Castehate - By Natsuno Yuzo (7/10)
Omegaverse. It's a dirty word, but sometimes authors do get creative with it. This one is weird. It takes place is a world where everybody has animal ears! The carnivores are cannibals and polygamy is normal and classmates in school eat each other constantly. Yeah.
The author for sure has a fetish for cannibalism.
I'm serious if you can't handle graphic cannibalistic lust do not read this. One character almost eats a baby.
Rurikawa is a wolf alpha who thinks of Betas (weaker animal hybrids) as food. He literally eats a student in his "school" once every two months or so. He can eat regular food, but he actually genuinely has to eat people to live. All Alphas do. His "school" isn't really a school. Alphas live unnaturally long lives. It's more like a residence where they do take classes, learn new things, and find mates.
Rurikawa comes from an ancient wolf family. His father thinks the heir should have a mate from a rare species. "Rare species" hybrids can have lots of kids.
Rurikawa's best buddy, Tsukuyomi, is clearly a rare species. He thinks he's a alpha, for some reason, even though he doesn't behave like one. Tsukuyomi is a snake with actual hearts on his tail. Tsukuyomi has actually given birth to lots of kids already. He wants to find a fated partner, but his partners always leave him to raise the children. Here's where it gets confusing. Lower ranked children age faster. That's another reason why Alphas see them as animals. There's a side chapter that shows Tsukuyomi has grandkids, and he has outlived several generations of children. He has never found love....but he's been living with Rurikawa for most of his life. Rurikawa is obviously his true love, but Rurikawa's true love is a terrifying monster.
Kyogo was born an ugly monster, but he managed to eat a dying alpha. That trigged an evolution. Now he's insanely attractive to Alphas, which is convenient because he needs to eat them to live. Rurikawa immediately falls in love with him.
Kyogo loves Tsukuyomi though. Plot twist. Yeah. Kyogo is the only monster around who isn't a moron. He knows Tsukuyomi is a rare species. He tracked Tsukuyomi's scent, and came for him specifically. He also catches feelings for Rurikawa, and they kinda become a polygamous couple....
Kinda...
Rurikawa is romantically in love with Kyogo. Tsukuyomi loves Rurikawa, but they're all attracted to each other. Their society is poly anyway there's no real problem here.
Kyogo tests Rurikawa. He says he'll have a baby with him...if he brings Tsukuyomi. He says he's going to eat Tsukuyomi. Rurikawa protects Tsukuyomi instead. He also says he will willingly feed Kyogo any other Alpha, just not Tsukuyomi. Anyway, Kyogo gets jealous. This is when he catches feelings for Rurikawa. He wants Tsukuyomi, but Rurikawa isn't afraid of his true form. By volume two Kyogo likes both of them.
Tsukuyomi is basically willing to put up with anything for Rurikawa so... hooray?
The sex parts of this are so rough that they kinda just look like more cannibalism. Why am I reading this? Well, the author tried. I respect the hustle. I do. The art is good, and you can't find anything else like this. All of the toxic feelings! The blatantly evil cannibal Alphas? The possessive love connected to eating?! The tragic lack of humanity the characters have because of their long lives and instincts?! This world kinda feels like a dystopia...ding ding we have a winner. It is! Everybody is obsessed with breeding because humanity died off. The only survivors are the most violent human/animal hybrids. Crazy stuff. Kyogo and Rurikawa aren't just boring possessive dudes. They're being controlled by their DNA and an alien society that no regular human could hope to survive in.
Ok.
Duh.
The rare species reveal was kinda funny. Like it's obvious. Kyogo confesses to Tsukuyomi again, and Tsukuyomi kinda warms up to him, but he so clearly just loves Rurikawa. Kyogo is a hungry monster. Rurikawa is a dutiful but DENSE Alpha who loves that monster. Being Tsukuyomi sucks, but he's safe. In this violent world he has two protectors. Kyogo is freakishly powerful, but he needs alot of live meat. Tsukuyomi and Rurikawa start feeding him normal food. It's implied that Kyogo is willing to settle down with them and give up some of his monster powers.
Yay?
Kyogo claims that his mutated body will die without Alpha meat, but it kinda gets glossed over. I know this is yaoi. I know I'm kinda not supposed to care, but I care more about the hybrid apocalypse setting. The poly romance is ok, ok? It's not that bad. Rurikawa and Kyogo both have sincere moments with Tsukuyomi. Kyogo is most definitely Tsukuyomi's stalker though. Also he might only love Tsukuyomi because of his smell...no...when they start interacting Kyogo thinks he's sweet. Maybe I just don't like Kyogo haha...
When the story begins we think Kyogo is the rare one. That was an ok plot twist. When Kyogo started eating Alphas it was genuinely shocking. All of the text about inheritance, breeding, stalking, cannibalism, death and the apocalypse is nearly impossible to follow. Read this if you want to see how weird Omegaverse can get. Is it good? No.
Is it boring?
No.
