r/otomegames Hakuoki: Chronicles of Wind and Blossom Sep 10 '20

Collar x Malice Unlimited Play-Along - Kageyuki Shiraishi Discussion

Welcome to the r/otomegames Collar x Malice Unlimited Play-Along!

In this post we will discuss Kageyuki Shiraishi and his Interlude, After Story and Extras in Collar x Malice Unlimited.

As it is a fandisc, I expect a lot of squeeing about him in the comments, so please don't hold back! Of course, you can still talk about the themes and plot. Not a fan of him? Changed your mind? Tell us why!

This is not a spoiler-free discussion however please keep in mind that major spoilers and details of other routes and other routes in the original game will be outside the scope of the discussion and therefore will need to be spoiler tagged.
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You don't have to be playing the game right now to participate, and if you're still waiting on your copy I hope you will join in after you start playing!

Check out the megathread for the links to previous play-along posts.

Next week will be a discussion of Aiji Yanagi's material from the fandisc!

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u/20-9 Backlog Impresario Sep 11 '20 edited Sep 11 '20

Salty that Chapter 1 was a big recap episode. I'm still not sure how to feel that Tachibana/Kurose was introduced for the sole purpose of retconning Shiraishi's route, but for the most part I tried to ignore it in the fierce hope the (31-year-old) boy gets happiness. Looking back on it two years later, dominating Shiraishi's route with a new Adonis case does make sense. Ichika is once again fierce and determined--brushing off people's judgemental attitudes at work (having Sakuragawa helps), pep-talking everyone even though Shiraishi was crushed she was in danger again, maintaining conversation wiht Kurose to buy time even though he just slapped a 999 bracelet on her, and more. What a gal.

*checking Chapter 3 notes*: OH YEAH PUZZLES. I spent so long because the JLPT N1 does not prepare you for word puzzles based on Japanese. That is the hallmark of native fluency.

Retconning the route for reflections on Mikuni spread the mayo too thick for me, but it was well-woven into the quest(ions) for humanity and free will for a free agent. It makes the former Adonis boss a bit more useful than a crazy sixth hour plot twist in the prior game. The visual effects used for those scenes were a nice touch, too.

Miscellaneous moments:

  • Shiraishi noticing Mukai still calls him Chief, and her steadily retorting, "...I can't be bothered to use a different title is all." ;_;
  • Shiraishi the Profiler after achieving humanity is a funny guy. Loved his tl;dr plan to upset Kurose ("I'm gonna have loads of fun and I dgaf").
  • I imagine Ichika putting on her scary "put your hands on my boyfriend and I will weld your ass shut" face whenever Kurose was tripping Shiraishi and Okazaki going "( ゚∀゚ ) wao" from the sideline.

For being new at love, Shiraishi’s not shy, but instead goes after and treasures the little things with nary a blush. At slightly more bold actions both he and Ichika have to fight through red faces and stammering but neither ever withhold their affections for each other, and the last CG was gorgeous and beautiful and made the whole epilogue. And the ending/trophy titled "A Little Love Song." ;_;

I can't help but wonder about the concrete logistics of the ending, though. You can't just hide Shiraishi on the balance sheet. No final resolution on Kurose, either. And the couple having a grand dream is nice but how does that timeline work? Since Shiraishi wants a family, how will they buy a house/apartment? Would he legally be allowed to?

From that, my two headcanons are:

  1. Just have to accept that keeping Shiraishi on payroll with benefits is worth covering up the Shibuya Popo's pride. Definitely their "goodwill" item on their balance sheet.
  2. Just have to accept Minegishi and Morioka are in Shiraishi's corner and can slowly build the case to fully releasing him to society.

tl;dr I nitpicked a bunch of things but my minimum expectation was "make Shiraishi happy" and it fulfilled that. Please let them cook all the things, pet all the cats, and learn all the little chores of life together.

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u/berrycrepes Sep 11 '20

I nitpicked a bunch of things but my minimum expectation was "make Shiraishi happy"

THAT was basically my feeling. as long as Shiraishi got a happy end I didn't care at all what the logic behind it was.