Young Writers Society

To those who don't know, the uncanny valley is widely considered to be like this: the more a robot looks like a human, the more positively humans respond to it. However, if it reaches the point where it looks human, but isn't completely human in appearance or movement, then it will elicit a very negative response from the viewer. Response will be more positive though if it becomes fully human.

Here's some brief context. I'm currently working on an essay analyzing the game Doki Doki Literature Club. The thesis is the game is so effective because it starts atop the uncanny valley graph and stays there for so long before sliding back into the nadir of the valley. The game starts off looking like the ordinary visual novel dating sim with all the visual novel dating sim elements (atop the uncanny valley graph), and the scary part is watching how every aspect of the game gradually become corrupted from what you knew them as before into something sinister. (sliding back into the valley) They're still the same characters that you got invested with in the first two hours of the game, but in the dark state they've entered in the latter half of the game, they just don't feel right anymore.

I first got the idea of the uncanny valley when I watched a video of the Tale Foundry covering Junji Ito and how he used the uncanny valley in the same manner. They used the example of Hellstar Remina. The horror object in question started off looking like just a star in the sky (atop the uncanny valley graph), before it was revealed that this star was a planet that had eyes, a mouth, a tongue, and a desire to eat Earth up (sliding back into the valley). That is where I based my understanding of the concept on.

However, as I did my research, I found out that the concept was considered to be limited to mostly robots. That doesn't go with how the Tale Foundry related it to Junji Ito's horror.

So here's the question. Can the uncanny valley concept apply to things other than robots and human-like figures, just like the Tale Foundry took it? And if that's not the case, what concept is at play in the situation of DDLC that I'm describing?

It's alright if the second question can't be answered. I just want some a's on my q's.

(Here's the video of the Tale Foundry. The uncanny valley part starts at 4:40. https://youtu.be/63-SxK2ItS4)

Uncanny Valley is fairly limited to trying-to-be-humans, for me, because the graph relies on the axis being "moving corpse." The not-quite-human-not-quite-other is the uncomfortable part.

Juni Ito, on the other hand, seems to be using Lovecraftian/cosmic horror, where this deity is treating humanity as an insignificant spec in the grand scheme of a larger than life's monster's desires.

Another thing that might be close is Crapsaccharine world, something I unfortunately only know via TV Tropes. While Doki Doki isn't listed officially on the main page, the page for the story proper does have the trope. That page also, however, lists cosmic horror— so I'd be more inclined to play with that set of parallels than trying to apply uncanny valley to a non-robot (or non-corpse, cause it could apply to vampires and zombies in a slightly more casual setting).

Highkey thanks to you, Rosendorn. That's gonna give me an easier time adjusting the thesis and all that fancy stuff. Would you like to be notified when the essay does come out?

Sure, although I can't promise a timely reply. I also can't promise an intimate knowledge of cosmic horror that comes from consuming media in the genre— I just know a lot about it from listening to my ex boyfriend ramble about his analysis, and have analyzed the basic components myself, but not extensively.