With the number of anime that air per season, even with the large amount of anime fans, it’s a given that some shows will simply fall through the cracks. I feel that High Score Girl is one of those shows.
Because of this, I found High Score Girl a hidden gem of this anime season. Not a diamond, mind you, but gem, nonetheless (think topaz).
High Score Girl tells the story of Haruo Yagauichi, a crude slacker, and Akira Oono, the academically talented heiress to a wealthy family. What ties these seemingly incongruent characters together is their mutual love for video games.
And if you, the viewer, love classic video games, you’ll love High Score Girl, which is a love letter to 90s gaming. Both the arcade and console scenes are given love. If you played the games of this time or simply are tied to decade, you’ll be hit with a blast of nostalgia. I personally adore video games, so even though, unlike Haruo, I’m not big on fighting games, I still got to geek out. It was also nice seeing time progress and seeing Haruo gush over new releases. The anime does move forward in time (going from upper-elementary to the first year of Japanese highschool (sophomore year in America), and the anime utilizes this passage of time well.
The main characters are written surprisingly well, with Haruo not being quite as dense as you’d expect for an MC of his personality. Oono is hands-down one of the cutest characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of viewing. Her violent tendencies, while annoying at times, don’t really detract from her character. Unlike some people, it doesn’t make her insufferable, and somehow makes her even more cute. Her biggest shtick is that she doesn’t speak, ever. While this can prove frustrating for some viewers, I think the show worked around it well. If I had more money, I’d get her nendoroid.
...then there’s Hidaka.
The anime’s a romance, which comes into play very soon. It’s a cute romance and the couple is one of the best I’ve seen. While the anime doesn’t pussyfoot the relationship in the beginning, it quickly loses steam as, you guessed it, a third player joins the game. Enter Hidaka, a member of Haruo’s class who quickly develops a crush on him as he introduces her to the wonderful world of gaming.
While it could be seen as a “spoiler” that there’s a love triangle, I think it’s only fair to inform you all. Love triangles generally bog down a show, and High Score Girl isn’t spared...kind of. As a main character, Hidaka is quite fleshed out and she’s sure to have her fans. However, the show makes it painfully obvious that Oono is the endgame, yet a large portion is dedicated to Hidaka and Haruo. While she’s not a bad character, her inclusion seems to just take away from Oono’s. In my opinion the love triangle doesn’t really add a new dimension to the plot. It doesn’t detract from it either, but that just makes it seem kind of unnecessary.
That said, the show’s still good.
The main thing High Score has going against it is that there isn’t much more to it. What you see is what you get. If you like video games and romance, you’ll probably love this show. If you like one or the other, it might be a bit of slog. If you like neither, there won’t be much for you. Even if you do like both, the show still seems to be missing something. The side characters are inoffensive, at best. Midway through the show, I simply had the feeling that High Score Girl was adequate. It wasn’t bad, no, but it wasn’t great either. I didn’t find myself compelled to watch episodes right away. Still, it picked up again.
The music is pretty great, but the art might prove a sticking point. The show is completely CGI, which is sure to be a turn-off for some viewers. Watching it can feel off at times. If you like the story, you’ll learn to get used to it. For what it’s worth, it’s pretty harmless.
I can’t comment on the ending because it ends on a cliffhanger, with the final episodes premiering in march of next year.
While the show is far from perfect, as a video game and romance fan, High Score Girl scratched an itch I never knew I had, and I’ll be sure to watch the show’s conclusion.
