Adult men and high school girls

No, this is not about Matt Gaetz, although it may be up his alley. Rather, it is about two anime series airing this season (spring 2021). We are now about midway into the season, and I thought I would share some thoughts about these two series.

The first is Koi to Yobu ni wa Kimochi Warui (恋と呼ぶには気持ち悪い), or Koikimo. It is about an adult man who was saved from falling down a flight of stairs by a high school girl. He ends up falling for her instead of falling down the stairs.

The second is Hige o Soru. Soshite Joshi Kosei o Hirou (ひげを剃る。そして女子高生を拾う。 aka Higehiro: After Being Rejected, I Shaved and Took in a High School Runaway). It is about an adult man who found a high school girl alone in the streets at night and took her in, and they end up living together.

An adult man and a high school girl. In this day and age, this is obviously a disastrous combination. Even though the adult man in Higehiro took in the high school girl without the condition of "sex for shelter", an adult man taking in a high school girl, sex or no sex, is problematic. High school girls, or anyone underage, male or female for that matter, don't belong in the house of strangers. It is not about respecting her decision here. The right thing to do is get her home, and if she needs help because of a family situation, find the right agency to give her that help.

Koikimo is problematic in its own way. You have an adult man who relentless pursues a high school girl even though she has voiced her disinterest. What part about "no" does he not understand? His actions are downright harassment. Those are the things that get a person arrested for being a stalker. Yes, it seems that she is starting to develop feelings for him, but are those feelings a result of being harassed or really something that is true? We won't know because the entire relationship has been tainted from the start by the brute force harassment.

Anyway, I will watch both series to the end as I enjoy love comedy shows and I am interested to find out how the stories develop. Still, these are the kind of shows that need to be watched with parental guidance. Let's not give young boys the wrong ideas least they grow up into men who think it is okay to harass girls or take them in.