Caste Heaven, Vol. 1

カーストヘヴン / Caste Heaven #1

by Chise Ogawa

Ruled by a cruel and arbitrary ranking system, the school is a pool of jealousy, envy and lust. Azusa was the King for a long time but one day he falls to the very bottom. What now?

Genres: Manga, Yaoi, LGBT, Romance, Boys Love, Queer, Graphic Novels

217 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 10, 2015

About the author

Chise Ogawa (name in Japanese: 緒川千世) is the pen name that Shigeyoshi Takagi (高木しげよし) uses for her BL works.
She is the younger twin sister of Satoshi Morie.

She also draws dōjinshi under pen name 余暇 (Yoka) in circle 旧式 (Kyuushiki).

Different language transcriptions for Chise Ogawa:
ОГАВА Тисэ

Reviews

[Mizuki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, I feel like I am reading a twisted yaoi version of Hana Yori Dango when reading this manga. LOL But don't worry! I'm not saying the story is a rip-off or anything, don't get me wrong.

Hey guys! If you love yaoi story with finely developed plots (and plot twists), well formed characters, beautiful artwork and lot of smut scenes, please check out Chise Ogawa's Caste Heaven!

I read two of Ms. Ogawa's other yaoi manga and enjoyed both of them, so this time in Caste Heaven, Ms. Ogawa goes full-on with the domination & submission theme, love hate relationship, humiliation and power game, what more can I ask for?

The story takes place in a high school, in this school there's a secret Game among students (and unbeknownst to teachers), when the Game is on, students would search the whole school for certain poker cards: the students who find the King and Queen cards would become the rulers of their class, the students who find the Jack card will become the left hand man of the King, the students who find the number cards will fall into different ranks, from top to bottom, those who rejects the Game or refuses to play would automatically become Joker/target, the bullied victim of the entire class.

Our MC (who is from a broken family) is a hapless teen who has long been the reigning King of his class, but this year he falls straight down trough the ranking system and is forced to become Joker/the bottom of the food chains due to his trusted sidekick betraying him. To make things worse, this former sidekick has now become the new King and now the MC has only two choices left: to become the new King's 'woman' or to let himself be subjected to humiliation of all sorts and even gang rape from other students?

Since it's a yaoi manga, I bet you can guess how this will go! LOL

I enjoy the main story very much, I also appreciate how Ms. Ogawa addressed heavy issues such as rape, attempted rape and bullying without making them look too gross, I also like how she explored the main characters' personalities and the twisted relationships among them through the story telling; and the sidestory about supporting characters is interesting enough too, but Hell, I really want to see more of how our MC will survive his ordeals!

Dear Ms. Ogawa, please do your worst in the next volume! I'm waiting!

Review for volume 2: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Rebecca · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hey, you know what doesn't need to be made sexy? Bullying.

[L Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story takes place in a school where a card game determines your class rank or "caste." This caste system is divided into high caste, middle caste, low caste, and outcasts. Within each these caste ranks are class roles that each individual is expected to play. These roles include goth, geek, slacker, etc. The lowest caste level is Target and if you are unfortunate enough to be in this caste you can look forward to nothing but pain, rejection, and humiliation from all the other caste levels until the next time the game is played.It sounds sort of silly, but the students actually take this game seriously and have no problem bullying and hurting students in a lower rank than themselves. It's like a psychological experiment gone off the rails with no one step in and shut it down.

There are two stories in this manga. The first one involves the former King, Azusa, who is now a Target and his former Wannabe, Karino, who is now the King. While King, Azusa was ruthless and treated everyone below him terribly. Now that he is a Target everyone is more than willing to pay him back for the way they were treated. Karino even uses his new position of power to sanction it "legal" to rape him. Being faced with a choice of servicing the boys of the school on a daily basis or being the King's bitch Azusa chooses the later... and Karino enjoys using him...a lot.

This dark rape-y story is paired with a much lighter, seemingly sweet, story between former Jack, Kuze, and former Target, Atsumu. Kuze is this super cool, tall, attractive guy who, despite the game, usually treats his fellow students kindly. He is drawn to Atsumu's scared and timid personality and sees him as someone he wants to get closer to. He is the first person to treat Atsumu with kindness and he doesn't know how to react to it. Their story is super cute and they are adorable together...however, something tells me their relationship isn't going to stay this way. This manga seems to thrive on the craziest sort of drama so there might be some f*cked up stuff going on between them too.

Why oh why do I like this kind of crazy shit? It was so crazy that I could not look away. I finished the manga in one sitting and am now ready to start volume 2. Azusa and Karino are terrible people and they honestly deserve each other. I don't know what's going to happen to them in the upcoming volumes but if they do end up together that may end up being the most toxic relationship I've come across since I started reading BL. After a few acts of their story reading Kuze and Atsumu's story was like being able to breathe again, lol. ♡

[MaDoReader]

¿Por qué no rating? Pues porque hay tanta mierda ahí metida que ha terminado por retorcerme las tripas. Es una detrás de otra, palos por todas partes, y aunque el arte de Ogawa Chise es absolutamente maravilloso, la sensación de incomodidad y de que está todo podrido me ha resultado difícil de encajar.
A mucha gente le va a encantar, otros lo van a odiar, no hay término medio
Continúo al siguiente, obvs.

[Bibliothecat · Rating 1 out of 5]

Review for volume 1-5



Caste Heaven is appallingly cruel and tasteless. It could have been an interesting read about social hierarchy at school and bullying, but any hint of a good story this might have possessed was drowned out in the way it is delivered. This takes place in a high school where all students participate in a caste game: everyone is assigned a card that marks their social status and the lower you are the more you get bullied. Bullying, though, is an understatement - there are multiple rape scenes per chapter within the first volume alone.

The actual story takes a complete backseat and is ultimately just a means to an end for characters to have sex, a lot of which is at the very least borderline rape. Apart from the fact that this entire game is completely messed up and unrealistic, I found it very hard to stomach and am baffled that people actually enjoy this. I would have dropped this after the first two chapters had I not already owned the volumes. If nothing else, I can say that rather than improving, Caste Heaven stays true to its themes and only introduces new oddly-matched couples - why is it that non of these characters are even remotely sane? I'm getting rid of this - I don't care how it ends and I don't recommend it. I shall end this the way it started: this manga is nothing short of cruel and in poor taste.

[Anali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amo los mangas de Chise Ogawa y sé que ella tiene dos tipos de humor en sus obras: Por un lado, el romántico y dramático y, por otro, el sádico y oscuro, también con abundante drama. Ella tiene estos dos estilos muy marcados que me fascinan.

Y, sin embargo, Caste Heaven es muy diferente de lo que había imaginado. Es un manga bastante bueno, a pesar de todo el ambiente sórdido, cruel y retorcido. Quizás no tan original, pero con personajes muy MUY complejos.

Seguiré con el segundo volumen :)

[Xia and the Giant TBR · Rating 3 out of 5]

I hate this manga with a vengeance, yet I keep returning to it like a total masochist.

[Nocturnalux]

Caste Heaven is one of those works that takes a central premise that is somewhat unlikely- a game that decides each students' rank in the class pecking order, to the point the 'higher class' gets to ruthlessly oppress the 'lower class', all this happening without teachers even being aware of- but the core of which is all too believable. The social hierarchy stipulated by the 'Caste Game' is not terribly different from the very real one that is currently the norm of so many students in Japan. Even the teachers' utter obliviousness is not that beyond the pale: Japan is unfortunately known for having a terrible track record regarding bullying and the adults whose job is to see to students' most basic safety on the school premises are all too often entirely unwilling to get at all involved.

That the game would be conducted by students wearing paper bags over their heads- for the sake anonymity, I presume- in the after school time is a bit difficult to believe (club activities would have been in full swing and an entire class missing their respective clubs, even if only occasionally, would very much have raised eyebrows) but even that has a creepy resonance with reality. The formality with which the 'Caste Game Committee' explains the rules before each round and even the armbands identifying them as such is straight from the daily life routine of high school in Japan: it is the way the Student Council would address fellow students.

All this goes into presenting a world that is removed from reality by a much narrower margin than may at first seem. For this very reason and others, Caste Heaven is not a complete work of fantasy of the sadomasochistic kind in which boys delight in degrading other boys in increasingly sexually abusive manners (although it very much contains elements of that as well) a lá 飼育係・理伙 Shiiku Gakari Rika 1 . Instead, it is an interesting take in the ways roles are assigned by teenagers, how they adapt and/or fight against these and above all how power is a fluctuating commodity that can be shifted from one person to another with surprising ease once the system- and obedience to it- is set.

Enter Azusa, the current 'King', having acquired the eponymous card in the last round of the game. Azusa is a very interesting choice for a lead character. He is highly arrogant, profoundly cruel and uses the privileges of standing at the very top to choose sexual partners from whatever girl that catches his fancy, having no issues with humiliating and discarding them. He is also homophobic which is not that rare in BL but he takes the extra step in using his sexuality on guys in order to get what he wants which also makes him an hypocrite.

Things go terribly, terribly wrong for him when he misjudges one his followers: instead of bringing him the king card, Karino ends up handing him the lowest card, the joker while keeping the king for himself. That and raping him. What follows is Azusa's fall from grace as everyone he ever mistreated when he was on top gunning for him. The 'joker' is also 'the target', a position that is dreaded by all.
In Azusa's case, it also means that guys, in general, will want to rape him.

It is this unrestrained and indiscriminate desire to rape Azusa that allows Karino to turn him into a private sex slave: the choice is presented in those exact terms, Karino asks Azuka to 'choose' whether to be raped by him alone or to become the plaything of the mob.

BL has a less than savory relation to rape as a whole, often proposing it as romantic and on many an occasion dancing around the very term. Caste Heaven, at least to some extent, breaks the mold in that respect. Karino uses the actual word [犯す] which is very much rape.

What makes this particular manga so interesting in its intersection with genre matters is the way Azusa reacts. He goes through a gamut of anguish, outrage, disgust, lack of confidence and yet does not take the typical BL route of accepting his lot.

The way in which this rebellion is undertaken involves social class in a most brilliant way. After being repeatedly raped by Karino, nearly being gang raped and being treated like a pariah of the lowest kind by almost becoming what his prostitute mother has urged him from childhood to avoid at all costs, Azusa is told by Karino that he does not even take the horrible things he does to him as seriously, it's all 'fun'; killing time until Karino goes out into society. Azusa then comes to realize that Karino is the heir to a conglomerate and decides to film their having sex so that he can expose Karino. It does not work but it marks the turnabout to Azusa's way of behaving, he now knows that Karino has a weakness resulting from his being in a position that demands respectability. In other words, 'real' life class, as assigned by society and with a material basis behind it, is the lever.

It is worth mentioning that this plan, or proto-plan, relies not so much on Karino being a rapist as on his having blackmailed another boy into having sex with him. Azusa does not lose the opportunity for wondering what people would think if they knew Karino is a 'homo'. The threat is clear, the stigma is homosexuality first and foremost..

Against all odds, Azusa ends up becoming someone the reader roots for. He remains deeply flawed but the manga goes into his psychology enough that his savage reasoning of splitting the world into 'the rulers' and 'the ruled', his determination to be the first category and even his cruelty are not excusable but one can understand how he turned out how he did. Namely, his mother. Azusa's mother is a prostitute and clients beat her up frequently enough that Azusa seems used to seeing her covered in bruises. It is not accidental that this particular scene, Azusa disinfecting his mother's wounds as she tells him to stay in school in order to make a better life for himself, happens just as Azusa sees Karino on television, wheeling his tycoon father, like a dutiful heir to a major corporation would do. Once again, the contrast is one that is class derived

Karino is a harder nut to crack. This volume presents him briefly as the fawning sycophant to Azusa while he was the King, then as the betrayer and brutal rapist once he becomes the new King. All we see is a seme at his most seme-ist, to the point he could almost give Kanou from お金がない‐鍵のかかる天国 Okane ga Nai - Kagi no Kakaru Tengoku a run for his money. It leaves something to be desired but this is still the first volume and as the mangaka admits in the postscript, she was still unsure of the direction she wanted to take the manga.

This is more readily visible in Atsumu's arc, a shorter one that follows the 'Joker'. Not so much in Atsumu himself, his is a sad story of constant bullying and of being the eternal butt of every single nasty joke from the earliest of childhoods, to the point that he saw the 'Caste Game' as a means of salvation. Perhaps the only one available to someone who, like him, was already the default target.
It is Kuze, who plays a very important part in Atsumu's storyline, where one senses that Ogawa-sensei was still fumbling.

In a sense this can be attributed to the way the volume is structured, Kuze appears almost right away as the 'Jack' to Azusa's 'King'- one of the highest positions- and thus is seen as per Azusa's point of view as a shady, intelligent and unreliable person (ironically, it is Karino that Azusa should be worried about); once Atsuma's arc kicks in the later stages of the volume (but covering some of the same events as Azusa's arc), Kuze is seen through the prism of growing infatuation and borderline hero worship as Atsuma is, as by own reckoning, starved for affection.

Still, Kuze is supposedly one who does not care about the 'Caste Game', at all, yet was very much splurging in his privilege as the 'Jack'. Nor did he at all appear as 'kind' despite being labelled as such. Perhaps this too is another example of the dual nature in everyone, Kuze, after all, knew Karino was two-faced and it may take one to see one. Or Kuze is just one of those single-person morality and only cares about Atsuma (which still makes me wonder just what he was doing while Atsuma was the 'Joker'. As the 'Jack' he could have rescued him from the bullying or at least made an effort in that direction but he never did so.)

Kuze and Atsuma serve as loving counterpart to the savagery of Karino and Azusa; comparisons between the pair are quite interesting to draw. Arguably, in both cases a seme manipulates his uke. It makes me wonder what kind of story we would have if the pairing was Azusa/Atsuma.

The way in which the manga revisits some of the same events with a change in perspective gives a greater depth to what is going on and helps to cement Atsuma as a main character despite his very light presence in the first arc. It also goes a long way into establishing how Atsuma and Azusa functioned under pressure, their coping mechanisms being very much on opposite ends and giving us a glimpse into Kuze as a nuanced character. It makes perfect sense that Atsuma should latch onto Kuze as he did but the exchange Kuze has with Karino during the game proper, as Kuze is vying for the 'King' card to give to Atsuma, gives us a glimpse into a person that is perfectly capable of cutthroat moves. More, the way he turns on Azusa is also very telling; he was very eager to stay on his good side while he was the 'King' but had issues joining the mob when he fell from grace.

In terms of artwork, it is overall very good, fluid and highly expressive but occasionally the linework is a bit sketchy and some wonky anatomy follows. But for the first volume it is extremely well accomplished.

For me, what makes Caste Heaven such a worth read is that it brings to the center a theme that lurks at the root of most BL: power politics. Unlike most entries in the genre, sexual subjugation is not just seen as the path to take but is buckled against. All too often the power dynamic in a BL couple slides irrevocably in the direction of the uke abdicating in favor of the seme.

Azusa and Karino are hardly a couple as such but they exemplify a means of navigating the extreme power unbalance of power because it is presented as a highly negative thing and not a romantic denouement.

[Heather · Rating 1 out of 5]

*sigh*

Every time I think we're outgrowing the non-con yaoi trope, here we go again.

This manga is basically Battle Royale, but instead of teenagers creatively killing each other, they're revenge-raping each other. It looks like a thick manga, but the second half of the book is the EXACT SAME STORY, DIALOGUE, AND ARTWORK; it's just from another character's perspective, but it's so repetitive it was a chore to read through.

This book is full of homophobia, gay slurs, fatphobia, fat shaming, rape, and bullying to the point two of the characters are contemplating suicide. There's nothing sexy about school bullies gang-banging other kids in the boys' room. Enough of this kind of manga, please.

[Keiko, the manga enthusiast ♒︎ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I'm up for some conventionally trashy people as well for today. This series is scandalous and highly toxic that I literally almost vomit at first tens of pages. I even imagined myself trying to get Karino out of the panel and maybe slap some sense in himself. Absurd! He's literally obsessed with Azusa! And he fucking raped the guy! Disgusting! Not that I'm siding with the latter guy too, but his way of thinking is inappropriate as well... although, considering the environment where he grew up in. Nah, it's the whole premise of the story that is super wrong. On the other hand, the other couple is such a delight! So, I'm looking forward to seeing a decent—please, just please!—relationship between Kuze and Atsumu!

I'd be up to giving it a 4-star or none at all... but I settled with 3-star because I only give 4 to almost perfect series... and I tried to reason out with myself while reading this... And in the end, this is better than the 2-star, 1-star series that I rated before. I just love the dramatic voice, that's all.

[Readingmanga · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can’t with this manga. It’s so disgusting and boring. Nothing interesting and nothing new. I don’t understand why this manga is everywhere.

[a · Rating 4 out of 5]

Throughout this whole thing, the only things I could think of were the Stanford prison experiment and the Milgram experiment. Oh my god.

Full review to come.

Edited 11/16/2015

First things first: this was really messed up. Not gonna lie, it had me going 'WTF?'. But at the same time, it was also really good.

Taking place in a high school, Caste Heaven is about power and sex, and what those things can do to people. In this school, there is a game where cards are scattered and have to be found. Whoever has the joker or refuses to take part is the target of their entire class and is subjected to horrible bullying, up to the point of gang-rape. Whoever finds the king is in charge of everything- literally the 'King'.

Messed up, am I right?

The story revolves around the former King, Azusa, and his former friend and follower, Karino. Azusa is the golden boy, the horrible King who is never nice to anybody but has an awful family life. Karino, the son of a politician, plans to take Azusa's place in their school's hierarchy and become King. Karino eventually succeeds and forces Azusa to make a choice- either become his 'woman' or be gang-raped by the other students.

As this is a yaoi, I think you can tell what his choice was.

Honestly, this horrified me. Karino's use of his own power to upend Azusa's life was terrible, and it's all a game to him. He truly doesn't care.



And yet, even though he does this, the rest of the school still thinks he is a nice, wonderful person who's kind to everyone he meets. Though, how much of this is just schmoozing, I can't say.

Karino is a fake. He always has a mask of some sort on, and he never lets his home life and school life touch each other. They're always kept separate, and no one can tell what he's really like because of the way he acts all the time. He never shows his true face, his true nature, to anyone but Azusa, and that's only when he's finally brought him down.

On the other hand, Azusa is always real. He never bothers to put on masks so that people will like him- he doesn't care what they think of him, because as long as he is in power, he can do whatever he likes. He treats people terribly, like they're lesser than him, and even when he becomes the target of the school, this attitude never goes away. He refuses to grovel even though the alternative is worse, and never asks for help. He never thanks anyone for anything, and it's because he knows he's alone in his convictions. He's honest and has a very strong sense of self, and it's wonderful .

This asked some very deep questions, such as 'without my power, am I really this useless, this powerless?' This leads into my next point- why this reminded me of both the Stanford prison experiment and the Milgram experiment.

The Stanford prison experiment was a psychology experiment conducted in Stanford by Phillip Zimbardo in 1971, over the course of about a week. It used volunteers to act as inmates and guards in a 'prison', giving the 'guards' ultimate authority over the 'inmates' and subjecting them to extreme psychological torture. See, what happened was that even though the guards were not allowed to physically harm the inmates, they forced them to be stripped of their identities, took away their clothes, mattresses, etc. Later, it was shown that the guards actually became sadists, and became more and more cruel. Even now, some of the former inmates suffer from PTSD, because what happened to them in there was so horrible.

Caste Heaven reminded me of that because as soon as the other students were given even the slightest bit of power over Azusa, they immediately began torturing him. They instantly became cruel, even those who had nothing to do with him, and they would do anything that Karino said to do, which leads me to why this reminded me of the Milgram experiment.

The Milgram experiment was also a psychology experiment conducted in Yale University by Stanley Milgram, beginning in 1961. He originally began it to see if Nazi war criminals were just accomplices and following orders, or not. What happened was that there were three roles- the Experimenter(the authority), the Teacher(who was supposed to always obey the Experimenter), and the Learner(who was supposed to receive a stimulus from the Teacher). The Learner was always an actor, who supposedly had a heart condition.

The Experimenter told the Teacher to teach the Learner word pairs, and for each time the Learner got the word pair wrong, the Teacher was to give them an electric shock. (There were never really any electric shocks, of course.) The voltage of the shock would slowly increase to the point of 450 volts, which was given three times in succession. Before this point, many of the Teachers had wanted to stop, but most of them, when prompted by the Experimenter, continued to the highest voltage.

When I started reading Caste Heaven, this was the first thing that I thought of. I saw it in how the students would obey the King no matter what he ordered them to do, and how they were blindly obedient. However, unlike the test subjects in the Milgram experiment, none of them really hesitated. They took pleasure in it, which loops right back around to Stanford.

Honestly, the other students scared me a little.

Anyway, that's enough about the other students. Now onto the other pairing- Kuze and Atsumu.

This might have seemed like something cute and fluffy at first, but it was anything but. It's even more horrifying than that of Azusa and Karino, if only because it is even more manipulative. It was...creeptastic, to be honest.



Overall, this was pretty awesome, and really interesting to read. I really want to see what happens next- will Azusa finally say enough is enough? Will he take back his power? Will he leave the school and the game, and if that happens, what will Karino do? Aah, so many questions.

4.4/5 stars. Gave me chills at times.

Update 2/26/2016
Just read the newest chapters. Now, we have a voyeuristic, possibly power-hungry teacher. Yikes.

[Diana Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, yes, the story is fucked. It's terrible and brutal and the bullying is a lot to take, but I could not stop reading! The artwork is GORGEOUS. This is my first work by this mangaka and I'm sure I will read more. I feel like Azusa's story is just getting started and I love when there is a power play involved in my BL stories. I also don't know how to feel about Kuse...I want to like him and I want him to be a good guy, but I just don't know yet...hmmmm...anyway, on to volume 2 and I hope it stays as interesting as it has been so far. Definitely a hot, dark read, but proceed with caution...it's rapey and focuses a lot on dom/sub play, humiliation, and bullying. On to the next.

[Sophie]

I 100% agree with Sherry that this is impossible to rate. I actually had to force myself to continue reading because the cruelty was really hard to stomach. The concept is interesting but the way it's told seems too gratuitous. The second couple seems interesting enough to make me want to read on but tbh I don't like this at all.

[Ash_Reads_Stuff · Rating 1 out of 5]

TW: R*pe, SA
Cool concept… terrible execution. This book makes me feel icky when I think about it. Like… wtf was this book. And you know what’s like, not a good thing to romanticize? Borderline R*pe. Bullying. Sexual Abuse. Like… no. Just no.

[Gem (The Creepy Geek) · Rating 4 out of 5]

The storyline is fucked up but I really want to know how it all pans out!

[animasoul · Rating 4 out of 5]

„Caste Heaven“ ist ein interessantes Gedankenkonzept, was in vielerlei Hinsicht gar nicht einmal so abwegig ist, wie viele vielleicht denken. Es ist gesellschaftskritisch. Kritisiert wird hauptsächlich der Umgang der Menschen untereinander. Im Fall der vorliegenden Manga-Reihe die des hierarchischen Systems einer Schulklasse. Mit diesem wird durch das sogenannte „Kastenspiel“ das System regelmäßig neu sortiert und es gelangen Schüler/innen an die Macht und beeinflussen damit das Klassengefüge.

Wer die Macht hat, bestimmt ebenfalls das Verhalten der Klasse. Der King steht an der Spitze der Hierarchie und kann Einfluss nehmen auf das Verhalten Spieler. Er kann die unter ihm stehenden Personen ohne Furcht vor Strafe behandeln, wie er will. Sobald allerdings die Karten neu gemischt und eine neue „Spielzeit“ eingeläutet wird, kann sich das jedoch ändern und der King könnte dann zum Joker bzw. Target werden.

Durch diesen Manga werden Gedankenkonzepte aufgeworfen, die jenseits von Gut und Böse sind. Sie stellen den Menschen als Monster dar, in verschiedenen Phasen seiner Entwicklung. Und das Macht korrumpiert? Das wird durch das Spiel ebenfalls dargestellt.

Ich mag den psychologischen Aspekt, der in gewisser Weise kritisch beäugt, was in Schulklassen an Mobbing und Co. passieren kann, wenn die Lehrer nichts davon wissen sollen oder aktiv ignorieren, was vor ihren Nasen geschieht. Man kann in einer noch so aufgeklärten Welt leben, Menschen die Macht haben, egal wie klein diese Macht ist, werden diese auch nutzen. Es ist ein spannender Manga und ich möchte wirklich wissen, wie es mit den einzelnen Akteuren selbstverständlich weitergeht.

Insbesondere werden hier im ersten Ansatz die Konstellationen Azusa und Karino sowie Kuze und Kusakabe beäugt. Der Rest der Klasse/n wird erst einmal nur am Rande dargestellt. Allerdings spielen diese eine tragende Randrolle, weil sie der Spielball des jeweiligen Kings sind.

Wer den Manga lesen möchte, sollte allerdings gewarnt sein. Es handelt sich hierbei um keinen Manga, der leichte Kost ist. Hier werden harte Themen angesprochen und szenisch dargestellt, wie z.B. Vergewaltigung, (Gruppen-)Zwang, emotionale und körperliche Abhängigkeiten, menschliche Grausamkeiten usw. Also definitiv kein Manga für Leser unter 16 Jahren (meiner Meinung nach).

Es bleibt allerdings abzuwarten, wie die Reihe sich weiterentwickelt. Was noch passieren wird und wer letztlich eigentlich hinter dem Kastenspiel steckt. Wie es überhaupt eingeführt wurde, wurde bisher ja überhaupt noch nicht thematisiert. Es bleiben also einige Fragen durchaus offen. Und auch wie sich die Beziehungen einzelner Charaktere zueinander noch entwickeln, ist ebenfalls einer der Aspekte, die mich interessieren.

Von der künstlerischen Umsetzung her ist der Zeichenstil zwar angenehm, aber er ist nicht so sauber, wie ich es aus anderen, raueren BL-Reihen kenne. Dennoch unterstreichen die rauen Striche die Atmosphäre des Spiels und der einzelnen Themen sehr gut, sodass mich der Manga wirklich mitgenommen hat. Selbst wenn es nicht immer leichte Kost war und ich schockiert bin, welche Qualen sich Menschen gegenseitig antun. Dennoch bin ich neugierig und freue mich schon sehr auf Band 2!

[Mimy Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

well… i’ll list things that i like and dislike about it
dislikes:
- boys get sexually abused
- person who has a higher ranking will abuse power and control those who are in the lower rankings
likes:
- good graphic, was pretty hot ngl

btw i’m kinky but not that kinky like this book has some BDSM type sht and i don’t know how to feel about it 🙃

[Faith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ooooo big ick. I’m not a fan of hierarchy, let alone when it’s done in a high school setting with heavy bullying and sexual harassment.

I’m gonna give the second volume a try because I wanna give the benefit of the doubt… but I don’t have high hopes at all.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well then. This was twisted and I’m still not sure if I’ll continue with this series. But knowing me I’ll probably give it up until vol 3 to decide

[Elizabeth (Elzburg)]

Dropped after Chapter 1.

This manga is about a school that runs under a caste system. Each year they have this kind of "contest" where poker cards are scattered around the school, and whichever one you end up with determines your rank. Example: If you find the King card you become the absolute ruler of the whole school and can shit on anyone and everyone you please, or if you end up with the Joker card then you become a living ass-wipe. The premise of the book is how the tables turn when the previous year's ruler ends up with the Joker card this time around. This seems really interesting, no? And it would have been--If it was done right.

To preface my situation: I randomly started reading this because the synopsis sounds SUPER rad and interesting, but little did I know that this is a yaoi. I don't really enjoy reading or watching that kind of stuff. I enjoyed the Sunstone Vol. 1 series a lot (which is lesbian BDSM), but something about yaoi and yuri has just never really jived with my tastes. This wasn't an exception. However, the yaoi was NOT the main problem of the book.

Obviously, I only lasted a chapter so I didn't really see much of the series. But... The author got straight into business with this chapter, no dilly dallying. They set up the high school caste system and the conflict straight away. But, maybe too straight away? I mean, there was a rape scene. IN THE FIRST CHAPTER. Who does that? Apparently Chise Ogawa does that, that's who. I mean, I'm pretty sure it was a rape scene, if not it was definitely borderline. (I read this exactly one month ago so the details are a bit hazy.) So that was definitely... Jarring. Around there was probably when I realized what I had gotten myself into.

For people who are here for the yaoi, I'll give you more of the specifics on that. I know that a lot of yaoi recently have been more on the abusive side of things, and I also know that people have been recognizing the problems about glamorizing/idealizing this kind of relationship. Unfortunately, this seems to be another one of that kind of yaoi. From this first chapter that's definitely how things seem to be going (and have already gone).

But you know, a distaste for yaoi and rape (...) is really just a personal thing, so they might not bother other people who are... Into that. Though I'm sure there must be much better yaoi out there than this one, in terms of writer and story competence. This manga just felt... Sloppy in a way. Like, things would happen really suddenly and out of nowhere. The whole chapter was just so jarring in so many ways. The competition that sets up the caste system got really breezed through super-fast so we barely got to see any of the most interesting and unique thing about this manga. A huge disappointment. Also, literally every single character in this is an asshole. This doesn't necessarily have to be a problem, but it was. This is coming from someone who's favorite characters are literally ALL assholes:



Even though I had problems with essentially every aspect of this first chapter and firmly dropped it after finishing it, now that I’ve had some more time to ponder it, I feel tempted to pick it back up again. Solely because of how awesome that synopsis sounds. I want to keep reading in the hopes that the execution becomes better and that we’ll get to see more about this bizarrely interesting high school caste system. So this review may not be the last you see of me on this series………

*EDIT:* If you want to read (or watch) a series with a similar caste system run highschool, but actually done well, I recommend you try out Kakegurui. The system in that is actually better than in Caste Heaven because instead of a luck-of-the-draw-contest-type-thing that only briefly happens once a year that determines your rank within the school, it's a constantly ongoing gambling ring. So you actually see much more of this interesting premise than you see in Caste Heaven.

[Namratha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This high-school is ruled by a secret and cruel Caste Game : based on the card that a student finds, he can either be at the top of the hierarchical order as the King or at the bottom as the Target who can be bullied and used by anyone.

Cruel and handsome Azusa has been ruling the roost as the King for a long time and putting his powers to abusive use. But an unexpected betrayal by his supposed lackey suddenly turns the tables rather devastatingly on Azusa. He is now the Target, bullied and abused by the very people who simpered and fawned over him and whether he survives or breaks is where this series starts off….through a rather rocky and disturbing set of events.

I definitely did not enjoy this manga. It is painful, heartbreaking, masochistic and has several instances of non-consensual sex. On the basis of the blurbs of the sequels, the main (and awfully twisted) pair will eventually develop some finer emotions along the way but getting there is going to be filled with too much toxicity. I wanted to read this purely from a clinical point of view. This series is extremely popular and I wanted to know how a plot line filled with so many red flags has captured the interest of its fans. I can grudgingly understand the appeal : redemption of dark characters, “ finding love in a hopeless place”, unexpected and gratifying twists and a compelling need to know what happens next. Based on that, I might just continue the series.

And yet again, this level of nastiness leaves me a little broken by the depths of human cruelty and the darkness of the human psyche.

[Mathew Newberry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Today’s top could be tomorrow’s bottom when playing the caste game!

Caste Heaven 1.
By: Chise Ogawa
SuBLime


Synopsis:
School is hard enough as it is, but when students are forced to play a cutthroat game to determine their social ranks—and subsequent treatment—all bets are off.


Genre: Manga, Yaoi, Mature
Trigger Warning: Bullying, Abuse, Nudity


Review:
- The story of this manga is definitely something intriguing. As a lot of other manga stories, it follows some high school students in their lives at school. But this is as far as this story will ressemble any other. The popularity rank system is decided by a simple card game, and no rules apply to the high ranked students.

- The characters are very typical of any high school manga characters. You’ll find the the eccentric, the calm, the intellectual, … All of them are very charming and you get completely addicted to what will happen to each of them even though they might not be the main characters. Unfortunately, there are so many characters and they have some ressemblances it sometimes is hard to make the distinction between all of them.

- As for the pacing of the story, it is in my opinion, very fast pace. It’s great for people who doesn’t want to read 10 volumes before getting somewhere, but it can sometimes make everything a bit too intense and blurry.

- The art style is great. The author definitely know how to capture emotions from each character. As for the writting, it’s good but not amazong either.


Verdict:
I do recommend the series. It’s different from other BL/Yaoi manga, which make it very intriguing to keep picking up the rest of the series. The romance isn’t as present but I’m sure this will come with time.

Warning!! It can be shocking for some depending on the trigger warning.



M.N

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nein danke - zu viele Vergewaltigungsszenen und ich befürchte dass aus diesen beiden (Vergewaltiger und Opfer) ein Liebespaar werden soll. Auf so was reagiere ich immer allergisch und ich konnte den Manga kaum fertig lesen.

Das Konzept, dass die Hierarchie in der Klasse sich von einem auf den anderen Tag vollkommen ändern kann, ist an und für sich interessant und man hätte durchaus etwas Gutes draus machen können. In diesem Fall ist das aber deutlich in die Hose gegangen.

(Das zweite Pärchen war halbwegs in Ordnung und wenn es nur um diese beiden gehen würde hätte ich den Manga um einiges besser gefunden.)

[Karene · Rating 1 out of 5]

Let me guess... it will be a love story born from rape. I really dislike this warped and unhealthy form of 'romance.

[Myffanwy Geronazzo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh no I regret every life choice that made me impulse buy the first 4 volumes at once.

[Dylan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have such conflicting feelings on this manga!!!

This was a really uncomfortable read for me, and it's meant to be. Our story follows class 2-1 as they play the Caste Game. In this game the whole class has to find cards that have been scattered around the school. Whoever gets the "King" gets to do whatever they want to the person who is "The Target". Our main character Azusa was "King" in the previous round, but now the tables have turned and he gets the role of "The Target".

I did like the secondary couple in this manga, who are featured in the last two chapters. They are a shy boy named Atsumu, who was "The Target" in the previous game. And the very popular boy Kuza, who had the role of "Jack" in the last game. Kuza is interested in Atsumu and becomes his friend. I liked their relationship, but I feel like there's some darkness to be discovered in their characters, as well.

This is not an easy read. There is assault, rape, torture, and mental bullying. However, it is a compelling read. I could not stop thinking about this manga after I finished this volume. I don't know if I'd recommend it to anyone, unless you're looking for something dark and utterly trashy. I will be picking up the next volume because I want to see where the story goes. It's like watching a True Crime show, you can't stop reading.

[Ely]

hmm this classism theory applied on this storyline is the worts. I mean that’s pretty impressive for a play on the storyline because that vividly shows how cruel the worlds are especially for the bullied.

TBH, it’s pretty confusing in the beginning but I get the glimpse of it and impressed on how the story goes in this volume. The artwork is pretty too, so its something

Well, I love Atsumu and Kuze rather than the first 2 characters. Maybe when it comes to this M M Romance or Manga or any of their stories I prefer one of them is submissive. Don’t blame me 😂

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was definitely not what i was expecting from a bl. i know usually, especially with yaoi, the top is more domineering and pushy about the relationship and the physical aspect of things, but i wasn’t expecting genuine assault and r*pe. just a heads up to anyone looking to pick this up, be aware of that.

[Petra · Rating 4 out of 5]

wow, this brings me back to years like 2014 or so... when I used to read all the yaoi manga online.

This is a really interesting premise, the characters are so evil but I loved it. (yep, it is the typical rape story but I'm looking forward to the development!)
the side couple is cute but also kinda creepy.