Collar x Malice – Mineo Enomoto

Mineo (CV: Soma Saitou) is the bumbling tsun who loves pudding and Japanese history. He was part of the Investigation Division team but left due to personal reasons. He’s pretty much the laugh of the group and Takeru loves calling him an idiot.

This is if Ichika chooses to investigate the April and May incident. She explains its because it’s the beginning of the X-Day incidents and the answer to this case should lead to why they’re doing it. So Mineo accepts her as his partner after much pleading. They’re left alone in the detective office for a bit and Mineo gets so anxious he starts babbling on and gets tea for them to talk. He ends up burning his tongue like an idiot though cause he was admiring how Ichika looked cute blowing her tea lmao.

Unfortunately, Mineo doesn’t fully trust Ichika yet but doesn’t believe her to be a bad person. He continues to avoid her though despite being partners and Ichika hears from Sakuragawa that Mineo is honestly just awkward around girls, especially being alone with them. After work that day, she spots Mineo while on her way to the their detective office. He immediately runs away though so she runs after him. She ends up tripping and scraping her knee. So Mineo, feeling bad, comes back and offers to carry her on his back since his fault that she tripped.

So he apologizes for running away and ignoring her texts. They then go on about Japanese history because apparently Mineo is a hardcore fan of it. Hence why he wears the eyepatch, because of his undying respect for Date Masamune lmao. Ichika starts laughing and Mineo just takes it like a man cause he’s used to everyone laughing at this point (aw poor guy). After that he treats her cut back at the office and Ichika tells Takeru about tbe current situation. After that, Mineo wants to treat Ichika to a feast but Kei appears to wreck his wallet even more lmao.

So one day, Ichika goes to meet Satake Kenzou (Mineo’s former boss), who’s head of the investigation team department, to talk about the May and April incidents as well as Mineo’s involvement. Apparently one of the police members that were killed was a close friend to Mineo, his name was Fuji Yuta. They were basically like brothers, but suddenly in April there were several kidnappings and Fuji was one of them. In the end, the investigation didn’t get far since the police speculated the video shown could be a prank since this was before Adonis introduced themselves to the world. And by the time the video in May was shown, it was already to late and Mineo was in complete despair over it and over time, he stopped trusting humanity. So he left the police since he was scared, but ended up joining Aiji in investigating afterwords. Satake tells Ichika to look after Mineo for him since he believes she’s the type who can keep him on his path.

Afterwords, Ichika comes back to the office and ends up telling Mineo she heard about what happened from Satake. He tells her in that case, she’s better off being partners with someone less pathetic and leaves. She decides to go after him and calls Aiji to ask where he may have gone since he won’t answer his phone. She manages to find him at the park and he tells her to go home and leave him be. But nope, she grabs his arm and tells him she’s not gonna have him turn away from her. He tells her that it’s none of her business but she says it is because they’re partners. He tells her that he doesn’t want to be partners with someone who could be connected with Adonis, but Ichika knows he’s lying and it’s not that he doesn’t believe her, he just doesn’t want to get betrayed in the end. She’s not going to give up on the case or on him. He smiles and says she reminds him of his past self and that she really is an idiot. He thanks her for coming after him though.

Later that night she encounters her brother, Kazuki with his other band member, Isshiki. He goes on about how he wants to get into music but their parents were all for making him the man of the house and what not. After her brother goes to bed, she gets a call from Satake saying that Mineo is “in trouble” he tells her to go the tavern and there she finds a hammered Mineo who’s drunk out of his mind. So she calls a taxi and somehow manages to get him back to the detective office (though he somehow slams his face into a wall LMAO). So she manages to lay him in bed where he be tries to strip cause he says he’s hot lol. So he finally falls asleep and uses Ichika as his pillow 😏. He mutters in his drunk sleep how cute she is and then ends up blacking out completely while still on top of Ichika. Suddenly, Kei appears through the window and when he sees the scene in front of him and apologizes for interrupting. Thankfully he helps Ichika get out from Mineo’s grasp lol.

The next morning Mineo comes over to Ichika’s place to apologize for having to deal with his drunk self and him using her as a pillow lmao. He didn’t eat breakfast before he left though and his stomach growls before he can leave. So, Ichika insists he stays for breakfast. Mineo is so nervous being at a girl’s place for the first time, he starts reciting pi numbers to calm himself down ((awww what a cutie)). She says he’s cute ((exactly what I’m thinking)) and he gets all blushy saying “you can’t call a man cute! I mean you on the other hand–wait no, nevermind!!” 😁

Afterwords they start talking about why they became police officers and Ichika says it was to help people in need but apparently for Mineo, he watched Detective dramas lmao. Mineo mentions her brother, and she tells him that its just her and her rebellious brother, Kazuki, living together. Mineo says he actually has a younger sister who’s 12 and incredibly adorable. This is surprises Ichika since she didn’t expect Mineo to be an onii-chan lol. So finally she prepares a feast of a breakfast for her and Mineo and he stuffs his face saying her food is super delicious. He ends up getting rice stuck on his cheek and when Ichika removes it for him, he gets super tsun and says he could’ve done that himself ((plus he read in a book its one out of 100 things couples do LOL oh god)).

Afterwords, they leave outside and Mineo finally recognizes Ichika as his partner. Although the way he asked looked like be was professing his love to her so they had to run away since they were making quite the scene lol. Later that day, Ichika visits Satake who has a file with the evidence for the April/May X-Day incident to share with Ichika. So she investigates an enlarged image of the crime scene. Apparently the blood on the wall used to write the roman numeral was Fuji’s blood, but out of the four victims, only his blood was used which means the culprit must of had a sort of grudge against him.

Mineo decides he’s going to stop running away and finally face this case so he can solve it together with Ichika. Meanwhile, Ichika takes the evidence and decides to meet up with Mineo to learn more about Fuji. Unfortunately, while waiting at the park to meet up with him, gun shots resound and Ichika calls her boss to tell him the situation. He tells her he heard of the situation and is dispatching police to that location. Ichika decides to check out the situation and finds a high schooler and a man threatening him with a gun. Just as it looks like he’s about to shoot, Ichika takes out her gun and aims it at him. She tells him she’s a police officer and to lower the gun. But as expected, the guy uses the high schooler as a hostage. So she has no choice but to drop her gun and tell him to release the hostage. But he of course doesn’t listen and tells her to remove her clothes ((ugh ew I fucking hate guys like this ughhhhhh)) She slowly does as she’s told but Mineo appears and kicks their asses to the high heavens. Soon, her boss appears and Mineo explains the situation and how Ichika was really brave. She starts crying and he gets all flustered and says he’ll find his handkerchief in his coat pocket for her lmao. The kid who was a hostage then thanks the both of them for helping and his faith in the police is stronger than before.

So after all that, Ichika shares Mineo what she discovered with Satake. She believes that the culprit of the May/April incident had the intent of killing Fuji in the first place. So they know the culprit had a grudge against Fuji probably due to the mistaken arrest he made. Apparently the reason he made the wrong arrest was because he lied during the testimony so he could be promoted and surpass Mine. He couldn’t believe it when he heard it but either way, he indirectly blamed himself for his death since Fuji wouldn’t have done that if he didn’t want to surpass him. Nevertheless, Mineo could hardly call what they did, justice. It was mere slaughter, and he wants to make sure the one responsible pays for what they did.

The next day Kazuki brings a girl named Hana over. Ichika mistook her for his girlfriend, but apparently she’s just a big fan of his band. She talks about his live performance coming up and since Ichika wants a ticket to see it, she says she’ll meet up with her at the station to give it to her. Later that same day Ichika gets a call from Mineo inviting her out for lunch. They end up going to that tavern and Ichika says there’s a special pudding on the menu and Mineo goes on about how he loves pudding evem though he’s too embarrassed to admit it. Ichika then mentions she’s going to see Kazuki’s live performance today and that Isshiki, one of the guys Fuji mistakenly arrested, is also in his band. This makes Mineo anxious since he could have a motive to kill Fuji, but Ichika wants to believe he can make his brother’s dream come true. But also he wants her to trust him more since she didn’t tell him about it at first.

So Ichika meets up with Hana and gets tickets for the live performance. She texts Mineo to meet there around 6. She also invites Saeki and Sakuragawa as well since Hana gave her 4 tickets. That night they go to the live performance and Kazuki finds them there. He’s all “wtf you guys doing here” but he was actually secretly checking to see if Ichika would come. Anyway, when they get inside Hana spots Ichika and Mineo talking about Isshiki and Mineo pretends he’s a huge fan so she’ll let then meet him. So she takes them to Isshiki’s dressing room and start talking there. He’s reluctant to talk at first, but Mineo starts by apologizing for what Yuji did because he believes it was his fault. Isshiki tells him that Yuji actually wrote a letter of apology to him even though he initially threw it out at first. Nevertheless, he can tell Mineo’s feelings are genuine and that Yuji probably wouldn’t have wanted Mineo to blame himself for his death. So even though Isshiki was mad about what happened, he moved on and is where he is now. So before they leave, Hana says she heard they were actually police and Ichika says its true. She doesn’t say anything but then leads them to the live performance.

When it begins, Isshiki and Kazuki are performing live on stage. But suddenly the lights cut off in the middle of the performance and when they turn back on, Hana is on stage with a gun to Kazuki. She says today was supposed to be different but apparently they have guests that must be judged. Everyone starts running away and Saeki and Sakuragawa make sure everyone escapes safetly. Isshiki tells her to release Kazuki but Hana tells him this is for his sake. And she was the one who killed Yuji as revenge for what he did to Isshiki. She starts laughing about it and how it was fun seeing him struggle before his death. This pisses Mineo off and he takes out his gun and aims it at Hana. She starts provoking him, but Ichika tells him not to lose sight of himself. He’s saved many people, and killing Hana isn’t the “justice” Yujj taught him, nor will it bring him back. So Mineo finally realizes this and lowers his gun.

Instead, they make the plan to shoot when she lowers her defenses. So while she’s talking to Isshiki, there’s finally an opening and Ichika shoots her in the hand. She drops the gun and Saeki is able to get Kazuki out of her grasp. Unfortunately, she grabs her gun and manages to shoot Saeki. Thankfully Mineo is able to shoot her again in the shoulder and aims his gun at her. She tells him to shoot her but he says she’ll be rightfully judged by the law. So finally an ambulance and the police arrive. Kazuki tells Ichika he’s glad she’s okay and that she looked pretty cool with a gun. Saeki is still in a critical condition and Kazuki hopes he’ll be okay. He then says their performance is postponed because of thid incident but hopes Ichika will come see his next performance while calling her “Nee-chan” 😄.

So apparently after that, Hana was taken to the hospital but when questioned about the incident, all of her memories were gone. Although Ichika and everyone else witnessed her own confession, there’s no way to say for sure how it happened, but it was probably done somehow by Adonis in order to keep her from revealing any secrets. So Ichika meets up with Mineo to tell him this, but he already knew from Shiraishi and is surprisingly calm. Although, Mineo is thankful that thanks to Ichika, he didn’t lose sight of himself and they were able to still figure out the case together because she gave him the courage to do so. He pats her on the head and because Ichika isn’t used to him being so honest, she tells him she wanted to give him a hug cause she was so happy. Which makes him all tsuntsun lmao.

So days later Mineo celebrates solving the case. But that doesn’t mean they’re done though, cause there’s still the X-Day incidents and Ichika’s collar. Mineo plans to also investigate and talk to one of the former suspects that was mistakenly arrested by Yuji named Ogata. Apparently how the situation when down was, there was a drunk guy harassing Isshiki 2 years ago, and Ogata tried to help him out. In the end, the drunk guy got pissed and said he’d jump in front of the train. Isshiki and Ogata tried to stop him and pull him back, but he fall and got hit by the train. Its then Fuji spotted them and arrested them for pushing the man in front of the train. That’s how Isshiki’s major debut dream got crushed, and Ogata lost his job and family. In the end, they figured out the arrest was a mistake due to a blog post of the guy found saying he was gonna commit suicide that same day. Ogata was also a suspect in the stalker incident that was supposedly self-defence. And so, he’s still in jail for thay incident while its still being investigated.

So the next day Mineo and Ichika talk with Ogata about the July incident during visiting hours in jail. They don’t believe it was a coincidence that he helped Rika Sugawara. He wanted revenge on the police for his mistaken arrest so he made it look like he was defending a woman in justice but given jail time as a result, making it look unjust. He then leaves saying that he’ll reveal the truth on December 16th at 6:00 at the location of the May incident. After that, Mineo tells Ichika he doesn’t want her to come with him because it’s too dangerous. She objects obviously, but then he decides to confess his love for her and that he wants to protect her. After that he runs off leaving Ichika dumbfounded and unable to say anything, let alone an answer.

The next day, Ogata’s trial deems him innocent. And at 6:00 PM that night, Mineo goes to the abandoned house where Fuji was killed and meets Ogata there. Apparently they’re being broadcast live amongst viewers but Mineo doesn’t realize it. The audio is cut off though so they can’t hear what is being said. So Ichika runs in and tells Mineo to stop since his goal is to provoke Mineo to hurt him. He starts provoking him about Fuji’s death, then Mineo just loses it and punches him. He laughs saying that he served his own justice and walks away. Mineo is then told by everyone that he was being broadcasted according to Ogata’s plan to make him and the police look bad and as if he’s attacking a victim.

After this, Mineo obviously feels like shit and stops eating for a bit. Ichika decides to get him out of his slump and visits the office to see him. She then confesses that she’s in love with him as well and he flips his lid and starts thinking he’s dreaming lol. They don’t really know what to do next so they watch TV and see Otaga on screen. He goes on about how unjust the police are and sometimes they can only do justice for themselves. Mineo realizes he wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine by being ridiculed and falsely blamed like he was.

Next day Mineo and Ichika visit Saeki, who’s still in a coma, at the hospital. Ichika decides that she wants to figure out the matter of her collar so she asks Takeru for help in analyzing it and maybe figuring out the location of the missing policemen’s bodies. He agrees and says it’s possible, but it’ll take time and help. So she tells the head chief the situation (yet she isn’t killed by the poison in the collar). So while Ogata goes on about his “take matters of justice upon evil your own hands” shit on television, people start treating him as a deity and a few occurrences start happening that are irrelevant to Adonis. Meanwhile, Takeru and the head chief work on removing Ichika’s collar.

Ichika and Mineo go to Kazuki’s next live performance and since it’s limited free entry to couples, they have to kiss to show proof. So since Mineo just can’t figure out what the hell to do, Ichika takes action for herself and kisses him on the cheek. Thanks to that, they’re able to get in and watch Kazuki and Isshiki’s performance. So Takeru is finally able to crack the code on Ichika’s collar and remove it. So Mineo conducts a plan to trick Ogata on his interview set so he’ll realize he’s others in his same situation. Ogata then finally admits he actually did kill that stalker and tries to “judge” himself by killing himself. But Mineo immediately stops him and grabs the knife by the blade and cuts his hand. Ogata is then arrested and Ichika treats Mineo’s cut while crying about how worried she was.

In the epilogue, Adonis stopped their plans for their X-Day incidents and Mineo returned to the Investigation Division team. Saeki also is recovering and thankfully didn’t die lol. So Mineo and Ichika go to the church where they first met and kiss while promising to get married someday lol.

In the tragic love end, Ichika kills Ogata because he tried to kill Mineo. Thanks to that, Ichika quit the police and decided she’d move away back to her parents. Just as she’s departing on the train, Mineo appears behind the glass and tells her not to give up on herself since she didn’t give up on him. He knows she was just trying to protect him when she killed Ogata. But she doesn’t believe she’s worthy of being an officer anymore and the trains leaves as he yells out to her to not go.

Thoughts: Uwaaah, Mineo really was a cutie!! I personally thought he’d be my favorite though, but Takeru ended up winning that (moedonuts is just too cute). Not to say I didn’t like Mineo, he was a a good character and as tsun as they get. But, I think his route could’ve been written better. I liked the first half since it more involved his reasons for leaving the police, but then the rest of the route felt a bit dragged, not enough action to be had, and Takeru kinda ended up solving everything while Mineo and Ichika just kinda waited around. I dunno, I kinda expected something more… dramatic, but then it ended up being kinda anti-climatic. I think I understand when people said his route was a bit separate from the rest of the routes. The first half gave me the impression it’d be more about the X-Day case, but the later half was more about one of the “victims” who wanted to start a revolt or some shit idk. He had some really cute moments though, but I do wish there were more! I was kinda expecting more romance but it was all kinda shoved in the end. I guess it makes it open for a FD. Oh well, he’s 2nd fave next to Takeru though.