Were you looking for the song?
“Ah, a new fair maiden has come in search of true love!”
― Senpai, Friday Night Funkin'
Senpai is the primary antagonist of Week 6. His tracks include Senpai and Roses.
Appearance
Senpai is a young, light-skinned man with a constant blush, strawberry blonde hair, and wide blue eyes. He wears a partially tucked-in periwinkle blue button-up shirt, a loose pink tie, grayish-purple jeans held up by a black belt with a silver buckle, and grayish-purple shoes. He carries a brown backpack in his right hand over his right shoulder and holds a pink microphone loosely in his left with his thumb and index finger. His head sparkles whenever he is not singing. Fitting his dating sim origins, he stands and stares forward in the player's direction instead of towards his opponent. Additionally, he is portrayed in an anime-esque pixel art style.
His previously happy expression changes to a more discomforted and menacing glare in his second track, with the upper part of his face appearing bluish-purple, shadowing his eyes. His tie is now bent. He now clutches his microphone fully in his left hand. The sparkles around his head are now gone. His forward-facing stance remains the same, but his eyes are now focused squarely in Boyfriend's direction, even while singing.
Personality
Senpai is normally a very polite and calm individual who typically speaks in a formal way, especially towards people he likes. However, he has a short temper and is a sore loser, becoming rude and speaking more vulgarly after losing. This sudden behavior change is explained as a result of Senpai's programming being unable to handle a loss since he was only ever meant to be perfect.
Senpai has been described as a "generic pretty boy asshole" and is somewhat based on how people who are self-centered or toxic can be in real life.[2] He may also be insecure, as he would be the kind of person who strips when no one asks him to, and when he isn't told that he looks awesome, he starts crying.[3] He is also the type of person to have all sorts of prejudices, as he would call people slurs and be anti-gay, even though he would have pronouns in his bio.[4]
History
A long time ago, someone was forcefully trapped within the confines of a dating simulator game by Daddy Dearest under unknown circumstances. Now stuck in the game without any hope of escaping, he would possess its programming and lay dormant until someone arrived so he could finally escape and substitute whoever arrived.
The dating sim video game belongs to Girlfriend, and she has played it a lot. While hanging out with Boyfriend, she finds it and decides to play it with him. However, they both ended up being pushed into the game by Daddy Dearest, likely as another attempt on Boyfriend's life. Soon after, they meet Senpai, and he chivalrously challenges Boyfriend. After being bested, he suddenly breaks character, quickly becoming angry and vulgar.
Spirit busting out of Senpai's face during the cutscene for Thorns, leading to his death.
Having lost twice, Senpai is seen writhing before something violently bursts out of his face and destroys him. Spirit, the one trapped in the game, finally emerges in Senpai's place, causing the once bright location of the school grounds to become desolate, deserted and dark. He reveals that he has been trapped in the game without contact from other humans for so long. Despite this, he reveals that he recognizes Girlfriend and remembers how her father was responsible for his imprisonment. He also states that he is not the only person who has met this cruel fate at her father's hands.
Relationships
Girlfriend
Senpai quickly falls in love with Girlfriend after meeting her, believing her to be a "new fair maiden" who came "in search of true love." This makes sense as Senpai aims to win the player's heart, and the dating sim is Girlfriend's. He challenges Boyfriend to a singing battle to determine who can be with her. When he loses, he gets angry but is still determined to win Girlfriend over, threatening to castrate Boyfriend after getting freaky with Girlfriend.
Boyfriend
Senpai is initially friendly toward Boyfriend, deciding to engage in a serenade between gentlemen to decide who will be able to date Girlfriend. However, after Boyfriend beats him in a rap battle, Senpai gets very angry at him. He threatens to rip Boyfriend's testicles off as soon as he is done letting Girlfriend gargle his own. Despite this, he wants to upstage Boyfriend without violence.[5] Boyfriend doesn't seem to care either way, simply responding to Senpai with beeping noises before both of his songs.
Background Freaks
The Background Freaks are schoolgirls who appear in the background of Senpai and Roses. The girls are enamored of Senpai, but he does not pay any attention to them. He may be used to their behavior or not interested in them at all, focusing instead on winning over the player. He also may not care about what they think of him, as he loses his temper and threatens to castrate Boyfriend right in front of them, leaving the schoolgirls dissuaded.
Spirit
When Daddy Dearest sealed Spirit within Girlfriend's dating sim, he trapped the soul inside of Senpai. Senpai may not be aware of Spirit's existence, or at least not until his final moments, when he starts writhing before Spirit bursts out of him and kills him in the process.
Trivia
- According to PhantomArcade in a Tweet, one of the core inspirations of Friday Night Funkin' is the 1981 anime adaptation of the manga Urusei Yatsura.[6] Senpai was possibly based on the character Shūtarō Mendō, whom every girl is in love with in the series, similar to how the Background Freaks are in love with Senpai.
- Senpai is:
- The first character to not follow the main art style of the game, instead being portrayed in an anime-esque pixel art style.
- One of the first characters to provide an extra layer of lore to the game.
- The first antagonist to die.
- The first antagonist to have dialogue boxes.
- The first antagonist to change appearances on each song.
- The third character to have a song named after him, the first being Monster, the second being Pico and the fourth being Darnell.
- The third character to not have a "danger" icon, the first being Girlfriend, the second being Daddy Dearest and the fourth being Spirit.
- In Story Mode's week selection menu, Senpai appears on a CRT gaming TV hooked up to a video game console with a controller and an open game case. This makes him the first character to include extra art on his Story Mode character render.
- The console itself bears a strong resemblance to the PlayStation, and its controller resembles the DualShock controllers.
- On a Twitch live stream, it was clarified that Senpai isn't controlled by Spirit and the two are entirely different characters.[7]
- Senpai was confirmed to be approximately 18 years old and a senior in high school by Moawling on Twitter.[8] He was once again confirmed to be 18 in a Twitch live stream by PhantomArcade.[1]
- Senpai being a senior is hinted at by his name, which means "upperclassman" in Japanese. Senpai (先輩) is also an honorific for a senior or superior. Outside of Japan, the word also means "a person one admires who doesn't notice one's feelings," as the concept of a junior character being annoyed at a senior who does not notice the junior's feelings has become a guaranteed staple trope.
- Unlike Moawling and PhantomArcade, ninjamuffin99 does not consider Senpai to be of any specific age. When he was asked about Senpai's age, he responded by saying that Senpai is "a video game character made of 1's and 0's" and that asking about his age is like asking the age of a deodorant stick.[9]
- When asked if Senpai is actually a teacher, ninjamuffin99 stated that Senpai can be whatever people want him to be, that it's irrelevant to the story and that he finds different depictions of Senpai as either a student or a teacher to be interesting.[10]
- As shown in a piece of concept art, Senpai was originally going to have heterochromia iridum, which was confirmed by PhantomArcade in a Tweet.[11] His left eye would have been green, while his right eye would have been blue.
- As confirmed in a Tweet by PhantomArcade, one of the references used for the aesthetic of Senpai's week and his first song, Senpai, is from the 1994 Japanese dating sim Tokimeki Memorial.[12]
- It was heavily rumored that Senpai's design was inspired by Jacob Couch, a man who appeared in the Judge Judy episode "Coin-Throwing Road Rage Stunt!" and has been seen as almost the exact same as Senpai in terms of appearance, with the only notable difference aside from the lack of a backpack being the color of their ties. Other similarities pointed out between the two include them being emotional wrecks, 18 years old and resembling womanizers. Unsurprisingly, ninjamuffin99 has denied this in a Reddit AMA, stating that it was nothing more than an amusing coincidence.[13]
- In the same AMA, ninjamuffin99 denied Senpai's relation to Doki Doki Literature Club!'s Monika.[14] Despite fans' perception of them as siblings, they're both separate AIs from different games that have nothing to do with each other.
- Senpai is also noted, specifically by the VTuber community (including Japanese VTubers who have played Friday Night Funkin' before), to bear a heavy resemblance to the VTuber Yukoku Roberu, whose appearance, like the previously mentioned Jacob Couch, bears a heavy resemblance to Senpai. Like Senpai, Roberu has a talent for singing, as he has various songs in his discography. However, much like the Jacob Couch example, the resemblance is likely just a coincidence.
- Although Senpai was the first antagonist to die, he was the second character to die in general, the first being Mall Santa if the player gets a Game Over during Week 5.
- Senpai is of Japanese descent.[15]
- The idea for Senpai's character came from several things, including real-life antagonistic traits, the way video game characters are meant to be perceived solely based on how they're designed and the shallow fan service in many visual novels. This made for a character "who was just never made to not be loved and adored."[2]
- In August 2022, ninjamuffin99 stated that Senpai is his favorite character in Friday Night Funkin'.[16] Previously, in December 2020, he stated that his favorite character is Girlfriend.[17]
- Apparently, there is a sprite of Senpai as a catboy in Girlfriend's dating sim game, but she never got far enough in the game to see it.[18]
- Senpai does crunches in the morning just to avoid being fat. Even though he is a twink and has no muscle definition, the girls absolutely love it.[1]
Gallery
View Senpai's full gallery here.
References
| Characters | |
|---|---|
| Main Characters | |
| Antagonists | |
| Upcoming | |
| Scrapped or Unused | |
| Background Characters | |