DGFischer

Netflix screwed up my understanding of the development of the storyline for season one of Hi-Score Girl.  The streaming service jams season one with the 3-part OVA Extra Girl.  So, when A-P notified me that I completed season one of Hi-Score Girl after episode twelve, I had to re-rack my brains to sum up what I've seen so far.  If nothing else, the good people at JC Staff ended the first season with a shock and awe cliff-hanger.  Drop the bomb and blow away the imagination!

But what that unresolved climactic moment can be ... let's put this on the back burner for now.

Hi-Score Girl scores high in two areas.  First, the anime is a tribute piece to the classic arcade games that developed and improved and expanded in the 1990's.  The main character Haruo Yaguchi loves to play Street Fighter as it continues its evolution in the later versions, as well as the rise of home and hand-held games.  But the premise that drives the plot is the increasing friction of a love triangle involving two girls.  One, Akira Ono is a girl from wealthy family who have restricted Ono's life in their version of tight curricular studies and planned future marriage  These plans don’t include arcade games which they deem a waste of her their valuable time.  She should never have become a gamer, but she has the natural talent and instinctive play to be an invincible player.  The other, Hidaka Koharu, originally had no interest in arcade games, but because of her love for Haruo and easy access to games through her father, Hidaka has become a formidable player.  Both girls have an interest in Haruo (though we might wonder what goes on in Ono’s mind).  But it is not a slam dunk love triangle.  Haruo tends to be a clueless yutz in the area of girls.  He is motivated by being a supreme pro gamer. ... and he has the grades to prove it.  Abysmal in academics and hopeless in athletics, Haruo's main drive is to be the master of game play.

Imagine Haruo's surprise when Hidaka challenges Haruo to a game.  If Haruo wins, Hidaka ‘bows out’ gracefully.  If she wins, Haruo starts dating Hidaka.  And here Haruo shines ... as a dope in the ways of girls.  Thank goodness Haruo has a great life coach in Guile, a street-wise Street Fighter who pops in at crucial moments with a word or two to share.

And imagine the animation technique constantly improving throughout the first season, especially good in depicting the gaudy first efforts of arcade games slowly improving with tighter pixelations, and swifter controls and game-play options.  Keep an eye on the changes in the character designs of the game icons as the season goes along.  Smoother and more fluid.  A true salute to the boxy machines which made the children of the 90's truly dexterous and finger-nimble.  Plus, at episode’s end, Haruo offers a factoid about the games of this classic period.  Good times and great memories as Haruo works his way through middle school and the beginnings of high school.  Haruo is just an easy-going type who will have to be told that he has serious girl troubles.

The music fits the scheme of this tidy tale of boy meets girl, perhaps sizing each other up (as good gamers will do), perhaps learning to like each other ... as they try to blast each other into defeat.  The light style of the closing theme just places the thrill of the win might one day be replaced by the thrill of the one.