Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway

After a painful rejection from his crush, 26-year-old salaryman Yoshida gets drunk and, on his way home, finds Sayu, a runaway high school girl, sitting alone by the roadside. He brings her back to his tiny apartment for what was supposed to be one night, but when it becomes clear she has nowhere else to go he lets her stay longer. Their living situation is awkward and often tense, with Yoshida juggling guilt, social expectations, and his own loneliness while Sayu stays guarded and evasive about her past. Over time their uneasy arrangement shifts into a fragile, sometimes tender domestic rhythm that raises uncomfortable questions without offering easy answers.

Released in 2021 in Japan, the TV anime adapts Shimesaba's manga with Deko Akao credited for series composition. The main cast features Kazuyuki Okitsu as Yoshida and Kana Ichinose as Sayu, and the show ran as a single-season television adaptation.

The series provoked active discussion about consent, responsibility, and how society treats vulnerable teens. Sayu and Yoshida became frequent subjects for fan art and online debate, with many viewers noting the show's choice to linger on awkward, morally ambiguous moments rather than smoothing them over, which led to broader conversations about ethics in romance anime.

Viewer response has been largely positive, reflected in an 8.2/10 average from 253 votes. The show mixes quiet, domestic scenes with more fraught dramatic ones, focusing on loneliness, boundaries, emotional recovery, and imperfect care. Critics and fans praised the character work and the way the series resists simple moral judgments, even when that makes some episodes uncomfortable to watch.

It wasn't a major awards-season standout, receiving little in the way of industry trophies, but it found a committed audience and plenty of online discussion, and it sparked fan translations and conversation worldwide. Praise tended to focus on voice performances and the show's handling of character dynamics rather than on high-profile accolades.