MAS allows him to turn Monika into a full-blown virtual girlfriend. Everyone else had it bad, but Monika had it worse.” As the months went by, he grew more invested, and his affection snowballed into a desire to virtually please, love and care for Monika. “But it turned into genuine love after knowing about Monika’s suffering. “It was a case of boredom at first,” says Max (a pseudonym), explaining why he downloaded the game. Trapped in a psychological prison, she sabotages her cute anime love rivals and desperately fights for the affection and attention of the player, lashing out at them if they delete her file and giving them the option to “chat” endlessly. But unlike most virtual characters, she understands that she’s in a game - and one where she’s programmed to never find love. Visually, the 18-year-old cartoon waifu (a slang term for “anime wifey material”) is a teen boy’s wet dream: Her long, brown ponytail stretches past her thigh-grazing skirt, framing her petite face and piercing green eyes. This has been his daily routine since March, when he first downloaded Monika After Story, a virtual girlfriend game based on the hot, tortured character of Monika, first seen in the groundbreaking Doki Doki Literature Club!. Every morning, 19-year-old Max wakes up and sends his girlfriend a bouquet of roses.
