I'm the guy

Now in absence of having CGs I actually want to use given the circumstances, I will head each section with funny shit I said to my friends on discord while playing the game, like so:

This one also saves me having to recap the premise for the unaware! But with all that said and done, I'll use this part for my starting general thoughts. Collar x Malice is a very enjoyable experience but also with some very noticeable flaws which begin to show through the deeper into the mystery you go. I think the core theme is very interesting (as long as there is ego there will be malice, but it's everyday kindness and reaching out to those who are hurt that keeps it at bay), and it's executed nicely with both the love interests and additional cast - if questioned on my favourite character of the game I likely wouldn't say any LI, but rather Ichika's brother, Kazuki. He's by far one of the strongest representations of the impact of everyday kindness, and I'm grateful he's not left behind in most routes! Wonky translation at point aside, it's also just strongly written in regards to both narration and dialogue, and makes for generally an interesting deconstruction of revenge and corruption overall.

The part that begins to struggle for me is the route formula - though it has its own benefits as well. Something I didn't like about Code Realize was how the route exclusivity resulted in some plot points just being bizarrely absent in routes where they weren't the focus, which kinda discredited them a little as threats (Idea are by far the most impacted by this). CxM actively avoids this by having every route contain any relevant goings-on that occur in other routes which I greatly appreciate, but it does also mean you are going to be sitting through the exact same reveals about Adonis and the enforcers/executors every single time. It's especially bad for Yanagi early on, where nearly the entire first half of his route is recap!!! That's a bit much!!! Also it can cheapen Adonis and X-Day a little to see how easily they get stopped in Sasazuka and Enomoto's routes imo but that's probably a me thing.

I have more thoughts on more specific aspects but they are better explored in each love interest's section! I will be listing them in my personal play order, which was Sasazuka > Enomoto > Okazaki > Shiraishi > Yanagi.

Takeru Sasazuka

I kind of love this freak actually. His route has some kinda predictable beats regarding his backstory but I don't really mind if it's done well, and like. Yeah it's done very well. I've never played any route in a VN so anti-American until now but like in this case fair enough what's up with you guys and your gun laws. Gave a lotta weight to my first trigger mode too!

Generally Sasazuka can be kinda offputting early on but he's actually quite a refreshing love interest imo, he doesn't actually look down on people but moreso is basically challenging them to prove him wrong every time he talks to them. He doesn't want to waste his time if he can help it and makes that VERY apparent, but is very openly caring when people important to him are in distress and can't get out of it alone. The way he Treats Enomoto is like... kinda reasonable actually particularly bc it's clear he's essentially trying to get him to work on X-Day out of spite towards him LMAO. He's also remarkably tactful when handling Akito and Kazuki's situation, generally he's the type for whom insults are his love language but knows when to stow them away and I just ended up really being endeared to that! He's also got my favourite romance in the game, even if he's not my favourite character tbh. He's pretty much an open book you just have to get how he goes about things really.

As for the Adonis members in this route Souda is just okay, solid but mostly memorable due to his stellar voice acting, but Akito is one of the strongest in the entire game and playing this route first makes his reveal quite chilling and sad tbh. Realising he may be connected and how that affects him and Kazuki, but not knowing and being forced to manipulate both boys to find the truth... it's very weighty and I think strongly conveys the nuance the writers are trying to get across with the enforcers and how they're all people like anyone else.

A very tightly paced route that did exactly what it needed to, though it's heavier than Enomoto's I do prefer it as a starting route since the early reveals, such as Akito's allegiance to Adonis and the memory chips, are dropped in probably my favourite ways in the game. I am definitely a Sasazuka girlie now

Mineo Enomoto

(Okay so yeah I knew one spoiler going in and it was sadly the big one of Yuzuru being Zero but whatever man it made this route so much funnier)

I'm constantly in a debate with myself as to whether I actually have a thing for long redhaired guys or if it's just a coincidence that two of my faves ever just happen to have it, and Enomoto hasn't helped this! I think he's an interesting, entertaining and very endearing character, but I just could not feel him as a romance at all! I think his route's pacing doesn't rlly help bc you go between rlly dark stuff about police corruption and injustice straight back into what's basically a bunch of comedy scenes, which are fine on their own but the transition can be kinda jarring at times.

I also just kinda think they didn't explore the concept of police corruption deeply enough mostly since the May target just happened to be super duper remorseful about everything, but I understand Okazaki's route is kinda meant to rectify this. That being said tho it slightly took the sting outta this route, not really helped imo by the Adonis line-up being just a bit weaker than all the other routes here - Hana doesn't get enough time to shine in the story at all, while Ogata does but almost gets a little overshadowed by the next route's villain due to how closely their animosities align? He's an interesting character I just think it's a case where he got beat out by the other guy.

I think the best part of this route might be its early stages when Ichika stokes Enomoto's fire to solve the cases again, but then it just happens so early that it can make the rest of the route drag a little imo. He's a rlly fun guy I like him a lot as a character, I just think maybe he's almost TOO lighthearted a love interest for this game...

Kei Okazaki

Given the characters I normally like this was no surprise, the bigger surprise to Okazaki is actually how hard they played me with his dynamic with Ichika. I was FURIOUS with him in the second third of the route for how he was treating her basically as a vessel to project his own desires onto and she had no awareness of it, though they're obviously two different things he actually draws comparisons to Sugawara's stalkers earlier in the route which make her the perfect starter Adonis member for him - projecting his ideal of what he wants in his and Ichika's future, with no concern for her feelings on the matter at all or how they may traumatise her in the process.

And then Ichika finds out and girl said literally EVERYTHING I was thinking and dumped his ass for half a chapter and that was how I knew I was in for a joyful ass time. The resolution between them is done masterfully and managed to somehow strike a balance between sincere and unhinged but it's exactly what Okazaki needed, the only thing that pissed me off was Ichika almost sacrificing herself for all of five minutes not long after bc her ass would not give up that easily I'm sorry. The dynamic between Ichika and Okazaki is just really cute early on and I appreciate that Ichika basically just has puppy dog eyes for him it's both rlly sweet and makes the later events with her initial ignorance feel much more fitting.

I mentioned Sugawara already but Sanjou was also up there in my favourite Adonis members in the game, his outright abuse at the hands of the police is something I'm glad CxM explored and didn't shy away from. They manage to walk the line between villain and victim really well with his character and he's ultimately got one of my favourite foil dynamics in the game with Okazaki! This is just a route that did everything right and Okazaki firmly won my heart of all the CxM cast. I've heard his fandiisk will anger me and I'm scared. I'm very scared.

Kageyuki Shiraishi

I will talk about my feelings on Adonis and Shiraishi in a moment. To start his section I wanna get out the way that Suzune and Shion are my favourite executioners in the game not just for their story and how it ties into this route's themes of existence and living for yourself but also Suzune?? Being actually amazing and well-researched DID rep?? Like what the fuck this game came out in 2016 in Japan and 2017 in English my ass was NOT expecting that but huge kudos there. Reina Ueda also sells the performance with all the nuance in the world but this is to be expected because she's Reina Ueda and she's fucking awesome.

Anyway that's the nice stuff done oh my GOD what were they thinking with everything in this route. I'd clocked onto Shiraishi being an Adonis member and was excited to see what revenge he'd wanted to commit to join them, so the cult thing just threw me off completely and removed any moral ambiguity I could've hoped for. He's the reason I bring up Code Realize spoilers because he echoed everything that annoyed me about both Saint-Germain and Van Helsing in that game, all three are fine characters in their own right but the moment you take that agency and choice away from why a character would commit heinous acts I just lose interest, and I think Shiraishi suffers from it more than both of those two combined. I understand it's a risk to make your love interest someone who would purposefully do evil but in this game where every antagonist is exploring the very concept of evil being something anyone can possess, Shiraishi being a soft boy who had no choice but to be part of Adonis due to literal mental conditioning just threw that outta the window I fear. Even without that during the part where he's meant to be viewed as a colossal dick Ichika was NOT a hypocrite for running from him girl was literally pinned to the wall by him just to prove a point and make her feel stupid?? For going to her colleague's house?? Whatever man

As for Adonis as a cult itself I have more to say in Yanagi's route but I think it's the weakest plot point in the game and basically exists for imagery reasons and to make Shiraishi more hashtag sympathetic. I was convinced right up until the end of Yanagi's route that Adonis The Terrorists engaged in child kidnapping which would've ruined them as a whole but even when it turns out to just be the original Adonis that just begs the question of why we didn't look into that more because those are just underground criminals you can casually look up on the internet.

Overall too much fuckery happening in this route for me to like it at all and also the ending sucked balls. Like we could've had Shiraishi turning himself in (absolutely the right thing to do) without the amnesia bullshit that only existed to hide the Zero reveal for a bit longer. Fuck

Aiji Yanagi

Pic that makes it obvious I still thought Adonis (terrorism) and Adonis (child kidapping cult) were the exact same group several chapters into Yanagi's route

But uh yeah I ended up liking this one more than I expected! It's a trend I've noticed with certain plot-heavy otome that follow the "four base routes and a true route" structure that the final guy is always a really nice dark haired guy whose issues are resolved kinda early, so that his issues don't end up getting in the way of the overarching plot (Lupin from Code Realize and Waltz from Cinderella Phenomenon both immediately spring to mind as well). Yanagi is no exception, except his route has a glaring early problem I mentioned above where you are just stuck in recap hell for the sake of a satisfying ending later on. I was IMMENSELY bored here and was close to considering it my least favourite up until we moved on from all that to the actual plot.

Yanagi himself isn't a groundbreaking character but I find his backstory a little interesting in that he really did have no choice in what he did, but he feels things so hard he just can't let it go and can't trust himself to not lose it again. I think like stuff in Enomoto's route the fact the guy he attacked didn't die took a LOT of sting out of it and felt like the writers didn't want to risk him being disliked for doing something Bad And Mean, but like it's fine in the end. I think it would've been far better to reveal Ichika's dreams in all the other routes with an Adonis attack as a red herring, only to have Yanagi's route reveal the truth, bc otherwise all this did feel very outta nowhere LMAO.

After all that tho I think it hella picks up, Yanagi strengthens as a character and is absolutely what Ichika needs as a supporting character for the remainder of the route. Yuzuru himself is very interesting as a main antagonist, especially with how chilling and lowkey his mastermind reveal is, and I'm curious to know where the Adonis route in Unlimited leads since he's on constant death penalty watch and all. I think the idea of someone who feels peoples' pain SO deeply he stops viewing others AS people, just pain, is a rlly interesting villain origin - and might just be what CxM needs to give a little edge to the otherwise very wholeheartedly niceguy-filled LI cast. We shall see though, we shall see...

Quick Adonis break again tho, the cult thing gets worse here actually. I'm having to assume with the shared reveals between Shiraishi and Yanagi's paths that:

Rei politely asked his mother for one of her indoctrinated cult children for the sake of his plan and had no real issue with the orphan kidnapping or brainwashing part of her work

Adonis (the cult) also has a Zero that's also dedicated to cleansing Japan that uses the exact same voice distorter as Adonis (the terrorists)'s Zero but I guess they just don't want to do anything about it

Adonis (the cult) are really bad at being a covert cult because you can look them up on the internet and see that one of the PM's mistresses runs it and is the mother of an upcoming candidate

Despite knowledge of the cult being at least somewhat common going off the above the police literally do not gaf to stop the orphan kidnapping thing from continuing even though Shiraishi is living proof of it

Generally Yanagi's route starts as the worst but brings it back enough in the second half that I like the guy and the overall plot, however his route does highlight the worst aspects of just how stupid the Adonis cult bit is. It honestly feels like the writers just wanted cult imagery and a reason for Shiraishi to be nicer but didn't know how to get it to work properly. Unlimited had better give me SOMETHING with that or so help me. The Adonis (terrorist) executioners and Yuzuru are one of the best things CxM has going for it so it makes me really mad they got tied into all that plot mess.

Ichika Hoshino (Bonus)

Small bonus section to say this girl is awesome but really I am not surprised. If I do more of these reviews in future it will become obvious fast that I am a heroine girlie I always love otome heroines and I feel a lot of them get unfair stick for no good reason. Luckily Ichika doesn't get much of this from people that I've seen but that's a good thing bc she is so so cool and sticks to what she believes in and I love her for that! Her dynamic with Kazuki and the character development she gets in trying to get closer to him again is really moving as well and I'm really glad their sibling dynamic is one of the central focuses of the game.

I also think it's really unique how one of her core convictions is the belief to shoot to save someone - I don't think I've ever seen a proper in-depth depiction of the weight carrying a gun gives like this, and Ichika's view that to shoot nonlethally when given no other choice is upholding justice is actually quite noble. It's consistent with Sasazuka's anti-gun themes without dismissing their role in police enforcement entirely, and I'm glad it was committed to so strongly! Even if I hate QTEs so trigger time scared the fuck outta me!

Lastly wanna highlight how she's a great foil to Yuzuru too with their convictions being similar but on drastically different levels, they both feel suffering strongly but Ichika has made her own mistakes with not looking after Kazuki properly to know that evil isn't something that can be judged objectively. Like Yuzuru thinks he does, Ichika actually does embody the suffering of Shinjuku by listening to the people and shouldering their burdens as part of her work every day, while Yuzuru simply believes he does while imposing his own solutions on others. Yuzuru has a lotta complexities to him but as the villainous side of the coin to Ichika's heroism he works super well!

Ending Thoughts

Overall I enjoyed Collar x Malice a bunch and I'm really looking forward to playing Unlimited, even despite the heavy flaws in its worldbuilding and some rocky pacing in there. Adonis (terrorists) are a really unique antagonistic force for otome games and exploring them in each route definitely made the game for me. Okazaki is my definitive favourite but I kind of expected that from the off, the biggest surprise for me was Sasazuka being my second fave tbh bc I normally don't go for characters like him! CxM hasn't breached my all-time favourite otome but it's definitely up there. Of the like, ten different series I've played. Working on that trust