Sayu Ogiwara

Sayu Ogiwara
Biographical Information
Name (Japanese)	荻原 沙優
Name (Romanized)	Ogiwara Sayu
Alias	Miyuki (みゆき) Various Other Aliases
Age	17
Gender	Female
Hair Color	Medium Brown
Eye Color	Hazel
Residence	Asahikawa, Hokkaido, Japan
Marital Status	Single
Occupation	High School Student Convenience Store Clerk
Affiliation	Asahikawa Dairoku High School Convenience Store
Family	Unnamed Father Unnamed Mother Issa Ogiwara (older brother) Yoshida (temporary guardian)
First Appearance
Light Novel	Volume 1, Prologue
Manga	Chapter 1
Anime	Episode 1
Portrayal
Japanese VA	Saori Hayami (2018 TV CM) Nao Touyama (2019 TV CM) Saori Oonishi (Audiobook) Kana Ichinose (Anime)
English VA	Jill Harris

Sayu Ogiwara (荻原 沙優, Ogiwara Sayu) is the main female character of the Hige wo Soru. Soshite Joshikousei wo Hirou. series. She is a runaway high school girl from Hokkaido who ended up in Tokyo. One night, while squatting beneath a telephone pole, she had a fateful encounter with a drunk salaryman named Yoshida.

Appearance

Sayu is a beautiful young girl with a fairly cute face. Her hair is a shade of brown close to black and has brown eyes with long slits. She has a pretty nose line with a round tip. Yoshida considers her face as somewhere between "beautiful" and "cute."

Although still quite young, she has the features of a grown woman. Since leaving her hometown, she only has her high school uniform and brown sweater as her clothes, a set of black lingerie, and a blue backpack. After moving in and living with Yoshida, she now wears new outfits but still puts on her old uniform occasionally. When working at the convenience store, she wears the staff uniform.

Personality

After running away from her hometown and family, Sayu was forced to adapt and live her new life as a runaway high school girl. With no money to sustain her basic needs like food and shelter, she gathered her resolve and resorted to seducing men, using her body as a bargaining chip in order to survive.

As she kept this lifestyle for about half a year, she became shrewd and adopted a playful, flirty mask to hide her pain and used her bright smile for deceit. To mask her identity, she used aliases. She also developed a high level of maturity and strong mental fortitude, traits which are uncommon for a normal high school girl to have at her age.

Sayu hated what she was doing at first, but after a while, being wanted by the men she was with made her feel she could be herself and that she was needed. For her, it was simple and she liked it that way. Because she was already used to that kind of arrangement, she was conflicted when Yoshida let her stay without any significant demands. She doesn't know what to do if people do not want her.

Sayu dislikes facing things in a straightforward way. She would do what she can just to delay things she does not want to deal with. All she wants to do is running away from everything, to live an easier life but at the same time, she yearns for someone to scold her and tell her to stop running. Through the help of Yoshida and Airi to name a few, she had come to terms with herself and her issues, finally deciding to face the reality; that she has to return back home.

Background

Sayu is the 17-year-old daughter of the Ogiwara Family, a prominent family hailing from the city of Asahikawa, Hokkaido. Her older brother, Issa Ogiwara, is currently a CEO of a famous food corporation. She was a second-year high school student at Asahikawa Dairoku High School when she ran away from home. For six months, she continually traded sexual favors to random strangers for a place to stay. She ended up in Tokyo and had her fateful encounter with Yoshida, a 26-year-old salaryman and the first one to turn down her advances.

Relationships

Yoshida

Yoshida acts as Sayu's temporary guardian in Tokyo. Among the men whom Sayu tried to seduce in order to have a roof over her head, Yoshida was the only one to ever turn her down and also the only one to let her stay without any demands. Yoshida felt that even though he and Sayu are complete strangers to each other, his moral principles will not allow him to just let a runaway high school girl with nothing be left to her own devices. Sayu was skeptical at first about Yoshida's unconditional kindness so she continued to make advances to him and coerced him to have sex with her, saying she does not mind if it is with him but Yoshida stood by his principle of not making love to a woman he doesn't like. For Yoshida, ever since Sayu came, his life has changed. Sayu's presence made Yoshida's place cozy and a home that made him to want to go home early. Yoshida proposed to Sayu to stay until she makes up her mind to return back home. Sayu is implied to have developed romantic feelings for Yoshida but decided to suppress it in order not to get in the way of Yoshida's love life and put a strain on their relationship.

Airi Gotou

Airi is a sister figure and friend to Sayu. When they met for the first time, Sayu disliked Airi because she could not figure out her real thoughts and constantly flashed a smile that hides her true nature to which Sayu considered as creepy. Airi forced her to face her situation in the most straightforward way possible, something that Sayu always want to evade. But Sayu's opinion of her quickly changed as soon as she realized that Airi was trying to help her understand the reality of her situation and the fact that she wanted someone to scold and tell her to stop running away, for her and Yoshida's sake.

Yuzuha Mishima

Yuzuha is also a sister figure and friend to Sayu. Sayu first saw Yuzuha holding on to Yoshida after seeing a movie together one evening. Jealous, she ran away only to bump with Yuzuha in a nearby park. When Yuzuha asked her name, Sayu at first intended to give a false one but stopped halfway, saying her real name instead. As Yuzuha accompanied her for the time being, they began to chat about the reason why she ran away. Yuzuha sympathizes with what Sayu was going through, saying that she herself ran away multiple times because of fights with her mother. Sayu was initially wary of Yuzuha and still felt jealous but she noticed that the more she talked to her, it is as if her real feelings are being drawn out.

Asami Yuuki

Asami is Sayu's "gal" best friend and colleague in her part-time job. Sayu quickly became friends with Asami the moment they first met each other. As both of them are of the same age and works at a part-time job together, it was not difficult for them to form a bond with each other. Asami is very protective of Sayu and as time went by, the two developed a close, sister-like relationship and often study together during their breaks.

Kyouya Yaguchi

Kyouya was Sayu's hookup. He was one of the men Sayu lived and slept with for some time before meeting Yoshida. During the time Sayu stayed at his place, she used the alias "Miyuki" and got to know the most private aspects of his life. When Sayu started in her part-time job she didn't know that he was also an employee there.

Issa Ogiwara

Issa is Sayu's older brother. He has been looking for Sayu ever since she ran away. Sayu was shocked to see his face again when he paid a visit to her part-time job. He showed up again, this time in front of Yoshida's apartment, to fetch her sister. Although nothing much is known yet about their relationship as siblings, Issa was kind enough to give Sayu a week to prepare before returning to Hokkaido.

Yuuko Masaka

Yuuko and Sayu were close friends and classmates at Hokkaido. When Yuuko took her own life, Sayu was extremely distraught. The aftermath of her death caused further strain between Sayu and her mother, who believed that Sayu was the one that drove her friend to do it. Every time Sayu remembers her, she feels nauseous.

Etymology

• The name Sayu means "sand" (沙) (sa) and "excellence, superiority, gentleness" (優) (yu).
• Sayu's surname Ogiwara means "reed, rush" (荻) (ogi) and "field, plain" (原) (hara/wara).

Trivia

• Sayu's bra size is F cup.
• Sayu's LINE ID is its_sayu.
• Like Sayu, her anime voice actress, Kana Ichinose, is also from Hokkaido.

Gallery

See: Sayu Ogiwara/Gallery