In Chastity High, two schools merge to become co-ed and implement a “no romance” rule that gets many children in trouble. The series is streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary:
Ichika Arisawa studies at an all-girls school that merges with an all-boys school and becomes the prestigious co-ed Asuran Academy.
Principal Ikushima ran the school with an iron fist and intended to enforce the same strictness in this new academy.
One of her first major announcements is implementing a no-romance rule. The students take things lightly until two students are reported anonymously and expelled.
Ichika is at that school with her best friend Ema, and the two are the only students who aren’t financially well off.
Ema has a boyfriend in another school and plans to break up with him, but someone spots her going to a love hotel with him and sends the picture to the school counselor, Miss Shinoda.
The Governor has provided a big donation to the academy and has two sons at the campus. His older son Haruto is a teacher while his younger son Ryogo Maki is a student.
Maki and Ichika met a year ago at the hospital when her mother was admitted for a back issue. Ichika’s mother works as a housekeeper and is divorced from her father.
Haruto is the Governor’s perfect son but Maki is the disappointment that is often neglected. Maki often acts out to infuriate his father, and his father beats his mother to punish Maki.
Sawa Fujino is in love with her best friend Yuzuki Sakurai, but she doesn’t feel the same way. Getting elected as the vice president of the student council deepens her pain.
She was the one who spotted Ema outside and sent in the anonymous tip because she developed a hatred for love.
Sawa took it upon herself to enforce the rules and order the council members to keep an eye out, forming the “rabbit hunters”.
Ichika spots Koharu and Maki kissing and warns them before some teachers pass by. Later, Koharu offers to pay her for her silence but Ichika refuses.
She reconsiders after learning that her father has left her mother responsible for a huge debt. She is only behind on her tuition fees and needs to come up with the money soon.
She agrees to be paid and realizes that she could benefit from the no romance rule. She would extort students who were anonymously reported and when they paid, she would delete the photos from the school’s system so that they do not get caught.
Maki has dreams of studying abroad and getting away from his father so he keeps reporting himself to get expelled.
However, the principal overlooks his transgressions because he is the governor’s son. Haruto is seeing Ms. Shinoda, but he is also seeing a student named Ayami.
They met over the summer when she told him she was 20 years old. He continued to date her even though she was underage.
Ichika set up an anonymous profile called LoveKeeper to extort students and keep their romances under wraps.
Maki reaches out to Lovekeeper for help and when he tracks her down, he asks to be a part of it since doing it alone is risky.
With Maki on board, they make ‘Love Keeper’ more romance-friendly, despite still charging the students. ‘LK’ becomes a hero among the students for protecting them.
Sawa and the rabbit hunters crack down hard as students start reporting each other and a culture of distrust is born.
A student named Atsushi Kanda works closely with Ichika in the student council. He is obsessed with her after they met when they were young, something she doesn’t remember.
Kanda’s mother had an affair with Ichika’s father, leading to the divorce. Atsushi felt the need to protect Ichika from the pain the day her mother confronted his mother and that feeling stuck.
He knows that she is LK and keeps an eye on her from a distance always. When two gay students get reported, the principal chooses not to expel them because she doesn’t want to draw attention.
Sawa gets frustrated because she was the one who reported them and she prints out the picture of them kissing and puts it up at school.
Yuma Nashiki, the council president is one of them, and he is embarrassed because he wasn’t out yet.
His boyfriend is more open about his sexuality but he also feels like his love was disregarded because it was with another boy.
Koharu falls in love with a regular boy from outside school, and she almost gets caught by Sawa before Ichika warns her.
Ichika and Maki kiss after spending so much time with each other but she wants to date after graduation because she doesn’t want to lose her place at the school.
Ichika slowly realizes what it means to be to fall in love and the goal of LK shifts in her mind.
Maki finds out about Haruto and Ayami and warns her that he is not going to take her seriously since he is engaged to Ms. Shinoda.
Ms. Shinoda is reconsidering the engagement because she isn’t truly in love with Haruto, she is just doing this because it is expected of them.
Ichika tells Maki that she doesn’t want to wait and has sex with him. Someone spots them and they are confronted the next day.
Principal Ikushima confirms her doubts that Ichika is Love Keeper and tells her to expose the people she protected but Ichika maintains her silence.
She is expelled from school while Maki’s situation is less certain. She believes that the no romance rule is unfair and decides to sue the school.
Ending explained:
Taking on the school
The school board isn’t thrilled about a lawsuit, but Principal Ikushima is confident that she can defend her no romance rule.
Ichika wants to combat the rule for the benefit of her friends and not to reinstate her place in the school. She knows it will be a difficult case but she is ready for it.
Her friends Sawa and Ruka choose to testify as well and during the trial, Maki and Kanda speak up in support of Maki.
Her reasons for the rule
Ichika’s lawyer looks into Principal Ikushima’s past and finds out that when she was a student at the school, her best friend got pregnant and kept it a secret.
When she tried to give birth on her own, she died from complications and Ikushima took on the guilt of that situation.
She believes that if boys and girls are kept apart, then these terrible things will not happen. Ichika argues that they need to experience these things for themselves.
They need to be guided properly, instead of being told that they aren’t allowed to explore their feelings.
The aftermath of the case
Ichika’s expulsion is repealed, but the rule is considered fair and stays. Many students decided to band together in an act of civil disobedience.
This forces the school to put the rule to a vote, but more than half the students vote for the rule to stay because they are personally not interested in romance.
They acted in self-interest and not the collective, which is still their right. Maki decides that he needs to stand up for himself against his father.
He chooses to pursue his dream of studying abroad and has a painful farewell with Ichika. She wants to forge her path in school, even though she failed to repeal the rule.
When she returns to school, she gets a message from a new LK, but this time they are calling themselves “love killer”, and they are threatening to expose her romance if she doesn’t pay up.
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