Reviews for Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway

As a mega fan of the LN (that just recently ended), and even currently reading the manga adaptation of the original source material (which only solicited and solidified my love for the series), from the moment I first laid my eyes on it, the controversy has been slowly building up with the age-gap romance that's sprinkled with lots of depressing drama filled in, and novelist Shimesaba has done a wonderful job at trying to be the better and superior version of the lackluster KoiKimo that aired alongside each other on the same day this season. And before you ask, "cheap" drama doesn't happen here, nada.Your drama "tastes" may vary with this one.

Runaway children. What do you expect for them to encounter while being defenseless without the supervision of adults a.k.a parents, boy or girl. In the case of the JK in question: Sayu Ogiwara, she ran away simply due to family problems that didn't work out, and had to live with the expenses given by her brother Issa until the internal problem could subside (which didn't happen). Being out of money and out of options, Sayu goes out to solicit sexual favours in exchange of having a roof on her head, just to live out another day, on and off. That is until she is spotted under a night lamp by an adult, which she attempts to repeat the same seduction behaviour again, only except that this man rejects her advances outright and teaches her how to do housework, and he goes by the name of Yoshida. From this day forward, the story begins the life of a JK who is being taught how to be a proper high school girl, and the man's constant love afflictions over women whom he desires or has a crush on him at work, going through the hustle and bustle of life while keeping this secret under wraps.

First off, I really want to stress this point home: Age disparity relationships are uncommon but yet still a heavily debated relevant societal issue, though you would often see worldly views denouncing these relationships, from being the shortest marriage possible to facing day-to-day ridicules from people around them. Unsurprisingly, some have eschewed from the norm, and are still able to find happiness over their relationships, and this is definitely the case with the "parent-child" family rhetoric of Sayu and Yoshida. Being an easily vulnerable girl, Sayu has had her share of a depressing past, most of which stems from her natural beauty that others would be jealous of (and friends being scapegoats driven to death), not to mention that the numerous times of her successful sexual favours for a roof above her head slowly seeps in her forced mindless attitude and behaviour of going bleak, in a terrifying fall from grace as a growing teenager and already having her virginity taken away at such a young age. Her remedy is Yoshida, an adult man who is beginning to feel his romance clicks at work with one of his co-workers (the busty Airi Gotou) while being enamored by his junior (Yuzuha Mishima) in a love triangle, all in the name of love and hoping to score with her as a growing adult.

Alas, with the arrival of Sayu, Yoshida has to keep everything about her a secret, lest his neighbours or anyone outside on the street parallel to his small apartment calls him out, even down to his colleagues, to which when hey spot Sayu with him, they begin to question his morales of "taking care of" her when he could've easily exploited her for sex. Nevertheless, this chad adult stood his ground, goes against the social norm by having her around like his own borne child, truly caring for her like a real and mannered adult should be. Even with the growing pangs of Sayu's past coming back to haunt her, as is the eventual reveal with relative colleagues both on Sayu and Yoshida's side, Yoshida faces it like a real man against these problems, though harbouring second thoughts on a clear head at times to stymie his actual body and verbal languages. This is where the original source material and this show finds its "wholesomeness" (and other haters "not buying the cringe drama") in the "parent-child" stranger relationship, where both Sayu and Yoshida grow more fond of each other, while keeping themselves at bay of the potential backlash that they will face in the series going forward. This is IMO character development and background done dreadfully-but-absolutely right, even if on a fictionalised level. If I were to consummate this akin to a quote in the real world, it would be this: "If you want to be successful, learn from the other peoples’ mistakes, don’t learn from success stories.” by Alibaba's CEO Jack Ma.

I'd pray for any studio who got this adaptation to work wonders with the original source material (that's condensed due to time issues), and Project No. 9 got their hands on it, and truly delivered with its limited animation that is made up by the almost-gorgeous visuals, seemingly the best that this studio has pumped out so far that I've seen. It has been a dream come true for fans like myself to finally see HigeHiro on the small screen, and aside from some omissions, this is a largely intact adaptation that does not try to force its themes into one of the stalker kind (I'm lookng at you, KoiKimo) and anything else that detracts from the experience. As for the OST though, it's largely cheerful and doesn't give away the hidden themes that this is an R-rated show with some fanservice and such (that thankfully isn't much). Some good OP/ED songs that fit the expressions of the show well, and Seiyuu idol group DIALOGUE+ has definitely upped their song repertoire quality.

This show won't be a masterpiece of a set piece of dark romance drama, but at least it's a good showing to newcomers who are intrigued with HigeHiro. Make no mistake, there are some scenes that will make you retch at the sight of it, and the drama may go ham and be superficial at times, but when you combine all of them together, it is one hell of an experience not to miss. Finally, a long-awaited show of mine that I can check out of my checklist of works made into anime. It's not for everyone, and you'd be best to have an empty stomach going into what HigeHiro is all about, to letting it ring the fact that you can never easily get out of once you start sinking into this deep rabbit hole of an engrossing drama.

“To the girls that will never graduate from highschool, to the girls that will never find warmth in this world, to the girls that have been abandoned by their parents. I pray that you will find peace in your heart, I pray that you will overcome all your demons, I pray that one day you will say “I’m happy””. Higehiro is not a romantic comedy, it is an anime that seeks to tell a story, a story about despair, about home and most importantly about need. To tell this story we are introduced to two characters. Yoshida, a man who falls in love with his bossand is rejected, and Sayu, a schoolgirl who has run away from home and exchanges sexual favors in order to have a roof over her head. Through these two characters, the author's vision of the world is presented to us.

We learned that the title is the summary of an opera, and in this case it is no different, HigeHiro: After being rejected, I shaved and went to a High School Runaway is exactly what the title says. What makes us think about why such events occurred, the main one, why Sayu exchanges her body for a place to stay? And yes, the main question is not “Why Sayu left her home”. the main point that proves this is the protagonist's attitude towards Yoshida, she not only teases him, but incessantly seeks him to have sex with her. This point is not only stupidly discarded, it is also tossed aside during the rest of the plot and minimized in exchange for another point, her past. her past is portrayed as something dark, traumatic and life-changing, a question that even Yoshida is reluctant to ask.

As we incessantly think about the event that brought about sayu's escape, we are led to believe in Yoshida's goodness and to see him as a moral example to follow, the man who blame his boss for rejecting him, the man who lets a minor spend days in his house, is the same "morally upright" man.

The other characters are despicable and replaceable at any time, besides completing the social circle of our protagonists, they are used to reinforce Yoshida's criminal behavior. They accept the situation calmly and even support him to stay close to Sayu in order to give her the necessary support. As we go through some deplorable fan service scenes, Sayu's long-awaited past is revealed to us, a discussion. The cause of the whole plot is not only stupid, it uses suicide in a disrespectful way, The death of her friend is not the reason for the escape, also there’s no reason for her friend suicide at all, the lesson that is given to the viewer is “Let propel alone, friendships tarnish the beauty of individuality”. In addition to all of the above, we see an incongruity between the facts when Issa is presented in the story, Sayu's brother whose existence proves that the past doesn't make any sense, he always supported her and sought her happiness, he came to afford hotel stays to leave her alone, away from her demonic mother, and how is he presented? Like the villain that will separate lovers.

In the technical aspect, HigeHiro is a mess, the direction is terrible, besides being quite visible how the lack of experience harmed the director, the excess of static scenes (which served in this case to represent the character's thinking) makes the anime dull and uninteresting, there are so many scenes in this format that the thoughts of the characters became predictable. The soundtrack is boring, nothing impactful or memorable, with the exception of the song “Forgotten Event”, which despite not being totally original, is worth listening to.

In the end HigeHiro uses a real and troubling theme to bring out a happy story, where he treats the protagonist as a guardian angel while treating anyone who sees the problematic relationship between Yoshida and Sayu as the story's villain. If you felt bad for Sayu's early story, see other true stories about girls who gave up everything in search of a happy life and a place to call home and all they found was a dark and cold world.

“Higehiro is a story about criminal activity, make no doubt it.” The words by Higehiro’s author, written in response to an alarming rise in copycat crimes since the beginning of the anime while true, do not prevent the enjoyment of said story. I’ve said it a thousand times, but I will say it again. You can enjoy a story and not agree with the things that occur in said story. I love playing Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty. I don’t believe shooting and robbing random people is ok, yet I still enjoy playing video games. Why? Because my brain is developed enough todistinguish between fantasy and reality. I hope yours is too. For that reason, I found Higehiro to be a really enjoyable experience.

I had some knowledge of the light novel coming into the anime, but didn’t get a chance to check it out before the anime aired. Admittedly, I too was thrown off by the premise, but once I got into it, I realised not only were people overreacting, they were missing out on a genuinely heartwarming story. Before I go further, I will add that as far as the anime goes, there are NO romantic goings on between an adult and a child. The light novel on the other hand… well that’s another story. So if you found that to be a deterrent, don’t worry, you’re good. Instead, what we do have in Higehiro is two broken people at different stages in life, crossing each other’s paths at the perfect time. Sayu and Yoshida are exactly what the other needs and are able to help each other move on from the past as well as look forward a new future. While the show at times does make a meal of the whole young high school girl living with an older guy thing, its purely an innocent relationship in nature and I respect that. While I personally would not have minded romantic undertones, I appreciated that the story(anime) gives us a genuine platonic relationship between a girl and guy. We don’t get many of those, so this was a refreshing experience.

I enjoyed not only Sayu and Yoshida’s dynamic, but I think the side characters were great in this as well. There’s not a huge cast, but the 5-6 other characters that we see on a consistent basis in the story are really fun. While pacing wise, I felt things were a bit slow at times, that’s to be expected with this type of story. I loved the art style of the show. It’s the same studio and team behind last season’s Tomozaki-Kun, so similar glimmery style art and bright colour palettes. As with most slice of life, character designs were really well done too.

Look, Higehiro is not for everyone. It’s slice of life, a bit slow at times and technically does depict illegal activity. If you’re sensitive or unable to separate reality from fiction, leave it alone. If you are able to enjoy things and not equate them to real humans, this is a very fun and heartwarming story. There’s some genuinely positive themes such as accepting and moving on from the past, as well as dealing with dysfunctional families that can be taken from the show if you’re willing to listen.

Higehiro was one of the four best shows of this Spring 2021 season and I am sad to see it go. Higehiro gets 9 out of 10.

Imagine going home one day and see a high school girl at your doorsteps. Now imagine that same girl offering you sex for a place to stay. What would you do? Chances are, you'll have a million thoughts running through your head but would you take or ditch her? Twenty-seven years old Yoshida made a daring choice to take a high school girl into his home and thus begins their bizarre life experience, one that neither of them will ever forget. Based on the light novel of the same name, Higehiro does indeed sparks certain levels of controversy just by the premise and context alone. Theage gap difference is a red flag. High school girl Sayu Ogiwara is essentially a runway and at her age of 17, she lacks the financial support that a teenager needs. To get by, she sleeps with various men and made that same offer to Yoshida. In response, he refuses to sleep with Sayu but does offer a place for her to stay. What does that action tell us about Yoshida already? Honestly, it shows that Yoshida is a caring young man who isn't afraid to take risks. Some guys woul've taken advantage of her or worse, reported Sayu to the police. Instead, Yoshida offers her shelter, kindness, and companionship.

Yoshida is fundamentally a hardworking salaryman who lives by himself until taking Sayu in to his home. He works overtime when needed and seems to have a decent working relationship with his co-workers. In fact, his personality and professional ethnics has attracted the attention of his female co-workers, including Yuzuha Mishima. Unfortunately for her, it seems Yoshida's inexperience with women made him dense about their feelings. Throughout the show, you can see the numerous hints she throws at him, including asking him out or showing signs of jealousy. Yoshida seems so dense that he hardly notices any signs of romance aimed at him until she confessed directly. By this act, you can pretty much say that when it comes to romance, Yoshida really needs more social experience. However, that doesn't mean he lacks a love interest at work. In fact, we see that Yoshida confess but rejected right off the bat by his co-worker, Airi Gotou. It set off a chain of events that ended up with Yoshida taking in Sayu to his home. They say that romance can begin like a fate so perhaps it's also a sign. However, do very aware that Yoshida and Sayu's relationship isn't exactly romantic.

The meat of the show is about Yoshida and Sayu's rather complex relationship. Besides their age difference, it's shown that Sayu hides her vulnerability and believes in a simple way of living her life. She often puts on a facade behind her smile although it's shown in rare occasions in the beginning when she is surprised by other people's kindness, especially Yoshida. As more episodes progresses, we see that she opens up more to others and be more of herself. Thanks to Yoshida's influence, she even gathers the confidence to face her future rather than running from it. Life is a reality and Sayu had her own troubled past with her mother, a fellow classmate, and even herself. On the other hand, Yoshida is rather resistant to Yoshida's charms. Even when asked if he wants to join her in bed, he passes it off as a joke. However, Yoshida does grow as a person when taking responsibility. Previously, he was a very independent person who works hard to get by, a contrast to Sayu's carefree way of living. Now, he realizes the importance of also being a people person. Similarly, Sayu begins to take responsibility by taking care of the house and even getting a part time job. Luckily, she also encounters a co-worker who gets along with her named Asami. Their sisterly bond represents a beacon of light in Sayu's new life as Asami is very protective of her. Thanks to Asami and Yoshida's influence, we finally see Sayu being able to open others like ways she didn't realize she could before.

As a romance drama, you can bet that the show is prone to some emotional outbrusts and sensitive topics. These include underage prostitution, bullying, suicide, and social alienation. When I came into this show, I had this level of expectation with the materials the show promoted. If you're a new viewer, chances are that you may be thrown off by some of the show's plot elements. Most importantly is Sayu and Yoshida dealing with life challenges. Watching Sayu facing her past is one of the most important part of her character growth. At first, she couldn't do it alone and the past comes backs to haunt her. Two examples includes her own strict mother and Yaguchi, a guy she once hooked up with. The latter becomes a main problem that triggers Sayu's vunlerable side until she is finally able to let go of her past. Indeed, Higehiro wanted us to experience what Sayu has been through but honestly, her character and choices are controversial. Let's ask ourselves, if Yoshida refused to take Sayu in, what would of happened to her? Chances are, she'd end up in the streets again and using her body to make a living as she always have. It's a shameful reality when we look at the real picture. There are individuals in our real life society that can be relatable to Sayu. When you examine her character, Sayu is fundamentally a naive girl when taking on the world by herself, or at least was, until Yoshida entered her life.

The real question you may still be asking yourself if the romance truly develops between these two people. Fate tied them together to meet but does it bloom into a true relationship? Unfortunately, this season remains ambigious and doesn't make them into an official couple. Sayu and Yoshida's relationship does develop from strangers to close friends but it's not the type of close where they are considered lovers. So if you're looking for some real romance, prepare for some disappointment. To be fair, this anime isn't truly about romance in the first place. In other words, this show is more about facing life obstacles and challenge themselves to make the best them.

Art style and production quality retains a consistent pacing throughout the series. It adapt straight from the light novels to give our characters an appealing look. Sayu indeed has the look of a high school girl decorated with a charming face and slim figure. Yoshida is also crafted with a handsome face that attracts the attention of ladies. As a salaryman, he retains a sense of professionalism at work and adult at home. If you're also asking for fan service, there's definitely some controversy. This comes from Sayu's early attempts to seduce Yoshida and to be quite frank, it's slightly disturbing to watch. Again, controversy is a word that seems syonyomous to this show at times so be aware.

Higehiro seems like a series that was destind to get an anime adaptation. Controversial or not, Higehiro is one of those shows that tries, to be real as it can be.

Yet another anime which I can't watch without pausing every 15 seconds and criticizing. Story & Characters - 3 The problem I have is with the plot setup itself. Yoshida does stuff like *not fricking a child* and this might make him look responsible, but ffs he would have just called the cops and informed them about sayu if he was actually a responsible adult. That's why I don't like the setup, because the setup itself is just too unrealistic. This is a shonen anime about romance between a highschool girl and an adult man... Yes, there are other shonen animes that have pulled off some similar plot lines, butthis one definitely hasn't! A highschool girl and adult man romance does not often resonate with a teenage boy and any attempts to make it more relatable for a teenage boy just makes the story even more unrealistic.

I feel like having a relatable view point character (I know that's pretty hard to put in to this setup(that's why this setup shouldn't have been used to begin with)) would have made it better or just making the anime literally more ecchi (pls don't kill me for suggesting this, it's just an idea(tbh even that would have been better)) would have made it lot more entertaining for a teenage boy than it is now.

Comparatively speaking, this has failed as a shonen anime.

tl;dr- too unrealistic doesn't really fit the shonen niche in a nice way.

Art & Sound - 5

It was nothing noticably good, just the mediocre sound and art you would expect from a romance anime. Mediocre. Nothing more to say about it.

Enjoyment - 2

It is pretty dreadful to watch, I end up pausing it every few minutes to criticize the unrealistic aspects of the story and I end up complaining for longer than watching the anime (yes I talk to myself for over 20 minutes) I usually don't write reviews, but this was so bad and the rating seemed so unfair(I know it will probably just go down later), I was forced to write this review.

Overall - 3

I would rather watch some mainline isekai shiz rather than watching this. The only reason I am still watching this anime is because I don't want another anime in my dropped list.

This is a review I wrote before I watched the whole anime, but I don't think it will change much, since it's the set up itself that has the problem.

Story: What is this show even about? It was interesting at first. What could compel a young girl like Sayu to run away from home, and become a prostitute? How did it come to this in the first place? However, it quickly reveals itself to be a boring romance between Yoshida and his coworkers, who we're supposed to admire for not having sex with a teenager. All of this is presented with poor audio and visuals. Characters: Remember "show, don't tell"? Well, despite being an anime, all it does is tell. It just feels like a slideshow of quotes. The characters behave consistently, at least, but everythingstill feels hollow. Their entire purpose is to deliver some forgettable, "insightful" quote. But you can't take any of them seriously, because none of them seem to have any meaningful problem with the obvious problem at hand: some 30 year old cardboard cutout coworker of theirs is keeping a runaway 14 year old in their apartment. And the only person who states the obvious, the fact that it's not Yoshida's place to try and raise / help this child, is Sayu's rapist. He's not her father, he's just some guy who should have called the police a long time ago.

Sound:

The sound sucks. Early on in episode 6, gyaru coworker slams a door shut, the screen shakes, but not a sound is made. They just forgot to add in the sound of the door slamming. It's just one scene, but it reminds you of how barebones the show is in terms of audio. So much of the show is just two characters talking in complete silence, but I'm not a fan of the annoying music either, which just has to be loud as fuck. In episode 7, when Sayu and Yoshida eat katsudon, I wasn't sure if the background track was two separate songs playing over each other. It's so distractingly bad. In episode 6, when Sayu bumps into the rapist, the guitar is so jarring that it completely breaks any immersion that may have built up in the previous scene. I don't know how to explain it in technical terms, but I'd liken it to showing up to a funeral in a yellow suit.

Art:

Remember the fucking door? I'm not done with it yet. This piece of shit door is a completely flat panel. Episode 6, 2:54, we get confirmation that it has no handle or crevice-thing for you to pull on it from the outside. It's not one of those doors that you're supposed to push open before letting it bounce back into place either. But at 15:28 in episode 6, the rapist grabs the nonexistent door handle, and closes it. In the next shot we get further confirmation that the door is indeed just a flat panel. So we can conclude the rapist just wished a door handle into existence for that brief moment. This specific door serves to highlight how incredibly lazy and soulless the visuals are.

I think the door handle is a great way to represent the show. Arbitrary dialogue and decisions show up whenever it's needed so that this farcical story can continue without swiftly ending in Yoshida's arrest, and paint him in a good light.

Don't bother... just go get a door with a handle (or something idk)

The show is wildly unrealistic. First of all, I am not going to make judgement of how Yoshida letting a 17-year-old female runaway to stay at his house. In my jurisdiction, a person can move out from their parents' home once they reach the age of 16. What annoyed me the most was what happened in episode 9. It was revealed that Sayu left home, because she was bullied at school, and her mother treats her badly. It was also revealed that her brother is a rich CEO. I don't understand - if her school was so bad, why doesn't she go to another school,or even a private school? Her brother gave her about $2500 USD to help her to sustain herself while she was having a mental breakdown, that is a lot of money - it is almost the median income of a person in the US. This makes Sayu an insufferable brat from a rich family.

Another highly unrealistic aspect is the behaviour of Sayu. She is considerate, and she excels at housework. This is atypical of someone who would run away from home.

Finally, how does she look so pretty and cute after being on the run for 6 months? I haven ever seen a homeless person who is as well presented as her.

An anime adaptation of the “you have to eat all the eggs” meme (google it). Considering this series is tagged by MAL as Drama/Romance, but is not, in fact, tagged as Hentai, anyone who ever read half a book should be able to guess that its title is not meant to be taken at face value. Anyone who read an entire book would likely go even further and, taking the Drama tag into account, assume the title is intentionally provocative and the story is some sort of social commentary on sexual exploitation of minors or something. That assumption is, sadly, couldn’t be further from reality. HigeHiro isan otaku-pandering ecchi harem with a heavy dose of soap opera in form, and a rapist’s wish-fulfillment fantasy in substance. Vulgarity-wise, I would put it in the ballpark of such titles as Domestic Kanojo, but that would be insulting to Domestic Kanojo and similar smutty soap operas, as, for all their flaws, those at least manage to not be hypocritically pretentious in their moral bankruptcy.

How is it pretentious:

Episode 1 - an underage runaway girl escaping domestic problems spends six months traveling across the country and prostituting herself for a roof above her head.

Episode 2 - a faceless self-insert protagonist has a harem of three big-breasted moeblobs who are all tripping over themselves in a race to suck his dick because of how nice he is, resorting to soap-opera-tier scheming in order to win his attention.

Episode 3 - straight-up sex scenes.

Both heavy drama and frivolous smut have their place. That place, however, is not within the same fucking story, it is incredibly tone-deaf and distasteful.

How is it morally bankrupt:

Evidently, not everyone knows how morals work, so here’s a PSA: if an adult man runs into an underage prostitute soliciting him for a homestay - the ONLY moral course of action for him is to call the police and child protection services. If he is actually bringing her home - he is a rapist aiming for sexual gratification. Period. No amount of closeted pedophile’s mental gymnastics about “helping” her, or “having good intentions” can change that. The MC of HigeHiro is a rapist. Romeo, Alfa, Papa, India, Sierra, Tango. Rapist. He isn’t a nice guy, he is a “nice guy” - a predatory creep “helping” a vulnerable underage girl with an ulterior expectation that his wahmen-respecting effort will get rewarded with her affection. PSA No.2: the premise of this series is a well-known irl occurrence in Japan, commonly referred to as “kamimachi,” and housing a minor that ran away from home is legally considered abduction there - exactly to protect minors from rapists like this one (refer to Chapter 23 of We Shall Now Begin Ethics manga for a non-delusional portrayal of these “saviors”). But instead of framing this rapist like the lowlife scumbag and literal criminal he is, HigeHiro attempts to glamorize and glorify his abduction, clearly with the intent to peddle him as a self-insert fantasy to his real-life counterpart white knights/male feminists/aspiring rapists (PSA No. 3: if you’re a woman, never be alone in a room with a self-proclaimed male feminist).

Oh, “but the MC doesn’t literally stick his dick into the girl, that makes everything fine.” Yeah, no. That’s a load of hypocritical crap and exactly what makes this show masturbatory wish-fulfillment. The MC doesn’t stick his dick into the girl - he just keeps this gorgeous-looking, dick-hungry JK waifu that is completely dependent on him in his apartment as a pet/house worker, getting hard from all the boobs she voluntarily shoves in his face and cumming from his sense of superiority that he refuses to fuck her even though she begs him for it every 30 seconds. That, kids, is something called “domination fantasy.” Where I’m coming from, using BDSM slave roleplay as a “moral” substitute for sex makes a story more degenerate, not less. Just let it sink for a moment - this show would become LESS depraved if it had its protagonist fuck a minor. That’s how far up its morally bankrupt ass it is.

Btw, I’m sure that the female lead being a 10/10 underage fapbait has no relation whatsoever to this “wholesome” show’s appeal. This “drama” would be just as popular if the MC was trying to help a 40-years-old crack whore with rotten teeth, or an HIV-positive gay twink, right?

Hige wo Soru is also morally bankrupt in a different sense - it glorifies Darwin-award-worthy stupidity. Here’s PSA No. 4: if an underage prostitute solicits a man to “adopt” her like that, realistically only one of the two outcomes is going to happen: 1) The next day the man wakes up with a terrible headache to find both the girl and all of his valuables missing. 2) The next day five “brothers'' with baseball bats show up and demand compensation for defiling their “sister.” Anyone taking this idiotic shlock seriously should try to watch more crime reports on the news to learn how real life actually works.

Even if viewed exclusively as an ecchi harem, HigeHiro is still subpar trash.

I’m no stranger to fictional smut. A story can be infinitely vulgar - and still have artistic merit, as evidenced by ShindoL’s Emergence, or, if you read actual books, the entire bibliography of Henry Miller. If you don’t know who that is - try reading his Wikipedia page. Does it give you an impression that he was writing hardcore pornography? It probably doesn’t - in recognition of his pornography’s artistic merits.

Hige wo Soru has no artistic merit. Its plot is soap opera trash, its characters are shallow one-dimensional trash, and its story is beta-male wish-fulfillment trash. Trash, trash, trash, trash. I’m gonna elaborate on the characters, as they are great at driving this point home:

Yoshida, the “nice guy” rapist MC. I described him already, his whole personality is that he respects wahmen and is non-descript enough to self-insert into. His real substance is that he serves as the perfect representation of this show on the meta-level. Every woman within the story wants to suck his dick because of how “not like the other guys” he is. Then the story itself fellates him as a saint because he doesn’t put his dick into a minor, as if it’s some grand moral achievement, and not, you know, sane human behavior. And then the fanbase fellates the story for being stunning and brave, delusionally overlooking how evil and repugnant it actually is.

Sayu, the white-knight-bait female lead. 10/10 moeblob looks (to get the white knight’s dick hard). A prostitute (always thirsty and down-to-fuck without the need for grooming/forcing on the white knight’s part). Underage and underprivileged (submissive to, and dependent on her “daddy”). At the same time, no inconvenient baggage that will make “saving” her harder or less appealing - no rap sheet, no drug addiction, no disfiguring injuries, no Hepatitis B. She also has no agency whatsoever - sure, she might beg the MC to fuck her, but if he refuses - she obediently desists, because she’s not a woman that wants to form a relationship with this guy, or wants to get an advantage over him, or just plain wants to have sex - she is a fuckdoll whose whole raison d’etre is to be the object of his savior fantasy.

Gotou, the soap-opera-incarnate female senpai. She is a manipulative psycho that was friend-zoning the MC who had a crush on her for years, supposedly because she just wasn’t attracted to him. Except when he gets female attention, she becomes insanely possessive and tries to seduce him - and instead of being framed like the sociopath she is, the show treats her with the “tee-hee, what a tsundere” attitude. Also claims to be a virgin, despite being 28 and having a disposition of an onlyfans millionaire - because every harem trash has to have a pure waifu.

Yuzuha, the likes-the-mc-because-she-just-does female kohai. Exists to accept the unnatural relationship of the leads without questions, deluding the audience into thinking that an “average” person won’t call the MC out on being a rapist. Also exists to have more body types/waifu options/fapbait in order to boost sales.

Asami, the gyaru. Exists to accept the unnatural relationship of the leads without questions, deluding the audience into thinking that an “average” person won’t call the MC out on being a rapist. Also exists to have more body types/waifu options/fapbait in order to boost sales.

Yaguchi, the human-shaped “NO U!” See, he is the only sane person in the entire show, calling the MC out on his hypocrisy and bringing up all the sane person arguments on why the MC’s actions are not okay. He’s also a psychopathic remorseless rapist - so that the target audience can screech NO U and dismiss those arguments based solely on who is making them. Plus, no hypocritical moral masturbation is complete without the “savior” having to make a “sacrifice” of becoming hated and criticized for doing the “right thing.”

There are also Sayu’s mother and brother, they’re plot devices that exist to force some contrived soap-opera-level drama which I can’t describe without spoiling the ending. Which I would actually do if there was some critical point to be made about it, but the thing is, the ending is just a resounding “meh,” as delivering any sort of compelling finale was never on the author’s to-do list, and here’s why:

This series is a scam.

My first impression was that the author was just writing his own wish-fulfillment. But after seeing the interview where he openly admits that what Yoshida is doing is a crime and urges his readers not to imitate his fiction, I know that’s not really the case. “Guys, buy my novels and live vicariously through the MC that gets praised and rewarded for his actions by the entire universe, but don’t do what he does, it’s bad, mmkay?” What a fucking hypocrite. This author knew exactly what he was writing and why - he was writing a get-rich-quick scheme because he’s an unscrupulous grifter. Kamimachi has long been a staple hentai plot. And it always plays out in hentai exactly like in HigeHiro - the guy “selflessly” showers the girl with fatherly caring, which makes the girl fall for him and “willingly” fuck him out of gratitude. So the author seems to have figured out that copying that, removing explicit penetration scenes, and putting up a hypocritical veneer of false moral superiority would sell like hotcakes with otaku. Good for him and his wallet. But as an audience, I couldn’t care less about how well a story sells, I care about its substance - and this is vomit.

1/10 for “cynical low-effort cash grab.”

P.S. Eleven days prior to the airing of the final episode of this show, NHK News Web ran an article about a 29-year-old lawyer (sic!) arrested for housing a high school runaway after just four days of cohabitation, and as of the date of publication of this review, I can’t stop laughing. You can find the story by googling “Real life doesn't work like anime – Tokyo man arrested after letting schoolgirl live with him”.

P.P.S. If you want to see the kamimachi premise explored in an actual drama not written by/for human garbage, I recommend the “7 troublesome days with the future bride who is too kuudere” LN/manga (it's still NSFW, just without the moral bankruptcy).

If you look at my ratings, you will notice a trend, I rarely give out a 1 to an anime. I rarely rate bellow a 5! There is a reason for that, its because I usually watch the more morally accepted and/or justifiable anime, and if there is anything morally wrong with a show, it is typically a comedy of some sort or harem that is MEANT to be awkward and weird. This show is pathetic. Let me explain: Starting from the first episode this show is simply a red pill to ever guy who is watching. From the first episode you are bombarded with signals like"women only want you when you have women" and "if you are single, no women wants you". Come on, really? You couldn't come up with anything more cliche? Zero creativity here. These are just well known tropes in the dating sphere but the fact that there was ZERO build up or segway into it other than the same woman straight up chasing the guy she turned down the episode before (heck not even that, its in the same episode, and its the first one). FUCK. The dude couldn't be a more oblivious kuck.

--SPOILER: For example, the woman he is after for 5 years goes out on a date with him, he offers her to go back to his place, she says she has a boyfriend, and then after he gets a little girl to take do his laundry, this some how gets her interested in him? So she takes him out on dates because suddenly she likes him? Sorry, that's messed up and I think he is the one who needs to raise his standards, not the 17yo. SPOILER--

Then on top of that this guy who is near 30 is allowing a 17 year old to live with him? Listen, no matter how much he denies that he wants to sleep with her, he should have turned her into the police and went along his merry way. BUT NO. This is what enables him to suddenly have tons of women want to smash him. Why? Because of what I said before...You can't get women, if you don't already have options, and apparently living with a young, naïve, sexually abused, spoiled (yet somehow super skilled?) teenager helps him seem like he has options.

It gets even worse when more and more people realize this is happening, and proceed to endorse it! Listen, I know this isn't hentai, but honestly, you might as well download, edit, and redraw what needs to be done and you have yourself a professional porno fantasy harem. There is quite literally nothing morally justifiable here. Nothing.

I try to not read reviews, and simply go off descriptions, but this is the most deceiving show out there thus far. It could be easily mistaken as a "wholesome" show where an older guy takes in a poor girl who just needs some help and he takes PROACTIVE steps to get her back home. Not here, instead...she is just another cog in the harem machine...except she is a solid decade younger, and still in school, technically. Yup. Not illegal at all.

This is a solid 1. Not only that, its a very disappointing one because this isn't like its "trash". Its just it could have taken a more grown up approach to solving such a situation. You know what anime did this similar scenario well? Weathering with You. If you really want some high school run-away's trying to make it, watch that.

***THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS*** To be fair though I am no saint,I have my trash taste in anime. I am just gonna lay it out to you. Since most people here aren't fully aware of different cultures of the world. This anime tackles social issues that japan is facing at the moment. Some adults aren't fit to be parents. Kids are growing up with out parental figures. This is a major case in Asian countries where high profile families live.The media work is centered around Sayu, so keep that in mind.

Sayu has been hard pressed with her family. Her own mother forced the idea of her best friend( only Friend) suicide to Sayu as her doing. Who wouldn't have some mental instability with that going on? also keep in mind when you add the fact her dad walked out on them to marry another woman. as you can see there's turmoil in her house that forces her to run away.

The concept of '' people can be nice to you even if they don't want anything in return'' isn't something he understands due to her up bringing which is why she slept with men to have a roof over her head. all things considered she is still a child she doesn't know how the world works she grew up with a silver spoon so cut her some slack. '' But Sayu is old enough to know what she's doing'' Valid argument, But have you considered everything has gone up to the point where she runs away. I firmly believe that she didn't have any form of parental love or guidance when she was growing up which distorts her view on things. which isn't normal for a teen. Seeing a pattern here....

This is where everyone else comes into play.

Yoshida is someone who is actually nice. He took the chance to look after her because if he were to have turned in to the police then she would have back to cause of her traumatic self.

Some you missed the point where he says multiple times that he won't fall in love or sleep with her. Also the countless rebuttal to her sexual advance on him '' if you keep doing that to me i will kick you out'' So pedophile of yoshida right? Anyway, What he offers is a different perspective to her. Saying that people can be nice. That they don't want anything in return when they offer their kindness. He shows her value in oneself, to have standards but ultimately to mature.

this maturity help comes from the efforts from the cast as they guide her to over come the trauma from her past. Like legit aside from the harem aspect which is hardly there. everyone else's role is help out. nothing more nothing less. at some point they become important figures to her which helps her mature.

Yes the anime is Dark, it's going make you feel uncomfortable but the message is there. Not everything has to be a garden full of roses.

I won't spoil anymore just watch it if you want a anime that's thought provoking. make your own judgments but more than anything this hits all the nails for me. This is wholesome in its own way. Not heart warming just wholesome with dark undertones.

Overall 9/10

Art is fine nothing great but project 9 is doing a solid job

Sound is great the music matches the tones of the anime, Voices are solid as well.

Story- it's fucking great, fight me

Projecting my high morale cancel culture toxic waste of space loser self in this anime- N/A

Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway... This anime is seriously one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen - it's like a masterclass in friendship and relationships. I mean, Yoshida? He's like the ultimate dude. I'd have lost my cool like five times over if I were in his shoes, but he just keeps on trucking, always looking out for Sayu. And Sayu herself? She's like the most precious thing ever! I just wanted to give her a big ol' hug and protect her from the world. What really got me was how the series tackled some heavy stuff- like abandonment, rejection, and finding your place - but did it in a way that was so gentle and uplifting. It's like the anime equivalent of a warm cup of tea on a bad day.

And the character development? Yoshida and Sayu's relationship is like a slow-burning fire - it's like watching a flower bloom in real time. I was on the edge of my seat, waiting to see what would happen next.

I'm seriously hoping for an OVA or season 2, because I need closure! Do they end up together? Do they stay friends? I need answers!

It's been disappointing to see people knock this series and make a big fuss about how it promotes "criminal activity," specifically, relationships with minors. Unlike a handful of other anime/manga that come to mind, this isn't a story that revolves around an inappropriate, lewd relationship with a minor. The plot almost solely focuses on the bond developed between the MCs and how they individually grow as people and improve their lives as a result of their time spent together. More than anything, it's a coming-of-age story that highlights a young man and a teen girl each overcoming their own unique challenges & facing them together.The only two things keeping this from a PERFECT 10 for me are the ending and overall lack of romantic progression (don't worry no spoilers here).

The ending isn't bad by any means, but felt premature and just left me wanting more. I really wanted to see what life was like for our favorite characters after everything was said and done, even if it was a sneak peek. The story keeps you so locked in that when the show finishes you're like, "Wait, that's it? No season 2? What happens in the manga? It must go on, right?" Perhaps the ending feels this way due to how they loaded such a captivating story into a single-season anime. Regardless of how you like the ending, it gives perspective on how much time and thought was put into developing the relationships between the main characters. More impressively, how they masterfully conveyed these details in just 13 episodes.

As for the lack of romantic progression, this is more of a personal preference than a flaw in the actual story. It felt like there could have been more romantic advances in the main and side relationships beyond the standard teasing, flirting, date-nights, & confession(s) of love. With that said, I can see the author wanting to limit these kinds of developments considering they could have unnecessarily complicated a plotline that was already excellent. To be clear, I'm not asking for Domestic Girlfriend levels of action here... as a matter of fact, that probably would have been overkill for this story. However, I do believe that additional displays of romantic progression coupled with a flushed out ending (or even a potential season two) would have put the cherry on top for a perfect 10.

Overall, I really enjoyed this show and highly recommend it to any slice-of-life enjoyers - even if you're not a romance fan. There are also a good number of organically funny moments that feel wholesome and contribute to the development of the characters and their relationships.

Hope my review helps and you give this anime a chance!

Final Rating: 9.5

This is the first time I am writing a review! Apologies, if it doesn't suits your taste! (Will edit as new episode comes out) **This will contain some spoilers** The story revolves around an average and a highschool girl that ran away from home and the salary man who gives her shelter! It's a good story in my opinion! Not masterpiece, not filled with the level of fictional entertainment that you would expect from a popular anime! But it will slam you in the face & bring you back to reality with lasting good impression and positive impact! (if you have good morals that is). **Spoilers** (Turn back,if you haven't seen or read the series)

Characters: 10

Sayu Ogiwara:

The MC sayu who ran away from home for some reason is looking for a shelter to stay! However, taking in a teenage school girl is more trouble in Japan then you think. With no options left, she had to give her body to strange sick men who would user her like a mindless sack of meat for the past 6 months just to get a roof over her head & bread to eat! Because of this a lot of people who watched the anime think her as the worst whore of all time and the worst character of all! Do you guys have a brain in your skull or what? Have you even given it a little though of what she has been through and felt to get to this point!

Even after what she has been through she kept her personality. She is sincere, humble, considerate and kind! She always sees the good part of a person! Not even gotou or mashima can be compared to her in this sense! She could've easily blackmailed Yoshida or others guys for money but she didn't! She even ran away so that she would not be a trouble to Yoshida after she saw Yoshida with Mishima!

Even after this, i don't understand why guys all over the internet hate her so much! You guys need to check head from a psychologist!

Yoshida:

The MC Yoshida is a regular salary man who has a major crush for 5 years on a senior from his office! After getting rejected by Gotou, he stayed true to this feeling even after Sayus seduction! Instead of taking advantage of Sayu he let her stay at his house even after knowing the risks of it! Just like any other reasonable person he could've avoided her thinking that Sayu is lying & this could be a major trap with lots of risk! But he still took her in thinking that what if she is telling the truth even if the chances are very little and if she is telling the truth then she is in major need of help! He is not the OP awesome protagonist you would see in many popular shows! But to me the small character trait he showed, makes him the very best in my eyes! In real life guys like him are rare! But the series introduced him so that guys can look up to him & be like him! If this became reality, those people who are truly in need of help would get help! However, in selfish world we live in, that may not ever happen! But as a viewer you can still take this as an impactful life lesson!

Story: 9

If a story managed to get you immersed in it and make you feel like walking in the shoes of the character then it has done its job better than any other story! What’s more, if the story managed to make an good impact on the readers/viewers, all the more reason for it to be a good story! For me this was a story like that!

This story also shed light on some real-life problems and it did its job well! And this is where the real punch in the face comes in! If you think this is just fantasy, you would be greatly wrong! It managed to bring to light about teen prostitution in Japan which is as severe as any other underdeveloped country! If you search news portals of Japan, you will see that girls like Sayu is very common in that country! So, what made the situation like this?! Family and social view! These girls comes from troubled families who wouldn't even file a report of their missing daughter as they were unwanted in the first place with no relative to turn to! On the other hand, is the society that turns a blind eye to it or to say it more accurately, accept and legalize teen prostitution as it has became a norm to sexualize lolies in anime culture! And it affects all of us unconsciously!

(Some people complained that some scene from episode 3 promotes this culture! I do agree in the later part of episode 3 where some scene spans over Sayu's body! However, I do not agree on the 1st scene of episode 3 as it was necessary for the impact to happen and as its the back story of Sayu!)

**However! However, the story also gives us Yoshida and urges us to become like him! This is where the story becomes wholesome! The story will make you think about all these ups and downs and still leave with a satisfying feeling in the end!

(You can read the LN, no spoilers were given from LN. Just the 1st impression one will get form watching till episode 4)

Art\Animation: 8

The animation is as what you can expect form a romcom anime! Personally, if those realistic animation you see in short films is top tier (10) and animation from famous movies are tier (9) then this is tier (8)!

Overall rating: 9

I have been watching anime for a long time & started using MAL from 2017. I haven't felt writing a review for any of the other series I’ve seen so far! But this series has made me write it for the first time as this managed to make a impact on me! This series will put you on a rollercoaster of emotion! If you only watch anime to only escape reality and hide from it, I may not recommend you this! But if you watch this series, it will help you to embrace the reality more! All in all, the series is wholesome and worth watching or reading! (You can read the LN, no spoilers were given from LN. Just the 1st impression one will get form watching till episode 4)

(And also, the internet community forced me to write it as a whole lot of them are hating this anime for Sayu without giving proper sane reasons and hate posting everywhere! A big part of them even got boners form the first scene of episode 3 which came to as a real shocker!)

MISUNDERSTOOD. This review is to clear things out. Obviously, other reviewers are possibly kids and have no idea in the culture, or lack the experience in the reality of the situation. Have you ever felt lonely that nobody actually cares for you and you're longing for that secured place? This anime was made for awareness of runaway teens and is quite common especially in Japan. In Asia, we live with our parents even beyond 16 years of age. The story is about Sayu who's a runaway due to personal undesirable situations in her hometown who happen to meet Yoshida and starts fixing her. The anime is obviously not aRomCom and is actually refreshing from what I've been watching since 2010 when I first started watching anime. It's a drama and fully immersive. The characters are relatable, almost the same to those I've talked to in real life. They would react the same, so if you are going through something similar to this anime, prepare tissues. Talk about being neglected, thrown away but only feel accepted if you let them abuse you. It also doesn't focus on harem, every little bit of event just works like a building block that beautifully works with each other.

Those who say the anime is wrong need to book an appointment with their Psychotherapist.

Great vibes! Another season, another romance anime. However, this anime was able to adapt a creative concept and turn it into a fairly wholesome and very enjoyable experience. Story: 9 Creative story. The story is based on a fairly unique idea and expands it in a surprisingly good way. The plot is comparable to the originality of the plots from the early 2010s. Art: 9 Solid art for 2021. Art is appealing to the eyes and enhances the experience. Sound: 9 Great sound. Solid sound for a 2021 anime.Character: 8

The two main are very well described and unique. However, we do not know much about them yet.

Enjoyment: 10

The perfect combination of dynamic plot, well-niched characters, and good eye/ear candy makes for a very enjoyable experience.

Overall: 9

Strongly recommended if you are just looking for an enjoyable anime and something a little different.

tl:dr; Original plot was developed in probably the best way. Definitely enjoyable to a wide range of people.

PLEASE NOTE SOME SPOILERS. Also this is the Overall - 4/10 It’s cliche and boring, there’s better stuff out there, trust me. This review will be an amalgamation of the list of observations I've made while watching. I watched till episode four and used chapters from the manga as reference but other than that I will no longer continue this series. It’s perfectly fine to enjoy what you want but I think having your views challenged from time to time can also help but take my words with a grain of salt. Off the back the characters and the logical conclusions they come to does notmake any sense. When first meeting Sayu, Yoshida takes her to his place. The next morning, she tries to convince him to sleep with her. His reaction is far from utter shock . He resignedly states he’s not into “brats” and they begin to berate her on being a spoiled moron who uses her body to seduce men. Why isn’t he in bewilderment at this moment as most people would be. As we know she is a complete stranger to him, she’s a high schooler, she’s 9 years younger than him, and yet she’s so casually offering sex to him, a near middle aged man. His reaction is such an understated response to the information that’s been revealed.

To fully visualize what I mean, imagine this: You’re 21, you meet a 12 year old who comes over to your place and begins to try and seduce you by exposing herself with her body.

I would hope your reaction would be as disturbed and distraught as I would.

The way he simply comes to the conclusion that she must stay at his place until she’s learned to not be a spoiled brat is also very jarring and can also come across as creepy and questionable.

It’s a jarring decision because it’s made so flippantly especially considering the context of her sexual offer earlier. He knows she’s had sex with men in order to have a roof over her head. She’s running away from something dark and doesn’t want to return home.

If he was really responsible he’d try and contact her parents. I understand that Sayu’s past involves her parents and she probably wouldn’t want Yoshida to contact them anyway, but whether or not it is right or is not, Sayu is still a minor. She cannot make decisions like this on her own, she cannot consent, that’s what her guardians are there for. Her legal guardians are still that, her legal guardians.

Even if he feels she is avoiding them for serious reasons, taking on the responsibility of a minor is a HUGE weight that should not be accepted so light heartedly.

I would think trying to find her parents first and talking to them about what happened would be the first priority before letting her stay at his apartment for free with NO plan in mind as to the longevity of her stay or what would happen if people found out. Not to mention having no idea of who she is and what she's involved herself with or even how her parents feel about it all.

It’s odd to me that the show tries so hard to paint Yoshida as such a nice guy yet, knowing that their daughter has prostituted herself to older men and is basically homeless, on top of even more things she doesn’t want to say, he still doesn’t think finding or contacting her mom or dad would be a good idea let alone an option at all. This is where it becomes creepy and questionable. It starts feeding into fetishization. A lonely 26 year old office worker gets the company of a cute, big breasted, and flirtatious 17 year old high school student who has no agency of her own, who stays home all day and will cook and clean his apartment and make misou soup for him whenever he wants. Get the picture. Sure their relationship isn’t outright sexual in nature however a drastic power imbalance remains.

If for the story’s sake, Sayu still didn’t want Yoshida to contact them as she does, why not have the story revolve around him trying to find out anyway to talk to them. Sure it betrays her trust but considering the weight and possible trouble she could be in, it would be the responsible action as an adult to have her parents involved or to let them know. He is not responsible for her, that’s not his right and for him to presume that it is (as he does), is very weird to say the least.

Let me say this again, they’re strangers, he doesn’t know her, he could get in trouble if he was caught. These are serious considerations. I’m not arguing that the story can’t unfold with the two main characters living together, I'm arguing that Yoshida should have had realistic goals and expectations when deciding to let her stay. Finding her parents and learning more about her and her hometown would have been an interesting main narrative plot to structure the other subplots, namely the slice of life moments. This structure could be interesting because it contributes to making this story more of a mystery. He’s seen her student ID, he knows she’s from Hokkaido. Yoshida could spend some of his free days web searching Hokkaido and her school to see if he can track her family, maybe even visiting her school in person for a very emotional narrative beat, possibly even reminiscing about his own youth and how life so easily slips away before you know it. It could even be a source of conflict because it makes the audience wonder: how would Sayu feel if she finds out Yoshida betrayed her, searching for the answers she wanted to bury, when will she find out because there's only so long he can keep it a secret, what’s gonna happen when he meets her parents, what’s gonna happen when he discovers the truth. Lots of heart wrenching and emotional story beats could be fleshed out if the story just went in this direction.

This would also show Yoshida's given thought as to the long term plan of this little adventure he’s partaken in, boarding a young runaway girl in his apartment.

This could have been where the story was going.

Instead we get a cliche romantic comedy in which a harem forms around a blank slate main character simply because he’s a “nice guy”.

There’s a perpetual idea in a lot of shows boosting romance that if you’re simply a nice guy, girls will fall at your feet...and uh well...we all know that's a lie. Higehiro really does nothing different with its protagonist. Does it even need to be said how tiring this trope is. The only reason such a trope keeps getting used is because it’s easy and lazy. Why bother actually writing a character when the audience can just self insert themselves in? Writing an interesting and unique character would require time and effort and also risk alienating the audience who can project themselves onto this generic male anime character. Yoshida is just nice. And we’re all supposed to just accept that girls will fall for you if you do the very bare minimum.

This is exactly what Twilight does for its audience yet we’re supposed to just accept it and say it's fine? I mean Bella and Yoshida are the same narratively speaking. They’re just characters to project yourself onto as people throw themselves at you for doing seemingly nothing new or different.

You know what romance does work. In the anime Aoi Haru Ride, the main love interest Kou Tanaka isn’t your average nice guy. Although initially seeming like the bad boy type we get hints of more than that. His quiet introspection, the muted demeanors, the pretentious facades he uses, and his genuine emotions when he lets his guard down, namely around the main protagonist Futaba Yoshioka. He’s a quiet simmer and Futaba is a storm. It's a common motif they use to describe their dynamic and how they grow to love each other. His personality isn’t just for appeal but it’s also part of his character arc. I won’t get into it too much but the romance in Aoi Haru Ride genuinely pulls on the heartstrings.

The story really wants to be a light hearted male fantasy story but is so keen on using past sexual trauma as a plot point in the backstory and character arc of it’s leading female protagonist that the overall product is a confusing and jarring mess of clashing tones.

A huge amount of the dialogue is jarring when combining it with this narrative about a sexaully traumatised high school runaway confronting her emotional barriers and learning to grow as a person.

Fanservice and dialogue constantly reminds the audience of the age gap between the two main leads and frequently depicts other sexual and juvenile actions. Fanservice, nudity, or other types of titillating tropes aren’t inherently bad or make something bad simply by it’s inclusion. It depends on the context of the rest of the story and the tone it’s emulating.

But when your main female protagonist is a victim of prostitiution and you’re trying to explore the nuisances and effects of that pain YOU CAN NOT be treating the story with such frivolous and juvenile sensibilities. These include Sayu flirtatiously commenting on her breast size to Yoshida, Yoshida seeing Sayu’s panties from an upskirt and her reacting so flustered and blushing, Yoshida casually commenting on the color of Sayu’s panties after gawking at them, multiple females fall in love or are in love with the main protagonist and act like toddlers.

YOU CAN NOT MAKE A STORY WITH ALL THESE SHALLOW TROPES DONE A MILLION TIMES OVER IN A MILLION OTHER ANIMES AND EXPECT ME TO TAKE ALL THIS SERIOUSLY.

This story is the definition of JUVENILE.

For example, the multiple girls who are in love with Yoshida have no regard for consequences or any sense of reality.

Yoshida’s boss Airi has been in love with him for awhile, which in of itself can be a bad thing within a workplace environment known for cutthroat ladder climbing, where favoritism and nepotism are easily abused. This is further exemplified when she constantly treats him to eat barbeque alone with her. Airi doesn’t understand the brittle power dynamic between employee and employer, opting to just ignore it to satisfy her desires, even going as far as playing a sexually charged game of “truth or truth” with him (Here she reveals her cup size to him which is an “I” ((further note: I, for the life of me, could not figure out how the hell breast cup measurements works and how it translates to real life. I looked up multiple sites and images to try and understand the measurement system but when this was further complicated by the fact that Japanese measurements are different from American measurements I gave up. Shit’s more difficult to contemplate than calculus i swear.)) ). Her actions towards Yoshida are also questionable as she keeps asking him out on dinner dates despite the looming context of his love confession and her rejection. When she tells him that she’s always liked him, he asks her why she rejected him before and she very carelessly states her intuition stated it wasn’t the right time. Okay, so my question is why is now the right time then? What made you confess now? The reason seems to be out of jealousy towards Yuzuha, Yoshida’s coworker, who’s very obviously in love with him and has been seen making advances on him. However this only makes the Airi seem more childish and in effect this story more flippant.

Airi gets upset at the thought of another woman entering Yoshida’s life out of insecurity, flustering if Yoshida really meant his confession. Yeah...Okay…

(Also authors note: I died when Airi very blushingly said she was a virgin. LOLOLOL I CRINGHED so fucking hard my anus disapeared i swear to god. )

LET ME REMIND YOU. They are between the ages of 26-28, well above maturity yet the way the characters handle their relationship and the manner of which they go about it are on the level of high schoolers...NO I take it back. These “adults” act more like middle schoolers high on hormones for the first time. I understand maturity is not only measured in age but if these characters are meant to be portrayed as immature and careless adults, is it not a valid criticism to ask why they’re not called into question about how they act. The story doesn’t punish the characters for acting foolishly nor are these flaws part of their character arc. They are just there for lighthearted entertainment, but as said this story wants to be taken seriously. So I have, as this essay is a result of that sentiment.

Another point of contention is Sayu herself. She’s supposed to be a runaway girl carrying the baggage of someone who’s prostitute herself but her attitudes and demeanors are far from that of someone who’s suffered from that kind of abuse. I know the story makes a note that she copes with her past by using different smiles but while that may be a simple enough answer to some, i’m not so easily convinced when viewing real world data of prostitutes from articles and surveys (I didn’t wanted to just talk out of my ass so I challenged myself and looked into it). More than half of woman who enter into prostitution as a means for survival are physically abused or threaten. Many suffer from PTSD and many use coping mechanisms to help such as drugs. I know bringing in real world data and info can be nonsensical but again when the story deals with these exact types of heavy subject matter, you have to be just as careful in how you present it and what you say. If we look at Sayu she does have some post anxiety from her past relationships but she also constantly reacts like any other cute innocent rom-com protagonist would. It’s really quick for Yoshida to gain her trust as well. It really doesn’t come across as a person suffering from trauma, in a way trivializing it. Take for example Yuki Kurokawa from Good Ending. Yuki is also the victim of sexual trauma and she copes with it with her distant demeanor, for the main protagonist Seiji Utsumi getting to know her and her opening up to him was a long and jagged journey. Good Ending isn’t perfect but the characterization for its female protagonist demonstrates much more nuisance and subtlety than Higehiro does. It also should be taken into consideration that Sayu was with multiple men, potentially doing all sort of terrible things to her. Such a thing doesn’t leave a person so easily nor does it manifest in the way it does for Sayu unless the story is hinting she has more mental illnesses we don’t know about yet.

Anyway this is not even mentioning the cringey and on-the-nose dialogue. Characters will not surprise you at all with how they are constantly saying the most obvious things. Their characters (if you could even call them that) are so superficial and cliche. Each of the characters follow a stereotype that doesn’t deviate enough to really make them unique at all, so much so that if you’ve only watched a handful of shows you’ve probably seen them many times now.

If a character is a bad guy, he will very obviously be a bad guy with no shades of gray, nuisance or depth. We’re just supposed to hate him, that’s it.

If a character is sweet and bubbly, they're just sweet and bubbly. They’re hard working and have a heart of gold...yada yada ...you get the gist.

Writing good character drama is not easy and writing a good slice of life story should not be written on a foundation of overused cliches and character stereotypes especially if you have heavy subject matter you’re trying to explore and want people to actually care about what you have to say about it.

If I were to sum up the construction of this story it would be wanting to have your cake and eating it too.

This story wants to be a whimsical romantic comedy of a couple living together despite their age gap and the many shenanigans that ensue. BUT it also wants to be a deep and complex story about learning self worth, facing your fears, and overcoming emotional and sexual trauma at the hands of an apathetic society. On top of that a tone that clashes heavily and you get Higehiro.

There’s no way to enjoy this story fully from any angle. You can’t use this for fun and titillation nor can you take the characters and their struggles seriously.

By the way, the light novel/manga/anime DOESN’T have a story. It’s just constant conflict and resolution with no care into pacing or continuity for the plot. A problem will arrive out of nowhere conveniently only to be easily remedied and tossed away for the next story beat the author has decided on.

For example, Kyouya, one of Sayu’s hookups, comes back into the picture and suddenly just wants to fuck her in Yoshida’s house for some reason, probably because he’s a bad guy (Again with the very obvious characterizations). He nearly rapes her but is stopped and later apologises for it’s like no big deal (Again with the frivolousness of how this story is put together). These events are framed to be growing moments for the characters but they are poorly handled due to the poor pacing and setup. They come off as melodramatic as hell. Characters will just burst into over exaggerated bouts of on the nose dialogue and we as the audience are left to tear up and commend the characters. But with the way the story is written it leaves little impact at all.

One moment in the story that also nearly killed me of cringe was the “walking in on a love interest as they’re being held by another person” and it killed me inside. XDDD That’s right, im dead, i died becuase of how stupid it was.

Sayu walks in on Yoshida being hugged by Yuzuha and then suddenly gets jealous.

I know that the whole point of the story is for the two to get together (it’s very fucking obvious none of the other girls had a chance and that they were just distractions anyway) but part of me hopes but is very doubtful that they would just remain a platonic couple. I mean it’s just odd to have Sayu walk away from intimate relationships with older men and have that baggage, only for her to by the end of the Light novel or whatever to enter another one with another older man. And the two staying friends would demonstrate a bit of restraint and care for the characters and what they’ve been through and have learned. But then again...this is Higehiro we’re talking about here. Subtlety and nuisance. Eh what's that?

The author is nowhere near competent enough to handle such subject matter and I feel that it was hastily adding on in order to shock and generate publicity from an otherwise unoriginal manuscript.

BTW here’s some suggestions if you wanted something a bit more from this story but couldn’t find it here.

If you want something that does tackle the topic of love between two people with a wide age gap I suggest you check out Koi Wa Ameagari or After the Rain. The story handles the subject matter much better without going into prickly territories or fetishization. It's a coming of age tale of two people attempting to help each other and reignite long lost dreams.

If you want something more raunchy with an adult flare to relationships and debauchery check out Velvet Kiss.

If you want a good character drama with an atypical protagonist check out My Teen Romantic Comedy.

If you want a typical romantic comedy of two high schoolers falling in love, Aoi Haru Ride is quite a ride you won't want to miss.

Overall this show is just boring. It really does nothing new and I hope people will check out some of the other shows and mangas I’ve listed because they certainly deserve more attention than this show. 4/10

If i could describe this show in one word its hypocritical. For a show that talks about the sexual exploitation of minors it sure exploits its high school student a lot. Spoilers As a western fan of anime one thing i hate about anime is the over abundance of incest, minor exploitation and rape culture. this is a show that seemed to try and tackle the issue of real life sexual exploitation of minors in japan. the show does this by covering the story of a high school student who runs away from home and gets exploited by men until she meets the main character.while i understand some of the scenes to drive home their point the show does entirely too much fan service of the high school student and the entire show becomes meaningless with the ending. the show also has a problem with direction. it can not decide if the main character should be acting like a father figure or a boyfriend and that just adds to all the other problems.

In Greek mythology, there was a man named Narcissus. He fell in love with himself when he saw his reflection. Many people admired his beauty; however, he was self-absorbed and hideous on the inside. HigeHiro is an unintentional retelling of Narcissus: The main character is perfect, despite being utterly mediocre. He is loved and praised without deserving it. He is the ideal mentor without giving helpful advice. He can change minds with a wise speech, but it's always bullshit. One night while walking home from work, Yoshida, a 26-year-old salaryman, stumbled upon a young girl sitting under a lamp post. Earlier that night, his crush rejected him.In a drunken state, he offered to let the girl stay with him for a night. She flirted with him constantly and even offered him sex, though he rejected her every time. She's not his type, you see. Not because it would be immoral and a crime, but because he's not into her. He won't fall in love with her because she's "A little kid," he told himself… then, moments later, he considers her sexy. The teenage girl, named Sayu, is a runaway who's been trading sexual favors for a place to stay. Yoshida is a nice guy™, so he chooses not to coerce and have sex with a minor but instead makes her his live-in maid. She cooks, cleans, does the laundry, and occasionally offers sex again. While living with her, Yoshida improves his eating habits, sleeps better, and shaves every day. He changed his habits to become a father figure to his new roommate/maid/love interest.

That's the premise of HigeHiro or, "After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway", if you prefer. The story progression involves Sayu confronting her dark past and Yoshida learning to become her supportive guardian. Though the premise is challenging, the execution could have subverted our expectations. Rather than walking the tightrope, HigeHiro indulges in cliches and disregards any problematic pitfalls.

*WARNING: Mild spoilers. Discussion of pedophilia and sexual assault below.*

At the center of every problem with HigeHiro's story and characters is Yoshida. He engineered to be relatable for the anime's target audience: An average joe protagonist: dark hair, deadpan personality, average height and build. Like most male light novel protagonists, he is self-deprecating, but that does not make him self-aware or reflect on his mistakes. Lacking a backstory, you can easily project yourself onto him. He's a modest man, but deep down, he is a kind and intelligent guy. He's a man of few words, but he knows just what to say when the time comes. In reality, he's kind of a creepy pervert, all of his preachy wisdom is bullshit, and he's not as heroic as the show makes him out to be. Yoshida is (supposedly) a very, very kind man who takes in a teenage girl and doesn't have sex with her! What a great guy. Sayu even says he's "nicer than anybody I've ever met." For some reason, this small act of basic human decency is enough to impress his coworkers and friends. The anime does its damndest to make us believe that Yoshida is a fantastic guy: Sayu is constantly in danger through contrived scenarios, allowing him to save her every time. Afterward, they return to their bizarre relationship steeped in romantic and sexual tension.

These conflicts are nothing but a way to distract us from the real issues baked into their relationship: Sayu is deeply unwell. She has PTSD after being taken advantage of repeatedly. The responsible thing for Yoshida to do would be to get her help. Yet, that's not how the show sees it. All it takes to fix years of trauma is a preachy speech from Yoshida, viola. He cured her! In real life, it takes years of cognitive-behavioral therapy to cope with trauma healthily--not by finding someone who will say STOP BEING DEPRESSED. HigeHiro is not concerned with what is realistic, moral, or even legal. Yoshida always knows the truth. His words are absolute. Whether or not they believably portray Sayu's mental illness is irrelevant to HigeHiro.

Regardless if there’s a serious tone to the scene, there will be some sort of raunchy fanservice. When Sayu opens up about her sexual assault, the show's creators used the opportunity to objectify her. At one point, she is in lingerie while talking past assaults. Even during a flashback to one of those assaults, they framed it as they would fanservice. The camera focuses on her cleavage and butt, as it so often does despite reminding us, "She's just a kid!". The directing of all these scenes made it even worse with the perverted sexual objectification. That scene is just one of many problems with the incompetent production: Excessive panning shots, primarily still images, and the character designs become increasingly distorted as time goes on. It gives you nothing remarkable to look at while suffering through the mundane episodes. It has calming royalty-free elevator music playing throughout scenes, reminding you of how every aspect of this anime lacks creativity. The opening is possibly the worst one of the season; it is devoid of substance and the song is painfully generic.

HigeHiro condemns men who used Sayu for sex and took advantage of an underage girl, yet it hypocritically uses her as a fanservice object. Unsurprisingly, a loud minority of viewers despised her for sleeping with men for a place to live. If your only alternative to homelessness is having sex with the person offering you a roof, that is not consensual. It is coercion. The anime holds its abusers accountable, but not itself. After all, this is about Yoshida. Which girl in his harem will he choose to marry?!

Although this is not a harem anime, three women are perceivably in love with the central man: Yoshida's boss. He decides her value by her cup size. A female coworker with no distinctive characteristics. And an underage girl. I'll leave you to guess who he ends up with. The first two women are comparable to robots who remind Yoshida that he is friendly, kind, and loved. None of them get a fair chance because it is inevitable to be with him, even though the adaptation is incomplete. Had this anime been more self-aware, the only adult women could've given Sayu shelter or advice, rather than making them competitors for Yoshida. They repeatedly told him 'not to have sex with the teenager.' If you're worried, why would you let her live there? Despite having reasonable doubt, everyone trusts Yoshida and does not intervene—meanwhile, what he's doing is a crime. Their 'romance' has more similarities to child grooming than love.

*Spoilers complete*

Until the final stretch, Sayu's mysterious past is unexplored. A sequence of contrived conflicts involving an insultingly shallow portrayal of mental illness and abuse, then an abundance of forced drama ruined any chances of taking Sayu seriously. Without delving into spoilers, nothing is grounded in the third act. The anime loses all sense of logic by attempting to excuse how morally reprehensible Sayu and Yoshida's relationship is. Again, Yoshida preaches to everyone, including the viewer, why he is right. Sayu's vulnerability is used as a shortcut to make Yoshida seem heroic.

The story of Narcissus ends with him falling into despair. Once he realized he could never love himself beyond his reflection, he died. HigeHiro isn't only poor fiction because it portrays a fantasy romance that could never happily exist in real life. It is terrible because it is preachy, pretentious, hypocritical, manipulative, and unbelievable. It does everything it can to convince you the main character is faultless, that Sayu desperately needs a hero, and that it’s not creepy as fuck for an adult man to live with a random teenage girl who wants to have sex with him. If it had self-awareness like Narcissus, it too would simply not exist.

*This review contains spoilers, because I wasn’t able to explain why I didn’t like this without talking about specific events and character roles* Hige wo Soru is another one of those parent-child like anime except this story revolves around darker topics like rape, suicide, and pedophilia. This show took interesting ideas and just threw them into a dumpster truck. The story presents itself pretty decently in how Yoshida takes care of Sayu, a homeless highschool girl. Yoshida is a pretty normal and innocent guy so he tries to make Sayu go in the right direction of life rather than choose prostitution as a way to live. My biggestproblem is the characters, like man I know this is fiction but the way the characters act is just way too unrealistic. I’ll start with the main girl Sayu. She has probably one of the most disappointing backstories I’ve ever seen. Her backstory starts off as someone who is bullied due to her success and attractiveness. Then we get the stereotypical unpopular/nerdy friend who is being bullied instead of her. Sayu’s friend commits suicide so Sayu could go back to being the cool kid and “shine.” This whole scenario just played out horribly that I did not feel any bit of emotion due to her situation being absurd.

My goodness, the way this show handled Sayu and Yaguchi (the rapist) was just….. a slap in the face. Basically, Yaguchi shows his messed up side and attempts to rape her which already makes him a hatable antogonist. Then the story does a 180 and has Sayu forgive him for what he did. Then they laugh off their situation like things never happened. But come on, who would want to hang out with a rapist even worse knowing it was the person that tried to do it to you?

So what did Gotou accomplish by keeping her feelings from Yoshida? Nothing, other than wasting everyone’s time. She continues to waste time after she confesses because she never makes a move.

The art is one of the more redeeming qualities of the show. Not too fantastic, but passable for today’s standards. For a studio that most people are not aware of, Studio No.9 got their job done here as being a “yep it’s pretty average but still good to look at” style.

I really did not enjoy this show and I wanted to make my point short and clear. The writing was a complete mess, the characters carried nothing special that would make me feel a strong amount of emotional appeal, and the art and sound was average at best. It tried to be deep and tackle on disturbing topics but ended up looking idiotic and immature for every panty shot they showed. I can conclude that everything kept getting worse.

Story - 2

Art - 5

Sound - 5

Characters - 2

Enjoyment - 2

If you're this far thanks for reading my first review, any feedback is appreciated

Higehiro is a show that started and will end in an identity crisis. It's entire existence feels like spur of the moment, an idea from someone reading the countless doujin plots similar to it and thought "but what if someone focused on the characters more then the porn?" A very large community of the hentai/doujin crowd will tell you they love the "wholesome" aspects of works. This maybe was a product of the sheer amount of depravity and disgusting nature of many otaku porn, but I'd argue its almost as equally pathetic. Nowadays, doujins and hentai will behind over BACKWARDS to make very sure you areaware the characters in these porn are actually "in love" More accurately, it will want you to make sure the FEMALE characters are in love, most of the time its just unrequited solely to...console the ego of someone who is consuming porn? It's sad that even the porn side of otaku culture needs to cater to the type of self-projecting and insertion many of the fandom is now accustomed towards. So why does any of this matter? Because now this popularizing trend in hentai basically has now spilled over and gotten its first anime. This show is made by and for the people who enjoy this pattern, it's written all over it.

When you really think about it, if this was really as well-intentioned as it might seem, why does it have to incorporate an impossibly attractive girl who looks and sounds like the countless of doujin characters just like her? She is literally a teen girl sitting in this guy's house all day like a dedicated housewife. How is she not bored out of her mind? But she is also actually really sweet and knows how to cook! If this was a story about someone receiving help for their traumatic past, why does it have to be a late-20's as described "average salaryman" and a runaway high school girl, an almost parody-like clash of worlds? It's because it isn't really interested in being genuine, its interested in running with the popularized doujin plot probably because the author is flat out bored of just fapping to this stuff, and wanted to create an entire world around it instead.

Look, I really hate speaking on why and what people consume art for. But it just feels impossible to justify this gimmick as anything but appealing to the bored "coomers" and to the subconscious of people who think they like it because its "wholesome" but are probably just more excited of the prospect of a potential relationship between the two main characters. I really tried to like this. And btw, I don't really care about the morality of this at all. It's fictional content, and it's not problematic. That's not my issue.

I realized after reading yet another doujin Higehiro is modeled after, Higehiro isn't really impressive in the slightest. If this other random doujin artist decided to just to scrap the porn bits and only focus on the characters, he/she could honestly probably just do as good a job as Higehiro is apparently doing to the anime community. It's that uninspired.