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

Overview: Yoshida (Alex Hom) learns of Sayu (Jill Harris) and her deepest self-doubt based on her experiences with other guys in the past. 

Our Take: While Yoshida and Yuzaha go out on a movie date, the film strikes up a conversation about fated encounters. It is cute to see them gush about the same aspect of a film’s morals. However, it is more than just an interesting talking point. While the conversation is a bit on the abstract side, it makes you appreciate Yuzaha’s initiative in living in the present, especially when she embraces Yoshida and nicely segues into Yoshida and Sayu’s own fated moment and the meaning of it.  

Rather than throw Sayu’s trials and tribulations as a prostitute under the rug or even romanticize it, it makes it complex and grounded. It reinforces her insecurities in a deeply personal and traumatic way in how she has been treated by disgusting boys in the past versus how kindly Yoshida treats her. It shows how warped her viewpoint of her self-worth is in it being dependent on the sexual pleasure she offers men who have been her caretakers, believing Yoshida will cast her aside if she does not sleep with him.  

Sayu runs away and has a meet-up with Yuzaha, unbeknownst to Yoshida’s co-worker who she is. It is a nice conversation in showing how they like Yoshida for the same reason in his overwhelming, unconditional kind nature. Yuzuha is charming in her genuine compassion even for a total stranger like Sayu and sheer honesty in wanting her to be clear about what she wants and reveal her feelings to Yoshida, who she didn’t know she was worried would abandon her. Not until Yoshida shows up, inadvertently revealing himself to be the one in the question throughout the girl’s discussion. 

Later, when Sayu explains how she uses sex for compensation and how that pertains to her value. Sayu’s desperation and confusion at Yoshida not being attracted to her paints a picture of how lowly she views herself, so much so you can not help but feel bad for her. Yoshida himself is also humanized in quelling her fears but confirming his attraction to her while not in love, which is the only condition he has sex for love. It is admirable how he denies her while also confirming what a stiff he is. It is also wholesome to see the effect Sayu has with him admitting how happier and less depressed he’s been since she arrived. More than that Yoshida’s growth is also welcome in his understanding he shouldn’t have simplified her hardships and been so close-minded. Seeing each other’s deepest problems strongly deepens their bond. We see how that intimacy makes their relationship grow in Sayu ripping into his loneliness, a new, more comedic side of their dynamic which is hilarious but also absolutely ruthless.