High Score Girl

The year is 1991, and arcade video games are the latest craze. Becoming a professional gamer is a far-fetched dream in an industry that has yet to spread its influence. Yet, that is the path sixth-grader Haruo Yaguchi wants to pursue. His aptitude for video games has earned him respect in local arcades and bestowed him with confidence and pride, both of which are shattered when fellow classmate Akira Oono easily defeats him in Street Fighter 2.

Akira is rich, pretty, and smart—as close as can be to a perfect girl. But Haruo had never cared about these things as, despite his multiple shortcomings as a person, his supremacy in video games was, in his mind, undisputed. So, now that someone has appeared who can rival him, part of Haruo cannot help but loathe her. Another part, however, itches for somebody who can compete with him on equal terms, and Akira is more than capable.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Oono, Akira Main

Suzushiro, Sayumi Japanese

Hidaka, Koharu Main

Hirose, Yuuki Japanese

Yaguchi, Haruo Main

Amasaki, Kouhei Japanese

Yaguchi, Namie Supporting

Arai, Satomi Japanese

Oono, Makoto Supporting

Akasaki, Chinatsu Japanese

Jiiya Supporting

Cho Japanese

Miyao, Koutarou Supporting

Okitsu, Kazuyuki Japanese

Guile Supporting

Yasumoto, Hiroki Japanese

Doi, Genta Supporting

Yamashita, Daiki Japanese

Onizuka, Chihiro Supporting

Midou, Daria Japanese

Maeda, Toshihiro Producer

Oomori, Hiroyuki Producer

Abe, Michihisa Producer

Miyagi, Souji Producer

Reviews

Sep 28, 2018

Syureria

Recommended

Video games are games that use interaction with the user interface through images produced by video devices. Video games generally provide a reward system such as a score calculated based on the level of success achieved in completing tasks in the game.

The word "video" in "video games" initially refers to a raster display device. But with the use of the term "video game", now the word video game can be used to refer to games on any display device. The electronic systems used to run video games are called platforms, for example personal computers and game consoles.

taking the theme in the year one thousand nine ... hundred and ninety one in that year the video game is still experiencing its popularity, a child named "Haruo Yaguchi" spends his days playing video games regardless of how his future destiny is as if the world is just a link between himself and video games .

The manga composed by "Oshikiri Rensuke" has made JC Staff studios make this series as an anime series. JC Staff made this series feel good and have a big impact (to be honest this studio has adapted some good manga / light novels for example Shokugeki no Souma and of course Shakugan no Shana which was adapted by three seassons).

no part of the voice is like eating without a drink, it doesn't feel complete if an anime doesn't have a supportive voice. For this series of voice actors, "Suzushiro Sayumi" acts as Oono Akira (although Oono's character rarely speaks) "Hirose Yuuki" acts as Hidaka Koharu and "Amasaki Kouhei" act as Haruo Yaguchi.

from the song theme section, it might be quite fitting and well, the opening song "New stranger" which was sung by Sora Tob Sakana was so good even though I don't know who he was, but what made me like the series this time for the closing theme song could be a favorite " Houkago die strauction "which was sung by Etsuko Yakushimaru.

in this series maybe at the beginning of the episode Haruo Yaguchi was an academic fool and only liked video games after the meeting with Oono Akira Yaguchi began to regard him as a rival but after a while Oono left Japan for a reason. When Oono left we got or the appearance of playing the third character, Hidaka Koharu, acts as an encouragement even though she also has feelings with Yaguchi.

The series adapted by JC Staff this time is more prominent on the impression of romance and honesty, I as an audience are very enthusiastic about this series and can't wait for the story to continue where a child who often goes to the place of video games begins to have feelings for his rival and his meeting with Oono Akira grow the seeds of love are very good to watch for teenagers and adults.

in the end we as humans also have a sense where we want to relieve stress from our daily busyness with the existence of video game games which are now very sophisticated and this series reminds us that we do not fall into a world that is only temporary.

if you expect a happy life forever then fight from now on because of the future what we do today.

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Oct 3, 2018

Karhu

Mixed Feelings

I have been reading other opinions and positive praise around High Score Girl, but I still don't get why this is supposed to be so good and the savior of summer 2018 anime.

It's just a generic love story where the main dude is an over exaggerated character whose behavior is the outcome of "anime" and not any personality traits. The main female is perfect gamer and student, beautiful and ideal girl with tragic past story AKA a textbook example of a Mary Sue. There is also another girl in the series who creates the fallacy of harem, but she only appears in few episodes and ... her entire purpose in the series is to have silent monologue inside her head where she praises the main dude for being so amazing and kind and perfect, and cucks herself for the "canon pairing".

The romance is build around retro gaming and that arguably offers some nostalgia and the only content that is really worth of anything in the series. The romance writing itself almost entirely relies on the Mary Sue traits of the female lead where we get cliches that commonly occur in shoujo romances, and the main dude acting like prince charming whose life resolves around the Mary Sue chick. Of course, the anime is just a fraction of the story and almost nothing outside sol happens in the romance, mainly because the girl is awkward and weird and the dude is dense above all else. In fact, at this point it's safe to say that the whole thing exists just to advertise the manga which is an obligatory read unless S02 gets confirmed.

The comedy is almost never funny. In the first half of the series, it relies on goofy animation tricks and similar over exaggerated situations as the main dude's behavior. This is best seen in scenes where the mc gets hit by a car and spin in the air for something like 20 times or gets kicked in the nuts by other characters. The 2nd half didn't even attempt to do any comedy anymore outside mc's mom and few reliefs.

The art is real nice and the retro gaming side of the story is entertaining to watch, but the romance writing is closer to pathetic than anything else and our characters are mediocre, average at best.

I already wrote a longer review earlier but it was buried under the praise so I will leave this as a short explanation on why I don't personally find this series to be amazing at all. Sure it was okay to watch, but I wouldn't personally go praising story or characters of this sort.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Feb 27, 2019

renyrells

Not Recommended

This show reminds me a lot of Ready Player One. It has a bunch of cool nostalgia and references. It also has a main character that will annoyingly explain the reference to the audience, just to make sure you know that the show made a reference.

The story is simple, an arcade otaku meets the most perfectest and popularest girl in his school at an arcade and loses to her in street fighter 2. This sparks an almost one sided rivalry between the two which blossoms into something more, as the show goes on. I found the story a little better than the generic romance anime. ...

This show is pretty ugly though. The backgrounds are flat and boring. The characters are all cg with not much animation. The cg was probably used to make the characters feel different from the video games. However, there are also tons of animation shortcuts, whether it's using game footage to pad the run-time or long pauses that would make 'One Piece' jealous. So something tells me that cg was not used as an artistic choice but as a cheap one.

The sound design is good in the show. The op and ed are a little bland but the in background music and the arcade sounds are done adequately. No real complaints there.

The characters are the worst part of the show for me, specifically the two mains. The main boy Yaguchi, is the type of MC that never stops talking. He is constantly inner monologuing and explaining what is happening on the screen. You could probably get a good understanding of the main plot if you watched this show blindfolded. The Main girl Oono (which im just now realizing is a street fighter reference) on the other hand, never speaks. The best you get, is grunting and sighing. On top of not speaking, she also has almost no facial expressions or personality. This means she is whatever the MC and the viewer wants to imprint on her. She has two defining traits. She is good at literally everything and she is afraid of scary things. THAT'S IT. There is also the third MC who is the 3rd wheel on this love triangle. She is clearly the one the viewer should root for, as she has character motivation and development.

Overall, my enjoyment of the show was weird. It was an easy watch and it had its good episodes mixed in the series. Actually, my favorite episode was when the MC and Secondary love interest get left behind on a school field trip and spend the whole day just hanging out. However, with annoying, very cheap cg characters on top of an average story and hit or miss comedy, I don't think I'd recommend this unless you just want to see some old 90s games get referenced.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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