Yume Nikki:Theories

Yume Nikki is a strange, unknown game, with no dialogue and a unique art style. So, of course, the fans created many theories, some good, some bad, some complex, some that make us laugh. This article will categorize the theories by character. There will then by long theories with contributions from most characters.

It's also worth noting that TV Trope's Wild Mass Guessing page on Yume Nikki contains a wealth of theories too, some of them more fleshed out versions of the theories seen here.

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Madotsuki

Madotsuki was raped.

At first there was black, then came colors!

In the game, there is much evidence that Mado was raped. In the Forest World, along a strange road, several creatures in the background with eyes watch over you. The last one's eyes follow you for a split second as you leave. Many claim these are ovaries, which adds "sexual content" to the game. Other incidents with eyes include the Eyeball World and the Barracks where entering a certain shed can lead to a tunnel where eyes follow the player. On the way to the Witch effect eyes in the trees follow the player. The theme of being watched seems prevalent.

Hands are also scattered throughout the game, what with the staircase lined with reaching hands on the way to Seccom Masada-sensei, sprouting out of the ground in the Eyeball room, and at the White Desert too. The room Uboa teleports you to, with a nightmarish landscape where a monster with multiple hands grasps hills in the background, is reminiscent of groping to some players. Unwanted touching seems to be a theme.

Remind you of anything?

Some say that Kyu-Kyu, a large colorful pole creature, rubbing the banister of a stairway, is phallic imagery. The Knife and Cat Effects alter the speed of which Kyu-Kyu rubs the rail of the staircase, speeding it up or down. Full-screen events feature an event called FACE, which is achieved by going through a door right next to Kyu-Kyu. Some say it resembles a penis, fear itself, and/or static. The sequence in which the player stabs through a wall, leaving a bloodied hymeneal opening, leading to a seemingly benevolent phallic-shaped Kyukyu-kyun, leading to a terrifying FACE, suggests sexual assault to some players.

A dread of pregnancy, possibly originating from being raped, can be interpreted from monsters whose shape resembles a pregnant woman who has lost her head.

Madotsuki lives in an apocalyptic world.

Madotsuki seems like a perfectly normal girl, albeit possibly being a hikkikomori. Yet her dreams are strangely terrifying and eccentric, and she acts like she has been there before, displaying almost no emotion. That combined with the fact that her apartment is the only one in view, and she wont leave, and her TV doesn't get any channels, and her only source of entertainment is a NES game, it would seem that whatever is out there is worse than what is in her dreams.

Madotsuki is a transgender.

She has a penis, and she doesn't like have a penis, so she cross-dresses, and wanted ovaries/vagina. It could be vice-versa. (See above)

Madotsuki is a lesbian.

Poniko is her image of a perfect beautiful girl she yearns connect with but can't because other girls she knew in the past weren't "weird" that way. She resorts to desperate measures to try and get Poniko's attention (going through different effects, flicking off the lights). Thing is, she feels her thoughts are dirty and she's afraid of other peoples' reaction. Uboa, a manifestation of that fear and guilt, pops up. The signs that people interpret as rape (Kyukyu-kyun + Face, the hands and eyes scattered everywhere, the decapitated pregnant belly things, etc) aren't signs of a past rape trauma but a dislike of penis, distaste of being watched by men, fear of judgment, and fear that she too will be expected to get married and give birth some day.

Madotsuki achieves a happy ending.

A theory that proposes that Madotsuki was dreaming all along. Her suicide at the end is the result of her finally coming to terms that nothing in the world is real and she has been trapped in a dream. She escapes by killing herself so she can jolt herself awake. This theory is backed up by dream creatures who surround her bloody smear in the "real world" after her suicide, the fact that her eyes are always closed, the surreal and ever changing landscape outside her apartment/house, and how she's unable to leave her room.

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Poniko

Poniko was the rapist.

Kyukyu-kun is not na image of a penis, but of a dildo (the rubbing imagery he's named for shows much more similarities to masturbation). It starts out a little odd but friendly enough, then it progresses into something frightening and terrible (FACE, or the rape).

Also, whenever you go into Poniko's house, it typically takes many times of going in and out, turning off the light switch, when suddenly she turns into the scary monster Uboa in a scary locked room that, when it touches you (you get in distance) sends you into an inescapeble groping place.

Aztec Imagery

It is possible, since the Aztec Rave Thing appears a lot in Madotsuki's dreams it is a complicated, unique image that she created and uses to remind herself she is dreaming. It may also be an image she focuses on in bed.