Nene

Age	13 (Nene Interactive Suicide, Pico's School, Pico 2, and Pico's School: Love Conquers All; via MindChamber) 19 (Friday Night Funkin')
Gender	Female
Status	Determinant (Pico's School) Alive (Pico 2)
Relationships
Relatives	Unnamed mother Unnamed grandmother
Allies	Jordan Katalano - boyfriend Pico - friend Darnell - friend Mr. Flacit - teacher Cassandra - possible girlfriend (FNF)
Enemies	Überkids
Media information
Debut	Nene Interactive Suicide (1999)
Latest appearance	Friday Night Funkin' (upcoming)
Voice	Tom Fulp, Sean (Nene Interactive Suicide)

"Now... How should I go about killing myself???"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

Nene (pronounced nay-nay) is the titular main character of Nene Interactive Suicide and a friend of Pico and Darnell. Created by Tom Fulp in 1999, she is a popular girl with suicidal tendencies and signs of promiscuity.

General information

Physical appearance

Nene wears a bright pink dress, lighter pink pants and undershirt, and has slanted white eyes with no pupils as a stylistic choice. Her hair is black and includes a pink headband. In Nene Interactive Suicide and Pico's School, she has herpes all over her mouth. In Pico Roulette, she is also shown with large buck teeth, much like a stereotypical depiction of an East Asian person. They are also present in her images for the old Newgrounds art vote section, albeit significantly scaled down. She has yellow skin in her original Pico designs, which is another such stereotype, though some later artworks by MindChamber give her a lighter skin tone. In Newgrounds Rumble, her dress is swapped out for overalls and her colors are muted. Friday Night Funkin' adds heart-adorned straps to the overalls, along with spiky bluish-black hair, pink cheek blush, and razor-sharp teeth. Her nose is also missing as a stylistic choice.

Personality

Nene is a suicidal girl with an addiction to sharp melee weapons and promiscuous tendencies. Like Pico, she is very "popular" at school, claiming in Nene Interactive Suicide that she will be in the yearbook with Jordan Katalano as "Best Couple". Being both a sadist and a masochist, her sexual deviance is also well-known by her peers to the point that some believed she was even more depraved in that regard; however, this is all pure gossip, as she does appear to have some standards. Ironically enough, she is also a Christian, as there is a bible on her nightstand, and at one point makes a prayer to God to end her life.

Along with her convictions, she also believes in dying "with honor," most notably depicted when she discovered that she had contracted herpes. This leads to her dying, or at least attempting to die, by suicide to avoid being humiliated by her peers. This is also seen in Pico's School, where she wishes to be mercy-killed by Pico after being heavily traumatized from witnessing the school massacre firsthand.

Abilities

Nene initially didn't display any significant skillset in her first few appearances. However, as time passed, she came to be portrayed with high proficiency in blades and other forms of sharp weapons in melee combat. In Newgrounds Rumble, Friday Night Funkin' and various promotional art, she has shown a preference for using kitchen knives as her weapon of choice. She is also depicted as a competent fighter, likely skilled in martial arts, in these later adaptations. This became so synonymous with Nene as a character that Newgrounds advertisements and banners often position her as an equal to Pico.

Relationships

The following is based solely on canonical information. Characters unrelated to the Pico franchise are not included.

Pico

Pico and Nene have been confirmed to be friends. Despite this, their interactions are often unpleasant - in Pico's School, Nene begs Pico to kill her, and in Resident Pico, Nene coldly rejects his offer to protect her from the zombies because she prefers to "have [her] brains eaten". Though in the latter game, she does advise him to run, meaning that at the very least she doesn't want him to die.

However, a sneak peek for a future content release for Friday Night Funkin' shows Nene throwing knives at Pico as he runs away from her. Though the reasoning behind this is unclear, a promotional image reveals that alongside Pico, she and Darnell were being paid by Daddy Dearest to kill Boyfriend.

Darnell

Darnell and Nene have been confirmed to be friends, but they have never actually interacted on-screen, implying that they're not all that close.

Cassandra

Cassandra and Nene were never shown interacting directly in Pico's School. Cassandra perpetrating the school shooting would put Nene through a great deal of distress, consequently triggering her suicidal anxiety. Despite this, according to a drawing uploaded to PhantomArcade's Twitter, Cassandra has supposedly formed an intimate relationship with Nene since then.

In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, Nene has a more pleasant interaction with Cassandra, as she greets her and Pico in the hallways before heading to the bathroom.

History

Nene Interactive Suicide

In Nene Interactive Suicide, Nene wakes up with herpes after kissing "Jordan Katalano" the night before. Once she realizes her current situation, Nene decides to "die with honor" and kill herself by either drinking milk (as she is lactose intolerant), hanging herself on the ceiling fan, praying to the Lord and getting struck by a lightning bolt, jumping out of the window, shooting herself with a gun, or cutting her wrist open with a razorblade. Ultimately, the choice is left to the player. If the razorblade is chosen, Nene has a brief conversation with her mother as she bleeds out.

Pico's School

In Pico's School, Nene is found kneeling in the school hallway, praying. She begs Pico to end her life due to her not wanting to live through the blood and violence any longer. By the players' choice, he can either shoot her or spare her. Canonically, however, she ends up surviving the massacre.

FDA: Santa Dogg

In FDA: Santa Dogg, Nene makes a cameo appearance, shown in the background wearing a Christmas outfit.

Pico vs. Überkids

In Pico vs. Überkids, Nene is one of the few students left alive after the school shooting, along with Pico and Darnell. She is one of the 3 playable characters, facing off against Übersam in a game of Rock Paper Scissors Roulette.

FDA Before Christmas

In FDA Before Christmas, Nene makes another cameo alongside Pico and Darnell. This time, she is dressed up in Shock's witch costume from The Nightmare Before Christmas.

Pico 2

In the demo for the cancelled Pico's School sequel Pico 2, the Ghettobots join Pico's class to replace the dead students one week after the school shooting, rather than six months later as previously stated in Pico's School. Nene makes a non-speaking cameo appearance in the intro, and doesn't play a bigger role for the remainder of the demo.

Resident Pico

In Resident Pico, Nene appears at the start of the game to warn Pico about the incoming zombies. Although he insists that he will protect her, she rebukes this, expressing that she "can't wait to get [her] brains eaten" before running off.

Pico Roulette

In Pico Roulette, Nene is one of the playable characters.

Pico's School: Love Conquers All

In Pico's School: Love Conquers All, instead of begging Pico to end her life, Nene is happily walking on her way to the bathroom. She then has a brief, but pleasant conversation with Pico and Cassandra before continuing on.

Friday Night Funkin'

A sneak peek for a future content release for Friday Night Funkin' confirms Nene as a major character, as she is seen attacking Pico with her knives.

The content below is not official to the Pico franchise.

Newgrounds Rumble

In Newgrounds Rumble, Nene appears as a playable character, wielding two knives to fight. No longer wanting to live in Pico's shadow, she enters the battle to become "King of the Portal" in order to prove that she is more than just the token girl of the group. At the end of her story mode, due to her being unable to handle the pressure of becoming a ruler, Nene gruesomely dies by suicide within days of her victory. Seeing an opportunity, Convict then disguises himself as Nene and sneakily takes her place, patiently waiting for Newgrounds to crumble from the inside out.

Chenso Club

In Chenso Club, Nene makes a cameo appearance alongside Pico and Darnell.

Quotes

"I must die with honor! HARI KARI!!! (ハリ・カリ！！！)"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"Mom's gonna flip when she sees these walls!"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"Saranghamnida! (사랑합니다!)"

―Nene

"What is wrong with my mouth?!"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"I'm gonna cut myself."

―Nene

"Dear Lord, who art in heaven... Please free my soul from this earth and welcome it in your holy kingdom. End my life, and I shall be eternally grateful."

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"Protect me? Protect yourself! I can't wait to have my brains eaten!"

―Nene, Resident Pico

"The day of reckoning has come."

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"Oh god! The blood! The violence! The tension! I don't want to live through another minute of this! Please end my life, and spare me this anxiety!"

―Nene, Pico's School

"What a pupu platter."

―Nene

"This looks so much easier on television... I never knew this took so long!"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"Goodbye, cruel world."

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"Hath my Lord come to rescue me?"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"Hey, this is alright!"

―Nene

"HOLY SHIT!!!"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"I can't wait until tonight - the prom! We'll be in the yearbook as best couple!"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"Try harder, almost there!"

―Nene

"Did I mention I'm LACTOSE INTOLERANT?"

―Nene, Nene Interactive Suicide

"That's some hot wasabi!"

―Nene

"Oh, hi Pico! I was just on my way to the bathroom. Beautiful day today, isn't it?"

―Nene, Pico's School: Love Conquers All

Gallery

Main article: Nene/Gallery

Trivia

• In Pico's World, an old Flash hub by Tom Fulp, many facts about Nene are listed:
  • Nene is neurodivergent, as she is diagnosed with ADD (ADHD-PI).
    • Females display less obvious symptoms of ADHD compared to males. Notably, they may act ditzy or exhibit apparent silliness, which seems to align with Nene's personality.
    • ADHD is often comorbid with anxiety disorders. Tom Fulp himself has stated that people can project their own identities onto Nene, especially if they're anxious in nature.
  • She has contracted herpes.
    • Judging by the blisters and sores around the mouth, it is most likely herpes labialis.
    • This fact is also ignored in some of her later depictions, such as Friday Night Funkin'.
  • Nene is a suicidal sadomasochist.
  • Nene enjoys necrophilia and bestiality.
    • However, Tom Fulp later clarified that these facts were "nasty internet rumors" and not true. Though, it's likely he doesn't remember writing said factoids.
  • Nene is lactose intolerant.
    • In Nene Interactive Suicide, one of the ways Nene can kill herself is to drink a carton of milk, which causes her to vomit blood before her head explodes, displaying a very severe case of lactose intolerance. In real life, the consequences of a lactose intolerant person consuming dairy products are far tamer as, while causing diarrhea, bloating and nausea, it's not something deadly.
  • Nene has an IQ of 133, which is classified as "very superior."
• In some fan animations, she is depicted as Pico's love interest, despite her and Pico sharing no romantic history in their canon relationship.
• Luis Castanon's 2004 Flash animation The Perfect Murder would be the first time Nene was shown wielding sharp melee weapons. Canonically, she had no combat experience prior to this, but many fan works created afterward have depicted her with some form of blade or knife.
• It could be implied that Nene is multiethnic (Japanese Korean), as she says the words "腹切り" (Harakiri) in Nene Interactive Suicide, and "사랑합니다" (I love you!) in the old NG vote system.
• Tom Fulp has confirmed that Nene is not homophobic.
  

  Nene Romanova from Bubblegum Crisis (1987), the character that inspired Nene's name.
• Nene acted as the mascot of the Newgrounds Art Portal and its vote system since its debut in 2011. She was eventually phased out by 2020.
• Tom Fulp has compared Nene to Kenny McCormick from the South Park series, in that they both continuously die, but are resurrected each time. However, he also stated that "[Nene] never quite dies - she is always saved somehow".
• Nene was named after the character Nene Romanova from the 1987 anime OVA Bubblegum Crisis. This factoid was mentioned by Pico while he was talking with Hanzo about anime in Pico's School: Love Conquers All.
• Nene has non-canonically died a total of 8 times throughout the Pico series:
  • Nene Interactive Suicide - Head explosion after drinking milk, shred to bits by her ceiling fan after hanging herself, hit by a lightning strike after praying to God, jumping from a window, or shot in the mouth.
    • It is debatable whether Nene died once she cut herself with the razor blade, as even when the ending options appear, she still appears to be conscious.
  • Pico vs. Überkids - Can shoot herself.
  • Pico Roulette - Can shoot herself.
  • Pico's School - Can be shot by Pico.
• Tom Fulp has confirmed that some of Nene's favorite music artists are Carly Rae Jepsen, Trans-X, Purity Ring, and Charli XCX.
• When asked about what subjects the Pico characters would major in if they entered college, Fulp replied that Nene would major in Psychology, because she "wants to sort out her issues and potentially help others".