Denise is one of the most charismatic characters of Monica's Gang. Her name is the same in Portuguese, but with the final E pronounced. At first, she was just a secondary character, but she was given the most importance in the comics of recent years.
She is the gossip girl of the Lemon Tree Street, always on top of everything and turned on everything that happens with the gang, Denise has a great self-esteem and is always updated while sticking to modernity. Her best friend is Carmen, portrayed sometimes as a friend, sometimes an enemy of the girls of the street and always willing to give an "up" in the mood.
Character's history[]
Denise's first appearance in the story A Fina
Denise had her debut in story A Fina published in Magali #5 (Globo series) in June 1990, the story was originally written by Rosana Munhoz, the writer responsible for writing most of Maggy's stories in the first issues of the magazine. Denise was originally created as a random support character with no personality who existed to be a support character for both Monica and Maggy, due to the lack of female characters in the old comic books. Originally Denise was created for one story, but the character was later reused frequently in the other stories created by Rosana Munhoz during the 90s.
The fact that Denise was created only as a support character made her personality varied over the course of the stories, sometimes becoming friends with Monica and Maggy, but in some stories being their enemy, usually walking together with Carminha Frufru and helping her to bully other girls. The same also used to happen to her appearance, which often changed with each story, appearing with different clothes and hair colors.
Emerson Abreu's redesign[]
Denise in As Panterelas
In January 2000 a story written by Emerson Abreu called O Concurso das Denises! was published in Mônica #160 (Globo series). This story makes a joke based of the fact that Denise had her look constantly different in each story published during the 90s, where it is revealed that Denise was a character who was constantly played by several actresses who often resigned after one story for not accepting the secondary character role. However the last actress who played Denise in this story (Creusa Maria) decides to want to remain in the role of Denise permanently. Since this story Denise has a fixed look that ended up being continued in every comic book published after this: having purple dress, brown hair, shoes, pigtails, conjoined eyes and a mustache-like fringe.
Personality[]
Like her best friend Carmen, Denise seems to be feminine in personality. Denise describes herself as updated, tuned in, media-savvy and "the smartest girl in the school". However, she is called the "gossiper" by other residents of the Lemon Street. She hates not being invited to parties, being able to spoil the birthday party of her best friend Carmen and set traps to be the first person to enter the ballad. She has high self esteem and is undeterred by almost anything, unless it's related to fashion and parties, so she has already given several advice to Monica about Jimmy Five and Smudge.
Appearance[]
Unlike other characters, Denise has had several changes to her design over the years, but even with her current design set, she has appeared with several different dresses or purple and pink shirt and skirts in the comics. Denise has been blonde, brunette, and redhead, but now her hair is reddish-brown.
In Monica Teen, she has a lime green shirt, dark green blazer, and pink skirt with red polka-dots.
Name Origin[]
Denise earned her names from a genderswap of the Latin Dionysius. Dionysius was the Greek and Roman god of wine, and the growth of vines is his responsibility, which causes some irony although she does get flirty with boys sometimes, a trait that Dionysius himself has with girls and women.
She is one of the few characters whose name is kept in all versions. The name is a fifth declension noun:
- Nominative: Denise
- Genitive: Denisejos
- Dative: Denísei
- Accusative: Denisem
- Ablative: Denised
Trivia[]
- Denise is one of the few characters that have the same name both in the original Portuguese version and in the English translations. However, it IS pronounced differently.
- Denise seems to be of the sign Virgō the virgin, as she gets a Greek dress, some loose hair, and a much more feminine personality when Samanta the Bruxinha transforms the party in O Aniversário Dos Signos.
- Since the redesign by Emerson Abreu, Denise has received a massive mixed reception, especially in the comics published by Panini, including her Teen version.
- By part of the more recent fans, especially the internet fanbase, Denise has been extremely well received and is even considered the favorite character of many of the fans (surpassing even Monica and Jimmy Five), mainly from Facebook shitposting groups based on Monica's Gang, which is how she got a Monica Toy episode that showed her stealing the limelight. However, many of her fans tend to be trolls or Emerson Abreu fans who usually defend even Denise's rude and malicious attitudes. Many of the fans even want Denise to win her own comic one day.
- On the other hand, Denise has received a lot of criticism from fans (mainly the older fans) who consider her the worst character and one of those responsible for the decline in the quality of comics in recent years. The main criticisms being about her flanderization having become a rude and selfish character that sometimes (mainly in the stories written by Emerson Abreu) steals more spotlight than the protagonists.
- She serves as a equivalent for Waluigi of the Mario series, since both characters are somewhat malicious support characters who have a large legion of fans on the internet who wish to see the characters have more highlights in their respective franchises, in addition to the fact that both wear purple clothes. What makes her different to Waluigi is that she is still technically a good person at heart, however.
Gallery[]
