What They Say:
The story follows Hime Arikawa, whose absent parents have left with saddled with a huge debt. After being saved from debt collectors by three girls on the student council, in exchange for paying off his debt, he agrees to spend the rest of his high school career dressed as a girl.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Himegoto had a pretty intense episode the last time around with what it did in terms of the kind of bullying Hime went through, and the lack of real support from the others on the student council. Enough so that he quit outright and walked away from the group. The girls in the student council are now pretty blue over all that has happened and Hime is trying to get back into his normal life, albeit while still dressing as a girl out of habit – and because it’s also something that he’s realizing he does like doing. While 18+-kun is talking about finding a newbie to take over for Hime, the others make it clear that they liked him for who he is rather than just anyone being toyed with, which is nice to see. At the same time, we see Hime being given more nods of appreciation elsewhere for who he is, which factors into 18+ seeing this as well and doing her weakest to apologize for what had gone on. Naturally, that means things are back to normal, though with some hopeful minor improvements for Hime as the others are all set to dress up as well now.
In Summary:
Himegoto is a series that works one gag and does its best to run it into the ground as much as possible. Not that it’s a bad gag, if done right, but the approach here has been more about humiliation and shame than anything else with a huge dose of older classmate bullying going on. There were some amusing spots along the way to be sure, and I had hoped that with the previous episode it might actually find something useful to say, but the finale here is pretty much noncommittal and bland with what it does, opting instead for some mild mending of fences between Hime and the student council before moving on with a lightly changed way of behaving. It could have been more, but this was the “safe” route. Unfortunately.
Grade: C+
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDL70R550A 70″ LED 1080P HDTV, Apple TV via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
