Office worker Yoshida finally worked up the courage to ask his boss out, only for her to swiftly reject him. On his way home from getting completely drunk to drown his heartbreak, he sees a high school girl sitting outside by herself late at night. After discovering that she was a runaway, he ends up taking her home while constantly shutting down her efforts to pay for her stay with her body. Talking to her further, he discovers that she traveled for six months from Hokkaido trading sexual favors for what she needed. While trying to figure out what to do, he puts her to work cooking and cleaning instead so she can have a place to stay.
This one got its fair share of scrutiny, but it is actually a pretty mature look at a real life problem and touching romance rather than just another ecchi show with a plot that makes all anime fans look like perverts. If you are looking for more anime recommendations like Higehiro, then head on down below.
Anime Like Higehiro: I Shaved Then Brought a High School Girl Home
For Fans of Age-Gap Romances
After the Rain
Akira Tachibana used to love running, but after an injury, she can’t run like she used to. Now, she passes time by working in a family restaurant where she finds herself slowly falling in love with the divorced manager.
Both series offer you a serious and generally mature look at a romance between a high school girl and a much older man. However, while they are similar on that fundamental level, they are different sorts of romance series.
Koikimo: It’s Too Sick To Call This Love
Successful businessman Ryou Amakusa is used to being the target of women’s affections despite never asking anyone out himself. One day, after feeling dizzy from a lack of sleep, he nearly falls down some stairs at the station. He is saved by high school otaku Ichika Arima, a girl who gives him her own lunch for energy and runs off. He later finds out she attends his little sisters’ school, and after offering his body in thanks, he falls in love with her and her disgusted reaction.
The Spring 2021 anime season is apparently the age-gap romance season because it has both these shows. However, they are quite different since Koikimo has an older man obsessed with a high school girl who has completely legitimate doubts about him while Higehiro takes a look at some other serious topics as well as has the build up of feelings seen as unconventional in society.
Sing “Yesterday” for Me
After college, unsure of what to do with his life, Rikou gets a job at a convenience store. There he becomes visited by a high school drop out with a pet crow as well as has rekindled feelings for a senpai that visits the store one day. This is the story of the growth of several individuals as they take their first steps into adulthood.
Both series end up being very mature dramas about a high school girl that has feelings for a man who has feelings for someone else. While Haru isn’t a runaway, she is a high school dropout and she does maintain a similar sort of attitude as Sayu.
For Fans of Love Rivals
Domestic Girlfriend
Natsuo is in love with his teacher Hina. In order to try and forget his feelings, he goes to a mixer and meets a girl named Rui. Oddly enough, she asks him to do her a favor – to have sex with her. He does so, but soon he is faced with a unique problem. His father has remarried and he now has two new stepsisters that he knows too well – Rui and Hina
Both series, in essence, highlight unconventional relationships and what happens when you just give into them. They explore the problems with each relationship, and both even have rather provocative premises that immediately draw attention.
Scum’s Wish
To the outside world, Mugi and Hanabi look like the perfect couple, but the truth is that they are only dating each other because they can’t be with the people they actually want to be with. For Hanabi, it is her childhood friend-turned-homeroom-teacher and for Mugi it is his older tutor that has been teaching him since middle school. In order to stave off the loneliness, the pair find solace in each other’s arms.
While Scum’s Wish maintains a vastly different tone, over the course of Higehito, you see love interests just come out of the woodwork. Some of them have innocent motives, and others are motivated by less admirable emotions.
Love and Lies
In order to encourage successful marriages and to combat the low birthrate, the Japanese government now assigns marriage partners at the age of 16. Unwilling to face the severe repercussions that come with denial, Yukari Nejima goes along with it, despite confessing to his long-time crush. However, is his reciprocated love doomed to be crushed when he gets his marriage notice?
While Love and Lies follows much younger people overall, it is a complex show about love and societal expectations. In both series, you watch relationships form without meaning for it to happen and things get caught up in love rivalries.
For Fans of Emotional Rehabilitation
Listen to Me, Girls. I Am Your Father
Segawa Yuta is now a freshman in university. Since a young age he was raised by his sister Yuri, but now she is married with a family of her own. One day, Yuri and her husband decide to go on a trip and ask Yuta to look after their three daughters. When Yuri’s plane goes missing, the three children are at risk of being divvied up among relatives. In order to prevent this, Yuta decides to step up and care for them on his own.
Both series have rather inflammatory premises, but end up rather wholesome. In essence, it is about the older lead not being lewd with their wards, but rather rehabilitating them after emotionally-warping events.
Usagi Drop
Daikichi Kawachi is a 30-year-old bachelor with a decent job, but no purpose in his life. When he returns to his family home for his grandfather’s funeral, he finds out that the old man had an illegitimate daughter. With his other relatives not wanting to take in such a child, Daikichi steps up and takes her home. From that day onwards, his hard new life as a parent begins.
Although immediately different because Usagi Drop isn’t a romance, both series are about an older man taking in a young girl with nowhere else to go. They then help them work through their various issues.
ReLife
Arata Kaizaki is an unemployed 27-year-old that has thus far been living with the financial support of his parents and part-time jobs. After leaving his first job after only three months, he has not been able to find proper work. However, after a night of drinking with his friends, he meets a mysterious man that offers a drunk Arata a pill that will turn him 17 again so that he can redo a year of his youth, all expenses paid. Will Arata find what he needs to live a happy life after one year in high school again?
While the emotional rehabilitation in ReLife does take place with the main character, you get that same sort of hesitation about romance because he is an older guy who falls in love with what appears to be a high schooler. So every step towards feelings merits two steps backwards on his part similar to moments in Higehiro.
Do you have more anime recommendations like Higehiro? Let fans know in the comments section below.
