Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.

“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.

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, but ... this 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.

Ah, HigeHiro, what to say about you? There are so many moments that the show wants to give us a good feeling during its not the least bit suggestive scenes....
Now being serious, what is going on in Shimesaba's head in creating such an... uncomfortable Light Novel?

Let's go, Hige wo Soru was one of the anime that caught my attention the most, since I had heard about its synopsis and had already looked at the manga a few times. Its story is simple: Sayu is a high school girl who has run away from home and needs a place to live. The person who takes ... him in, even though there are many apprehensions about the event, is Yoshida. He is a serious and responsible man, basically an ordinary person, who works, earns his salary and lives his peaceful life in a normal way. Yoshida was drunk, out of his mind, while Sayu, who was helpless in the middle of the street, needed to sleep for a while.

Up to this point, it is understandable, if not for one simple fact: Sayu is a minor and even offers her body (yes, her body) as a way to thank Yoshida. Even with the protagonist rejecting all her provocations, Sayu never learns that he doesn't want her company. First of all, as a matter of common sense. The show intends to create a love bond between an adult and an underage girl, without them knowing each other. Even if Sayu argues that she has had similar experiences in the past, or had a disastrous relationship, this does not allow the show to build expository scenes of the character during the episodes. Of course, there are those who claim that this whole perspective of the show places Sayu as a fragile character who has nothing to offer. She herself presents at times her archetype of someone who has trauma from her past. But... If this is a trauma or an internal problem that she has developed, why would she do the same things again? Why would anyone in their right mind sabotage themselves simply to stay in the house of some random person like Yoshida?

Yoshida is the character that most of the time manages to be the most sensible. If it were any kind of stereotype applied, for sure the show would be much worse. Imagine if Yoshida accepts Sayu's proposal. That combination would be torture to follow. At every slightest moment I questioned the sanity of the characters, as well as wanting to know what the purpose of this was. The romance, an idealism within the show, is not developed. Even if you have one or two reasonable episodes, it doesn't solidify the structure of the show, as the anime itself reminds us that Sayu is a minor character, a child, while Yoshida is a salaried adult. At least the anime had the competence to allow us this reminder, because if it were a completely fanservice show, I honestly think it would be an even bigger rot.

What about the secondary characters? Does anyone really remember them? Whether it's a girl Yoshida liked or some old classmate of Sayu's, all these characters were made solely to create a bond of importance to the main duo. Yoshida from the very first episode did not want to get involved with someone like Sayu. He himself is aware of how wrong it is. He is practically inciting pedophilia. It is an already trite topic within this anime to comment on the pedophilia that exists, but there is no way to forget to mention this.

The show uses direction and aspects of photography to have scenes where Sayu has some part of her body exposed. This sort of thing would not be a problem if it was an anime where it had a different contextualization. However, again, it is a child and an adult. Even if Sayu has a conscience and that she "doesn't care" what happens to her, it is immature, artificial, and a complete and ridiculous demonstration that HigeHiro doesn't know what he is proposing. The show, even though it is over, doesn't concretize anything, doesn't bring evidently any positive relationship. Even if it has a beautiful scene with scenery to look cool or amazing, remembering the previous moments and the way the anime got to this point is honestly an aberration.

The production? Well, Project No.9 is an okay studio in its adaptations and was a good choice to make this show, even if that doesn't give away any obvious quality. In fact, as I have already mentioned, the composition of angles and moments where Sayu was being objectified are disgusting. It's not as if the show didn't know this. In fact, the manga and Light Novel have moments like this as well. The anime intensified these moments of incitement to sex so much more that what was minimally acceptable was lost. The problem the source materials have is another (of course, Sayu and Yoshida's contextualization is already a problem), but the anime really wanted to push it and showed the worst it had.

Finally, a word of advice: don't accept a girl alone on the street while you are walking home, especially if she is a slut like Sayu. If the anime wants me to care about this prostitution in anime format, I would watch anything other than Hige wo Soru.

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 everything ... still 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.

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.

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 is ... an 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).

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 not ... make 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

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 are ... aware 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.

This anime is not good. Higehiro tries to deceive its viewers by presenting itself as a more mature, well-researched, and well written by having some serious approach to pedophilia, rape, sexual harassment, and child abuse in anime. Yet, the anime also contradicts itself by neglecting the very same thing. I find it extremely baffling that the anime gets away with its hypocritical depiction of these elements.

Now, let me explain: To start off, Higehiro tries to showcase the trauma and tragedy that Sayu suffered from her days as a runaway on numerous occasions. The anime deliberately went out of its way to show flashbacks of ... Sayu being forced by a random grown-up working man to his, presumably, residence from a busy city street and forced her to have sex with him so that she could have a place to stay. Sayu herself even stated that she had many sexual activities with different men because that was the only way she sought temporary placement. Now, the anime was depicting these elements carefully and seemingly condemned such actions.

To enforce the tragic experience that Sayu had even more, in one of the later episodes, the anime showcased a brief scene of Sayu being fucked by a rapist; the whole scene was depicted as disgusting and traumatizing because Sayu was literally dead inside as she was being fucked over. My initial takeaway is that the anime showcases this to facilitate its message: Condemning rape, pedophilia, and essentially, child porn. But when Sayu reencountered the rapist, the rapist manipulated Sayu because of her vulnerable position, forced himself into Sayu’s current shelter. When they got into her current shelter, the rapist pinned Sayu down onto the floor and attempted to rape her again in SOMEONE ELSE’S home. Yet, in the very next episode, after the rapist was caught and kicked out, he was FORGIVEN! That’s right. The rapist was not arrested and put into custody after he was caught. Instead, he was forgiven. In fact, no one actually made the damn call for the arrest! Not even Yoshida, who was portrayed as a mature and morally right adult through the entire fucking anime. What’s even more mind-boggling is that the rapist and Sayu were allowed to work in the same job environment. And somehow, after a brief little talk with the rapist, Sayu seems to have washed away all her trauma, worry, safety, and allowed the rapist to act friendly towards her.

This resulted in the complete destruction of this anime’s original intention: Condemning rape and pedophilia. A complete contradiction and neglect of its themes. What this anime ended up portraying is that people who have committed immoral, nefarious, and sinful acts can be forgiven. They won’t face any consequences for their actions—a criminal act, at that.

There’s this saying: You can’t make this shit up and expect to get away with it. But somehow, Higehiro found the loophole.

Another egregious writing choice in Higehiro that makes this anime even more despicable is that this anime victimizes Sayu in the worst way possible in order to try and make the viewers be sympathetic towards her. The whole incident that initiated these cascade of events is the suicide of Sayu’s one and only friend due to bullying. The anime, again, depicted this as traumatizing and that the bullying should be dealt with. Yet, Sayu doesn’t do anything to help her friend. She doesn’t even report the bullying of her friend to the school staff or trusted adults. Sayu lets the incident continue until her friend jumps to her death. And then she has the audacity to play the victim by crying, lamenting, and playing with other people’s emotions. That’s the problem I have with this anime. It’s victimizing Sayu in the most illogical way possible.

Furthermore, immediately after her friend’s suicide, her household was in the spotlight of the news. Sayu’s mother was obviously stressed and couldn’t handle the burden, which is understandable. But the mother blames everything on her daughter when she knows full well of the incident makes no sense to me. Apparently, the mother believed that her daughter’s friend suicide and bullying was all her daughter’s fault and said it directly to her daughter with no remorse. In fact, due to her obstinance to sympathize with her daughter, the mother is depicted as someone who hates her own kid!

I’m sorry, but at that point, I saw this as nothing but to play up the drama. There’s no logic in its writing. It’s just a pure bullshit attempt to get me to sympathize with Sayu in the worst way possible. This is the problem: The anime victimizes Sayu in the worst way possible in order to squeeze out the melodrama.

Going into the latter half of this anime, the melodrama becomes the main driving force for Higehiro, and the drama makes no sense whatsoever. As the drama was amplified, so does the neglect of its original intentions of this anime: condemning rape, pedophilia, and overcoming trauma. It’s absurd how the authors of the source material can be this deranged from their own work.

As the anime progressed, the writing of this show went down the toilet. Not only was the narrative full of bullshit and contradictions, but the characters themselves also became increasingly pathetic and pointless. Yoshida, who was the mature adult in the anime at the beginning, turned into a character that is only there to spew out the most obvious moral dilemmas through his monologues and dialogues. Sayu became the victim of her own show. The original intention for her character was to confront her past, to find the right environment for her to overcome her traumas and grow. Initially, I thought the confrontation of Sayu with her mother was the main arc--the factor that will facilitate her growth. But instead, Sayu was turned into a plot device that drives the melodrama of the show. There’s nothing to be taken away from the set of characters in this garbage anime.

Higehiro devised a perfect beginning by deceiving its viewers in trying to present the notoriously badly handled topics in anime and tried to sell it at something more deep or sophisticated than it actually was. If you were to take a moment and contemplate its setting, writing, characters, and themes that Higehiro presents, the more offensive the anime is.

Score: 2/10

When I first wrote a review about Higehiro I gave it a 2. I thought that this show was pointless, shallow and just a sad attempt to attract the lower common denominator of anime viewers into inserting themselves to the main character Yoshida. The premise, out of a hentai doujinshi, could have been treated better by being more risky, I wanted to see some tit. I didn't see some tit, I was disappointed. Now, when I have ended this series, I would gladly say that this is not a 2. It is a 1. And I will happily express why I think that this is ... case, why GROOMING HERO is a despicable piece of media.

Lets start with the production, the production of this anime is atrocious and can be compared to my favorites hentais, even worse than some of them. Maybe this decision had a deep reasoning. "Well, this plot looks like a hentai, wouldn't it be a great idea to make this also appear like a hentai?" It didn't work, staring to an still shot for 5 seconds, watching the forehead of the main character get BIGGER AND BIGGER AND BIGGER each episode was awful. If one thing you won't like about this anime is the animation, so how about the characters?

The characters are abhorrent. The main story features 2 characters. One is Sayu, a girl that at the start of the story cant really express herself and throughout the story gets the bravery to establishing her own desires to the world, a classical coming of age topic. The problem is that Sayu is an abhorrent character that have no coherency. Her mother told her something wrong and she have the courage to leave the house, but then she almost get raped and have no courage to face the rapist, instead she laugh it off like nothing happened, WHAT? Her background was treated like shit, the episode that explains the reasoning behind her runaway is maybe one of the most gigantic pieces of unintentional comedy of this season.

Then we have Yoshida, Yoshida is a plain character that it is supposed to be YOU, that is his purpose. YOU are Yoshida, Yoshida is correct, never make wrong decisions, well he does, BUT his wrong decisions are MORALLY correct. YOSHIDA IS A NICE GUY. And YOSHIDA is wanted by everyone. By the gyaru, by the slut, by the big titties office boss and by the cute junior. Everyone. And that is the worst shit, Yoshida only good quality is being reasonable. It. Is. Incel. Bait. It. Is. For. You. To. Insert.

Then lets not say the fact that all other characters are almost completely irrelevant and say the same thing over and over to Sayu. All other characters talk to each other like they are a phone in power mode trying to save data. No point.

So, why would you want to watch this series instead of watching the latest NTR hentai? I don't know, maybe you want to live the fantasy of people treating you well because you are nice. I don't know, maybe you want to masturbate to softporn. In any case, if you want to watch a reasonable plot with good animation and characters, this anime is not for you

1 out of 10, I could have read more doujinshis instead of watching this and would be happier.

HigeHiro is the embodiment of a series with good intent proceeding to then absolutely shit on them while being comically unaware of its failings. It covers a highschool runaway turned prostitute by the name of Sayu, who crashes in at the place of our resident main MC Yoshida, starting a rather heartwarming story about her increasingly finding family in Yoshida as well as others and becoming more and more self-sufficient on her own. This works for the first stretch of the series, but runs into numerous issues even early on that only become more and more exacerbated.

Even early into the show, there's a heavy emphasis ... on Sayu needing to pick up her bag and head back to her family - which considering this is a highschool runaway with clear traces of emotional abuse, is obviously out of the question for any sane person to do, yet Yoshida and the rest of the cast keep insisting on this like it's the only option before even bothering asking Sayu why she ran away in the first place. Sayu is desentized involving sexual activity, and this is unsurprising considering her experiences until meeting Yoshida, yet her flirting with him only increases as the series goes on regardless of what happens - even if Yoshida rejects her advances. This colors their interactions in a rather inappropriate romantic light, with the two often blushing at events like going to the fireworks or stumbling on top of each other in a manner reminiscent of a romantic comedy - which is a problem, because this show's romance is rather poor and it certainly can't be described as comedic, especially the later into the show we get.

This series has precisely zero tact involving the subject matter it is covering. This includes Yoshida's coworkers chastising him for keeping a girl with him and encouraging him to kick her to head home - which is doubly astounding considering that all of these people are adults and as such should be aware that her reasons for running away must have been rather heavy if she had to resort to the measures she had. It doesn't help that neither character is well-developed, with the majority of their characterization surrounding their feelings for Yoshida or position on Sayu staying with him, but never much about them personally - in fact, we don't get to know much about the cast at all minus Sayu and her later friend (and easily best character in the series) Asami. Asami is the closest thing the series has to a well-rounded character, and her characterization involving going against her parent's wishes on what to study as well as friendship with Sayu was fairly well done and marked what I consider to be the strongest point of the series. Unfortunately, the later into the series we go, the more its issues run rampant.

A point of criticism against the series in Japan is that Yoshida's actions are illegal, as keeping a minor against the wishes of their parents with an adult is legally perceived as kidnapping (though isn't considered kidnapping if the parents don't press charges/nobody reports it). While I cannot speak to the validity of the criticism made by locals, it misses another point entirely, being that she had no clear authorities to turn to for her troubles (something unfortunately common among most victims of various shades of abuse and mental trauma worldwide) and had to resort to leaving her family entirely. Various series have explored these points in different ways; Ryukishi's work in the Higurashi and Umineko visual novels, for example, extensively cover how abuse can occur in tight social structures, helped greatly by Ryukishi's own experiences as a social worker and how these experiences can materialize. Monogatari, for all its flaws, extensively covers this subject in several character arcs - shown from both the perspectives of victims as well as perpetrators - and handles it exceptionally well, particularly in Nekomonogatari and Second Season. Chi no Wadachi is a pretty neat psychological horror manga, showing to what extent abuse can scar someone and diving fairly deep into the victim's psyche. And there's countless media in the sphere that has covered this topic with quite a bit of care on some level - the recently finished airing fantastic Fruits Basket reboot being yet another example, the Little Busters visual novel's Haruka route being one as well to cap things off.

Unfortunately, as mentioned before, HigeHiro is not a case where this is handled particularly well. Sayu gets guilt-tripped all series long to essentially fuck off and return to her family, and her backstory showcases her family being sociopathic asshats who didn't care for her trauma at worst, and negligent at best. Her mentioning her background unfortunately does not change the pace at which she is pushed to leaving Yoshida and returning to her family, which is doubly astounding considering that everyone interacting with the situation minus Sayu is an adult, and her family as insanely toxic - her mother, for example, is absolute scum, immediately conservatively enquires on her daughter's chastity and talks about the trouble she caused her. One would expect the narrative to confront the incredibly conservative attitudes being shown here, which played a huge role in Sayu fleeing from her family. Instead, Yoshida bows his head to her and everything is resolved seamlessly, which leads me to another issue involving the series; it has no idea how to deal with antagonists.

The earliest instance of an antagonistic character in the series is some playboy who attempts to rape Sayu, which actually is a pretty accurate portrayal of standard sexual assault; victim already knows the perpetrator, blackmail, sexual harassment and so on. The issue is that once the playboy is chased off, the next time he's in an episode he's suddenly conscious of hiding Sayu from her brother stalking the supermarket they're working and is all of a sudden portrayed in a positive light, with his previous actions forgotten. This...is a recurring problem in the series, with Yuzuha and Sayu's moms similarly being victims of the series' strange willingness to forgive people who probably really shouldn't be forgiven, and sweep their actions under the rug due to its clear conservative tint.

There are, however, unique problems to the anime that do not exist in its light novel or manga counterpart. Volume 3 of the LNs - which gives Yoshida quite a bit of backdrop and characterization - is casually skimmed through, making Yoshida himself come off as rather flat, with very little characterization. In both other versions of the story, he's given some exploration of his past with a previous girlfriend, and his distant approach to personal relationships is emphasized to contrast with Sayu's, who receives similar development in the next volume that the anime adapted more concisely. 5 volumes is quite a bit for a 1 cour anime, and while I do think Project No. 9 had a lot on their plate here - this being a decently budgeted anime right after releasing Tomozaki-kun - this show clearly needed more runtime to expand on its cast of characters, and I say this as someone familiar with the source material and up to date with the manga as of the time of this writing. This could have at least somewhat recontextualized some of the dynamic between Sayu and Yoshida, and I'm not sure why Yoshida's backstory was dropped out of the anime in favor of a fireworks date.

Perhaps no larger offender of HigeHiro's issues exists than its ending, which while acts as a bookends to the beginning of the story, also serves as a clear romantic conclusion considering the romantic and sexual friction between both Sayu and Yoshida - culminating in a rather questionable conversation between the two before his flight home wherein he mentions that he wouldn't mind being romantically engaged with her once she comes of age, but won't wait for her to pursue a different relationship. Judging by the fact he was willing to invite her into his apartment post-timeskip, that leaves very little to the imagination about his relationship status and where their relationship goes from her - while I do think age gap stories can be interesting depending on their execution, there's no mention of the disproportionate power dynamic between the two or the fact Sayu very clearly spent so much time being unhealthily attached to Yoshida, who while her savior also acted as a guardian over the course of the story.

On a technical level, the series is competent; it's decently directed and nice to look at, the character designs are attractive to look at and the animation remained largely consistent, with clear jumps in quality in better moments in the series. The sound design is worth of praise, with pretty good voiceacting, a neat OST and consistent sound effects - to say nothing of the OP, which is pretty nice, and the ED, which is pretty catchy and highlights what I consider the series' best parts. Some people found the fanservice distasteful and while I can't say it bothers me much, I can see where they're coming from involving how the show covers it.

In conclusion, HigeHiro starts off decently enough, but rapidly disintegrates under the weight of its subject matter and themes, of which the author is clearly unequipped to tackle. I wish 'em the best of luck in future endeavors - the series' better moments are clear indicators of what they're capable of - and that they'd improve from this series' failings.

Thanks to anyone and everyone for reading this review. Any and all feedback would be appreciated.

Source for the Japanese reception to HigeHiro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDwtfXUGiZ4

When I watched the first 4 episodes of Higehiro, I was a bit off-put by the unnecessary fanservice and sexualization of Sayu during serious moments, but I was overall intrigued by the story's premise. I thought I was in for a serious exploration of PTSD, manipulation, family struggles, etc.

Instead, I don't know what I watched.

Higehiro tries to touch on many serious topics in its "story", only to end up doing absolutely jack shit at the end of the day. I'd like to think the takeaway message is that good parenting is important/what it means to grow up, but I don't even know anymore. ... And the final 3-4 episodes are excellent proof of the bullshit writing in this series.

A mom, who clearly needs medication/therapy help, is somehow swayed over by the words of a total stranger and she decides to change her life outlook because he prostrates himself. (btw, what kinda brother puts up with that environment and doesn't think of proactively helping their younger sibling more?)

And why does Sayu apologize to this figure? It's the show's attempt at making her seem like a righteous and honourable person but all it does is highlight her stupidity. And the "wanna have sex" shit in the final episode was just straight weird and illogical. Yoshida's made his stance extremely clear on that stuff, yet she continues to push it for no reason. If that isn't "out of character" fanservice, I don't know what is.

Yoshida is also propped up as some holy messiah who saved Sayu by her brother, but it's really not like he did anything special aside from offering a few words of advice. Propping him up as this amazing, father-like figure is just an attempt to pander to the cucks jerking it off throughout this show.

While audiovisuals were good for the first 4 episodes, I got tired of hearing the same melodramatic/suspense soundtracks being played over and over. Also doesn't help that animation quality took a massive hit in the final few episodes. Movement became stiffer, especially lips when talking. Far-away shots of characters were also downright atrocious in terms of art quality and clarity. Gross.

Ultimately, Higehiro had an interesting premise and relevant themes it could have explored properly. But it just went and fucked everything up when it came to pacing, storytelling, and characters (especially the conclusion of these character arcs). While these flaws aren't imminent in your first few viewings, they become painfully obvious as the series drags on and culminate in the shitstorm that is the final 3 episodes.

I'm gonna say this once and for all:
Higehiro is like a piece of shit. It's garbage. An absolute bottom tier romcom with nothing but criminal undertones into it. It's so criminal just thinking how a person just kidnapped a girl literally without her consent! He actually asked her if she wanted to STAY with him and SHE agreed. And he that means that he forced her right? I can't even tell. She had no other option. He blackmailed her into staying with her just because he wanted to enjoy her himself and not let her sleep with any other man. I know about it. ... I can PREDICT how the story is gonna go. BELIEVE ME.

It's way too suggestive and lustful and also Yoshida was always so turned on about how he wanted to have sex with her and all the women, right? In my honest opinion, it was all too suggestive. I literally can't believe how a girl like Sayu who is literally months shy of the age of 18, can have her own mind and make her own decisions. If the situations were reversed and a guy was living with a older woman then I'm sure that these sick pedophiles would still love to pleasure themselves through it. And only I would be there to prevent that from happening!

I can't even begin to imagine how many years this guy would be put in jail for because he's a pedophile. And all the people enjoying this are also sick perverts! It's so wrong to enjoy this! I literally can't trust that Yoshida guy because I have seen him for 2-3 episodes max and he just can't seem to see that poor minor girl as anything other than fap material. He's gonna assault her real soon. I know it! Forget about sending the other guys to jail who had sex with her 6 months ago when she would've been 16!! Who she was FORCED to have sex with and she literally did not consent to it. I literally can't trust the word and actions of an actual functional adult in the living society! He has to be a psychopath for sure. I know it. The moment I saw his face, He looked so shady like some hentai protagonist! Like not everyone in Japan has black hair, right? And hentai is actually widespread in Japan! Hentai is derived from REALITY! I see 50,000 of cases like this in japan monthly! Daily there are thousands of high school girls that run away! So many girls and boys have run away that there's literally no one left to attend schools. I know for sure! I have myself visited Tokyo in my dreams! And look at the amount of people this is gonna influence! They are already sick perverts who enjoy characters like megumin and other underage characters and now they will come out of their closets from every corner of the world and just take so many runaway highschool girls into their homes and do god knows what to them!

And it would totally be the fault of this single anime. The perpetrators would not be responsible, neither anyone else! Everything is the fault of this show! And I will bring justice to all these little teeny-tiny 17 year old boys and girls by holding the director and producer of this show accountable! Because they too are pedophiles!!!
Man I just can't see how sick in the mind these people can get!

Anyways, where's the next episode?











PS: Just shut up or actually try to help these victims in your own countries and in Japan as well through legitimate means. If you think I'm wrong in anyway, I'll gladly argue with you sensibly.


And just being clear this was all 'SaTiRe'.


A moment of silence for all those who thought that I don't like the show and thought that I was the same as them.


1...2...3... and fine. Back to reality. So, anyways I just want to tell you all that this series will get you jebaited just as I had you here. The first episode may seem to be unrealistic and provocative. But, believe me, it's not. Sit down and actually think about. What would YOU do in this situation. And don't say that it cannot happen. It can. If clowns can become presidents and prime ministers, redditors can shake the stock market and China can still prosper, then, this twisted situation just a small thing. Do you think the fanservice is exploitative? Well, It's only but a few scenes. I call it good aesthetics. And those scenes can actually happen irl. Can a person not be half-naked when contemplating their future? I think everyone has these moments. If you haven't then what has Hollywood ever taught you? Just try it out! It feels good.

As for the pedophilia. Yes it's true. The FMC is going to be a grave victim of pedophilia in the future. I believe in it and... SIKE!! Gotcha again!


Of course it doesn't promote pedophilia. Can ya'll even hear yourself? You guys think that 17 is not mature enough to give consent or take important life decisions. Maybe you're late bloomers but THAT many of you ?! The problem is in your POV. You're worried about how and when Sayu will try to give her consent to Yoshida. Bitch, where were you when she had to sleep with mysterious men 6 months prior to meeting Yoshida when she would've been 16? Where she was literally FORCED to have sex in exchange for food and shelter. And NOW you're worried about a man who actually has a stable job and friends, who is socially well adjusted and has people who know him for years and trust him. NOW you're worried about Sayu? DID YOU NOT SEE WHAT SHE WENT THROUGH? How can you even see a pedophile in Yoshida? How can you actually twist an ulterior motive out of that earnest a man, huh?

It's not even that high of a precedent. Just don't fuck a teen. How do you explain that to a emotionally unstable girl who is mentally scarred? SAY THAT IN THE SIMPLEST WAY POSSIBLE. "I won't have sex with you because I don't love you." HOW in the fuck is YOUR mind twisted so much that you can take the ulterior meaning out of THIS simple a statement ?! Are you blind? How can you not comprehend that simple a situation? Needless to say you definitely haven't read anything about ethics, right?

I'll say this right now. If you don't yet have friends who trust you then just wait for it and actually try to make those friends. Once you're 27 like Yoshida maaaaybe you'll get people who trust you and your actions and actually would have known you for years. Also, pray tell me, how willing would you be to interfere in anyone else's business? Why would a common person want to involve themselves in something like Yoshida's condition? When you know the guy and trust him then you would definitely want to check up on Sayu and advice her and Yoshida about the next steps to take. That's the most I think that you can go as far as realism is concerned. Maybe drop her back home. And that's it.

Just as I said before, put yourself in the situation and see for yourself what could and could not have been possible. Or come watch it when you're in a better mind state and then comment on the ENTIRETY of the show. Don't just try to garner attention to yourself by using pathos on the readers. That's pathetic. If rape culture and pedophilia are the only things you can think of in your "review" then you definitely lack perspective.

One last thing, This is a fictional show an it is not trying to PROMOTE any unspeakable agenda. Those who do get "INFLUENCED" by this are gullible people and if they do any crime, The blame is on them and their criminal thinking and not on the creators of the show or the original writer. Don't just pass around accountability and responsibility of people.
I have read the manga and light novel years ago so I can tell all this. To all the new viewers and readers: Chill out.


Also, Have a nice day.

Higehiro was an anime that I just hopped in the bandwagon since YouTube kept putting it on my recommended for like 4 days. I didn’t expect anything much, but here is my honest review about this anime. (Also my review might be incomplete, sorry if I had missing info.)

Story - 6/10
It has a decent story where we have our MC, Yoshida, who was drunk then found a high school girl sitting next to a lamppost and asked what she was doing out so late in the dark. He then asks her to come and stay by his place. Then time went by (like just tomorrow ... lol) and now our high school girl named Sayu told Yoshida that she ran away from her parents 6 months ago and now is basically homeless, so you know what’s best for her. Yoshida and Sayu are officially roommates, or that’s what I’d call it. Yoshida learns about her past why she keeps offering sex to him after getting picked up so Yoshida has a new goal in mind— to change Sayu’s life and to let her stray away from that life she had. (aka that offering sex life)

Characters - 5/10
I ONLY focused on the 2 main characters. Sayu and Yoshida

Yoshida (9 or 10 out of 10)
He’s by far one of the most respected MC I’ve seen. He’s kind and isn’t a horny fuck. He’s basically the anime version of a gigachad.

Sayu (4 out of 10)
The character in question. Yeah she’s beautiful and all, but the thing that puts her down is the h o r n y. My question is how did you even lead your life here? Like if you get picked up by a man, you just offer them sex, what are you, a prostitute for free? Bruh. I know she has a part time job now as a way to stray away from her past horny life, which is good. (+1, originally rated 3/10)

Art - 3/10
The artstyle is decent though, the animation is okay. There is not a lot to say about it, apart from one thing that this is rated low is Episode 3.
Literally at the first second, sex scene. Anime these days are getting more “hentai-y” and this is another proof of it. The animators just straight up animated an underage girl getting fucked. I know it’s to show Sayu’s past, and I know the age of consent in Japan is 13, but this is messed up. I swear, there are like a lot of people that got caught off guard during Episode 3 because of that.

Sound - 4/10
The sounds are decent, Opening and ED is okay, and I don’t know, there’s not a lot to say about this.

Enjoyment - 1/10
Although I see this anime as pretty okay, I haven’t enjoyed it. I feel that this anime is pretty boring. The only thing I enjoyed was when Yoshida remembered Sayu as the black panties girl, which I laughed at. Sorry that I’m a degenerate
fuck. Nothing else to say.


All in all, I think Higehiro has some room for improvement even though for me, it’s a good anime, but it’s really boring. We’re only 4 episodes in, so my opinion could probably change anytime soon.


NOTE: Please don’t flame me, this isn’t Twitter, and anyone can have their opinions anytime they want.

Higehiro is a series that disguises itself as a show with mature content that tackles real life issues with the utmost care and empathy. However, it fails to do that at almost every turn, because it comes off as an erotic fantasy that is thinly veiled by abuse and trauma.

Let’s start with the plot. Yoshida, a 26 year old man, finds a high school girl, Sayu, sitting alone at a lamp post without anyone to take her in. He decides to give her a place to live in exchange for her doing housework. Sayu has been running away from home and living in random men’s ... houses in exchange for having sex with them. It is hinted lots of times that besides her sexual abuse, there must be something terrible that made her run away from home. Yoshida provides her a warm home and a place of respite. The scenario of bringing a cute high school girl home is akin to a sexual fantasy. She is cute, she cooks, she does all the housework, she's basically an incel's dream come true.

The characters are as average as you can get. Yoshida is our main protagonist, and his personality is boiled down to him being empathetic, a yes man and a semi-responsible adult. He is completely oblivious to his co-workers simping for him, despite him being 26 years old. His main contribution in the story is allowing Sayu to stay at his place, supporting her and worrying about her. He has no backstory of his own or a particularly meaningful relationship other than Sayu. The narrative repeatedly tries to hammer the point that he is a great guy simply because he rejects Sayu's sexual offers. The author almost wants us to feel like he deserves a medal for the bare minimum. He says he's not into kids, but then he says he finds Sayu's smile sexy. He doesn't like her that way, but then he blushes and is turned on by her anyway.

Sayu is our heroine, the only one given sufficient backstory or development. She is a traumatized girl who has ran away from her home and tries to build her life anew in Yoshida’s home. Seeing her get a part time job, have fun and make a new friend was a treat.

Other than our main characters, we have Gotou and Mishima, who basically constitute Yoshida’s harem. Gotou is presented at first as a woman who has a boyfriend so she can’t answer Yoshida’s feelings for her, but then we learn that she’s actually a virgin and was simply afraid to open up or pursue a relationship with him. This is the most immature and unrealistic thing I’ve heard in my life. No adult woman ever behaves like this, it makes no fucking sense. Despite these two being well over the age of 25, they act like immature teens. They even discuss her bra size over beers. This is something you’d expect to hear in a middle school banter. Mishima on the other hand, is Yoshida’s coworker who is also 20-something but acts like a high schooler. She stalks him, yells at him, wants explanations for something that really isn’t her business. Naturally, the only time all these adults are acting like responsible adults is when it concerns Sayu, which is a nice change of pace. Apart from that, their personalities could easily belong to teenagers and the only thing that distinguishes them from minors is them drinking alcohol, working and smoking.

The relationship between Sayu and Yoshida is constantly edging towards parental or romantic according to the writer’s whims. Boy, Freud would be having a field party if he were to watch this show. There are parts where it’s portrayed as parental, like when Sayu asked him if she would have a happier upbringing if he was her father; and there are moment where it seems romantic, like in the summer festival that felt straight out of a shoujo manga. It’s like the author was not entirely sure which outcome he wanted, so he kept toying with it for as long as they could. Age gap stories are tricky and can be considered creepy by the majority of the fanbase. But if someone, for some reason, wanted to draw something like that, making their relationship parental is probably the wrong way to go about it. It not only reinforces the idea that it involves grooming of a minor but also comes off as disgusting and plainly uncomfortable. The author should have decided on whether he wanted the relationship to be familial or romantic and leave it at that. Seeing Sayu ask for a parent like Yoshida and then ask him to have sex with her is literally giving me a tonal whiplash.

This series handles the topics of consent, sexual abuse, suicidal thoughts. bullying and depression. But does it handle them well? I’d say that mostly it doesn’t. Sayu being sexually abused by all these men is something that is written with empathy. But instead of following through, we get multiple fanservice angles that sexualize her. We get to see her cleavage and her underwear during important conversations. Why in the goddamn hell do we need to see that? The narrative falls apart when they decide to sexualize the very girl that has been sexually abused. Another disturbing issue arose when someone who had been sheltering Sayu for a while in exchange for sex appeared to be working at her part time job. He blackmailed her into sleeping with him again despite her crying and just tearfully surrendering to not lose the happy life she’d built in Yoshida’s home. This disturbing arc is only resolved by the man apologizing and deciding not to harass her ever again. Sayu then stops being terrified of him and even lets him help her out from time to time. How in the fuck is this a good portrayal of sexual harassment, assault and consent? You can’t go to being friends with someone who’s blackmailed and assaulted you. The way this issue was handled is also shallow, flippant and straight up insulting. It’s like they wanted some cheap, forced drama without handling consent and sexual abuse in a responsible manner. The last point I’d like to mention is Sayu’s past. Her past is written lazily and there are many things that logically make 0 sense but are shoehorned anyway purely for drama. This arc of hers is full of melodrama, cliche scenes you have seen in every work out there and scenes that serve no purpose other than to force the audience to cry. It’s all done in such a perfunctory way that you can’t help but feel disengaged from Sayu’s predicament, her mom’s treatment or her friendship with Yuuko. The author has no clue how actual abusive parents are, how depression and sexual abuse affect a person and how they can be resolved gradually through therapy instead of a 15 minute talk. Well-intentioned or not, it feels like the author watched a movie about said topics and simply incorporated them into his work without researching them first.

Truth be told, Higehiro could have been so much more than what we got. It tries to be mature but the frequent sexualization of Sayu, the one-dimensional writing of the cast as plot devices and the ambiguous nature of the main characters’ relationship give so many mixed signals it ultimately destroys the series’ credibility, seriousness and maturity. It attempts to handle serious real life issues properly but it fails at doing that. I wouldn’t recommend this story to anyone who wants to see a realistic portrayal of these issues or someone who is looking for a parental show like Hinamatsuri.

This review contains minor spoilers until the 6 episode.

Starts with a good idea, have some 3 episodes of enjoyment, but after that, the show goes down brutally.
The premise of the show is: a girl who escapes from home and, to survive, prostitute himself in exchange for food and home. Yoshida, the main protagonist, a ~2x years office worker, finds her and give home, don't wanting anymore than home services in exchange.

The BIG problem is: you think that a girl run from house and PROSTITUTING HERSELF, must have A ENORMOUS reason, right?
Wrong. There's NO big reason at all.
Also, the show have NO IDEA of how to ... talk about rape and prostitution AT ALL.
When she's ALMOST RAPED, do you think this will have consequences, right? Wrong. ALL THE CONSEQUENCE IS A SLAP ON HIS FACE AND AFTER THAT, A SMILING!
This show is HORRIBLE and no sane person would like that shit in any situation.

Oh, almost forgot: Gotou-san, boss of Yoshida, is a BIG bullshit in the form of a character! Poor background, poor objectives and ZERO density. Shes just the high 20's virgin girl serving no purpose at all.

I don’t really judge things from controversies; I rather try to consume that specific controversial art in order to decide on what opinion I have of it. HigeHiro falls on the negative side of things, because it’s apparent that this is a pedophile fantasy, judging how the age of consent in Japan is one of the biggest issues there and woman have been fighting to increase it. HigeHiro tries to glamorize an adult man housing a minor, and tries to pass it off as a noble act.

One of the biggest problems with HigeHiro is that it’s trying so hard to be a moralistic story ... with child abuse themes, and mask its problematic aspects with it. Which I think from reading the reviews here, worked pretty well.

I have been watching some people calling the mc as someone with a high moral code, and I am just scratching my head reading that. I really don’t understand how it is a wise decision to house an underage prostitute who is in need of apparent help and therapy. Even more so when in Japan, it’s illegal to house run away minors. Any normal human being with a proper functioning brain would have called for the police or child protective services. An adult man offering a minor prostitute housing isn’t a noble thing, but a rather fishy move on his part. Him “holding back” from her advances really doesn’t detract from the whole issue here, What does he want from her in the long run? How long is he planning on providing housing to her?

She needs professional help to become a proper functioning adult capable of supporting herself, providing housing for her does nothing but farther make her incapable of helping herself in the long run. This anime is from the start, a whole mess.

P.S. I don‘t care if anyone likes this, just as long people aren‘t excusing the problematic aspects.

well, what can i say. i thought this show would be one of the most pure and beautiful out there but BOY WAS I WRONG!
hige wo soru is a great show that starts off as a beautiful story of a chad named Yoshida who takes in a homeless girl named Sayu, who is willing to offfer her body in order to stay at his place for a couple of days. when i saw the pilot when it aired, i was shocked! i was expecting some really really tragic back story because i dont think anyone would just offer sex in order to live with ... a stranger.

of course, sayu wouldnt just "start living as a roommate" with Yoshida, and the show has done such a good job in the first 3 episodes depicting their relationship, the constant to and fro of feelings and contemplation by Sayu thinking that she is a burden to Yoshida and she should just leave immediately. It was the 3rd episode that finally showed that even Yoshida is wanting to live with sayu since his own life is being improved as the days pass. so, once the confusion has ended, shouldnt Sayu start to losen up quite a lot? nope. she still feels like a burden for the rest of the show. The episodes are so predictable because the same things happen every single time- Sayu contemplates, Yoshida comforts her, they share a moment, episode ends! THATS IT!

next, characters. Yoshida is a very good character, love him so much, i think he's the only reason i kept going and watched this show. easy 8/10. but every single character is SO BORING, SO BLAND! there is nothing new about them and the characters are so repitative, like wtf ,cant you even come up with your own characters? Gotou-san, the short-haired rejected Kouhai, sayu's friend who works with her in the departmental store, every single character is so bland! i was so bored every single episode.

okay, now all comes down to this- Sayu's past. WHAT THE HELL was that crappy reason to leave your home. first- the backstory of her being awkward and an introvert, not having friends because of family issues, very creative wow. she makes a friend who is "less pretty" and is a "loser" too. her words not mine. the other girls get jealous of her and bully her to the point that she suicides. the one good thing they did was for the next 1 minute, when they showed how pressured Sayu's family was feeling when they were surrounded by media reporters and sayu was locked in her room. that sure sent some shivers down my spine. as Sayu goes down to her mom to ask for help, her OWN mom blames a child's death on her own daughter!? what is wrong with you!? blaming your own daughter for SUICIDE!? but then she leaves her place and starts sleeping with people and what is even going on!?

her brother is honestly one of the dumbest people to have ever lived on this planet! what is wrong with you!? TAKE YOUR SISTER WITH YOU IDIOT, DONT JUST GIVE HER A TON OF MONEY AND ASK HER TO SURVIVE! and if youre even doing it, why cant you just get her a room in a hotel next to your office so you can keep an eye on her!?

all in all, im glad i dropped this show at episode 9. this has to be one of the worst shows ive ever seen. maybe it got better from episode 10, but i will NEVER go back to watch this show just to fill my lists of completed anime. this was just a big let down and im disappointed that i wasted 3 hours of my life watching this

This anime had so much potential, and it could have been so much better. Instead, we're presented with a mediocre romance anime packed to the brim with cliched, overused tropes about "facing reality" or "learning to become more mature". Nobody came here to listen to a 13 episode long TED talk and that's exactly what this anime has to offer.

The anime tries too hard to downplay the harsh reality of family feuds and parental negligence and it even has the audacity to cover it up with a light-hearted romance story and it does an incredible job of making a huge mess out of it. Don't ... waste your time on this pathetic anime, and don't be fooled by the rosy, wholesome vibes it gives off either.