After watching the anime My Oni Girl on Netflix, I felt a strong connection to the character of Hiiragi Yatsuse, a high school boy who is a people-pleaser and always considers others’ feelings instead of his own. As someone who tends to keep their feelings bottled up inside, I found his character very relatable. My Instagram handle is actually Wallflower, so you can imagine how much I could connect to this teenage boy. His life changed when he met Tsumugi, an Oni girl searching for her mother, who had abandoned her in childhood. As Hiiragi accompanied her on this journey, his character evolved, and he started to listen to his own feelings. But there are lots of dangers as they go into the hidden village where the Snow Gods have been attacking Onis. Even though he was not an Oni from birth, for hiding his feelings all along, he was turned into an Oni and was attacked by the Snow Gods too. What happened to him? Did he remain an Oni, or did he return to being a normal human being? Let’s find out from this explainer.
Spoilers Ahead
Why did Hiiragi want to help Tsumugi?
When we first meet Hiiragi in the film, he seems like a very polite, decent kid who is desperate to please others. He’s so eager to make friends that he goes to the extent of doing people’s homework, offering to help clean the school gym, and even pretending to be a random girl’s boyfriend to save her from embarrassment. This constant need to win people over makes Hiiragi feel exploited. One day, as he was heading home, he saw a girl on a bus who seemed to be in some kind of trouble. Having always been used by others, Hiiragi thought, for a moment, that he wouldn’t help this time. But, for him, it’s a force of habit that he can’t avoid. So he went to offer her money to pay her fare. The girl refused his help and got off the bus. Little did he know that this girl, Tsumugi, was going to change his life. Tsumugi wanted to go to Hiiragi’s house because she felt safe in his presence. She noticed how minioni were coming out of his body, indicating that he was bottling up his true feelings. Being an oni herself, she understood this all too well. At Hiiragi’s home, we see his interaction with his father, which shows how he couldn’t even speak his mind to him. Despite having no need for private tutoring, his father forced it on him, and Hiiragi wasn’t brave enough to stand up to him. Like always, he valued his father’s feelings over his own wishes.
That night, a strange thing happened—it snowed in the middle of summer! This bizarre thing happened due to the pent-up emotions inside Hiiragi and Tsumugi, which made them attract Snow Gods who hunt onis. To give you some background, the Snow Gods are known for preying on the introverted and emotionally bottled-up individuals from the hidden village—a place where people like Onis live and, much like Hiiragi, can’t express their emotions. Oh, if there really was a place like this, I would have lived there for sure! Anyway, Hiiragi and Tsumugi escaped from home. And then Hiiragi found out that Tsumugi was trying to find her mother, who had left her when she was young. He was initially skeptical, but then decided to help her in any way possible. On their journey, they got help from two siblings, who gave them a ride when they had no money.
Hiiragi, ever the grateful one, repaid their kindness by looking after their vintage clothing store, allowing the siblings to enjoy their time off. Even when they were attacked by the snow gods again and Tsumugi fell ill after being attacked, Hiiragi took her to a nearby inn and made sure she received proper care. Hiiragi didn’t want to take help for free, so he worked tirelessly at the inn, cleaning floors and working in the lounge to earn their keep. He didn’t tell Tsumugi about this because he did not want her to feel like a burden. He just wanted to be there for her, doing whatever was needed to make her happy. He was also concerned about his parents worrying about them, so Hiiragi called them to let them know he was safe, but he kept Tsumugi’s presence a secret to protect her privacy. This shows what kind of boy Hiiragi was—always considerate, responsible, and selfless!
Why was Hiiragi gobbled up by the Snow God?
As they escaped from home and went on their journey to find Tsumugi’s mother, Hiiragi realized that once Tsumugi found her, she would go back to her father in the hidden village, leaving him behind. Of course, he wasn’t okay with that. Being on this journey with Tsumugi had made him feel genuinely happy for the first time in a long time. He felt like he had finally made a friend whom he couldn’t bear to lose. But he said nothing about this, as he did not want to burden Tsumugi with his feelings since she already had so much on her plate. The Snow God, however, knew it all. Hiiragi’s hidden feelings made him create snow out of mini-onis again, and they were being hunted. Hiiragi managed to trap the snow god in a train and let it go.
When they reached the shrine where Tsumugi was supposed to meet her mother, she found her father instead. He revealed that most of the onis in the hidden village had become prey to the snow gods. Even though he knew where Tsumugi’s mother was, he couldn’t let Tsumugi find her. This hurt Tsumugi deeply, and she ran away. Hiiragi tried to talk to her, saying how she was playing the victim. Maybe her father was trying to protect her from a harsh truth that might hurt her even more. But once again, Hiiragi was following the same pattern—thinking about other people’s intentions instead of acknowledging Tsumugi’s feelings, as he had always done to himself. This hurt Tsumugi even more. She ran away from him, thanking him for all he had done for her. But that wasn’t what Hiiragi wanted at all. He wanted to tell her how much he wanted to be with her and how much he never wanted to let her go. All these pent-up emotions within him finally turned him into an oni without him even realizing it. The snow god hunted him down and gobbled him up. His father, who had come looking for him, watched helplessly as Hiiragi disappeared right before his eyes.
Did Hiiragi and Tsumugi meet again?
But thank God, he wasn’t dead! Hiiragi ended up in the hidden village as an oni. There, he confided in Chief Gozen, the village supervisor, about how he had dreams of Tsumugi’s childhood. His feelings for her were so strong that even the snow god had to release him after gobbling him up! Hiiragi got to know about the spirit mask on Oni Island and how destroying it would help them get rid of the snow gods and their attacks. Little did he know, Tsumugi had followed him there, wanting to repay him for all the sacrifices he had made for her. Even though Hiiragi knew this mission to Oni Island was risky, he was willing to risk everything, even his life, to help Tsumugi find her mother. However, Tsumugi couldn’t let that happen. She believed Hiiragi was not a true oni and could return to the human world. She locked him up, but Hiiragi let his emotions out, screaming about how much he had evolved because of Tsumugi. This journey helped him come to terms with his true feelings, and he was no longer afraid to value his own wishes. His wish now was to be with Tsumugi, and he was determined to do that. Even Tsumugi’s father and the other onis saw how genuine Hiiragi’s feelings were and helped him find Tsumugi on Oni Island. After the spirit mask was destroyed and the snow gods dissolved, Tsumugi was reunited with her parents. Hiiragi realized it was better to return to his homeland, knowing his parents were likely worried about him. Besides, he wasn’t a true oni. He had finally become a proper human, valuing all his emotions. So, it was better to say goodbye to Tsumugi and Oni Island because it wasn’t his place to be.
But Hiiragi left without expressing his feelings to Tsumugi or telling her how much he loved her. In the end, we see Tsumugi coming to meet him, angry because he never visited her in the hidden village. Hiiragi couldn’t go back there, which indicated one thing: as the hidden village was for those who couldn’t express their feelings, it was no longer a place for Hiiragi. He had learned to speak his mind, which was why he couldn’t find the portal to return to the hidden village to meet her. This growth meant he could finally talk to his father about his feelings and the choices he wanted to make in his life without his parents’ interference. He knew what was best for him now. Maybe that’s why, after meeting Tsumugi, he gave her back the lucky charm she had given him—to show that he didn’t need it anymore. But what about confessing his feelings to Tsumugi? Could he do that? Well, we sure hope he will this time!
