I came into Hi Score Girl expecting a classic fighting game experience. Two people pushing each other to improve, at a competitive format all about putting in the time and effort to overcome those better than you. Maybe a dash of romance in there too. Unfortunately, it had the opposite balance. Hi Score Girl is certainly not in the vein of sports series about improving and competing; at its core it’s a love triangle romcom. A painfully bland one.

What does the fighting game backdrop add, then? Certainly not an in-depth look at the skills and mindset one develops to improve at competitive games. It’s mostly nostalgia. If you’re invested in FGC culture, or classic gaming from the late 80s and early 90s, there’s a lot you may get out of it. You see the main character’s excitement as new consoles and iconic games are released, and within the games he competes at, there are plenty of references to specific combos or strategies that I’m sure are completely accurate to the time and the games. The author’s own nostalgia failed to inspire me to feel the same, but he shows a genuine appreciation for the culture of the time.

That’s as far as it goes, however. The plot only occasionally delves into the characters having a desire to practice and overcome each other, and when it does it’s mostly offscreen. It’s circumstantial, driven by whatever stage their romance drama is currently in.

And oh, the romance drama. If you’re looking for the kind of series with realistic relationship progression, then stay away. This is a pure love triangle about people too cowardly to realize their feelings. Love triangles honestly are not always bad, but the first half of the manga is all about people who are incapable of acknowledging that they’re in love. It fails to give that ignorance a youthful charm; it just feels like nothing significant is actually happening.

It is technically a romcom, not just a romance, but I didn’t find much real comedy to speak of. If the main character saying something stupid (because he doesn’t realize the girl likes him) and the girl enacting some over the top physical violence on him is enough to make you laugh, you’ll have a blast. Don’t expect much humor beyond that.

Why do the two main girls love the main character, Yaguchi? He’s an immature, gaming-obsessed child far more focused on whatever’s coming out than remotely understanding either girl’s feelings. Yet I’ll admit, with Oono, it honestly works. She doesn’t speak a word of dialogue throughout the entire manga, too shy to ever properly express herself, and the art does an acceptable job of characterizing her and showing her emotions despite that. It makes for an easy excuse for her to never confess her feelings, but it does help make her believable as a shy person who found a genuine connection with someone who had the same interest as her.

It doesn’t work as well with Hidaka, the love rival. She falls in love with Yaguchi because she’s enamored by his passion and drive to openly care about fighting games. She’s shy too, so I can at least understand that she wasn’t constantly finding better people, but the reasons the story gives just honestly don’t feel believable enough. In the first volume, before Hidaka was introduced, Yaguchi and Oono’s relationship feels somewhat charming and special. Hidaka turns it into a “the most beautiful popular girls are both in love with this unappealing nerd” fantasy.

In the second half of the manga, Hidaka does start to be legitimately open about her feelings with Yaguchi, matching him in fighting games and asking him out multiple times. It doesn’t matter, because unless this is the first romance you’ve ever read, it’s absurdly obvious it’s not going to happen and he’s going to end up with Oono in the end.

The drama is a hodgepodge of standard tropes. Tropes that are not inherently awful, but I was bored by the usage. Oono has an oppressive home life and is forbidden from going out and playing, except for the multiple times she runs away to spend time with Yaguchi. Expect multiple nights together in hotels where obviously they aren’t going to fool around together or have any romantic progress, as it’s just bait for the readers. And the finale uses one of my least favorite romance tropes I’ve seen way too many times. I won’t spoil the specifics, but it’s one of the cheapest ways to force a confession.

The finale is the only time the art grabbed me. There’s finally some interesting compositions and perspectives, as it realizes it can use art to convey emotion. Before that… well, let’s talk about the elephant in the room.

The art is ugly. Art styles are subjective, so you can disagree with me on this, but this has one of the most unappealing aesthetics I’ve seen in a professionally serialized manga. It’s not that they’re chibi, although the faces and the head shapes are unpleasant. It’s the awful anatomy, which leads to character designs with no consistency, that constantly feel off-model, deformed, and warped. If you like the art, please enjoy it. But few other manga make me HATE their art this much. Not dislike, or be bored by, but feel genuine disgust and loathing.

With how negative I’m being, even I’m surprised I’m rating it a 4/10 and not lower. Honestly, for everything bad I’m saying about it, deep down there is some level of charm. Maybe it’s in the characters, who do feel like the author put some heart into. Their relationships bored me, but as people there’s something to them. The main three aren’t generic or shallow, but have fleshed out personalities and desires. It’s not who they are that’s the problem, but what happens with them.

Something did keep me reading instead of dropping it, and I don’t think it was just my persistence to not leave stories unfinished. The author had a vision. I saw it through, but I wouldn’t recommend you do the same. Not unless you personally think the art looks fine, feel nostalgia for that era of fighting games, or don’t mind drawn-out love triangles.