Hanbe Reviews

The Template

Say you want to make a common archetype. Maybe a womanizer, or a tsundere, or a shy quiet guy for your mobile game. You base your general design around this trope, all’s good and fun, and then you decide to make the biggest cardinal sin next to giving a man a bowl cut. You make him afraid of and or/antagonistic toward women. Maybe something in his past is part of his trauma. His mother wasn’t the kindest person to him, or he had an incredibly bad experience with a woman before. But whatever the catalyst he’s rude to every girl that comes into his vicinity. Perhaps inherently distrustful of them and so on and so on. I’m just going to explain now, any justification that’s given is stupid. And you possibly turned off a whole host of people to a character just because you needed to make him quirky enough to stand out from the rest of the cast. 

I mean, joseimuke is all about exploring these different fictional tropes and personality traits that can pull women in and get them attached to usually a singular character right? Except misogyny is not a personality trait, it’s something men do to women because of various preconceived notions and years of discrimination. I could go on a whole tangent of how a lot of these tropes are also mirrors of dansei games because you can obviously fit something like “happy go lucky/genki” onto either gender and just have different approaches to it. But then I’d have to transition into a think piece about how the man hating character is equally as bad of a trope for different reasons. A lot of it to do with it being a vehicle for certain players who have degradation fetishes to live out their fantasies. So we’ll stick with the misogyny part here.

Cut it out, seriously

I don’t know if I’m alone in this but I don’t find misogyny on a man particularly compelling or interesting. Not even a little bit cute actually. If you’ve ever actually experienced it from a man, it can go from obnoxious to incredibly hurtful. Someone not viewing you as a full person and displaying that via their words or actions creates a very toxic dynamic if you’re in constant contact with them. So to fit this onto a fictional character is incredibly tone deaf and just seems to display a general lack of understanding of your own market. While the most popular games on the market have begun to phase this out, I still see this pop up a lot with relatively unknown games that are trying to break into the scene. It feels like writers of a small company’s go to lately, and frankly they’re several years behind what people are willing to put up with at this point.

This is not to mention this trope still has prevalence outside of mobile gaming, which I find even more problematic. If only because while gacha has become a bigger and bigger market as time goes on, an overwhelming amount of the public still plays traditional 60$ games or watches anime or reads manga and thus have a bigger possibility of running into this trope. Women like to partake in hobbies too, sometimes as a way to make themselves happy. So to a lot of them fictional misogyny doesn’t exactly inspire joy.

Fandoms bear some responsibility too

Whilst I spent a majority of this post lambasting writers for one of the most obvious tells that we’re still in male dominated industries that don’t seem to have the nuance or range to consider women’s needs, I also have to point the finger at fandom for allowing this behavior to continue. Remember how I said misogyny isn’t a personality trait? Well even if it’s a character that moves past it or makes a throwaway comment you can ignore, for some reason the fandom will quite literally not let you forget that he disliked women in some capacity. This would be like fine in instances where they didn’t like the character, but I’ve seen such an uptick in jokes that A: Are not funny and B: Display a man’s lack of respect for women as something desirable and thus exaggerating it to a degree that’s just weird.

Fundamentally there’s nothing fulfilling about a relationship where a man sees you as half a person as I described. But also there’s nothing fulfilling about contributing to fan perception that a male character would see you as half a person if he’s not genuinely disrespecting women in some capacity. There are only so many “get back in the kitchen” jokes you can make before people who maybe don’t fully remember his defining character moments or are new begin to actually believe you and roll with it as something that’s canon. Fiction’s fiction and all that, but if fetishizing your own oppression isn’t problematic it absolutely is completely and utterly annoying and does nothing to contribute to wider discourse when wanting to have actual discussions about characterization. Because inevitably these jokes bleed over into fanfic characterization, or fanart, or just general meta about anything. 

It’s easy to think it’s ultimately nothing, but that’s just not true flat out. Word travels quickly and it’s so easy for a fandom to accept something as true and not do actual research into the source material to obtain one bit of confirmation on it. I’m sure we’ve all experienced our “you just made that up!” Moment when looking at people’s deep dives or character analysis and it’s because you may be shocked to know, but people don’t actually fact check as much as you’d like to believe they do. Many people are running off of what the fandom’s accepted, and it’s more than a little bit aggravating when the fandom accepts that someone literally hates women. 

Gameplay 

With Caligula 2 being a sequel, the gameplay thus received noticeable upgrades that made it hard for me to go back to the original. In general, things feel more fluid, more intuitive and just better. The core gameplay loop, while not like the craziest most innovative thing, is satisfying enough that you won’t get super bored or frustrated enough to put it down. 

The battle system is a mix of turn based and real time combat, sort of like the ATB system Final Fantasy used to use. A bar fills, a character is allowed to take their turn, you choose their action, then everything happens at once until another character takes THEIR turn. The main quirk is that you can adjust the timing of each of the abilities you choose so that they happen at a specific point in the battle,after seeing how it’ll play out beforehand. Thus you can plan for interruptions, healing someone when you know they’ll get injured, all that. Pretty nifty all things considered, not to mention there’s an easy difficulty if gameplay isn’t exactly your thing.

The battles are accompanied by slice of life segments where you get to know other characters better. These are sliced up into easily digestible episodes, where the further you go, the deeper you dive into a character’s psyche. Sort of like Persona, or entirely like Persona? The main driving forces behind this game primarily worked on Persona 1 and 2 before leaving Atlus, so the comparison is pretty apt.  For added fun, there are subquests that allow you to befriend NPCesque students and get to know their woes. 

Story

The focal point of the game and why it drives me so bananas is most certainly the story. There’s a marked lack of unneeded fanservice, a great attention to detail, and great character development all rolled into one singular game. The thing that makes Caligula 2 stand out to me, is the gap between someone’s ideal self and the real world counterpart. With Redo being a virtual world, it means all these high schoolers you see may not be exactly high schoolers. Rather, many are adults reliving a time in their life where they feel as if they had more freedom. 

It makes an effort to deconstruct the common trope in anime of high school being the end all be all, this fantastical place where nothing goes wrong and everybody is at their happiest. By learning about characters’ unique problems and watching them grow, the game pitches that despite life being hard, complete and utter escapism is never the answer. Whether it be the simplicity of the depression from life passing you by, to critique of familial abuse as well as a sympathetic view of Antisocial Personality Disorder. Caligula has it all.

It accomplishes this with the aforementioned virtual world, but also via the virtuadolls. Essentially they’re the Caligula universe’s version of vocaloids. Human characteristics and all that, but with a lot more general power than you’d expect Hatsune Miku to have. Your virtuadoll companion for this game is X, kind of serving as your voice, as you’re playing a silent protagonist. X goes on a journey too! She begins as somebody who doesn’t understand the contradictory nature of humanity, but tries to understand them above all else. If that doesn’t interest you, she’s got some pretty witty lines and quips. I personally thought she was a fun addition to the cast. 

Oh also, there’s a canonical nonbinary character. I’m not going to spoil who it is, but the game explicitly labels them as nonbinary. Not to mention the conversation of transness comes up in of itself, you’ll be really surprised when you see things for yourself. It blew me away a little bit.

If you don’t play for anything else, play for the story. I’m serious!

Music

The music goes crazy, next question.

Ok no but seriously, a majority of Caligula 2’s enjoyment factor for me is the effort given to the music. Much of the game centers around the term “Musician”  being literal, they all compose songs. These songs, while serving as devices to drive the plot, are also representative themes for the bosses you will be facing throughout the game. 

In a big way, music is a primary lynchpin of this game. Informing you about the characters you oppose via lyrics as well as its very composition. When you begin to analyze the game itself you start to see why a certain song is the way it is and its place in the narrative.

I know this short paragraph made it sound big brained, but it both is and isn’t? Like you don’t need to really dive deeper into the BGM to understand the game on a fundamental level, but it’s certainly a nice thing to do if you’re bored. Above all, my earlier statement stands. The music goes crazy.

Conclusion

Play Caligula 2! It’s my cult classic of 2021, and I want it to be other people’s. If you’re not the type to be turned away by graphics or just general budget issues it’s an amazing JRPG to sink your teeth into. I’ve always been of the opinion that a game doesn’t need to be developed with a metric crapton of money as long as the developers can make what they already have relatively engaging. Or if it just has a good story. To me this game is both. 

Ensemble Stars!! Is a multimedia idol project by Happy Elements K.K., the Japanese branch of China based company Happy Elements. Starting out as a spinoff of Ensemble Girls it quickly began to outgrow its predecessor and saw itself carrying on as a main money maker whilst Engirls was eventually taken out of service.  The very beginnings of it was a simple raising simulator that was story heavy and grew into regular concerts, an anime, and crazy amounts of merchandise. Along with now having a rhythm game to go with the raising sim.  It quickly blew up, and for good reason. A lot of guydol media has suffered from the spinoff syndrome of the company not caring about it or its fanbase. Teams will typically be smaller compared to their girl focused counterparts, with a subpar mobile game and shoestring budget that kind of makes the whole experience very frustrating to engage in. The saving grace in Enstars is that none of this ever happened to it because there was nothing else for the company to prioritize. The Japanese branch produced two other mobile games, Last Period and Merc Storia which are of debatable quality and not as many active players. As such, Enstars was the golden goose of the company, if it sank like a stone on release I doubt Happyele would be as relevant as they are now in Japan. And the money Enstars has generated allowed them to make another relatively good quality mobile game based on superheroes called Helios Rising Heroes.

So with me giving a brief rundown on the company, what are some pros that I personally feel makes the game so good? 

Art

Probably an unpopular opinion, though I’m sure most of my take on this game is going to be unpopular, but the art is of pretty decent quality. Whilst sameface is an evident weakness it’s not exactly like I can fault them for that if we go for an idol media vs idol media comparison. I know nobody likes to admit it, but a good majority of popular idol properties have a major sameface problem and thus cause outsiders to mistake characters for each other. I personally think Happyele works around this by making characters identifiable through other design elements. Such as eyes and hair, as well as dynamic poses and choices in clothing. Let’s use two more unconventional characters as examples: Mika Kagehira and Rei Sakuma 

In Mika’s case you have the VERY green hair, and the elephant in the room, heterochromia. Channeling his inner 2000s era deviantart, Mika will probably be an easy pick in a line up for anybody who’s even a little bit into anime. Or just in general, I mean, heterochromia is hard to miss. Not to mention when drawn in higher tier cards he’s got pretty interesting facial expressions that are specific to him. Like above.

Then we have Rei! The vampire archetype personified. I suppose I could slap his brother Ritsu in here too, but I feel like they’re a little bit differentiated from each other. In Rei’s case he’s got a classic mullet, red eyes and fangs. Basically the highest level of “teen heart throb” vampire one can attain. While he’s not the first to be the obligatory vampire and certainly won’t be the last, he’s got enough design elements to once again pick him out of a crowd. 

Along with this, the art is fairly uniform and doesn’t often have noticeable dips in quality which is very admirable in my opinion. A lot of gacha games can suffer from major style disparities, from either having guest artists with different design conventions than the inhouse artists or just because there isn’t very great quality control when they put out new characters to pull for. Enstars being able to maintain their artstyle so consistently is therefore a boon, though if you don’t like it to begin with I suppose it could be a negative too. But I’m being positive here! 

Music

Okay so this is where I get sorta critical. So like, music is all about taste, what you like is not what I am going to like and vice versa right? It is with this in mind that you take this section with a grain of salt, if only so I don’t be liable for when you go and listen to something and think it’s an assault upon your ears.

Ensemble Stars has some very interesting music and also the absolute worst shit I’ve ever heard. For instance, I absolutely adore all of Switch’s discography. I think it fits their unit concept of being sciency type magicians well. Whilst also being fun and infectious. Some of it makes you wanna get up and dance.

Contrast this with Knights, where whatever musical direction was decided on needs to be undecided. I think I can only name two songs that I’ve actually deemed listenable without completely ravaging my ears or making me so bored that I could start snoring. But that’s MY music taste, yours could be different! I mean I already have accepted things that sound incredibly good to me on the first listen and are absolutely ear grating to others. So I encourage you to take a look yourself. Soundcloud is your friend. But I think the music in general does a good job of giving you a unit’s identity without having to do a deep dive into them. I remember before I fully got into Enstars, I was able to extrapolate what I was to expect from a general unit’s vibe just by listening to their music. Like how Valkyrie and fine have a whole orchestral element, Trickstar is very anime op esque, Eden is…Well it is (special shoutout to trap for you though). 

Story

Biggest point of contention, story! Quick background again, but Ensemble Stars’s MAIN story is done by an author whose pen name is Akira. They’ve slowly brought on more writers as time went on who are assigned to do various event stories or simple character stories gotten from gacha cards. But Akira is the mastermind behind the story’s general trajectory. And what a trajectory it is. 

Akira has written various light novels that I have not and will not read because their subject matters disinterest me, but he actually wrote the story for Princess Connect, another insanely popular mobile game that details a man’s journey through an MMOlike world and all the crazy things he encounters. You’ll have various opinions on the story if you ask Priconne fans, but I think it’s pretty good. 

Akira’s writing style favors absurdity, lots of inner turmoil within his characters and really old Japanese references that even those who have it as a first language have to look up. Does this whole thing carry over to Ensemble Stars? Yes. Yes it does.

Enstars’s story is famed for being long, arduous and having characters talk in paragraphs as if they’re old men having a debate about the ethics of religion. I’m sure many people reading this review might’ve seen a crazy wiki post where someone’s internal monologue looked as if it would span 2-3 pages in a book. And I, kinda like it?

The thing about the story is I have grievances with it that I could air out if asked. But in general I kind of really like Akira’s writing style. Mind you I’ve been into idol media since I was a kid, and I think they all have their individual merits when it comes to writing so it’s not like I’m going to act like Enstars is like some revolutionary thing. Especially when properties like King of Prism exist which is its biggest rival in absurdity. But he puts an interesting spin on the whole idol thing that has kept me reading event stories for as long as I’ve been into the game. He excels at individual characterization, to the point that you can feel characters making tangible progress when a story event meant to more their development along drops. For example, If you look at Kaoru Hakaze’s general attitude before, and after the event story Romantic Comedy you see him grow into a very interesting and dynamic character where before he was sort of a walking trope. A lot of that has to do with Akira favoring the deconstruction angle over leaning into character tropes entirely. The playboy, the super positive tokusatsu fanatic, the student council president, the anal hall monitor. All tropes in Enstars that Akira has a character grow past and thus become “more than.” 

This is not to say he is without any flaws. I find Akira’s writing to sometimes trend too far into absurdity when he lampshades his characterization with various events. Like, there is a bar between realistic and kind of insane that he loves to run back and forth between like he’s doing a 50 meter sprint. For example, the backdrop for the first part of the main story details a “war” within the school where the student council president did serious restructuring due to people in the idol world not taking them seriously. Everybody speaks about this like they were literally on the front lines of battle and when you kind of step back and look at the bigger picture you think “this is NOT that serious.” But then again is any gacha game? I’ll answer, no, nothing is ever that serious in a gacha game. Regardless, part of the problem is his absurdity can get to be too much because the environment of Enstars tends to try and be too normal and also too bizarre. But at a certain point you have to come to accept that this is what you’re going to end up getting with him. 

Still, the story isn’t actually all that bad. It’s just no one has taken the time to read it and do a real deep dive like I have. Part of it has to do with how inaccessible it is at the moment due to needing to rely on scattered translations or have Japanese knowledge, but I think part of it is also because a lot of dialogue around it isn’t really done in good faith. Like, it’s easier to get engagement on social media in general saying something sucks or posting memeable moments than it is to praise it. But that’s my opinion. And it’s not like Akira hasn’t escaped consistent online lashings from me when it comes to certain portrayals, racial insensitivity and his interesting depictions of trans characters in particular. 

Character Popularity 

Whoa, what a weird header right? But I think when talking about Enstars I have to talk about how this. Happy Elements is specifically guided by how popular a character is, via a combination of polls and how well they do in revenue when someone’s banner is released. This is normal right? Popular characters get the most content and all that. But I think in Ensemble Stars’s case it's really freaking noticeable if your character doesn’t have that many fans. Because they just won’t have that many cards or events centered on them. Due to the wealth of characters and the fact there are certain archetypes that are pretty much always gonna be popular in the idol sphere they’ve basically prioritized who's going to make them the most money and left a lot of other characters out to dry.

You have to pray whoever you decide to like falls within these parameters, or at the very least is the other half of a popular ship so when they pander to fujoshis you can get at least some type of character content. But if your character doesn’t fit either of these things, get ready for the absolute pain of seeing them only featured in events and stories whilst rarely being the focal point in them. Or in my case, their only 5 stars where it isn’t locked to an event are their initial one, and a unique banner that everyone gets anyway. Unrelated, liking Madara Mikejima is an exercise in misery. 

Conclusion

So if you’ve gotten to the very end of this long, long review. I think all I have to say to you is play Ensemble Stars!! Or don’t, your tastes may vary. But I have a genuine love for the game that I think would be cool to share with others. For me there are a lot of pros that keep me coming back. I don’t think it’s some horrible boogeyman of a game, rather it’s in a bit of a situation that since it’s so popular and since people trend towards self deprecation when into it that people think it’s some walking abomination that is “mysteriously” popular. There really is no mystery about it, considering the oversaturation of mobile games which can cause audiences to move on easily. It had to have done something to remain so beloved by its Japanese and English players, otherwise it’d be on a “list of idol mobage that flopped” video buried deep within the depths of youtube. 

Spoiler Warning

Yeah they should. Disclaimer here, I’m gonna be talking about gay people. I think when referring to straight ships the dynamic changes a lot and if I’m going to be brutally honest I do not think there is a “toxic” m/f pairing I have gone to bat for in the last 10 years anyways. Unless you count me being a sasuhina shipper at like age 15, but that wasn’t toxic, that was me being fueled on pure delusion because they most certainly did not have even a hint of a dynamic. 

Anyways, toxic ships fill a certain role in the community that I think is always going to exist if there is conflict and something that is actually beneficial in the long run. We contrast these with outright problematic ships, where the conversation shifts from “I think they just aren’t healthy together” to “this is morally wrong.” Of course you will have fans who think you’re the absolute spawn of satan for shipping something regardless, but that comes with the territory. Even the most banal and harmless thing is probably stored away in someone’s “will instantly block” section of their about. But the crux of my argument is just that sometimes in stories with polarizing characters, pairing two characters who seem to hate each other can be the most interesting thing in the world. I mean, it’s a little awkward to argue that smashing two people together like barbie dolls is intellectually stimulating but sometimes it kinda is? I’ll elaborate further down, but before you get to this part thinking “you give these people too much credit” let’s put that out of our minds right now. When I discuss these topics it is with the implicit assumption that we are talking about people who do this and don’t have the critical thinking skills of a flea. 

How About Some Examples?

Let’s take a look into a common template. Hero/villain shipping, as well as its offshoot, hero/rival. I think it’s arguably one of the most polarizing things when it comes to fan sentiment on if these types of ships can truly be valid or not. Most of the time you have lots of fans arguing it isn’t “because they hate each other,” or something to that effect. All I have to say to that is like, do they? In most media where this has prominence and there’s actually significant conflict, a lot of hero/villain is based off of the idea that there’s innate chemistry within the tension. Whether or not it borders on obsession, there’s always an interesting dynamic at play in terms of their intimate understanding of each other despite being in direct competition. The sometimes constant need to be in each other’s lives whether it be negative or positive. And constant thoughts about the other whilst they are apart. 

Best example? Narusasu, otherwise known as the prolific Naruto/Sasuke. I’m sure everyone’s seen the constant jokes about how Naruto is constantly thinking about Sasuke, talking about him, how so much of his arc eventually culminates in how he wants Sasuke back in his life. Whilst Sasuke projects an image of aloofness toward him and talks about killing him several times. Your first thought is “Sasuke doesn’t care about him,” and then you look further, and you ruminate on it. And you realize it is because he cares about Naruto that Sasuke has such an adverse reaction to him. The talk of killing him and general apathy to Naruto’s speeches is a smokescreen Sasuke uses to make everyone believe he no longer cares. Since I’m a gundam geek, I’d just like to point out Charmuro fits this bill too. In a way, they are kind of the blueprint for Narusasu to begin with, but I’m pretty sure I’m the only one of like three people who will genuinely say this and not be joking. 

So we provided an example, two in fact. What do you think fan reception of this is? Well it’s polarizing as hell. Narusasu has been argued about up till this day, and you’ve gotten the hottest of takes that Charmuro fans ruin Gundam. Yet I still think these ships fill an important hole in fandom shipping that makes it entertaining. If every relationship was just cut and dry and had no mixed feelings that’d kind of eliminate the point of shipping for some people. In this case, there’s a clear barrier we have to strike between what kinds of relationships we want in real life and what kinds of relationships we tolerate in fiction. Obviously I wouldn’t want to date someone I’d argue with everyday. Nor would I want to date someone that behaves like they hate me even if it’s the opposite, but when into a fictional series exploring how characters use that as a complicated avenue to express or swallow their love for each other is interesting. Markers of “toxicity” can be interesting, because they provide so much more to the conversation than normal. 

Some Yanderes are a case for the FBI

So to go over the cookie cutter persona a bit, a yandere’s main role in a dating sim, a joseimuke story or just anything where you can define this trope easily is to be clingy. They have a bizarre single minded attachment to another character, to the point they will do anything for them. They’re easily jealous, and they have a very big attitude gap between their loved one and everybody else. It’s not uncommon for your yandere to be incredibly curt and otherwise mean to most people, whilst fawning over their loved one. This gap can create funny moments, or put a darker twist on the story depending on what genre you’re looking to explore. 

So you’ve got the ingredients to make a yandere, but what about them crosses the line? Well the whole problem here is some of them cross a line in the sand when it comes to fictional behavior that just makes things weird! It wouldn’t be a problem if this was largely the point, but this happens in otome games far too often where they will do something that I just can’t condone and then the game will pretend that you’re still supposed to like them.

For example, let’s take a look at an otome game that came out in 2011, Amnesia. Spoilers for a literal 10 year old game, but one of the routes is Toma who is the childhood friend of the heroine and another character Shin. Toma is the yandere of Amnesia, but he’s completely unlikable. His obsession flies way too close to scarily realistic creepy stalker that only someone with a very very deep seated and bizarre fetish could enjoy. So much so that the ending to his route before you can have a “true” ending ends with him literally locking you in a cage. As I said, this wouldn’t be a problem if it was the point. But when you get the opportunity to have him as your endgame route, there’s no real fallout to any of this. Lets just suspend disbelief here and pretend the heroine’s decision to actually fall in love with him isn’t nonsensical or bordering on stockholm syndrome. I, as the player, do not see any reason to choose him. 

Toma isn’t clingy in a cute way, and his absurd behavior isn’t something I can 100% divorce from reality because the way he expresses these yandere traits are so downright uncomfortable that it makes me question who he was written for. It’s not like Amnesia is some deep underground otome VN, it got an english localization and was extremely popular. It’s got followup games, drama cds, manga, pretty much all the side material you can ask for. So it’s not like they’re exactly trying to appeal to an obscure fetish? I mean, obviously yanderes are made for a specific type of person, but I just don’t like when they put the main character in situations that have very bad implications nobody ingame talks about.

But why not have all of the crazy, and none of the crime?

It’s clear most, I suppose I’d describe it as fanservice type media doesn’t want to explore the psychological impact that realistic obsessive behavior can have on someone and their relationship. Thus I think it’d be a good idea to just remove the morally reprehensible behavior. Joseimuke has moved toward this a bit, but if a character is a bit possessive and clingy and has a major attitude gap with the person they like and others around them I think that’s enough to qualify them as a yandere. You don’t need to slot in some genuinely unforgivable crime that sits in the back of players’ heads every time they have further conversations with that person. There’s still lots of room to focus on emotional aspects of the relationship after all, for instance maybe the person they like has mixed opinions about their clingy behavior. Maybe there can be arguments over how easily jealous said yandere can be. You know, ultimately harmless stuff?

Example:

So with that, I think it’s a bit important to give a rundown on each region so that you have at least a short description of what you’re getting into. But I think there are a lot of character powerpoints floating around the fandom that gives a really indepth rundown on each of them. I’d love to do that, but this post would go waaay too long. Maybe I can give my thoughts on all of them if requested. Anyways let’s start off! Mahoyaku’s characters are all divided into regions or countries, with distinct environments and a general idea of what you can expect from the personality of a wizard who lives there.

Central Country 

The Central Country is by its name, at the center of all other countries. Wizards here are highly disciplined and patient, with two representatives having a real knightley motif. From left to right we have Oz, Arthur, Cain and Riquet. If you wanted to describe it in tropey terms, central wizards are definitely the super serious friendly type (except Oz, he’s just super serious). 

Arthur is the posterboy of Mahoyaku, probably the most recognizable face if you were to look at advertisements and all that. He’s the prince of Central Country who is training as a knight so that he may better help people. You’ll be seeing him a lot in the main story and witness his development first hand. What he most wants is for humans and wizards to live together in peace.

Oz is the super serious unapproachable immortal wizard who took Arthur in when he was a child, also he nearly conquered the world but he doesn’t like talking about that. He generally holes himself up in his mansion and rarely speaks to others. But he’s got the reputation for being the strongest wizard in the world.

Cain is your big brother knight whose eye was taken by a Northern wizard named Owen, more elaboration on that later. He’s also one of my favorites! He used to be the head of the knights until it was realized he was a wizard. He’s a pretty standup guy who’ll help you solve your problems and more.

 Riquet is a sheltered teen who was formerly in a cult. Not a joke by the way, he was really in a cult. But he doesn’t know much about the world due to it and is also super serious and upfront. 

If you want people who have a decent sense of honor and feel duty bound to help out. Central is definitely for you!  Once again, exempting Oz. He’s a little cold, until you get to know him! 

Northern Country

Wonder why I kept talking about Oz being cold and unapproachable? Yeah, that’s because he’s natively from here. The Northern Country has a harsh cold climate and harsh, cold wizards to match. From left to right as the twins Snow and White, Mithra, Owen, and Bradley. Sidenote, wizards can be immortal and thus live for 100s of years. In fact, Oz and all these wizards here are some of those people who are immortal! As you might predict, not dying makes you into a weirdo. So this country is full of nothing but weirdos.

Snow and White can never be seen without each other, and mainly take the form of small children though they talk like old grandmas. They have an adult form too! But they normally assume their child forms when talking to the other wizards. They like getting up to hijinks sometimes but they mainly discipline the Northern wizards when they get out of line. 

Mithra lives in the woods, hunts for his food, has some of the most bizarre dialogue known to man, has dark undereye circles because he was magically cursed to never get proper sleep, and the game presents him as one of the sexiest people in existence. Consequently he’s also one of my favorites! I like the North in general, but Mithra is in my top 3. He’s been alive for a good thousand years and some change, and Owen is genuinely terrified of him. If you latch onto anyone, I recommend Mithra! Yes I’m Biased. 

Owen is the most polarizing character Mahoyaku has. He’s a very prickly person who is not above using underhanded tactics to get his way. A frequently very manipulative person, through various circumstances he ended up being a little obsessed with Cain and as a result magically took Cain’s eye and swapped it with his own. Cain hides it, but Owen kinda makes it obvious considering it’s in literal full view. Underneath all that is a vulnerable scared person who despite being immortal never really “grew up” in a normal way. Oh also he age regresses sometimes, which is…Interesting. But he also loves sweets! 

Bradley was the previous leader of a bandit gang, is rowdy, a complete idiot, his weapon of choice is a gun, and he LOVES fried chicken. Another character in my top 3! He’s incredibly headstrong, hotblooded, and TERRIBLE at communicating. Hence why he fits in with the rest of the Northern wizards! He is ultimately well meaning though, even if the things he does don’t quite go the way he plans. Or make sense sometimes.

If you want a group of weird, immortal people who are entirely dysfunctional then the North is for you!

Eastern Country

The Eastern country doesn’t really have an exact personality to ascribe to it as a group. I think if I were to define it, it’d be wizards who are living a more solitary lifestyle compared to the rest. There’s an undercurrent of distrust between them and the citizens that isn’t AS pronounced in other places. As such you have two immortal wizards who would rather leave their old lives behind, or just be left alone in general. And two younger more…Plucky? Youthful? Wizards who serve as a way to counter that antisocial lifestyle. From left to right we have Faust, Shino, Heathcliff and Nero. 

Faust is a recluse who under no circumstances wants to talk to anyone about anything. He only really shows up when needed, and is a little dramatic in the way he talks. Due to circumstances in his past he’s come to distrust most of the world and just wants to be left alone. Faust requires a bit more persistence, having to peel back layers of his story to really get into why anyone would prefer him since you could probably describe him as the Mahoyaku version of a NEET. But it’s well worth it.

Shino is a young wizard with an abundance of magical power he is learning to control. He didn’t have any biological parents to turn to when he was a child, so Heathcliff’s family took him in. He feels very indebted to them, and as a consequence he and Heathcliff are childhood friends! Whilst Shino was previously accustomed to a life of isolation, he actually does like getting attention when the moment presents itself. He’s a pretty stubborn and straightforward guy, and above all loves to learn.

Heathcliff is, as I mentioned, Shino’s friend! He’s a noble in the Eastern country but is incredibly shy and timid. He doesn’t want to be, but of course this translates into him not having that many friends outside of Shino. His friendship with Shino’s become a little strained due to problems with their previous mentor, but they’re still pretty close all things considered.

Nero is a chef. He likes to be in the kitchen, also he and Bradley are divorced. Nero used to be part of Bradley’s bandit gang until they had a huge falling out and he went to the East to get away from his past and have some peace and quiet. He treats Bradley like he doesn’t know who he is, but he still has a soft spot for him. Bradley’s constantly asking him for fried chicken cause he’s good at cooking it. 

If you like wizards with dark and mysterious pasts who have absolutely no friends then the East is for you!

Western Country

The western country is a place for mischievous wizards who cause way too much trouble. This is the second region of immortal wizards (except Chloe) who are an absolute handful to deal with. The difference between them and the North is Northern wizards are assholes, Western wizards like to do a bit of trolling. From left to right we have Shylock, Murr, Chloe and Rustica. 

Shylock is a bar owner who is incredibly mysterious. Whilst being fairly helpful, he’s Mahoyaku’s most…Sensual character I suppose? A lot of his dialogue is pretty innuendo laden and he’s the most outwardly flirtatious out of everyone. Basically your guy who seems perpetually horny and loves keeping secrets. 

Murr is a former philosopher whose soul shattered into a bunch of pieces that people have been looking for in hopes of putting him back together. Unfortunately while that quest is being undertaken he’s stuck as a catboy for the time being. What was the thing that shattered his soul you may ask? He was in love with the moon. Like the actual literal moon. The ultimate type of man who is punished for his hubris. Also Murr rhymes with Purr. Isn’t that just crazy? Also he’s immortal too, if you couldn’t guess via the fact he’s weird.

Chloe was treated terribly by his family as a child to the point he has a little bit of self esteem issues. While he’s a very bubbly guy who wishes to become a tailor, he can get pretty down on himself at times. Rustica managed to save him from his situation due to sensing that he was a Wizard and Chloe is now traveling around with him! He kind of took up the role of Rustica’s caretaker and also the general fixer when it comes to Rustica’s shenanigans getting them in trouble.

Finally we have Rustica!  Rustica has absolutely no ability to take care of himself, is naive and is incredibly forgetful. So much so that he’s forgotten most of his past! He’s traveling around the world searching for his “bride,” whom he plans to turn into a bird and trap in a birdcage. Unfortunately since Rustica has absolutely no common sense he mistakes every single thing for his bride and Chloe has to stop him from trying to lock them in said cage. Animals, other people, you name it! Kind of a take on what happens when you give someone who never seems to know what’s going on limitless magical power and immortality.

If you want an entire region that gives you a headache just by looking at it then you will love the West. 

Southern Country

The southern country is a place where Wizards work together with the citizens to create a good society everyone can thrive in. A major trait to describe each of these wizards is just nice and approachable. You feel like you can talk to them about anything and they’re generally reliable. From left to right we have Figaro, Rutile, Lennox and Mitile 

Figaro is in my top 3! You know everything I said about the South? Yeah, don’t apply that to him. He looks approachable and sweet, but he is lying to you. He is “32” years old and is also a “doctor” and has never reportedly done anything bad in his life. You know, other than the fact a lot of people seem to hate him. He’s really lonely, and has been looking all his life for someone to be attached to. Though it's a bit contradictory since he always seems like he’s hiding something and is very detached from everyone. A male manipulator of epic proportions! And number 2 in innuendos.

Rutile is a schoolteacher whose parents died when he was young. He’s got a big parental vibe due to having to grow up faster than most in an effort to take care of his younger brother. He’s pretty connected to Mithra, who knew his mom and thus Rutile finds himself worrying over Mithra a lot. Very kind and always doing his best you won’t see him get nasty and mean. Sort of one of those people where if they ever snap then it’ll be a sight to see just because he’s a nice person.

Lennox is a very stoic and quiet individual who absolutely loves his sheep. He’s even a shepherd! Though he seems cold on the outside he’s exceptionally warm on the inside, very approachable and will do anything for anyone. Also he loves punching things. Lennox’s biggest quirk is for some reason he’d rather fight barehanded than use magic, so he’s pretty strong. Unnervingly so. But just don’t do anything to anyone he cares about and you’re totally in the clear!

Mitile is Rutile’s younger brother! He’s thought of as a baby by basically everyone, and is training hard to be a competent and strong wizard. Unfortunately for him Figaro is the absolute worst instructor on the planet, so Mitile is a lot further behind than most people when it comes to his magic. He loves to socialize though, and he can get along with almost anyone. Except for Northern wizards, he’s way prejudiced against them. 

If you want people who are unconditionally kind, sweet and reliable then the South is for you! Don’t be deterred if you might think they’re a little simple. There’s lots to strip back here as far as history is concerned.

In Conclusion

Play Mahoyaku! There’s a thriving site for english translations I will link below. The game is incredibly pretty, with a high budget. And it’s gotten itself a dedicated fandom because it seems like the team cares a lot about the production value of it all. With top notch writing, interesting characters and more interesting cards there’s not a lot that can go wrong here! If this convinces you to download the game, all I can say is enjoy and welcome!

The Denial 

So this is an aspect that I think is on the lower end of the spectrum but it’s still something to be discussed. The outright denial of gay headcanons in comparison to every other type of headcanon is downright bizarre. There have been multiple times I, or friends of mine, have been constantly reminded that our interpretations of a character’s sexuality isn’t “canon,” that they haven’t officially come out in the source material so there’s no real source on it. No matter how much homoerotic subtext or deliberate implications are made that a male character may like another man, it gets stonewalled because the creators haven’t come out and said that he’s gay. 

Which I think is ironic, considering there haven’t been many that come out and say these characters are straight either. Joseimuke in particular sort of relies on the ambiguity of their male characters’ sexualities, in an effort to allow fujoshis to ship them together as well as not alienating their self shipping audience. The argument of needing canon evidence relies on the idea that straight is the default. The idea of bisexuality is a common workaround, but I think it kind of preys on biphobia as well as homophobia.  My problem, mainly, is where the intent comes from. Bisexuality is not a copout meant to make someone available to the opposite gender. If these people can’t handle the idea of a character being gay, what makes anyone think they can handle the idea of a character being attracted to the same gender at all? The answer is they can’t really, they kind of just ignore it and treat it like you would being straight. But like I said, I think this is on the lower spectrum and something I can get annoyed with and scroll past. 

The Bigger Problem

So remember just a paragraph or two up when I mentioned the argument that canon evidence is needed? Yeah, with the things I’ve seen, anything in canon that jeopardizes the idea of a character being straight causes a collective meltdown. It’s a very interesting reminder that outside of my bubble, or our bubble. Straight people are absolutely not at all okay with gay ships in any form. Let’s use Twisted Wonderland as an example, the protagonist in game is rather ambiguous gender wise. Characters may say things that kinda sorta hint one way or the other but the game has never outright confirmed it. Then came the manga! In that manga the protagonist was confirmed to be a man. Not just any man, but a fairly well built one. 

The meltdown that ensued…Was, interesting to say the least. You had multiple people trying desperately to search for anything that would seemingly contradict this new development because it jeopardized their self shipping agendas. There was a bizarre inability to just kind of take it for what it was. Especially considering the manga was clarified to be glorified side material, having no effect on the game whatsoever. And it seems to ring true considering the mobile game has still made no effort to confirm the protagonist’s gender. But the scramble to denounce the manga felt a little surreal. There was just a complete refusal to accept this development, some genuinely felt like they were being persecuted. And I knew in my heart, that none of this would have been a problem if they deliberately made him androgynous, or he was just a woman. 

Twisted Wonderland isn’t the only example, I mean. Mahoyaku went through the same meltdown when an investor report that had no bearing on how the game was going to be run in the future referred to it as a “fujoshi game.” So the whole idea of canon evidence is a lie. Homophobic yumejoshis don’t want that, they want their fictional man to be available at all times. Anything that could possibly shatter the fantasy is met with extreme backlash or ignored. 

The Plot is Amazing

Notice I said war in the last sentence. Yep, Dunbine’s plot is specifically centered on the fact these members of “Upper Earth” have been summoned to Byston Well solely to fight in a war led by Drake Luft and his right hand men Bern Bunnings and Shot Weapon. Byston Well presents an intense contradiction, being a world set in medieval times but populated by giant robots known as aura machines that are primarily used as tools of this war. These machines are powered by “aura,” a form of life energy that simply exists in the world and can be channeled by anyone, but is seemingly more innately powerful when people from Upper Earth use it. It’s an interesting contrast, because the show makes an effort to display to you that the aura machines were never supposed to really be here. 

For example, another plot point that’s brought up is that Shot Weapon is American and was brought down from Upper Earth years ago. He was instrumental in creating the aura machines and turning Byston Well into the robotic warzone it is now. Whilst Bern is characterized as your everyday medieval knight with an “honor” code that kind of resents Shot’s rise through the ranks. So you can immediately see why Shou is summoned, to move Drake’s war machine along he’d love to have as many members of Upper Earth as possible. This creates a lot of inner conflict within Shou until early on he decides to turn on the people who summoned him and instead resist Drake’s warmongering ways. I have to mention that throughout the series Shou pilots a mech specifically named Dunbine, because Tomino loves practical names when it comes to the title of his anime. 

So there’s the setup, is there payoff? Yeah, absolutely there is. Dunbine discusses  imperialism in an interesting and not at all abstract way as the series continues. Shou specifically is the only Japanese man in Byston Well, all of the other people who had been summoned were White Americans, and only one of them, a woman named Marvel Frozen decided to rebel against him instead of living in comfort and willingly participating in this war. Considering Dunbine is set post World War 2 it sort of casts an interesting light on America’s history of fighting wars in nations they have no business being in.  As well as how easily American soldiers can murder swathes of people they do not know. Considering all this it becomes a rather cut and dry issue, the people on Drake’s side are bad and the rebels are good. Drake attempts multiple times to justify his stance in wishing to take over Byston Well but you quickly see these justifications are incredibly hollow because his subordinates are regularly shown happily partaking in murdering citizens and destroying towns when they are openly defied. Which is a good thing!

 It is not as if the plot of Dunbine lacks any nuance, as the rebels navigate their relationship with each other as well as the politics needed to defy Drake, but the show doesn’t commit the cardinal sin of trying to get you to feel sorry for the opposing side despite their crimes. You may sympathize with a few individual soldiers due to their situations or otherwise but there is no effort to throw a pity party and suggest that they absolutely had to participate in indiscriminately conquering the world. If anything I think it’s arguable that you begin to lose sympathy for Drake as the conflict ramps up. And the character relationships are great! You get to see them all grow and change, as well as become closer with each other. Marvel and Shou develop a genuine bond that they navigate in an incredibly interesting way, the rest of the rebel crew have their individual character arcs that are fully realized. And there are a wealth of other characters who are incredibly interesting. 

But there are Issues, Flaws and Problems

So you just heard me praise the show a sickening amount to the point you wonder if Dunbine has any flaws. Well yeah, it does. The second half of the story runs into a very considerable pacing issue that may annoy you a little bit or make you want to tear your hair out depending on how much patience you have. Things get kind of too slow in some areas and too fast in others. A lot of new things begin to crop up that don’t necessarily get a proper spotlight because the show is ridiculously close to approaching its final conflict and ending and the rebels KEEP losing! 

The losing part is a big point I have to make, I do not think there is a single battle that the rebels win. They are consistently on the backfoot, Drake’s army is always one step ahead of them and there just seems to really be no hope for them to pull through. If you think about it logically, yeah they should be losing. The rebel side is full of nations who either have incompetent leaders or just don’t have the same amount of military power Drake does because they haven’t poured all their resources into war whilst also maintaining a system of ethics. For instance Drake forcefully conscripts the soldiers of nations he’s conquered, essentially having an “infinite” supply of soldiers compared to his competitors. But it doesn’t make it any less infuriating to watch. I remember wondering at a certain point if the series was going to end with Drake conquering the world and his kingdom promptly collapsing in on itself afterward because that seemed like the only real end point. 

Another flaw is that you can kind of tell some characters get written out of the story or take a permanent backseat once their arc is over as time goes on. With the show having so many moving parts to it this can be understandable, but also frustrating to notice. Dunbine sets up a holy trinity of Marvel, Shou and Bern as to who you can rely on to get consistent development whilst other characters are a bit hit or miss. This doesn’t make them any less compelling, but sometimes you end up sitting there going “oh, that’s it?” 

Oh yeah also, aura is totally unexplained. You can view this as a quirk of the director insofar as Tomino has always used “magic powers” as a metaphor for the need for empathy in war. But if you want like, the actual logistics of aura power and what it can do you absolutely are not getting that. Though to be 100% fair, the show acknowledges it as something that normal humans just do not understand and utilize unconsciously. Whether that explanation matters or not is up to your own interpretation. These are the sort of things that don’t ruin the show, but it can kind of make you wish it had more. Or if you’re not like me and don’t have the absolutely insane urge to pick apart everything you enjoy, none of this will be a problem for you! But I didn’t want to paint this show as having zero problems. Otherwise my not job as a reviewer would be in jeopardy. 

Men who constantly talk about their rivals are homosexuals - Yoshiyuki Tomino

Alright so I’ve successfully reviewed the show. This is where I would write my conclusion if I didn’t have one more thing to talk about. Bern and Shou develop such an intense rivalry it’s genuinely amazing and if you enjoy that dynamic you’re probably going to feel right at home here. Tomino is the original creator of Char and Amuro, the blueprint for shounen, seinen, almost every type of media’s rivalry narrative. Like Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship? Well you can thank Tomino for that, Char arguably spawned a specific archetype of character that not a single mangaka has been able to let go of for years. 

So of course in his own independent creation he once again manages to recreate that dynamic. Obviously it’s not the complete same, Amuro and Shou are two different characters, same with Bern and Char. But the sheer obsession Bern develops when it comes to defeating Shou to the point he singlemindedly throws his entire being behind it as the show progresses makes the homosexuality of it all extremely palpable. As time went on I got way too invested. So if all else fails, I hope I can get you to watch Dunbine for gay rivalry purposes. You won’t regret it, especially because there’s a good show behind it all! 

Characterization

Phenomenal, dare I say showstopping. Shiraishi in my opinion is the toughest nut to crack in Collar x Malice and while I won’t argue he’s the most complex character in the otome genre (I certainly would put up a fight about that though), his characterization and his development throughout the plot is amazing. Shiraishi’s a criminal psychologist, a profiler who until being on his route is mysterious and doesn’t care for human connections all that much. Most of what you know about him is he’s incredibly flippant, and his assistant hates him. So it’s not surprising his working with Ichika turns him into a polarizing figure. 

To put it bluntly, he starts off as a huge dick. In a normal circumstance you’d have to be a complete saint to put up with him, he’s rude, has zero social etiquette to the point you’re led to believe it’s intentional and the way he talks down to people can be infuriating. However I think what kept me going throughout this route was how Ichika reacted. 

See, the payoff is enormous, because there’s effort from each side of the relationship to work out their differences and get to know each other more. Ichika immediately writes off Shiraishi as someone she intensely dislikes, but after speaking with the other detectives she makes an effort to understand him better. Shiraishi on the other hand, in an effort to work better with her on their case begins to learn her likes and dislikes, her temperament and generally kind of bumbles his way through cozying up to her. He gets her gifts, he tries to spend time with her. It’s kind of fun to watch because the burden this time isn’t 100% on Ichika to fix a man’s issues. 

Though like I said, he’s polarizing. I could definitely see a world where you’re either a Shiraishi lover or a Shiraishi hater. But in my opinion that’s what makes his character all the more interesting throughout the route. 

Plot Relevance

Shiraishi’s route is filled with an abundance of plot, but before we get to the big reveals about Adonis, let's talk about his Adonis pairs. 

Shiraishi’s enemies in this case are a pair of twins named Shion and Suzune Uno. Who went through the tragedy of their mother and father dying and are on a revenge streak. While I think the general idea of the plot is good, the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The entire lynchpin of the case is that the twins’ mother was a schoolteacher, and due to a well off student organizing a harassment campaign against her she had a psychotic break, attempted to kill them (which their father prevented by sacrificing himself instead), and then took her own life. Since then they swore to get revenge on everyone who wronged her. Pic of them down below

My problem with this is how wholly unrealistic it is. If it wasn’t a student, say a principal or another teacher orchestrating this campaign I’d get it. It’s hard to deal with authority in schools, and not one culture is a stranger to a teacher abusing their position when they don’t get what they want. But even if you could call the explanation plausible I think it sends a pretty odd message when you craft a scenario where a student is completely able to ruin a teachers’ life and reputation. But outside of that, the twins came off completely sympathetic. And there was even a very non ableist description of DID included that wasn’t exactly a plot point, but was pretty decently handled I’d say. No multiple personalities murdering people, just the acknowledgment that one was there. 

Now other than that, we have the super fun stuff! Shiraishi’s route reveals a lot about Adonis’s internal structure and reveals perhaps the biggest thing (GIGANTIC SPOILER WARNING) Shirashi’s actually a brainwashed member of the organization! See there’s an ever looming idea that there’s a mole for Adonis in the police, turns out Shiraishi’s that very mole. This part was very well written and flowed into the narrative, now for all the explanations surrounding that reveal. Well I’ll leave that to the game. 

Character Interaction

Ichika gets a girls coalition in this route. Since she interacts so frequently with Shirashi she ends up becoming friends with his assistant, and she already has a female friend in the police force to start with. So she gets to have regular girls night outs! The girls are a pretty endearing trio, and I found myself giving a little half smile at their interactions. Ichika definitely needs someone who isn't an emotionally constipated man to have a real conversation with from time to time so this was a big refresher.

With Shiraishi, I described a bit of their relationship above. But when he and Ichika get closer leading up to his reveal as the mole it’s incredibly sweet. Shiraishi displays a unique love for cats that explains the incredibly embarrassing cat memorabilia he wears around his job. And you start to learn his lack of etiquette isn’t him being an asshole on purpose. He just genuinely hasn’t gotten much social interaction. He doesn’t have many friends, and the way he talks can be frustrating and hard to navigate. Now, he’s a grown man, so I’m not gonna pretend like a lot of the way he talks is intentional. But I became super endeared to him as I saw a much softer and more genuine side. 

Final Thoughts

Characterization

Okazaki Kei is an incredibly complex individual that is more than he seems from the get go. Considering the common advice is to play Enomoto, Sasazuka, then Okazaki’s route in that order you can view it as the game ramping up the stakes. He’s a seemingly easy going guy housing dark secrets and a host of issues that would probably be tough for a therapist to work through in real life. 

And I think the game does a very interesting job of portraying them! Kei balances a lot of charming moments with the more intense ones just enough to get you invested in him and wanting more. His infatuation with Ichika, and by consequence the issues of an insane martyr complex and a possessive streak crops up slowly enough and is properly explained enough that you don’t feel like it’s a case of her being a mary sue. Okazaki is insanely affectionate, and it feels natural to his character in such a way that you think he’d behave this way with anyone. Which makes genuinely becoming closer to him in the story so much more satisfying! 

Okay I know I’m seriously gushing about him and his route certainly has its flaws, but I honestly suspended a lot of my disbelief for those flaws. That is to say, the whole way he solves his martyr complex kind of does rest on the power of heterosexual love. But the average otome enjoyer isn’t coming to the genre to see a plotline happen where a man gets six months of therapy. 

Plot Relevance

Following up on Sasazuka dealing with a member of Adonis, Okazaki does the same thing. While a lot of his conflict is primarily focused inward, the game doesn’t deprive you of a glimpse into the greater narrative and in fact connects the two fairly easily. 

On Ichika’s end, I have to say she did a fair bit of detective work here, most of it actually. Kei is firmly categorized as the brawn, a security guard, so a lot of times Ichika is bouncing ideas off him and taking initiative in the case. A breath of fresh air after dealing with her kind of being made out to be a bumbling idiot in Sasazuka’s route. 

Now the greater plot, is um, a piece of work. Okazaki’s route connects his internal conflict with Adonis. We’re shown a flashback of an assassination attempt on the prime minister, and Okazaki mistakenly attempted to save someone instead of committing himself to the job. The consequences were drastic, his partner dying to keep him safe. Except he finds out soon after that same partner was a mole for Adonis, and had a big hand in the assassination attempt. Kei is so traumatized that he develops the martyr complex that I mentioned just a few paragraphs earlier! He latches onto Ichika, because he projects a standard that she’s worth dying for. The narrative makes it clear it’s not because it’s Ichika, but rather because she was in the right place at the right time. 

So you expect a lot of the plot to be devoted to this right? Well, yes! But also no. Kei’s Adonis pair is a man who’s part of organized crime and was a former police officer. He grew increasingly dissatisfied with his job, being abused by his superior and constantly having his accomplishments stolen from him by said superior. As a result he grew so discontent with the police force he turned to crime. This is a very touchy and nuanced subject don’t you think? Exposing that police as an institution is rife with the ability for cops to be crooked, combined with them lording their authority over others. 

Well the game handles that with all the gentleness of taking a bat to someone’s window. The greater plotline plays out like such a weird pro-cop PSA that I felt kind of disoriented over it. You obviously can’t easily forget that this game is about the police as much as it as about dating guys. But I felt like I was getting slapped in the face over and over with “You NEED cops to protect you. Cops must ALWAYS be there. Corruption is only a few bad apples. Cops are IMPORTANT.” Like, I thought I was playing an otome game. Not debating the police’s general usefulness. And its especially stupid because Kei isn’t even a sterotypical cop! He’s specifically trained in security detail, you know, GUARDING people. Not chasing down criminals! Why was I getting this force fed to me on his route of all places?!

Character Interaction

This is where no exaggeration, the route was saved for me. Kei was accompanied by a junior officer named Hideaki Yoshinari who is effectively his right hand man, and their interactions are as funny as they are endearing. This also gives Ichika a handy outside character to talk to. This, combined with her speaking to her friends in the police force means she gets a wealth of outside interaction until the narrative closes her off a bit. However there’s actually a good explanation this time! I mean, if you can take Kei effectively being the game’s yandere as a good explanation.

Kei and Ichika’s interactions evolve in such a way that are incredibly interesting and pretty well written to me. Kei starts out infatuated with the idea of her, and with the idea of dying for her. He flirts, he gets touchy feely, and he makes her heart flutter. But it’s all in service to himself, and his inner monologues don’t really shy away from that fact. I mean, eventually they do truly fall in love. But Ichika growing to like him and thus not checking out of their potential relationship when she does catch wind of his freaky martyr complex, instead helping him work through it is super nice. And just to mention, the CG below the plot relevance header is an awesome and tension filled moment. Definitely surprised me a little bit. 

This is a side note, since I have nowhere else to put this but Kei’s um. Incredibly horny. I don’t know how else to put it, but we ramped up from rather vague innuendos and CGs that didn’t amount to much, to Kei openly talking about having sex with Ichika before the route’s climax (joke completely unintentional I swear). I mean this game is for adults, and every character is in their mid to late 20s, but still with how strong he came on I was shocked. I don’t think it helped that I’ve played pretty much every popular game Yuki Kaji has been in, and hearing the voice of the quintessential guy you call when you want him to play either screaming asshole or normal dude talk about how much he wants to have straight sex with you is crazy.  

Final Thoughts

I am being completely serious when I say even though I am giving this route a low score that Kei is still perhaps one of my favorite characters in the game. It’s too bad that the greater plot that intersected with his internal conflict was 5+ hours of having copaganda shoved down my throat. I indicated when I started this review that I don’t have good opinions of the police due to the aforementioned issue of my being black, and police in every country have a very very dark history of abusing their power. So I’m not going to act like that didn’t severely lower my enjoyment. 

I’m giving this route a 6.5/10.