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Higepiyo is based on a "4-koma" comic strip similar to those that appear in American daily newspapers like Peanuts. It tells the story of a young Japanese family that adopts a strange, bearded chick while attending a festival. It turns out the chick can talk, has a passion for yakisoba, and aspires to follow the samurai path. (Higepiyo watches those same after-school televised samurai dramas that School Rumble's Tsukamoto Tenma enjoys so much.) He becomes the fast friend of the boy, Hiroshi, and helps protect him from school bullies. Naturally Higepiyo also becomes the darling of all the girls in Hiroshi's elementary school class which further enrages the bully.
A complete episode is about five minutes including the opening song.
There's another show, Chi's Sweet Home, which follows a similar format (a lost kitten gets adopted by a Japanese family). Chi can also be spectacularly funny at times, but it's got more of a "cute" style. Higepiyo has more of an "edge," which is enhanced by Paku Romi's knock-out performance in the title role.
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