Collar x Malice Staff Blogs

Otomate has dedicated blogs for the titles they release, and Collar x Malice is no exception. The producer, Reiko Shima (島れいこ), penned all of them and besides announcements, she occasionally shared cool backstory tidbits, generally behind-the-scenes production stories and hypothetical character scenarios. I thought they could use sharing.

The tidbits are in rough chronological order of when they appeared on the blog. Mostly paraphrased, but a few will be directly translated as appropriate. Page 1 (after the cut) is the spoiler-free section, and Page 2 concerns major spoilers.

Development

• On the nature of Collar x Malice’s story:
  

  It’s not a work of mystery so the important thing isn’t the detective work or deductive tricks. By the same token, the main focus isn’t Whodunnit? (though there’s a bit of that, too) but, “How do you face these problems?”

• The Japanese portmanteau for Collar x Malice is “karamari” (カラマリ). She ROFL’d when she threw it into the search engine and it pulled up calamari. She was then struck by visions of the characters fishing for squid.
• Much changed since initial proposal to final product, but there was one constant: Yanagi Aiji. Details changed but his stature, role, and design remained largely untouched.
• The staff refers to the characters by first name except Shiraishi. When Shima said Kageyuki, lead artist Hanamura Mai turned to her with a “（゜Д゜） whodat?” face
• There’s a whole other lingo for Japanese groupies. A staff member familiar with that scene supervised HANA and her friends’ dialogue, but she (presumably she) was reigned in to keep it from being too unintelligible. The scenes in the final release are much lighter on the slang compared to real-life.
• There were plans to make the mascot (named ファンくん = Fan-kun? Fun-kun?) talk somehow, but it’d either ruin the serious tone or turn into an unintended horror story. Shima was reluctant to let go of the idea to the bitter end of recording.
• In the beginning, Takeru was 20 and Shiraishi was 31. Shiraishi’s age wasn’t changed until close to the end.
• Shima did want to have an ending list but somehow it wasn’t possible.
• There’s more that happens after each tragic love bad end, but there’s currently no planned outlet for detailing them.
• One of the bad ends rejected was Yoshinari locking up the heroine—not because he wanted to (or went wrong in the head) but because circumstances dictated.
• No character poll. That was decided early on in development.
• The Trigger Mode in the prologue has no effect on your progress. They debated on putting in a tutorial but opted not to, feeling it’d be too intrusive.

Visual Design

• The lead artist Hanamura Mai went all sorts of experimental for this title, designing 26 on-screen characters. She had the most fun doing the designs. The cut-in CGs (“item CGs,” she calls them) were done by the other graphics team.
• Concept behind the GUI included “quiet invasion,” “sketching out the air” (hence all the flying text), and making it feel like a movie (hence designs like posters, magazine cutouts). They liked making a certain mobile game UI, too.
• A reader asked how Ichika’s hair works and an illustration was provided (scroll to near end of page). In uniform, hair’s down. Out of uniform, more packed into a bun. “To reproduce this in reality requires a lot of hair and a lot of perseverance.”
• Brainstorming the collar: tried to make it as simple as possible. The visual is fairly self-explanatory (scroll 2/3 of the way down for visual). The keypad is on the back of the collar, under a cover.
  

  “How does it inject the poison? What should the sfx be like?”
  “Design it like so…”
  “Can the wearer take baths…? Won’t they get electrocuted?”
  “I don’t want that bad end.” (It’s waterproof.)
  “If they’re constantly eavesdropping on you, does the culprit get no breaks?”
  “The culprit taking breaks…that’s a surreal thought.”
  “A parametric speaker would be most natural.”
  “A what now?”
  “Basically some kind of directional speaker.”
  “Well, yeah, it’d be mighty suspicious if she had earphones on all the time.”

Early Reader Reactions to Characters [Non-Spoiler]

• Fans wanted to conquer Commissioner Minegishi. “Well, he’s very guarded so it’d be tough to take him down. Huh? His profile? Whether he’s single or not? Secret.” And for some reason she spilled the beans on Morioka in the fanbook.
• Takeru’s height was the only one kept a secret in the game. It was in the LimEd booklet, but it’ll show in the fanbook. Even Takeru cares.
• More team names for other pairings, besides Miso Soup. The Seniors are Aiji and Shiraishi, Sakuragawa and Mukai are Bashing Committee. People asked for one for Shiraishi and Kei. “They are similar, aren’t they?” “The White Combo? Nonono, there are so many ways they aren’t white…”
• Much reader love for Kazuki. Would not do incest, but Shima did want to make a Siblings ED “if development had permitted, dammit.”
• The other ladies were also well-received. A fan wanted Sakuragawa to be a route. “Most men would have trouble taking her down, but Ichika can find a way via her stomach, so it’s viable, lol”

What-If Character Scenarios

• If they were assigned summer break homework (given their current personalities, not when they were in school):
  • Aiji: Would make a schedule for regular progress; would finish mid-August.
  • Kei: Would start in July, forget its existence partway through, then finish it in one spurt in the latter half of August.
  • Mineo: Play hard, then weep hard on August 31^st.
  • Takeru: Use any sneaky means necessary to finish it all off.
  • Shiraishi: The “independent research” part would turn into a doorstop of a thesis.
• If you were to catch a cold:
  • Aiji: A+. Ask him to make you delicious porridge.
  • Takeru: Wouldn’t overly baby you, but would be nicer than usual.
  • Mineo: Fret as he tries his best to nurse you back to health. Would probably catch your cold the next day.
  • Kei: You would fall more ill (physically). He’d nurse you, but since he is averse to all domestic housework…more likely he’d create porridge of the future…
  • Shiraishi: You would fall more ill (mentally).
• Shima wants to take a vacation in the southern islands. Remembered that the Hoshino family runs a hotel, so if everyone were to go…
  

  “When you talk about hotels…you of course think of murder cases.”
  “Tonight, at the stroke of midnight, one will die.”
  “The first victim would be Enomoto Mineo…”
  “Please don’t make him the first to die.”
  “Even though everyone says to stick together, the one guy who’s like ‘I’m going back to the room’ would be Takeru.
  “Midway through Shiraishi would be like, ‘I got lost in the snow’ and definitely be suspicious.”
  “So begins the Yanagi Aiji Detective Agency’s Mystery Hour…”
  “And meanwhile, Okazaki was outside in a snowball fight with Yoshinari.”
  “Yoshinari’ll be the first to die. ‘Culprit: Kei. Murder Weapon: Snow.’”

• What happens when they’re drunk?
  • Aiji: Becomes increasingly aggressive. He is a wolf.
  • Kei: Doesn’t behave very differently. Becomes more bullying.
  • Mineo: Like in the game, becomes adorable.
  • Takeru: A pretty merry drinker. He has fun and becomes nicer.
  • Shiraishi: Becomes kid-like. Increased skinship.
• One of the limited edition bonus items was a pin set with the main cast as animals.
  • Aiji: Lion. Proud, carnivorous. Calm with acute senses.
  • Kei: Sheep. White and fluffy. Unexpectedly violent.
  • Mineo: Dog. Because he’s a puppy…! Loyal and sincere.
  • Takeru: Squirrel. Always munching on something. Though small, they’re smart.
  • Shiraishi: Fox. Sneaky and cunning, but passionate.
  • Ichika: Black cat. Originally represented good luck.
• Aiji and Mineo seem suited to winter sports, like snowboarding. Shiraishi is also fairly athletic, would probably ski (and grin at Ichika struggling to ski, likewise). Kei would probably duke it out with Yoshinari in a snowball sight. Takeru…would park himself at the kotatsu.
• Pocky Day…
  • Aiji: For all his embarrassment, he’d give in to the persistence. With each bite he’d get more embarrassed. “Can we just…call it a draw…?”
  • Kei: Participates with all smiles. Would declare “all done” all smiley. He’d feel dissatisfied at it being over so soon and start up a second round. “This time, you initiate.”
  • Mineo: Turn beet red and freeze up. Ichika would keep eating away. Partway through he wouldn’t be able to take it anymore and the stick snaps. “Again! Give me another chance, please!”
  • Takeru: “What a drag.” Observes heroine’s reaction for a few seconds. Then instead of munching away eats a huge mouthful at a time. “You’re taking too damn long.”
  • Shiraishi: Never did it before, therefore fully interested, plus enjoys seeing heroine get flustered. …but, partway through he’ll start to waver. “Uh, isn’t it a problem if we keep going? Are you sure?”
• The April Fools feature imagined the protagonist as an idol attending an awards ceremony for a film she starred in, accompanied by: Aiji was manager, Kei as Fan #2, Mineo as Fan #1, Takeru as producer, and Shiraishi as Secret Service.
  • Kei was going to be a bodyguard too at first, but then Mineo would be all alone. Kei joins in merrymaking easily, therefore he was reassigned to join Mineo. (Shima wanted someone to quip, “Why is an SP chasing after an idol?”)
• After the above, Shima felt an idea brew in her head… “Reaching for the Stars.”
  1. The always-dependable manager one day seems like a true man to her.
  2. A Cinderella story made possible by her strict manager.
  3. SS who always picks on her but always protects her.
  4. Since idols also need a break…a fan (#2) steals her away to begin a forbidden love.
  5. After 100 confessions Fan #1 is finally able to plant a flag.

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