and since Yume Nikki was the project of one person, I think of it as more of an interactive painting rather than a game with an objective. If at all possible, I'd like to hear other players' impressions and hypotheses of Yume Nikki, whether it's about the themes of isolation and depression, or something else entirely. There are no right or wrong interpretations. I know it's a tall order, but I really just want to talk about the game as it is, hopefully without the thread turning into a cluster ♥♥♥♥.
So. What resonated with you guys?

[zombie sparkledog what!!!!]

I find it hard to see it as anything but a zipper. Obviously with a face and apendages, but a zipper. Oh well, interpretation and all that.

[Cocyx The Gay Skeleton]

it's more like a spine or some sort of spring to me. should also mention that there's another place where you enter the "blood" of the face, too (to get to the area with the dressers and the evil bird ppl)

[WebitatorWebster]

I don't mean to start a huge argument with this, but what were your thoughts on the bathrooms?
Madotsuki enters both male and female restrooms without any issues. Honestly I think this can mean anything from transgenderism to her not beleving in gender segregation of bathrooms. One interpretation I've seen on the forms is that she feels perverted going into the mens room, but we're inside her subconscious when she does that, and the block world (Wheres the men's room located) doesn't seem to have any sexual nature about it.

[Cocyx The Gay Skeleton]

Originally posted by WebitatorWebster:

I don't mean to start a huge argument with this, but what were your thoughts on the bathrooms?
Madotsuki enters both male and female restrooms without any issues. Honestly I think this can mean anything from transgenderism to her not beleving in gender segregation of bathrooms. One interpretation I've seen on the forms is that she feels perverted going into the mens room, but we're inside her subconscious when she does that, and the block world (Wheres the men's room located) doesn't seem to have any sexual nature about it.

this one is even further reaching than the sexual abuse theories IMO

[WebitatorWebster]

Originally posted by Cocyx The Gay Skeleton:

this one is even further reaching than the sexual abuse theories IMO

How so? The bathrooms are clearly marked. I don't see why they would be there if there wasn't a reason for it.

[Cocyx The Gay Skeleton]

Originally posted by WebitatorWebster:

Originally posted by Cocyx The Gay Skeleton:

this one is even further reaching than the sexual abuse theories IMO

How so? The bathrooms are clearly marked. I don't see why they would be there if there wasn't a reason for it.

because public bathrooms are also marked. reminder that this is a dream and she also is stabbing and murdering things in this dream -- and ppl are making a big deal that she goes in the wrong bathroom???

[The KGB]

Originally posted by Cocyx The Gay Skeleton:

Originally posted by Floof Waffles:

I think the most common interpretation is that the zipper is a literal zipper, not female genatilia. The idea that a boy merely showed it off to her is oddly specific compared to the idea that it's nodding towards male sexuality as a whole.
Also I think kyukyu-kun is definitely phallic. If not for the fact that it's deliberately long, taking up most of the vertical screen length (of course it's not going to resemble a phallus that closely), then for the fact that its rubbing of the pole changes based on the effect equipped (speeding up with the Knife effect and slowing down with the Cat effect. And then the face that you see afterwards + forcing Madotsuki awake gives a clear sense that whatever that area represents isn't something that merely weirded her out, but disturbed, terrified and/or scarred her.
Definitely abstract, but the creator had to spend time putting it in there. And of course, as you say, it's all up to interpretation.

i don't think its a zipper at all. you're just stabbing the face on the wall, really (he screams and everything). the most sexual thing about any of it is the fact that the thing is rubbing the pole, but even that's a stretch. i'm pretty sure the monster is just supposed to be creepy in general and the knife gets him scared and the cat makes him calm (a lot of other monsters react this way). the face event at the end is a total nonsequitur, but an awesome one.

Well put.

[The KGB]

Originally posted by Floof Waffles:

Originally posted by The KGB:

Okay, now we're getting into asthetics which is what I was really excited to talk about!
Kikiyama could have chosen any media to get their expression out there, and they chose RPGmaker. This gives the work a more playful and abstract feel than more overtly dark and gruesome titles like Silent hill.
Silent hill's style is more 'realistic' (or naturalistic in its representations of tortured flesh and scenery) so as to envoke a really gutteral type of discomfort in the viewer. It's kind of like the Alien movies in the unsubtle way it bashes you over the head with grotesque rape themes.
Whereas Yume Nikki is intentionally abstract and colorful like a child's dream.
Now on to the even with the zipper door - it's not written in stone somewhere that zippers represent female openings. It could be a mouth with teeth, or literally just a zipper. Maybe a boy showed Madotsuki his nob at school one day and it just kind of wierded her out more than anything else? (TMI That happened to me a couple times) But I'm still on the fence because I think that if it were the artist's intention to convey genitalia they would have been more obvious. Kyuukyuu just looks like a monster more than a phallus.
And the even following doesn't make me think of rape specifically either. It put me under the impression of being yelled at suddenly by an 'adult' - one that you thought was cool with whatever until they suddenly got angry at something you're too young to understand?

I think the most common interpretation is that the zipper is a literal zipper, not female genatilia. The idea that a boy merely showed it off to her is oddly specific compared to the idea that it's nodding towards male sexuality as a whole.
Also I think kyukyu-kun is definitely phallic. If not for the fact that it's deliberately long, taking up most of the vertical screen length (of course it's not going to resemble a phallus that closely), then for the fact that its rubbing of the pole changes based on the effect equipped (speeding up with the Knife effect and slowing down with the Cat effect. And then the face that you see afterwards + forcing Madotsuki awake gives a clear sense that whatever that area represents isn't something that merely weirded her out, but disturbed, terrified and/or scarred her.
Definitely abstract, but the creator had to spend time putting it in there. And of course, as you say, it's all up to interpretation.

I was just going out on a limb there. What are your thoughts on the event?

[WebitatorWebster]

Originally posted by Cocyx The Gay Skeleton:

because public bathrooms are also marked. reminder that this is a dream and she also is stabbing and murdering things in this dream -- and ppl are making a big deal that she goes in the wrong bathroom???

I think everything in this is a big deal. With no dialog in the game, we have to go off of the enviroment and events in order to tell whats going on. And with a majority of the game occuring in Madotsuki's subconscious, we can tell a lot about her.
For instance, you find the knife in the middle of the dark world, so maybe she's feels that she needs to hide her violent impulses (possibly because she's ashamed of them.). Most NPCs don't respond to you when interacting with them, and only respond to you killing them. This could show that Madotsuki feels ostracized by other people, and like she can only get their attention by acting violently.
Every little detail in this game is important, If the bathrooms weren't important, They either wouldn't be there, or wouldn't have different labels.

[Cocyx The Gay Skeleton]

Originally posted by WebitatorWebster:

Originally posted by Cocyx The Gay Skeleton:

because public bathrooms are also marked. reminder that this is a dream and she also is stabbing and murdering things in this dream -- and ppl are making a big deal that she goes in the wrong bathroom???

I think everything in this is a big deal. With no dialog in the game, we have to go off of the enviroment and events in order to tell whats going on. And with a majority of the game occuring in Madotsuki's subconscious, we can tell a lot about her.
For instance, you find the knife in the middle of the dark world, so maybe she's feels that she needs to hide her violent impulses (possibly because she's ashamed of them.). Most NPCs don't respond to you when interacting with them, and only respond to you killing them. This could show that Madotsuki feels ostracized by other people, and like she can only get their attention by acting violently.
Every little detail in this game is important, If the bathrooms weren't important, They either wouldn't be there, or wouldn't have different labels.

you may have a case if there was just one bathroom that was the different gender, but the fact that there are two with both genders means that there's just BATHROOMS. there are just bathrooms and they're labelled like any other place. if she shook her head instead of entering the male stall, you art school ppl would probably interpret it as her denial of her birth gender or whatever

[WebitatorWebster]

Originally posted by Cocyx The Gay Skeleton:

you may have a case if there was just one bathroom that was the different gender, but the fact that there are two with both genders means that there's just BATHROOMS. there are just bathrooms and they're labelled like any other place. if she shook her head instead of entering the male stall, you art school ppl would probably interpret it as her denial of her birth gender or whatever

The game seems like it's kinda designed for "art school people" though. Everything in the game was put there to be interpreted as something, even if not everyone interprets it in the same way.
I see your point though. Heck, maybe Madotsuki thinks the same thing. "They're just bathrooms, it doesn't matter which one I use".

[WebitatorWebster]

On a different topic, Does anyone have any idea why the Toriningen in the Candle World is so absurdly fast? Like, what does that represent?

[Cocyx The Gay Skeleton]

Originally posted by WebitatorWebster:

Originally posted by Cocyx The Gay Skeleton:

you may have a case if there was just one bathroom that was the different gender, but the fact that there are two with both genders means that there's just BATHROOMS. there are just bathrooms and they're labelled like any other place. if she shook her head instead of entering the male stall, you art school ppl would probably interpret it as her denial of her birth gender or whatever

The game seems like it's kinda designed for "art school people" though. Everything in the game was put there to be interpreted as something, even if not everyone interprets it in the same way.
I see your point though. Heck, maybe Madotsuki thinks the same thing. "They're just bathrooms, it doesn't matter which one I use".

well i mean, some things are deliberately meant to be interpreted but a LARGE MAJORITY of it is blatant nonsequitur surrealism. what about the big weird balloon that randomly floats by in the desert. give me a shot on what the ♥♥♥♥ thats supposed to mean lol

[Cocyx The Gay Skeleton]

i think yume nikki is operating on an emotional level rather than a symbolic level. i think the game is supposed to represent social anxiety more than anything and is supposed to give you a feeling of being lost in a terrifying weird world. it's not so much about what is actually IN the dream world, it's more about how it makes you FEEL.

[The KGB]

Originally posted by WebitatorWebster:

On a different topic, Does anyone have any idea why the Toriningen in the Candle World is so absurdly fast? Like, what does that represent?

I have a suspicion that it's there to keep you on your toes from a technical standpoint.
Maybe they're stronger and faster the darker it is?