Higehiro


Higehiro, short for Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway, is a Japanese romantic comedy light novel series written by Shimesaba and illustrated by booota. It was serialized online between March 2017 and August 2018 on Kadokawa's user-generated novel publishing website Kakuyomu. It was later published by Kadokawa Shoten with five volumes between February 2018 and June 2021 under their Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint. A manga adaptation with art by Imaru Adachi was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Ace from November 2018 to January 2025. The light novel is licensed in North America by Kadokawa and Yen Press. The manga is licensed by One Peace Books. An anime television series adaptation by Project No.9 aired from April to June 2021.

Plot

Young handsome salaryman Yoshida had finally gathered up the courage to confess his feelings for his employer and longtime crush Airi Gotou. Sadly though, he ended up rejected and goes out drinking with his co-worker/best friend Hashimoto to relieve himself of his sorrows. While heading back home in a drunken state, he meets Sayu Ogiwara, a teenage high school girl who asks to spend the night with him. He lets her in out of pity and because he is too exhausted to argue, saying to himself that he will chase her out tomorrow. The next day now sobered up, Yoshida asks Sayu how she ended up at his apartment: she reveals that she had run away from her family and home in Hokkaido and has been prostituting herself to random men in exchange for a place to stay. Now knowing her backstory, Yoshida feeling bad for her finds himself unable to kick her out of his house and their time of living together begins.

Characters

;Yoshida
;Sayu Ogiwara
;Airi Gotō
;Yuzuha Mishima
;Hashimoto
;Asami Yūki
;Aoi Kanda
;Kyouya Yaguchi
;Issa Ogiwara
;Mrs. Ogiwara
;Yuuko Masaka

Media

Light novels

The series was written by Shimesaba and illustrated by booota and was serialized online between March 2017 and August 2018 on Kadokawa's user-generated novel publishing website Kakuyomu. It was later published by Kadokawa Shoten with five volumes between February 2018 and June 2021 under their Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko imprint. It ended in its fifth volume, which was released on June 1, 2021. Kadokawa is publishing the novels digitally in English. Yen Press will also publish their own release of the series.

Spin-off

Manga

A manga adaptation with art by Imaru Adachi was serialized in Kadokawa Shoten's shōnen manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Ace from November 26, 2018, to January 24, 2025. It was collected in thirteen tankōbon volumes. In March 2021, One Peace Books announced their license to the manga in English and would begin releasing the series in October 2021.

''Each Stories''

Anime

On December 26, 2019, an anime adaptation was announced by Kadokawa Sneaker Bunko. The adaptation was revealed to be a television series produced by Dream Shift, animated by Project No.9 and directed by a director under the pseudonym of Manabu Kamikita, with Deko Akao handling series composition, and Takayuki Noguchi designing the characters. Tomoki Kikuya is composing the series' music. The series aired from April 5 to June 28, 2021, on AT-X, Tokyo MX, and BS11. Dialogue+ performed the series' opening theme song "Omoide Shiritori", while Kaori Ishihara performed the series' ending theme song "Plastic Smile". It ran for 13 episodes.
Higehiro was released on home video in Japan with the first volume of the Blu-ray/DVD released on June 9, 2021.

English release and international distribution

streamed the series outside of Southeast Asia. The English dub, starring Alex Hom and Jill Harris and directed by Jonathan Rigg, debuted on Crunchyroll on July 30, 2022. The DVD/Blu-ray of the series was released in Europe by Crunchyroll EMEA on June 16, 2023.
Muse Communication has licensed the series in Southeast Asia and South Asia.

Episodes

Reception

The light novel series has a total of more than 400,000 copies in circulation, including digital copies. The series appeared at 4th in the bunkobon edition of Takarajimasha's annual light novel guide book Kono [Light Novel ga Sugoi!] in 2019.

Works cited

  • "Ch." is shortened form for chapter and refers to a chapter number of the Higehiro manga.
  • "Ep." is shortened form for episode and refers to an episode number of the Higehiro anime.
  • "LN" refers to a volume of the Higehiro light novel.

    Other references