Anime Review: Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou.

At first glance, this seemed as if it would be another romance series… and I was fine with that because I really do love the romance slice-of-life genre; however, Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou. turned out to be something more than just a typical romance series. It turned into a love story between two complete strangers but not the like kind of love you’re typically thinking of. Could this approach produce an interesting show?

Let’s Jam!

The Story

Yoshida is your typical paper-pushing salaryman. He is in love with his co-worker Gotou who invites him out to dinner one night. After getting rejected by her, he goes to a bar to drown his sorrows. On the way home, he notices a girl named Sayu sitting underneath a street lamp. Whether he truly felt sorry for her or the booze was guiding his decisions, he took her in.

Over the next six months, the two of them formed a bond. While Sayu was used to offering her body in exchange for a place to live, Yoshida wholeheartedly refused. Instead of trying to be her lover, Yoshida tried to be a father figure for her. This was the kind of love that, I believe, was formed here… love between parent and child despite them not even being related. Of course, there is the obvious actual romantic love there but Yoshida can never bring himself to admit it.

We also get to learn about Sayu’s past and why she ran away from home. Sadly, I didn’t feel moved by it because it’s a situation that has played out far too often. The only thing that took me for a surprise was the cold, uncaring, bitch of a mother that Sayu had. If you ever wanted to see the epitome of a woman who has the deepest regrets in the world for giving birth to her own flesh and blood, then you can indulge yourself with Sayu’s mother and probably still won’t get your fill. She’s that much of a rotten human being.

I won’t spoil the ending but I was severely disappointed in it. I wasn’t disappointed in it because of the end goal, but it took the safest way possible to resolve things. I wanted to see more conflict. I wanted to see Sayu’s mother absolutely destroyed and made to regret her feelings, only to lose Sayu for good in the end to where she, maybe… just maybe… would give even the smallest modicum of a shit about her but we didn’t get that. We got the result we all wanted but it just wasn’t satisfying… like… at all.

Take away the mild ending, and this was still a pretty decent show… even if there were a couple of faults with it.

The Characters

Yoshida

As aforementioned, he’s a salaryman… one with the highest morals of any male protagonist I have ever encountered. Despite him acting annoyed and rather monotone most of the time, Yoshida has an incredibly large heart. He is very selfless and willing to do whatever it takes to make sure Sayu has a safe place to stay until she figures her life out. He never takes advantage of her, never treats her poorly, worries about her whenever something happens, offers her advice, and even supports her by buying her a phone, clothes, etc. In other words, he became the first true father figure she ever had in her entire life. If there was only one major fault with Yoshida, it’s the fact that he cannot bring himself to admit his true feelings about Sayu. Then again, Sayu is underage and doing something like that could have major repercussions. Yoshida is smart enough to realize this so I don’t think it’s an issue of him not being able to express himself but rather he’s playing it safe so that he can, one day, see Sayu again. I’d have to say that Yoshida is the most wholesome main character I have seen in a very long time!

Sayu Ogiwara

Sayu ran away from home after a tragic event left her mentally scarred. Add in the fact that her unholy spawn of Satan of a mother falsely blamed her for said tragic event and you have a recipe that any child could make which would result in runaway stew. Sayu’s journey to meeting Yoshida wasn’t a pleasant one, either. She went through many difficult experiences before she lucked out with him. Sayu isn’t dumb, though. She knows that she would eventually have to return home but she wanted to do it on her own terms. She had to reach deep down inside of herself in order to find the reason to go back… and she needed to sort out her own personal feelings first before doing all of that. It is a complicated mess but through it all, you can definitely tell that Sayu is still a child and cannot truly make super-intelligent decisions. When you’re young and impressionable or feel that there is only one way to do things because you don’t know any better, Sayu is the result.

She is sweet and innocent enough and while she does give off the fact that she has a good head on her shoulders, it’s not exactly screwed on tightly. Sleeping with other men for a place to stay, thinking that just running away would make everything okay, all of which are just childish decisions that show her immaturity. Then again, did she really have any other choice aside from living in a soul-destroying personal hell?

Issa Ogiwara

Okay… so this is where I have a problem. Issa is Sayu’s older brother and when he tracks her down and tries to get her to come back home, Sayu is scared to death of him… or at least, scared to death of the notion of going back home before she’s ready. You don’t really get that at first. Instead, you are made to think that Issa is some evil businessman here to right the wrongs for public relations in order to make things right and proper but, in the end, Issa was nothing more than just a caring big brother who only wanted Sayu to have the best life possible.

Which makes zero sense because of one little story plot point: HE ENABLED HER TO RUN AWAY!

It made ZERO SENSE for Sayu to be deathly scared of seeing her brother when her brother literally handed her an envelope filled with money and told her to leave! He enabled her plan and now he’s showing concern to bring her home? Sure, there may be guilt or a sense of duty but why would Sayu be scared of the person WHO HELPED HER RUN AWAY!? That made zero sense!

It would have just been easier for her to see her brother and calmly talk to him! Given the kind of character that Issa is, I’m shocked that’s not how everything played out. Hell, given the fact that he helped her run away, I would have thought that maybe he’s super understanding and just give her more money until she made up her mind! I mean, he was cool about it and gave her time to think about things but still… they turned a molehill into a mountain with this guy and that never really sat right with me. It was just over contrived and unneeded!

Outside of that… cool dude.

I would mention Gotou, Yuuzha, and Hashimoto but they were simply just Yoshida’s co-workers. They were nothing to write home about. Sure, they tried to do a love thing with Gotou… they tried to do a love rival thing with Yuzuha, but both of those stories went about as far as a Space X rocket launch. In the end, they just became empty throwaway characters that didn’t matter in the Yoshida and Sayu show.

This also includes Asami… Sayu’s friend that she made while working at a convenience store. All of them felt like props more than supporting characters. If anything, these characters were the show’s weakest points aside from the ending.

Art, Animation, and Sound

As with most slice-of-life series, there really wasn’t much to write home about when it came to the art or animation. Everything was about as what you would expect from a series like this or the genre in general. If you’ve seen one anime urban setting, you’ve pretty much seen them all. I can’t really recount any scene that made me gasp in awe at the artwork. Even the characters were pretty run-of-the-mill in their designs.

However, despite their averageness, it’s not something that can be counted against the show because shows like these don’t really need flashy characters that stick out like a sore thumb. Sure, there are a few of them walking around in real life but 95% of the time, when you run into someone else out in the world, they’re just plain and ordinary looking. Slice-of-life characters simply mirror that and that’s perfectly fine.

Just like with any slice-of-life show, the soundtrack doesn’t really do much other than support the mood of each scene. Outside of the opening and ending theme, nothing was really all that memorable about the show’s music but that’s also okay because if you felt something during a scene… whether it’s joy or sadness, and it was enhanced by a piece of subtle music, then the soundtrack did its job.

Overall Thoughts

For what it was, it was a decent show. Even though some of it was predictable, it still made for an enjoyable watch. Despite that, I don’t think this show is going to win many (or any) awards, but it shouldn’t be discounted as a show to pass over. There is an aspect of romance there but this is, mostly, a wholesome show that makes you believe that it’s okay to restore your faith in mankind.

Again, while the ending didn’t deliver the punch that it should of, we still got the result that we all wanted in the safest way possible. Due to the overall wholesome nature of the show, it fits, but once you get introduced to Sayu’s mother, you’re just begging for a more satisfying ending. Had we never met her, I don’t think I would have had as much of a problem with the ending as we did.

The fact that a character, who was only around for a total of three whole episodes, can draw so much attention and so much ire just shows how good of a character she truly was. The show built her up to be this presence to be feared to be loathed and then it delivered more than we imagined that it ever could have. The fact that I wanted to see her get utterly destroyed and have that be the only way I would be satisfied with the ending, shows just how much impact she had for the short amount of time she was used on screen.

In the end, I believe this is a show worth checking out. Marathon it on a weekend or something and then add it to your Completed list. I doubt this is one that you’ll be itching to rewatch again after you’re done but you should still enjoy it should you choose to partake in a viewership of it.