DenNIM title card.
DenNIM is a series about a sexually abused girl who's early trauma created an imaginary friend of dubious appearance, created by VampireMeerkat.
Despite there being heavy themes of incest, pedophilia, and abuse, none of this is portrayed or mentioned (in detail), and it's more about the two main characters and their relationship. This is especially the case with the comic series, which was purely created to highlight the fun aspects of their lives together.
The animated short, that kickstarted the series in 2011, showed the conclusion to the main story.
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Main story
Mind is a young girl born in a luxurious Victorian house on the countryside, and the daughter of two seemingly upstanding members of the high class community.
When she was 3 years old, though, her father started to showcase invasive behaviour towards her, which only took a few days to grow out into full sexual abuse and a daily routine. The harm done often crippled her and Mind was quick to inform her mother, but she did not believe her and punished her for "making up stories".
With no one standing up for her and the abuse continuing, her mental health started to deteriorate and soon she got visited by a little boy, named Dennim. He was 3 years old, just like her, and claimed to have climbed all the way up and through her open window. Mind was quick to tell the stranger why she was upset, and he was first to believe her, which relieved her a little. Because Dennim kept coming back, she quickly started to see him as a friend.When Mind is 10 years old, she feels like she's reached her limit and wishes for some kind of action to be taken to make her father's abuse stop. Dennim suggests she should kill her parents, something he's always suggested, but Mind's high moral standards won't allow herself to commit such a crime.
He then offers her a random key and claims it'll open the door to her "freedom". While Mind doesn't know what he means by that or what this "free world" is all about, despite Dennim's explanation, she takes the key and opens the door that suddenly appeared inside her room.As she turns the key, she slits her throat in reality, showing she was holding her father's dagger the entire time.
See also: DenNIM (animated short)
Characters
Mind
Mind.
Mind (pronounced: "Mint") is a young girl around the age of 10. She comes from a rich and proud family and lives a sheltered existence. She's never been outside one day of her life and kept indoors because her parents are often gone and consider their envious high status to make it unsafe for her to leave the house.
She is a victim of domestic sexual abuse at the hands of her father. She told her mother and called the police more than once, but they don't believe her because of her father's flawless image. In the animated short she commits suicide and this is considered the canon conclusion to the DenNIM storyline, despite there being different endings.
Because of her "imprisonment", Mind never had the opportunity to meet other people. Her early pain and loneliness created Dennim, who can be best described as an imaginary friend mixed with a classic demon. Upon first meeting him she questioned his low voice, but not knowing what humans can look like and being practically raised with him by her side never made her question his demon-like appearance. Mind was 3 years old when she started seeing him.
Because Dennim never told her the truth about himself and kept his origin vague, she always assumed him to be "some rebellious, neighbourhood kid" who breaks into people's homes out of boredom. As she wanted to keep his company, she never told her parents about her burglar friend.
Mind, as she was portrayed in the animated short (2010).
Mind is being homeschooled and follows an university level of education. Even so, her intelligence doesn't necessarily reflect that and her lack of life experience makes her ignorant towards whatever is considered normal or abnormal in the social world. This is why she is accepting of Dennim's appearance, and in some realities that have them grow up, accepting of monster Dennim's appearance. She's also behind on modern media and the only movie she's ever watched is The Phantom of the Opera. Her parents tend to create a very outdated Victorian environment around her, despite the story being set in 2011.
Mind lacks self-respect and often needs Dennim to motivate her to do something else besides sob. She has a mousy, almost gloomy personality, but this is hard to find back when she's with Dennim. His presence enables a different part of her brain, giving her a voice and making her behave like a fairly regular child, which is best portrayed in the comic series. In the animation it's shown that her interactions with Dennim are psychotic episodes where she stares into space, which means she's only this person in her own mind. Mind does not play and talk by herself, for example, but this rule can change depending on the universe they're in.
Being closed off from the world made her devoid of creativity and there isn't anything she wants in the future, besides for her father's abuse to stop. The only dream she revealed to Dennim is wanting to see the ocean. She's never talked about what job she'd like or discussed family plans.
Mind has blonde half-long hair, thick eyelashes, blue eyes, and wears a blue poofy dress with white lacing, a red corset, white shoes, and she has a red ribbon in her hair.
Even though she never leaves the house, she has to wear fancy clothes at request of her proud mother. Her father makes her wear lipstick.
More information: Mind
Dennim
Dennim.
Dennim is Mind's imaginary friend and complete opposite. He's a boy around the age of 10, but has a rough, grown man's voice. While Mind has a British accent, he is American.
Dennim is a supernatural, nonexistent being, who's opinions are often the complete opposite of Mind's. While he looks like a colourful character, there isn't much he truly cares for and has mainly been called into existence to comfort Mind, though does a clumsy job at doing so.
He is a cheery, playful, but also mean-spirited character, who tends to speak his mind and can appear rather hateful and selfish at times. Mind often becomes insulted or impatient by his behaviour, but at the same time tolerates his weird games enough to keep inviting him back into her room, as he is her childhood friend and the only company she has.
Dennim's appearance and behaviour give off an untrustworthy vibe, but he cares about his friend's happiness and pleasing her is his main purpose. While the animated short doesn't really portray this, they are best friends and play with each other every day.
Dennim, as portrayed in the animated short (2010).
Mind and Dennim, as portrayed in the comic series (2016).
Dennim can be described as a male version of Mind with all personality traits she lacks. As Mind finds it difficult to "hate", he does it for her and feels this emotion strongly for both her parents. He, on his turn, isn't able to feel sadness or anxiety, because Mind suffers from these emotions all the time, though not necessarily when in his presence. She is seldom sad when hanging out with him.
Mind's dislike and disgust for herself created one of the strongest, but subtle personality traits in Dennim, namely his intense love for her. In the animated short/canon story, he doesn't treat her according to this fact, but there are realities where he confesses or strives to have a love relationship with her. If he doesn't do this, it has to do with him knowing beforehand Mind won't accept him for whatever reason that might be.
Dennim has black messy hair, red eyes, thick eyelashes, a white skin, sharp teeth, and wears a black tank top, black pants, and black shoes. He and Mind share the same face and body structure, as they are one and the same.
More information: Dennim
Picture of Mind's mother.
Mind's mother
Mind's mother is a proud woman. As she doesn't want to believe there are tasteless things going on in her family, she chooses to ignore Mind's claims concerning her father.
In the short she has been confronted with the truth offscreen, and decides to leave with Mind, but finds her dead in her room.
More information: Mind's mother
Painting of Mind's father.
Mind's father
Mind's father is the unseen and unheard antagonist, and the indirect cause of Dennim's existence and Mind's death in the short.
More information: Mind's father
Different endings in DenNIM
The world of DenNIM has multiple realities, all with different outcomes to Mind's suffering and how Dennim responds to it. Next to these realities, there are also multiple universes with their own set of rules for reality itself. The power of imagination and the concept of magic is different in each, which means that some universes allow Dennim to interact with real-life objects or they present a method how this can be done.
Dennim is nearly always familliar with the rules of the universe he's in, with exception of the Dennim from the canon ending.
Trivia
Dennim and Mind in "Little Animal".
- The art style for Mind and Dennim is slightly based on The Powerpuff Girls.
- One of the artist's characters was used as a base for Dennim's design.
- In "DenNIM", Dennim has Kevin's voice from the "Ed, Edd n Eddy Highschool" series, another creation by the artist.
- While Mind was written to be British, she had to be voiced by the creator because these wasn't a voice actor available for Mind in "DenNIM".
- Mind's mother is loosely based on the woman in the painting at the beginning of the game "5 Days A Stranger".
"Woman in the painting"
- The concept of the key being a knife was borrowed from the game "6 Days A Sacrifice".
- "Mind" was originally spelled "Minned". When reversing the letters, that makes "Dennim".
- Dennim's name was still supposed to be "Mind" in reverse, but as the name "Dnim" didn't look right, no changes were made.
- The adult version of Mind and Dennim starred in the music video "Little Animal" by Kinkobra.
Gallery
