Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.

When regular salaryman Yoshida wakes up one Sunday morning after a long night at the bar, the last thing he expects to see is that his tiny apartment has a new resident—an unfamiliar high school girl.

The previous night, despite finally gathering the courage to confess to his boss and longtime crush, Airi Gotou, Yoshida was rejected. After drowning his sorrows at a bar with his good friend Hashimoto, Yoshida headed back to his home in a drunken stupor, only to run into Sayu Ogiwara, a runaway high schooler. She asked him to let her stay the night, and with his judgment clouded by alcohol, Yoshida complied.

Now, with his head on straight but with no memory of last night's events, Yoshida has Sayu explain just how she ended up sleeping at his apartment. Having listened to her story, Yoshida finds himself unable to kick her out—especially after learning that she came all the way from Hokkaido! So, despite his reservations about sheltering an underage girl, Yoshida allows her to stay, and their life together begins.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Edit

Background

No background information has been added to this title. Help improve our database by adding background information here.

Episode Videos

Edit

Related Anime

Adaptation:

Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Ogiwara, Sayu

Main

Ichinose, Kana
Japanese

Yoshida

Main

Okitsu, Kazuyuki
Japanese

Gotou, Airi

Supporting

Kanemoto, Hisako
Japanese

Mishima, Yuzuha

Supporting

Ishihara, Kaori
Japanese

Yuuki, Asami

Supporting

Kawaida, Natsumi
Japanese

Hashimoto

Supporting

Kobayashi, Yuusuke
Japanese

Ogiwara, Issa

Supporting

Toriumi, Kousuke
Japanese

Masaka, Yuuko

Supporting

Iwami, Manaka
Japanese

Sayu's Mother

Supporting

Yuzuki, Ryouka
Japanese

Yaguchi, Kyouya

Supporting

Oosaka, Ryouta
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kamikita, Manabu

Director

Aketagawa, Jin

Sound Director

Ishihara, Kaori

Theme Song Performance

DIALOGUE+

Theme Song Performance

Edit

Opening Theme

"Omoide Shiritori (おもいでしりとり)" by DIALOGUE+ (eps 1-12)

Edit

Ending Theme

	1: "Omoide Shiritori (おもいでしりとり)" by DIALOGUE+
	2: "Plastic Smile" by Kaori Ishihara (eps 2-12)

More reviews

Reviews

Jun 28, 2021

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 3

RebelPanda (All reviews)

702 people found this review helpful

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: 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.

Until the final stretch, Sayu's mysterious past is a secret. A sequence of contrived conflicts involving an insultingly shallow portrayal of mental illness and abuse reveal her reasons for running away. There is an abundance of forced drama and bizarre choices that ruined any chances of taking Sayu seriously. Without delving into spoilers, nothing is grounded in reality past episode 10. 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. And again, Sayu's vulnerability is used as a shortcut to make Yoshida seem like a heroic man worth marrying.

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, and manipulative. 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.

Helpful

permalink | report

Jun 28, 2021

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

KANLen09 (All reviews)

263 people found this review helpful

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.

Helpful

permalink | report

Jun 28, 2021

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 1

Nyuw (All reviews)

209 people found this review helpful

“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 boss and 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.

Helpful

permalink | report

Jun 28, 2021

13 of 13 episodes seen

Overall Rating: 9

Marinate1016 (All reviews)

81 people found this review helpful

“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 to distinguish 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.

Helpful

permalink | report

More stacks

Interest Stacks

Romance/Slice of Life (Part 2)

by HaChiiman

50 Entries · 18 Restacks

More recommendations

Recommendations

View All

More news

Recent News

Spring 2021 Simulcast List [Update 4/19]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime acquired for simulcast release during the Spring 2021 season. Anime series licensed for home video rel...read more

Mar 29, 2021 11:26 AM by Snow | Discuss (54 comments)

Q2 2021 Anime & Manga Licenses [Update 6/17]

In this thread, you'll find a comprehensive list of anime and manga licensed in the second quarter (Apr-Jun) of 2021. Spring 2021 anime which were licensed befo...read more

Mar 29, 2021 11:26 AM by Snow | Discuss (2 comments)

More discussions

Recent Forum Discussion

	Manga DatJat - May 10	7 replies	by Stacias »» May 10, 8:43 PM
	Poll: Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou. Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ) Stark700 - May 3, 2021	228 replies	by AnimeSrk »» May 9, 5:51 AM

Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

External Links

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Ogiwara, Sayu

Yoshida

Gotou, Airi

Mishima, Yuzuha

Yuuki, Asami

Hashimoto

Ogiwara, Issa

Masaka, Yuuko

Sayu's Mother

Yaguchi, Kyouya

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.

Alternative Titles

Information

Statistics

External Links

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

Episode Videos

Visit MALxJapan MALxJapan -More than just anime-

Related Anime

Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

Interest Stacks

Recommendations

Recent News

Recent Forum Discussion

MoreTop Anime

MoreTop Airing Anime

MoreMost Popular Characters

Visit MALxJapan
MALxJapan -More than just anime-