The unique selling point of Chastity High, the plot wrinkle it takes its title from, is the idea that none of the students at the newly coed Asuran Academy can engage in romantic relationships with other students, either on the grounds or off-campus. Thankfully, this isn’t just a background theme, and the show’s ending interrogates it deeply.
The results are mixed, as they are throughout the rest of the eight-episode YA drama, most aptly described as Japan’s answer to similar streaming hits like Elite and Young Royals. But Episode 8 is worthy of some respect for bringing its character drama and underlying point together in this way, with Ichica outright suing the school and forcing Principal Ikushima to justify her draconian chastity measures out loud.
Ichica’s Motivation
It’s important to understand not only that Ichica sues the school but also why, especially when she stood to benefit from its authoritarian measures and only really felt aggrieved when the tables turned on her.
Of course, her background is important – she does not have a wealthy family like many of the other students, and the allure of being well compensated and able to pay off a predatory debt was compelling for this reason. But in going through her own ordeal after falling in love with Maki and having their private photos disseminated, she understands that the students shouldn’t be subject to these violations, even if it means losing her advantage to ensure they are protected.
Ayami reporting Ichica and Maki is, ironically, the best thing that could have happened to her. Likewise, the other seemingly negative development of Ikushima offering to revoke her expulsion if she ratted out all the people she had saved as the Love Keeper, was telling. Ichica realized that the culture of mistrust that was developing around the very notion of love was deeply damaging and that the students were being brainwashed into betraying their friends and instincts to uphold this climate of suppression.
Principal Ikushima Has Her Reasons
During the cross-examination portion of the trial, the root of Ikushima’s strong feelings about love and young relationships becomes clear.
When she was younger, a friend of Ikushima’s had fallen pregnant. The two of them had kept it a secret, and the friend had ultimately died during childbirth due to complications. Ikushima has since blamed the event on a lack of understanding on the part of youngsters who had no business being involved in such matters in the first place. By Ikushima’s logic, if the students hadn’t been allowed to intermingle, this formatively traumatic event wouldn’t have occurred.
Ikushima’s thought process is understandable but flawed. Complications during pregnancy occur all the time, to people of all ages. More to the point, widespread systemic restrictions with severe implications are not the way to implement ostensibly protective measures. They’re oppressive, and deny students their rights and privileges. Gathering evidence against the student body using resources like the counseling portal is a profound, almost Big Brother-like betrayal of trust.
Chastity High | Image via Netflix
The Students Come Together
The ending of Chastity High shows many of the students coming together in solidarity. Despite being so divided throughout the series, resisting perceived oppression is seen as a worthwhile common cause, especially when it’s Ithica’s neck on the line.
And Ithica intends to stay the course even after the school administration offers to walk back the expulsions of her and Maki. That’s no longer the point – it’s about getting the no-romance rule abolished completely.
Despite the fact that, as mentioned, Ithica did benefit from blackmailing the other students, Atsushi and Maki both defend Ithica’s intentions as noble. Ayami takes a stronger tactic by threatening to reveal her relationship with a professor on social media if the administration didn’t abide by the students’ demands, and those demands were made clear in a signed petition submitted by force to Ikushima’s office.
Who’s Blackmailing Ithica?
Despite all this, over half of the student body votes in favor of the romantic restrictions, believing relationships to be an unnecessary distraction, and so they’re upheld. Some concessions are made, like the Rabbit Hunter wing of the student council being abolished, but relationships remain banned at Asuran Academy.
Because of this, Ithica’s romantic farewell to Maki, who has decided to leave the country, is grounds for expulsion. At the end of Chastity High, it becomes clear that someone calling themselves “Love Killer” instead of “Love Keeper” has evidence of this and is planning to use it to extort Ithica. The cycle begins anew, but a worse version this time, motivated by keeping the students in the grip of fear and authoritarianism.
There’s no indication of who the new LK might be, but they clearly have more sinister motives than Ithica did. It’s hardly grounds for a happy ending – though it is justification for a second season.
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