English Dub Review: Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway: “Resolve”

Overview: Yoshida (Alex Hom) and Sayu (Jill Harris) look back at all she has missed out on in her life and face her tragic hardship, Yuko (Emily Fajardo). 

Our Take: In anticipating any scary ordeal, fear is a given. The tense nerves associated with that are brilliantly represented through Sayu’s subtly tense body language, with Issa taking notice, as they make their way to see her mother with Yoshida. Their pit stops along the way builds upon her resolve in how Sayu tackles her past trauma and each is, mostly, handled well. Simple luxuries that we all take for granted are building blocks that serve as a compelling reminder to what she has missed out on due to her strained familial relationship. They add some much needed cheerfulness and heart into the mix. The dialogue between them, specifically during the café excursion in their emphatic fixation on coffee shops, has it teetering on cheesy but overall is endearing in her spending her first time experiences with Yoshida. 

The final detour is the most powerful yet in Sayu facing her best friend’s suicide. Her trek up the stairs to the ill-fated roof is a harsh ordeal in her PTSD that makes it difficult to watch. It tackles it in a deeper, more complex way beyond the shared blame she places on herself. It is a multifaceted look into the anger she feels for her friend’s choice with Yoshida being a comfort in having her accept the past and reminding her of Yuko’s rightful ownership in her fatal decision. It also characterizes grief as an harsh ongoing trail that takes time and hindsight, not something that can entirely be resolved within one progressive moment. 

Sayu and her mother’s confrontation is kicked off, or slapped across, with shocking intensity in her mom’s first action being to strike her runaway daughter. With her abusive nature, especially up to this point, it is inconceivable that I will not hate this woman with a burning passion by the end of this. Especially considering there does not seem to be any kind or civil way this can end for her with how spiteful she is, let alone any redemption. With that said, I would love to be proven wrong. Or better yet for Sayu to give this venomous woman a piece of her own mind and deck her.