Visual Novel / Collar × Malice

The countdown to X-Day will now begin.

The countdown to X-Day is a countdown to revenge.
A blessed slideshow in which criminals are judged.
Police who ignore people, vague laws, peace that only exists in theory, and formless justice...
You've heard the cries of the people harmed by all that malice, haven't you?

— Adonis to the protagonist, Ichika Hoshino

Collar × Malice is a Play Station Vita Visual Novel developed and published by Idea Factory. It was released on August 18, 2016 in Japan and on July 28, 2017 in North America and Europe. A fandisk, Collar × Malice -unlimited- was released on July 26 2018 in Japan. An anime film is set to release in 2023.

Collar × Malice is set in Shinjuku, Tokyo during tumultuous times. A terrorist group known as Adonis has taken it upon themselves to administer justice on the tainted Japan. Adonis instigated a series of brutal incidents referred to as the "X-Day Incidents," where they execute those they deem unjust before publicly explaining why their target deserved to die. Each incident is counting down to the final "X-Day," which they claimed would lead to the rebirth of Japan. Fear stirred by this terrorist group led to Shinjuku quarantining itself and adopting an open arms policy, where anyone and everyone could own and use a gun. This only caused tensions in Shinjuku to escalate further.

Ichika Hoshino, the protagonist, is a rookie police officer working under the Shinjuku precinct. Despite having done nothing wrong, Ichika was attacked and collared by Adonis. She was quickly made aware that the collar has a poison delivery mechanism that could be engaged at any time, but Adonis quoted her as a "sympathizer" that they were more interested monitoring than they were merely executing. Ichika must now investigate the X-Day Incidents with a group of five men of various, suspicious backgrounds. Both her life and the fate of Shinjuku are at stake.

Her motley group of suitors and teammates include:

• Takeru Sasazuka, a hacker with a sharp tongue and a sweet tooth.
• Mineo Enomoto, a Fiery Redhead who is a former Field Ops member and often the butt of jokes.
• Kei Okazaki, a cheerful Special Police officer who seeks something worth protecting.
• Kageyuki Shiraishi, a police profiler who enjoys reading people and poking fun at them.
• Aiji Yanagi, a reliable ex-cop who left the force to become a detective and pursue Adonis.

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The visual novel contains examples of the following tropes:

• Action Girl: Ichika Hoshino embodies this in all her routes.
• A Day in the Limelight: There are three new special episodes in Collar × Malice -unlimited-. Each episode featuring Kazuki, Minegishi, and Yoshinari respectively.
• Affectionate Nickname: Sasazuka calls Ichika "Stupid cat"/"Baka neko." Okazaki calls Ichika "Kitty"/"Neko-chan." Enomoto calls Sasazuka "Cyber-seaweed head."
• Alone with the Psycho: Downplayed in Yanagi's route where Zero/Saeki kidnaps Ichika and she spends some time completely at their mercy but it's noted that Zero/Saeki wouldn't kill her.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Adonis is quite good at dishing these out. This does not include those who joined willingly after a bit of manipulation.
  • In Okazaki's route, Adonis threatens to harm Kei Okazaki unless Ichika joins them.
  • In Sasazuka's route, Adonis offers to help him achieve vengeance and release Ichika from her collar. If he does not have high enough affection for Ichika, Sasazuka takes the collar off of Ichika, says goodbye, and disappears, presumably having accepted that offer.
• Anger Born of Worry:
  • In Okazaki's route, Ichika becomes furious when she realizes that Okazaki places such little value on his life and wants to die without taking her feelings about the matter into consideration.
    • In the Good Ending, after Ichika protects Okazaki by Taking the Bullet for him, he is quietly angry that she would do such a thing, though he later calms down and asks Ichika to not do something like that again.
  • In Yanagi's route, after Okazaki nearly dies to save Ichika and Yanagi in the Adonis hideout and was delighted to have almost died in the line of duty, Yanagi loses his composure and actually punches Okazaki and tells him off for joking about dying and to never sacrifice himself like that again or he would kill Okazaki. Okazaki is stunned but promises to not do it again.
• Animal Motifs:
  • Ichika is called a cat by Sasazuka due to her collar resembling a cat collar and how her hair seems to bristle like an angry cat would when irritated. He also refers to her as a dog due to her habit of following orders and being quick to be happy when praised for a good job.
  • Shiraishi has huge fondness for stray cats and wears cat ears and cat accessories on him even while working. He can be sly, mischievous, quick to tease and has a hard time getting close to others.
• Anyone Can Die: A direct symptom of being a visual novel with dozens of bad ends.
• Anywhere but Their Lips: Typically downplayed as Ichika and the love interests has no problem kissing on the lips but there are some circumstances in public where it's better to not kiss so intimately.
  • In Enomoto's route, when Ichika and Enomoto are invited by Kazuki to a concert that is meant for couples only, the cashier asks for proof that they are a couple. Enomoto starts stammering in embarrassment and it's left to Ichika to kiss him on the cheek as proof.
  • In Yanagi's route, during the Christmas Eve party at the agency, the others start suspecting that Yanagi and Ichika are together. Ichika wasn't sure if they should reveal that they are when Yanagi suddenly kisses her on the cheek and dryly tells the others to keep their "hands off" of her (though Sasazuka observes Yanagi was blushing and was thoroughly embarrassed by such an action).
• Arc Villain: Each route has one or two Adonis members as the arc villain.
  • Enomoto's route deals with Hana who was the one to murder his police colleague, as well as Ogata, who had been mistakenly arrested by his police colleague, leading to their joining Adonis.
  • Okazaki faces off against Sanjou who is revealed to be a high-ranking member in Adonis.
  • Sasazuka becomes involved with Souda and later Akito in his investigation.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: Played with. While all the main love interests are very good-looking, there are several Adonis members who are just as good-looking. Rika Sugawara is noted to be pretty by Enomoto while Rei Mikuni and Zero/Saeki are Bishounen. Conversely, Isshiki's appearance would make people believe they were involved with Adonis or be a shady character at the very least but Isshiki is actually a kind and decent person.
• Bedmate Reveal: In Sasazuka's route, he falls asleep and doesn't realize that in his sleep, he pulls Ichika into bed with him. When Sasazuka wakes up later during the night after a nightmare, he is shocked to see a sleeping Ichika in his arms. He eventually goes back to sleep, quietly thinking to himself that Ichika looked cute in her sleep and her being here helped him after his nightmare.
• Big Bad: Zero, the leader of Adonis. His civilian identity is Yuzuru Saeki.
• Big Brother Instinct:
  • Ichika is protective over her little brother and wants what is best for him, even if Kazaki often disagrees with her methods.
  • Despite his cold attitude towards Ichika, Kazuki does care for her deep down and he is suspicious and can even flat out ask a love interest what are their intentions towards his sister. He even outright threatens Okazaki by telling him he will kick his ass if he makes Ichika cry.
• Birds of a Feather:
  • Ichika and Enomoto are both Bad Liars and tend to wear their hearts on their sleeves.
  • Both Yanagi and Ichika are noted by others to be great cooks and both have similar aspirations to protect Shinjuku and return the city to its normal everyday life.
• Bittersweet Ending:
  • Disregarding the bad ends available in the game, Shiraishi's ending. He turns himself in for him crimes, but Ichika is left waiting for the day he gets out of jail.
  • In Unlimited, Mineo, Kei, and Takeru all have a tint of bittersweet due to Saeki/Zero not being apprehended, meaning that while Adonis has been stopped he's free to continue plotting. In an ironic reversal, Shiraishi's ending is now one of the happiest, since Saeki was stopped and Shiraishi's getting more freedom to be with Ichika due to the aid he offers the police.
• Bland-Name Product: Leaf (LINE), Math Donut (Mister Donut), Micino (Which looked similar to Samsung by model)...
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Ichika is a good shot and some routes show her skills.
  • In Enomoto's route, when Hana starts threatening Kazuki, as well as many others, with a gun, both Ichika and Enomoto aim for non-lethal areas to stop Hana. In particular, Ichika manages to shoot the gun out of their hands.
  • In Sasazuka's route, when confronting a dangerous Souda who was threatening to shoot themselves and started aiming the gun towards Sasazuka, Ichika quickly takes out her gun and manages to graze their hand to get them to drop the gun.
  • In Yanagi's route, when Adonis orchestrates a hostage situation, Ichika and Yanagi team up to stop the hostage taker by shooting the gun of his hands.
• "Blind Idiot" Translation:
  • A potentially fatal, game-ending one on Yanagi's route. When discussing Zero's motivations for collaring Ichika, your choices are "he wanted to kill me" and "I was his friend and colleague." But in the original Japanese, the first choice was "he wanted me to kill him", which is what the game was building up towards. So not only does the first choice fail to translate Zero's intentions, it contradicts his actions up to that point, which can fool you into picking the second, incorrect option (and getting a Bad End).
  • Yanagi's route in general. According to this, there are more instances of mistranslations (32) on his route than the other guys combined (24).
• Both Sides Have a Point:
  • Yanagi and Okazaki share opposing views when it came to the May X-Day Incident. Okazaki points out that the victim was a serial stalker and his eventual killer was someone who was trying to protect a woman out of self-defense, thus he feels some sacrifices must be made. Yanagi however argues there is never a good reason to kill someone and that killing out of self-defense doesn't justify taking a life.
  • Ichika is understandably worried about her brother Kazuki who has been staying out late at night, especially with the situation in Shinjuku, but he isn't entirely wrong when he tells her that she never tried to understand him and expected him to inherit their family's business without considering his passion for music. On the flip side, Kazuki's Jerkass attitude and refusal to properly talk to his sister comes off as unnecessarily rude, even when Ichika tries to reach out to him.
• Brainwashed: Kageyuki Shiraishi was apparently No.14 of the many orphans taken in by Adonis and raised to obey their orders unconditionally.
• Break the Cutie: In Yanagi's route, Zero attempts to do this to Ichika so she could experience sorrow and either join him or kill him to get rid of all sorrow in the world.
  • In one Bad Ending, after Ichika sees the dead bodies of Yanagi and the others in their attempt to rescue her, in her grief, she accepts Zero's offered hand.
  • When confronting Zero/Saeki in the church, Zero deliberately targets Yanagi by shooting at him to kill him in order to invoke this in Ichika.
• By-the-Book Cop: Played straight by some side characters, but subverted by those who strive to be this but come to realize that you sometimes have to bend rules in order to get results.
• Calling Card: Adonis always leaves behind a Roman numeral counting down to X-Day and a unique coin at the scene of their crimes.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Although it's packed full of suspense and mystery, this is still an otoge with a beautiful cast to pick from.
• Central Theme: Justice, but whose justice is the right one? Malice, and how someone can righteously stand up to it.
• Change the Uncomfortable Subject: In Yanagi's route, he wants to know if Ichika remembers him from twelve years ago and asks if she remembers him. She doesn't and he quickly tries to play it off as a way of flirting with her. Ichika knows he is lying but they change the topic regardless.
• Compelling Voice: Adonis whether it's because he's making An Offer You Can't Refuse while threatening you through your collar or microchip... or because you're one of the many orphans they took in and brainwashed to obey unconditionally.
• Cooldown Hug:
  • In Sasazuka's route, Ichika starts to panic when she and Sasazuka are snooping around Kazuki's room and discovers that he may have connections with Adonis. Sasazuka calms her down by pulling her into a hug and getting her to think rationally about the situation and to not doubt Kazuki right away.
  • In Yanagi's route, with The Reveal that her old police classmate Saeki is actually Zero, Ichika refuses to believe it and becomes overwhelmed with the revelation. Yanagi embraces her from behind to calm her down.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: Some of the murders performed by Adonis were noted to be brutal and cruel, more often than not disproportionate and extreme.
  • The police officers in April/May incident were publicly executed and shot in the chest. The body of one officer was found and when investigating the crime scene, it's noted that his captor deliberately set him free to give him the false hope of an escape before torturing and shooting him dead.
  • The missing October X-Day victim was found to be stabbed to death and the blood splatter in the room indicated the murderer tortured and stabbed them repeatedly.
  • The game developer in the December 7 incident had a countdown timer strapped to his chest and the X-Day video showed him tearfully begging someone to save him before the countdown ended. Characters remarked how terrified he must have been as he saw his own life counting down before his killer murdered him just minutes before the police were able to arrive.
  • The December 8 incident where a man known to stalk women was doused with gasoline and burned alive.
• Cycle of Revenge: Practically dropped by name multiple times in the game as the main reason Ichika and Yanagi oppose Adonis' thinking. If Adonis kills a wrongdoer to avenge someone, the victim still has family and friends who will want vengeance against Adonis. A cycle of hatred then begins. The Big Bad reveals that this is intentional, since all those that are killed in the cycle are those with malice. In the end, only good, righteous people will remain.
  Yanagi: What is the end game if you kill everyone who has ever hurt someone else.
  Hatred leads to more hate. Sorrow breeds sorrow, and that just causes more of the crimes you loathe.
  Hatred can never disappear, nor will sin. You'll just be running in circles.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Literally everybody.
• Decapitated Army: In Enomoto's route, Adonis strangely becomes quiet near the end and does not complete their plans for X-Day. Because Zero/Saeki was shot incidentally by Hana and went into a coma, Adonis couldn't continue his plans.
• Deconstruction:
  • Otaku is taken apart when Sasazuka confronts Souda, a man obsessed with online gaming. Souda isn't able to do anything well in real life so he immerses himself in the online world where he is a "god". When he loses his status of "god", Souda becomes a broken, childish man who was willing to kill others uninvolved with him. Sasazuka taunts him that even after doing that, it still wouldn't satisfied him.
  • Bodyguard Crush is deconstructed through Okazaki. During his route, he decides to be Ichika's protector, seemingly due to liking her. While he does develop feelings for Ichika, she eventually realizes he has other reasons for always unnecessarily risking his life to protect her. Okazaki is actually a Death Seeker where he wants to die protecting someone useful and that is why he chose Ichika who is in the thick of danger due to her collar.
  • While some of the X-Day victims are Asshole Victims, there are many who did not deserve such horrible deaths, such as Enomoto's police colleague who was later revealed to have had genuine regret over their actions but was tortured and brutally executed in the middle of their attempts to make up for their mistakes.
• Defrosting Ice King:
  • Sasazuka is harsh, insulting and prickly but throughout his route, he starts to show his softer, vulnerable side towards Ichika.
  • Yanagi maintains a cool, calm demeanor and keeps everyone at a distance but with Ichika breaking down those walls, he starts to allow others to get close to him and be himself.
• Determinator: Several characters exhibit this, but most notably Ichika Hoshino. If not for her burning determinations, half the progress made on the case in any route would not have occurred.
• Dissonant Serenity:
  • Rika Sugawara starts talking in a soft, reminiscent tone about someone who saved her when she was in a dark place, but she continues to have the same girlish giddiness when she all but confesses she was the one to kill and burn alive the victim in December 8. Ichika is noticeably uncomfortable the longer she spoke.
  • Ichika is taken back when Zero/Saeki casually and cheerfully starts talking about killing Yanagi and Kazuki just to taunt her.
• Diving Save: In Yanagi's route, Okazaki pushes Ichika and Yanagi out of the way when trying to escape from the Adonis hideout and an explosion causes the ceiling to collapse. Though badly injured, Okazaki manages to survive.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: Zero, the mastermind behind Adonis, turned out to be the protagonist's carefree friend since several years back.
• Downer Ending: Just about all the bad endings.
• Duel to the Death: In Okazaki's route, this occurs between Okazaki and Sanjou with the terms being who could Quick Draw fast enough to kill the other person first. While Sanjou manages to injure Okazaki, Okazaki manages to hit and knock Sanjou's gun down, making him the winner since he still had his gun and could have fired a second shot if he wanted to to kill Sanjou.
• Easter Egg: When identifying the ringleader of Adonis, you can type in "OTO" for the first name and "MATE" for the last name to get a small reaction from Yanagi.
  Yanagi: Who is that? Police?
  Ichika: Someone I thought might be the ringleader...No, never mind. I was wrong.
• Elaborate Underground Base: Where Adonis was hiding.
• Empathic Environment: Oddly enough, Yanagi's route is the only one with any changes in weather, despite all the routes happening on the same timeline:
  • Gray Rain of Depression: Right after the confrontation with the Big Bad.
  • Snow Means Love: It begins snowing just moments before Yanagi returns Ichika's feelings.
• Enemy Mine: In Yanagi's route, Mikuni Rei offers himself to aid the group to stop Zero. Yanagi accepts.
• Entertainingly Wrong: In some routes, Mochida realizes that Ichika has been investigating X-Day crimes and comes to the conclusion that she wants to get promoted to Division 1 to arrest the culprits. While it's true that Ichika is investigating the crimes, it's not because of wanting a promotion but because Adonis inadvertently involved her into the investigation by placing a collar on her neck and telling her to find the truth.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: In one of Yanagi's Bad Endings, after Ichika was kidnapped by Zero/Saeki, she wakes up to find the bodies of Yanagi, Okazaki, Enomoto, and Shiraishi, all dead in their attempt to rescue her.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Adonis have no trouble committing many horrible murders and throwing Shinjuku into chaos but Rei Mikuni admits that the June X-Day incident where an entire classroom of middle-school children was killed was extreme and did not approve of it.
• Face–Heel Turn: Collar × Malice -unlimited- includes a new story mode where Ichika joins Adonis 2 years after the promised X Day from the first game where Kazuki died earlier before Ichika meets the other LI's and eventually joined Adonis after learning that Saeki is Zero and is torn between hating him for murdering her brother and killed everyone but Sasazuka, or still remembering him for their friendship.
• Fake Relationship:
  • In Sasazuka's route, he pretends to be Ichika's boyfriend as an excuse for him to come over to her house so he could get a chance to interrogate Akito.
  • In Shiraishi's route, to stop Mukai from discovering Ichika's collar when Ichika was drunk and passed out, he told her that Mukai wouldn't want to see the hickey he left on Ichika's neck, thus leading Mukai and Sakuragawa to believe that they were dating. Ichika's later hesitation to show them her neck only "proved" that she was dating Shiraishi.
• The Fellowship Has Ended: In the Golden Ending, the detective agency has ended. Yanagi decides to open a detective agency for real. Enomoto and Sasazuka rejoin the police. Shiraishi turns himself into the police for being an Adonis spy.
• Fiery Redhead: Mineo Enomoto.
• First-Name Basis: Ichika often enters this with the guy whose route she is in once she's earned sufficient trust and affection points. However, she never reaches first name basis with Shiraishi.
• Forgotten First Meeting: Between Yanagi and Ichika.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Yanagi rescues Ichika at the church, he murmurs to himself it was just like before and Ichika absently thinks to herself that he looks familiar despite not recognizing him. They had met twelve years ago when Yanagi rescued Ichika from a kidnapper at a church.
  • When meeting the detective agency for the first time and the possibility of a mole is brought up, Ichika considers Shiraishi as a suspect since he had opportunity to slip the letter to the agency. She was correct.
  • Early on in his route, Sasazuka admits that he understands the mindset of the Adonis members and their crimes committed because he too has someone he wishes to kill if he had the chance. Adonis attempts to recruit him by revealing that his mother's killer is in Japan. In his Bad Ending, Sasazuka can join them.
• From the Mouths of Babes: In Yanagi's route, the lost little girl asks if he and Ichika are a couple. When Yanagi asks if she knows what that means, she innocently replies couples kiss and they are all lovey-dovey with each other.
• Guide Dang It!: In Sasazuka's route, choosing to say that "Shooting" is your talent over "Cooking" always leads to a bad ending way later on, despite neither choice affecting your trust level with Sasazuka.
• Golden Ending:
  • Yanagi's ending has the X-Day Incidents solved with no loose ends, almost^notethe twins weren't caught its perpetrators jailed, and the other character's main struggles and insecurities addressed and solved: Okazaki managed to protect people he found worthy and dropped his Death Seeker attitude. Mineo managed to find resolution and rediscover justice. Sasazuka faces his past desire to kill for revenge and reinstates the Swords and Firearms Control Law. Shiraishi discovers his emotions and fights his brainwashing. Even Kazuki ends up talking to his parents about his musician dream.
  • Unlimited also makes Shiraishi's ending one. It's the only other ending where Saeki has been killed, putting an end to the X-Day Incidents once and for all. Shiraishi floods the police with information about Adonis, leading to a mass busting and arresting of those in the organization. While not all the cast's issues have been explicitly resolved, it conversely touches on Adonis's brainwashing program and resolves what happened to the orphans in it: the children are rehabilitated, the brainwashed adults were granted freedom by Rei, and Shiraishi himself is gradually working off his sentence.
• Gratuitous Latin: At the beginning of Yanagi's route, the latin phrase "Fortuna vitrea est; tum cum splendet, frangitur." appears. It means "Fortune is made of glass; at the moment when she glitters, she breaks."
• Hello, [Insert Name Here]: The protagonist's first name can be changed from Ichika, though her last name is fixed to be Hoshino.
• History Repeats: In Yanagi's route. At least to Yanagi himself, that the event of how he found Ichika after she was collared is reminiscent of their Forgotten First Meeting 12 years ago.
  Yanagi: This is... just like that other time.
• Humans Are Bastards: Hence the Cycle of Revenge Adonis is thriving off of.
• Indirect Kiss:
  • In Shiraishi's route, this happens twice. The first time, Ichika accidentally grabs his drink and downs it and the second time, when Shiraishi steals her omelette after she already started eating. Ichika freaks out over the implications and Shiraishi teases her about this.
  • In Yanagi's route, after the other girls leave her and Yanagi alone at the bar together, Yanagi tries to get Ichika to stop drinking and proceeds to take her drink and downs it. Ichika becomes very flustered.
• It's Personal: For some love interests, they have grievances directly or indirectly relating towards Adonis.
  • For Enomoto, his police colleague whom he looked up to was killed in an X-Day incident.
  • Sasazuka wants to reinstate the Swords and Firearms Control Law that was stopped due to Adonis's actions He despises guns after his mother was killed by one.
  • Okazaki was present during the attempted assassination of the Prime Minister by Adonis two years ago and his colleague who saved his life at the cost of his own was revealed to be an Adonis spy.
• I Can't Believe a Guy Like You Would Notice Me: Gender-flipped as some love interests are surprised when Ichika reveals to them that she likes them.
  • Shiraishi is stunned that Ichika wants to be with him and even feels that someone like Yanagi would be a better suited for her.
  • Yanagi is aware of their age gap (he is almost eight years older than her) and thinks she would find him boring compared to someone who is closer to her age.
• I Will Find You: In Yanagi's Tragic Bad Ending, after shooting and killing Zero/Saeki in her anger to protect Yanagi, Ichika disappeared shortly afterwards. Yanagi swears to find the former one day.
• I Work Alone: In the common route bad end, Ichika realizes that nobody in Yanagi's group trusts her and decides that she cannot trust them with her life in turn, and thus works on her own. Unfortunately, she fails. This is the fastest ending for the player to realize that Ichika cannot get to the bottom of the X-Day Incidents alone.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia:
  • Adonis implants a chip in every single one of its executors. If the executor is taken into police custody, their memory of anything that has to do with Adonis and their revenge is wiped. The rest of their memories remain.
  • In Shiraishi's good end, the protagonist loses all her memories after taking down Adonis. She recovers from it, the trigger to restoring those memories being Shiraishi saying that he's happy to see Ichika stay the way she is.
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone:
  • In Enomoto's route, Yanagi and Sasazuka seem to make excuses to leave the agency so Enomoto and Ichika can spend time alone.
  • In Yanagi's route, Ichika gets invited out to the bar with Sakuragawa and Mukai on Christmas Eve and once the other two women realize that Ichika has feelings for someone, they egg her to bring him over and once Yanagi arrives, the two quickly leave the bar, leaving her and Yanagi alone.
• Love Makes You Evil:
  • Hana is revealed to be madly in love with Isshiki and that is the reason why the former helped Adonis as Isshiki was mistakenly arrested and he lost his chance to debut, leading to Hana to get revenge and brutally murder on the one who did that to Isshiki.
  • Akito is revealed to be involved with Adonis as they were furious that those involved in his little sister's bullying and subsequent suicide got off scot-free.
• Love Redeems: Played straight in all of Ichika's routes, where her love leads each of them to undergo heavy Character Development that deals with their main struggle. Meaningfully averted in Yanagi's route, where the power of friendship and trust takes precedence.
• Meaningful Echo: "It's fait accompli." in Yanagi's route.
• Meaningful Name: Zero whose goal is to reduce the world to nothing due to there being no true good malice-free humans in the world.
• More Hero than Thou: In one of Yanagi's Bad Ending, when confronting Zero/Saeki, they deliberately start firing at Yanagi who gets badly injured. Ichika places herself in front of Yanagi to shield him while Yanagi also moves in front of her to protect her from being shot.
• Multiple Endings: There's a good ending for each of the five characters and several unique bad ends. There are 2 bad ends in the common route, 7 in Yanagi's route, 5 in Okazaki's route, 6 in Enomoto's route, 6 in Sasazuka's route, and 5 in Shiraishi's route.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Despite being the younger sibling, Kazuki is wary of any of the love interests that he inevitably meets. Especially in Sasazuka's route, Kazuki is noticeably displeased and hostile when Sasazuka is introduced as Ichika's "boyfriend". Just to annoy him, Sasazuka asks if he has a sister complex. The 4-koma's commemorating the Collar X Malice unlimited fandisk countdown, where Kazuki rates Ichika's love interests has Sasazuka being marked a 0 by Kazuki, with Okazaki having the second lowest score followed by Yanagi, Shiraishi and Enomoto.
• Non-Standard Game Over: All the bad endings.
• Not in This for Your Revolution:
  • Sasazuka flat out says he doesn't care about catching the X-Day criminals. He just wants to appeal the Swords and Firearms Control Law.
  • Shiraishi isn't particularly interested in X-Day, only investigating certain X-Day incidents because it catches his interest. He is actually an agent of Adonis so he wouldn't actively help solve the cases, though he isn't directly involved with X-Day.
• Not What It Looks Like: In Enomoto's route, a drunk Enomoto drags Ichika into bed with him and hugs her very tightly before falling asleep. As Ichika is trying to loosen his grip, Okazaki appears in the window and cheerfully notes he is interrupting something.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • Sasazuka panics and has a breakdown when he hears a gunshot and mistakenly believes that Ichika was shot, a situation that is all too similar to what happened to his mother.
  • When Ichika was kidnapped by Zero/Saeki, Yanagi loses his patience and starts angrily yelling when Shiraishi initially refuses to tell him where the Adonis hideout is.
    • Yanagi also loses his composure after Okazaki almost dies protecting him and Ichika and was very cheerful about almost dying, leading him to punch Okazaki and angrily call him out for doing something so dangerous so nonchalantly.
  • There are situations when the normally kind and loving Ichika loses her temper, mostly when either her brother is in danger or if one of the love interests are threatened. Some routes has her shooting and killing the person threatening said love interest.
• Omega Ending: Aiji Yanagi's route is only available after finishing all the other routes. His route is also a Golden Ending.
• Police Are Useless: The sentiment that led to the April Incident. Combine with The Bad Guys Are Cops.
• Power of Trust: In some routes, it all comes down to blindly placing your trust in someone that hasn't quite earned it, including the protagonist. Otherwise, no progress would be made. This is particularly prevalent in Yanagi's route.
• Private Detective: This is the front of the main group who is actually investigating X-Day incidents. No one buys it for a moment and the police have been keeping tabs on them as they are composed of ex-cops. In the Golden Ending, Yanagi decides not to rejoin the police and become a private detective for real.
• The Profiler: Shiraishi, in title and actuality. Also Yanagi, but only in ability.
• Properly Paranoid: Many of the characters Ichika encounters are rightfully paranoid when meeting her or when first discovering the collar. Logically, Adonis must have taken an interest in her for a reason.
• Public Execution: The April X-Day Incident featured a video of four policemen being executed while wearing animal masks.
• Race Against the Clock: With the clock counting down to X-Day.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Mineo Enomoto is the Red to Takeru Sasazuka's Blue.
• Relationship Values: The game tracks the trust and, when that's full, the affection values of the guy whose route you're on. Having one that's too low can lead to bad endings.
• The Reveal: Done quite dramatically when the Big Bad was revealed to be Saeki through an interface for entering text.
• Sexy Discretion Shot: In Sasazuka's route, as they shared a kiss and the background only shows the night sky, Ichika mentally apologizes to Kazuki that she will not be able to make his curfew and her narration later states that they expressed their love to each other until the morning sun rose.
• Shipper on Deck:
  • In Okazaki's route, Yoshinari is delighted to see Okazaki and Ichika getting closer and even tries to give Okazaki advice when the two of them hit a rough spot in their relationship.
  • Yanagi appears pleased to see Enomoto and Ichika working together, even conveniently leaving the agency office for them to be alone in Enomoto's route.
  • Sakuragawa catches on that Sasazuka and Ichika are spending lots of time together and eagerly roots for them together.
  • Out of the love interests, Kazuki seems to like and get along with Enomoto the best and even arranges a concert for couples only so Ichika and Enomoto can spend some time together and enjoy themselves. The 4-koma's commemorating the countdown for the unlimited fandisk also supports this and has Kazuki giving Enomoto the highest score among Ichika's love interests.
  • Enomoto and Sasazuka spy on Yanagi and Ichika when Yanagi makes a meal for Ichika. Enomoto quickly asks for details once they made it clear they were dating, as does Sasazuka. Enomoto later also encourages them to start going by First-Name Basis. When having a girls night with Mukai and Sakuragawa, Ichika gets roped into texting Yanagi and when he comes to the bar, Mukai and Sakuragawa quickly leave, giving Ichika lots of encouragement to work out their relationship.
• Shout-Out: In the prologue of Unlimited, when Tachabana is hitting on Ichika, Mineo yells out "Stop right there, criminal scum!"
• She Is Not My Girlfriend:
  • When Enomoto meets Saeki and Ichika reveals that she has been to Saeki's house plenty of times, Enomoto thinks the two of them are dating. Then it's switched around when the drunk Saeki notices Enomoto and Ichika arguing and thinks they are the ones dating.
  • Downplayed when Yanagi meets Saeki for the first time, Ichika has the option of telling Yanagi that she and Saeki are Just Friends to clarify that they aren't dating. Yanagi is amused and reminds her that he is not Enomoto who tends to jump to conclusions.
  • Yoshinari mistakes Ichika and Okazaki for dating early in Okazaki's route since they are spending lots of time together despite both their insistence they were not dating.
  • In Yanagi's route, when helping a lost little girl, she thinks Ichika and Yanagi are a couple. Yanagi tries to clarify and say instead that the little girl and Ichika are like his little sisters. Ichika inwardly admits that for some reason, it bothered her to hear him think of her as a sister.
• Slave Collar: Essentially what Adonis put on the protagonist. Although she still has free will and can investigate as she pleases, she does so knowing that she can be killed the moment she does something Adonis disagrees with.
• Stalker without a Crush:
  • Zero had an interest in Ichika and knew her work schedule, as well as her ideas of justice, so they could collar her and monitor her constantly as she solves the X-Day crimes. It makes sense as Zero is actually her old police academy classmate Saeki.
  • Depending on the route, Adonis also investigates and finds out a lot about Sasazuka and Yanagi's past and background so they could potentially recruit them.
• Steel Ear Drums: There are a few instances where no one is harmed by the sound of gunshots.
  • Ichika and Okazaki should have been much more affected by the explosions and gunshots set by Sanjou at close range when they were chasing the latter.
  • Sasazuka did not flinch in pain when Ichika fires her gun over his shoulder in one scene.
  • When Hana starts firing at Kazuki while on stage and again when Enomoto and Ichika bring out their guns, no one is noted to be covering their ears.
• "Strangers on a Train"-Plot Murder: This is how Adonis committed most of their X-Day crimes. They had their lower-ranked members commit each other's murders so the police would not be able to make any connections to the real suspect who would have an airtight alibi.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
  • When the rest of the detective agency distrusts Ichika and believes she is a "sympathizer" to Adonis due to the letter they received claiming that she is one of them, Yanagi points out they have no reason to trust what Adonis says and instead gives Ichika a chance to explain.
  • In the common Bad Ending, Ichika, deciding not to trust the detective agency, chooses to work alone to solve the X-Day crimes. She is a rookie cop with little investigative experience or connections and naturally, she isn't able to solve anything and X-Day still occurs.
  • Sasazuka deliberately needles and taunts Souda, believing that Souda is inexperienced with guns and wouldn't be able to aim properly. In one of the Bad Endings, this belief would get Ichika killed when she pushes Sasazuka out of the way when the deranged Souda does shoot at him.
  • Mochida and Minegishi quickly catch on that Ichika is seeing Yanagi's group and that she is involved with the X-Day crimes to some extent. After all, the police via Okazaki and Yoshinari are monitoring the detective agency closely.
• Switching P.O.V.: One of the mechanics of the visual novel. It passes the point of view among the protagonist, the guy whose route she is on, the police, and Adonis to give a full view of the mystery.
• Taking the Bullet: So many times in the bad and good routes of this police drama-esque game that this is better organized by characters.
• That Came Out Wrong: In Sasazuka's route, when wanting to have input from him on how to play games, Ichika innocently texted him asking if he was free tonight and that she wanted to see him. A flustered Sasazuka then calls her and finds out what she actually meant, leading to both of them becoming embarrassed.
• Through His Stomach:
  • Okazaki enjoyed Ichika's baking, doubly so since he doesn't know how to cook, let alone prepare some tea.
  • Enomoto was in pure bliss when having breakfast at Ichika's house early in his route. He even murmured to himself that he is acting like they were married by praising her food and asking for seconds.
  • Sasazuka is a variation where he offers foods to people he likes. It's most noticeable in his route where he gives doughnuts, chocolates, drinks and appetizers to Ichika whether to praise her for doing a good job or as a means to comfort her.
  • Yanagi is noted by many people to be an excellent cook. Almost everyone who samples his food praises it and Ichika herself can't help but gush over the meal he made for her.
• The Many Deaths of You: Several bad endings involve the death of the heroine.
• Too Dumb to Live: The game explicitly tells you that walking around at night, alone, is very dangerous nowadays. You can choose to do so anyway, even going through an alley! This naturally leads to bad endings.
• Unwitting Pawn: Most of Adonis' executors fall under this, since Zero seems willing to dispose of them whenever necessary.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Sasazuka's route has this happen to two main suspects.
  • Despite getting revenge on those who bullied him online as well as one of the game's developers who encouraged it, Souda still remains a Manchild with a toxic lifestyle.
  • Sasazuka asks Akito after carrying out his substitute murder if it was worth it. Akito honestly responded that they did not know and while they had some satisfaction in the moment that his little sister's bullies were dead, after Adonis wiped his memory, Akito wouldn't be able to remember what happened, thus rendering their revenge meaningless.
• Villain Has a Point: In Yanagi's route, to prove their point about revenge and how even someone like Ichika would shoot and kill someone to protect her loved ones, Zero/Saeki casually asks Ichika what she would do if he killed Yanagi and her little brother and taunts her that she could kill him right now. His point is proven when Ichika understandably becomes furious and nearly loses her composure.
• Villain of Another Story: Adonis suspects sometimes appear on other routes and may only be mentioned by name or in the narration without every showing up. For example, Hana is one of the main antagonists in Enomoto's route but only shows up in a few brief scenes in Sasazuka's route. Similarly, Sanjou clashes the most with Okazaki but is barely mentioned or even shows up in other routes.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: The normally kind Ichika can be fiercely protective over the love interest.
  • In Okazaki's route, she would push him aside to protect him from being shot by Mikuni.
  • In Sasazuka's route, when a dangerous Souda turned a gun on Sasazuka, she immediately fires her gun at them to protect Sasazuka.
  • In one of the Bad Endings for Enomoto, when Ogata attacks and injures Enomoto, Ichika shoots and kills Ogata.
  • When Zero/Saeki starts hurting Shiraishi via his mind-controlling device, Ichika had no hesitation in shooting the leader of Adonis dead.
  • When confronting Zero/Saeki, the former threatens to kill Ichika's loved ones, starting with Yanagi. One of the options is for Ichika to take out her gun and aim it at them.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Adonis wants to enact justice and erase sorrow, but takes it to the extreme.
  • The co-leader of Adonis wanted to enact justice in place of those that the justice system has failed, but Ichika considers it a step too far to murder.
  • The main leader wanted to eliminate all sorrows in humanity, which sounds great in theory until you realize he plans to do so by essentially eliminating all humans.
• Where It All Began: The church where Ichika was collared and rescued is also where Saeki meets her at the very end.
• Would Hurt a Child:
  • The June X-Day incident involved an entire classroom of middle-school children being bombed, killing all of them.
  • What led to the September/October X-Day event was an incident that occurred ten years ago where Shion and Suzune's mother attempted to kill their own children due to a mental breakdown.
  • Yanagi's flashback shows a man who was willing to kidnap and sell a child for ransom and had no hesitation in brutally beating up said captive child, as well as a teenager who tried to help.
• Yandere:
  • Hana is this even on routes where she is not one of the antagonists. Twice she can kill Ichika just for getting too close to Isshiki. In Enomoto's route, Hana gleefully admits to torturing and killing the police officer who had wrongfully accused Isshiki.
  • In one of Shiraishi's Bad Ending, after Ichika loses her memory, he can claim that he is her lover instead of a doctor in his Good Ending and presumably she would live the rest of her life underground with him.
  • Surprisingly, Ichika can become this in one of Yanagi's Bad Ending when X-Day occurs and multiple deaths occur daily. She locks herself and Kazuki in their apartment due to fear and paranoia. When Yanagi visits, she is so terrified of what is happening outside that she takes out her gun and threatens him with bodily harm if he were to leave.
• You Lose at Zero Trust: Making the wrong choices and neglecting to gain the trust or affection of the person whose route you are on will always lead to a bad end.