Should I let the high school girl in?

What will you do when you are walking down the street late at night and then, out of nowhere, you saw a cute high school girl, and then she asked you for shelter? In today’s post about good intentions versus society’s standards and common sense, we go with the 2021 anime titled: ‘Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway’ or just Hihgehiro for short since Japan has an unhealthy obsession for ridiculously long titles for light novels. Also, contains mega spoilers ahead.

Our story starts with corporate company cog Yoshida who just got rejected by his potential love prospect. After drowning his sorrows the old fashioned way by gulping down immeasurable number of hard liquor, he spots our runaway high school girl heroine named Sayu. Either Sayu was great in convincing on letting her stay on Yoshida’s apartment for free or Yoshida was just drunk and was easy to trick, Yoshida brought home a JK into his home with the intention of sending her packing the following day… which actually did not happen and ultimately kept runaway girl in his house for 12 of the 13 episodes. And this is the problem of the show. I understand this is anime and anything can happen and it’s ok since common sense does not actually apply and even if you apply common sense, the show would end on episode 1. And yes, it should had ended in episode 1. Yes, Yoshida might be a good person by protecting Sayu, but we need to understand the situation that Sayu has no reason to be with Yoshida. Considering Sayu is still a minor and Yoshida is a complete stranger, the most prudent way Yoshida could have handled the situation is to escort Sayu to the nearest police station since having a minor like that is considered as kidnapping. This anime not only glorifies the act of sheltering people just because it’s okay if they are homeless and have problems, but also destroys common sense viewed as the norm established by society.

Because of this unusual pairing, the two get along and a romance blossomed. Okay, but shouldn’t Yoshida fix everything before it escalates any further? Since Yoshida is very fixated on Sayu and nothing more, he fails to realize the person he should be having a relationship based on his age group, which irritates me to no end. Perhaps he does not see Mishima’s efforts, let alone a love interest even with all the things she had done, but like a small kid wasting ample amounts of water, the opportunity is already lost since it’s obvious Yoshida cares more for Sayu. A horrible, horrible decision. Since we are already on the subject of wrong decisions, what’s the deal with Goto telling Yoshida she is already seeing another man whereas she isn’t? What was with that d*** move? Congratulations, lady. You just made the best wrong decision of 2021 you idiot!

I feel like the bad guy just by giving out my opinions about how everything could had been resolved. However, things are a bit complicated as we also need to look at what happened to Sayu’s back story to understand how she ended up homeless, which can be attributed to her mom’s own doing: she is incapable of being one. Long story short: Sayu’s friend committed suicide, Sayu’s mom, who already detests her daughter’s existence since her husband cheated on her when she was still pregnant with her, blames her own daughter for Sayu’s friend’s death. And because of this Sayu ran away from home since she felt she is already being unwanted and unloved by her own mother. And what the hell is the older brother doing? Well, not enough. He could have just rented an apartment for his little sister to live in if both mother and daughter cannot be in good terms. I can’t blame Sayu’s mom for hating her own daughter, but she should not have her daughter be accountable for her husband’s infidelity. Parents should be responsible for raising their children since they are not yet strong enough to stand on their own in which they should be showered with love and care. In this case, I can’t blame Sayu for running away from home since she is still just looking for a place where she belongs to where she is loved.

However, this anime traps its characters in an infinite loop where if Yoshida will not take care of Sayu, Sayu will just drift further which could lead to being a prostitute just to look for men to take care of her, and her equally uncaring family can’t do s*** since mom is more concerned about her and her son’s reputation. And Yoshida can’t take care of Sayu as I have mentioned before. Amazing. Oh, I’m having the best headache since I watched and reviewed Rent-a-Girlfriend. It seems they have problems which actually justifies anything they can come up with. But eventually, Yoshida finally came up with a solution; mom and daughter reconciled (probably); and our male protagonist goes back home, mission accomplished. At least everything got fixed in the end, right? Hahaha…

Conclusion
People praise this anime in a lot of sites and as of writing this post, it has garnered 7.3/10 in Myanimelist. I don’t see the appeal of this show as I am not in favor of the romance in which two unlikely individuals had been forced to live together due to their circumstances in life. Perhaps there is something in here that you guys can see, in which I cannot. Animation wise, I like it, as well as the character designs. Everything else, overshadowed by the story. I ask my readers the same question before we end my blog: “Should I let the high school girl in?” Thanks for reading and until next time.

-DarkdaemonPK2

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Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higehiro

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