I have no idea how, but I landed on Mink’s route for my very first playthrough of the game. Which was brutal. His route is extremely violent. I had been aiming for Koujaku. The anime tames this guy and I most certainly had no idea what I was in for. 

Who is Mink?

Mink is the eldest of the main capture targets and is also the most aggressive. He is the leader of a group of ex-prisoners. Aoba first meets Mink right before he gets kidnapped by Mink’s Rib group, Scratch. Mink is originally from a Native American community. However, circumstances have transpired between then and now that have turned him into a bitter man who keeps his distance from the gang despite their efforts to achieve a shared objective.

With a height of 189cm, Mink is the tallest of the four. Other characters regularly comment on his great stature, which can be intimidating. His body is well-built, with his right arm displaying noticeable muscles. He has prominent cheekbones that protrude slightly (a common trait for one of his said heritage). Mink has blue-green eyes. However, it is subsequently revealed that his true eye colour is gold, and the blue colour is due to the contacts he previously wore. 

Mink’s deep, baritone voice is another distinguishing attribute. He frequently speaks in a low tone with no emotion and nearly never raises his voice, with the exception of yelling commands to move a crisis along more quickly. Mink is usually always spotted with a long, thick pipe in his mouth.

Mink wears a black shirt and a military-style gradient black to red coat in the first game, with the right sleeve ripped off, revealing his right arm. His hair is dreadlocked and pulled back into a ponytail. He had native beads woven into the ends of his front hair, as well as pink feathers and a feather in the back. He’s dressed in tattered jeans with a white belt and black combat boots that extend just below his kneecaps. His pink headband, which covers his forehead and has a green, yellow, and red pin tacked on the left bottom side, is his most distinguishing feature. There are what look to be shackles around his wrists and neck, the one around his neck having a lock and the ones around his wrists having small chains tied to them. 

Mink’s AllMate is a Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo with a voice that contradicts his size. A mixture of pink, white, orange and yellow feathers make up his furry coat. It has clusters of feathers braided on either side of his head. It wears a left-eye patch, local jewellery, and is often depicted holding a cigar in his beak, matching his owner’s own jewellery and pipe.

Theme Songs

• Sandy Weeds (Game)
• Soul Grace (Anime)

Voice Actors

Mink’s character is voiced by the same voice actors in both the game and in the anime.

• Kenichiro Matsuda (Japanese)
• Andrew Love (English Anime)

My Play-Through of Mink’s Route in DRAMAtical Murder

There was no chance that I was not going to get Mink for my first run through the game. On the second playthrough, I had the option to ‘think’ of another character or Mink and I was surprised by the option to choose the route. It was with this point, I realised I had skewed my choices in the first round so one-sidedly towards a character that I was not looking forward to. 

I have now played through Mink’s route over 4 times. I did this to get the good and bad ends in both the official version of the DRAMAtical Murder game on STEAM as well as to get the ends in the cracked version of the game. It was only in the first play that I had no route choice. I played through the official and cracked versions so that I could get the official gameplay and the full uncensored gameplay respectively.

[Spoilers Ahead]

I was fine with Mink kidnapping Aoba, but I was not okay with Mink ordering his men to rape Aoba. It was at that moment I knew that I would not enjoy him as a capture target and was sad to have myself proven correct as the game went on. 

• 

• 

Mink is authorative and forceful, not really caring about how others think of him – as long as they obey him. This does make sense when considering he is the leader of escaped prisoners where disciple is required to keep everyone in line. I know Mink ordered his men hoping to force Aoba to use his ability, scrap. However, I do have the feeling that if Aoba had not used it-he would have been raped, while Mink watched, waiting for Aoba to use scrap. He would not have retracted his order.

Then later on, Aoba doesn’t even consider this and seems to forgive the members of Scratch (Mink’s rib gang) for what they did and interacts with the group as if everything is normal and fine.

The forceful nature of their relationship I was okay with, like in the club where the deed was done for the first time. Honestly, I am not mad at this scene. It flowed well, the action was intense and rough; which by this point was not unexpected. Aoba’s sudden mental state from being high was a surprise and confusing though.

• 

• 

The two rape scenes that followed the club scene though upset me. Not just the fact that he raped Aoba, but all of the forceful and graphic violence that goes with it. As well as the blatant brainwashing and ‘ownership’ claims. It frustrates me even more because the first one seemingly came out of nowhere and the second was a brutal ‘punishment’ which was somewhat defended on the wiki page for Mink.

He beats and forces himself on Aoba numerous times for either defying Mink’s orders or trying to escape from him out of pure fear, coming off as possessive and controlling. This all changed when the Desire made himself known to Mink one night and actually invoked terror in Mink. From this point on in his route, Mink had changed his attitude, even though he still maintained his status as leader. He ends up being more talkative with Aoba than before, actually answering his questions to a degree and informing him where they are heading. Aoba finds this strange, but doesn’t complain.

DRAMAtical Murder Wiki

After playing the route numerous times, I am still unsure when Mink comes to care a for Aoba. I know we get the random scene where Mink ‘affectionately’ touches Aoba’s hair after raping him but I don’t see why he cared.

His actions are also forgiven because Aoba realises that Mink was so rough to keep him at a distance and wanted Aoba to blame him. He knew this because Mink had planned a way to get Aoba out of the tower. Yet, Aoba was already ‘in love’ before he knew this. There are a few other so-called tender moments, like the fact Aoba was put in bed after being raped and not left on the floor.

Even after the whole scratch moment with Mink, I can not fathom why Aoba would care so much for this man. Yes, Mink’s past was rough and I don’t blame him for wanting revenge. His past, however, does not excuse his behaviour.

The good end

Was this really the good end? Really? Are you sure? This ending was so open-ended and I am still confused by Aoba’s love for Mink. Overall, this ending was rather meh. I like the idea of Aoba travelling the world but doing it for Mink-eh? Looks like the brainwashing worked. Well done Mink. 

The bad end

I actually rather liked and enjoyed the bad end. Even though Aoba became headless and the joke in the group of ‘that’s one way to head’ did make me giggle. I liked the philosophy and the reasoning made a tad bit of sense. I also enjoyed the sense of madness in the scene. I mean, we can see Mink’s world literally burning down around him. How could we expect him to be sane? 

Final thoughts

I am glad that I have his route out of the way. I know in Yaoi (boy love) it is so very common to have the victim fall in love with his rapist and I know it’s only fiction but it really upset me in the game. What really upset me with it was the pure violence of it all and then it was all forgiven because ‘he did it for a reason’ and showed so few moments of tenderness towards Aoba. 

Those tender moments weren’t even really tender or kind. I can not see how these moments led to Aoba thinking that his abuser and rapist might not be so bad. Is Aoba so starved for affection? From his relationships with the other characters before the route choice, I would say no.

For me, this game route is so frustrating. I much preferred the bad end. It honestly made more sense than the good end. Knowing Mink’s tragedy still did not absolve him of what he had done. So much so that even knowing he planned to kill himself after his revenge, I felt nothing. I can not understand why Aoba so desperately wanted this man to live. Was it really because of that one moment where he saw Mink looking out of the window? Yeah, I am not a fan of Mink’s route.