Title: HigeHiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway Vol. 1
Author: Shimesaba (Story), Imaru Adachi (Manga), booota (Characters)
Publisher: One Peace Books
Language: English
Format: Paperback
Pages: 160
Genre: Romance, Slice of Life
Publication Date: October 14, 2021
The Story
Yoshida is your typical paper-pushing salaryman. He is in love with his co-worker Goto who goes out one a day with Yoshida 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. He offers her a place to stay in exchange for her doing chores around the house. He even gives her money to buy clothes, and later, even buys her a cell phone so the two of them can keep in touch in the event that he has to work late.
In addition to his love interest with Goto, another co-worker by the name of Mishima tries to intervene by dropping some subtle (and not-so-subtle hints on a trip to the movies) that she likes him. However, Yoshida doesn’t prefer her type, either. When Yoshida returns from the movies; however, Yoshida notices that something is off and our first volume ends in a cliffhanger!
Characters
Yoshida is a salaryman… one with the highest morals of any male protagonist I have ever encountered. Despite him acting annoyed 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. I’d have to say that Yoshida is the most wholesome main character I have seen in a very long time… although he is a little rough around the edges.
Sayu ran away from home and has been on the run for six months. It was made clear that Sayu’s journey to meeting Yoshida wasn’t a pleasant one, either. She went through many difficult experiences before she lucked out with him. It’s pretty clear that with someone like Sayu, it’s easy to relate because 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.
Outside of being his boss, Goto doesn’t really have much depth to her. She rejected Yoshida because she claims to have a boyfriend already but then answers all of his questions when they go out to eat for a second time… including what size her bra is. Because she started shaving, both she and Mishima believed that he had a girlfriend and Goto wanted to get that information out of him.
Mishima is, in all honesty, really annoying. She is a new employee at the company where Yoshida works and he is her trainer. She ends up making mistakes on her data reports but she has a huge crush on him. She’s not exactly subtle about it either, even going so far as to ask him what he would do if she were his soulmate? That’s a bit too pushy for me and even though Mishima doesn’t mean any harm, it’s almost a pointless plotline because it’s established that he likes Goto and with the way he’s acting around Mishima, it’s pretty obvious that there isn’t much interest there.
Final Thoughts
Having seen the anime, I was interested in seeing how the manga adaptation was. It has been a little bit but right away, I could tell that the intro was much quicker than in the anime as it skipped a couple of scenes that I know, for sure, were there. It didn’t really kill the story or anything as it got straight to the point a bit quicker than the show did.
Outside of that, it followed everything pretty nicely although it did blow through the first few episodes of the show in a single volume. That makes me wonder how long this series is really going to be? (I could probably find the answer if I had updated my MyAnimeList account before writing this review but, meh… hindsight and all that).
As for the story itself, if you haven’t seen the anime and have been on the fence about this series, it’s worth a pickup. As I mentioned before, Yoshida is one of the most wholesome characters I have come across in a while. There is a lot of romantic tension here that makes you wonder if he and Sayu will end up together or if Goto will win out in the end. Notice that I didn’t even consider Mishima? I still think she has a snowball’s chance in hell. Typically, side characters like her never have a shot anyway.
Sayu’s story is interesting as it is surrounded by a lot of mystery. You wonder what happened to her for her to run away, why her parents wouldn’t even miss her, etc. You also want to see how her relationship with Yoshida progresses and if it really becomes romantic. There are also the moral implications of such a relationship which Yoshida is fully aware of, too. It’s not as if this series is ignoring the laws of reality in order to tell a love story here. It’s very down-to-Earth, an easy read, and something that will give you a few laughs but make you think, too.
It’s definitely worth picking up!
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This item was provided for review by One Peace Books
