Hi Score Girl is a manga which has been adopted into anime in 2018 and gained popularity among the fans. In this article I’ll be reviewing the 1st volume of the manga and see if the manga is as fascinating as its anime adaptation.
The story of High Score Girl focuses on Haruo Yaguchi and is set in early 90s. Haruo is an average student when it comes to studies or sports. But no one can beat him in the combat video games. But that change when he was beaten by a girl named Akira Oono.
Although he lost the match but he was way more eager to win against her in a rematch. But right when Haruo was about to win, both of them were kikcked out of the arcade for being extremely noisy. From that point, the story of their relationship begin while sharing their love for the video games.
Initially, Haruo didn’t like Akira and voided running into her. He is reserved kind of guy who likes to enjoy video game alone and according to him Akira was invading his privacy. But more he talk to her, he understands that she is someone like him. She is also aloof and throw herself into the video games to avoid the real life and tries to forget everything about it while being completely involved in the video games. They might get along and bring something different in each other’s life.
Hi Score Girl is a rom-com with the involvement of the video games being the main focus in their romance. The best thing about the manga is the realistic portrayal of the arcades ad consoles of the 90s era that not everyone knows about. Mangaka Rensuke Oshikiri has done a great job at mentioning every detail of these arcades.
But there are something that might not appeal to all readers while reading this manga. The story of this manga is interesting with the focus on the video games of 90s era but the characters are not that appealing. Haruo is a little boy with rude and hateful nature. Although his character grows in the series but in the beginning he is quite annoying.
It’s not just Haruo who is bothersome but I also find Akira not very interesting character. The irritating part is that she never speaks. Probably because of her reserved nature (because she is not mute). It’s hard to understand her view point or what she is thinking. The only way to know that is through Haruo’s lines but with the kind of Oshikiri it is not possible to understand what she thinks when there is no explanation given by Haruo.
The character design is another problem. They do not look very nice with the kind of style Oshikiri uses. The size of these characters look very small compared to their head. They don’t like very attractive with this kind of design.
If you read the manga after watching the anime then you might like it but if you are new to it then you will probably find the characters unattractive but if you are interested in the video games then you might be able to ignore that. The manga is good but not might be appealing to everyone.
All in all Hi Score Girl is not much appealing visually and due to its character design but if you are the fan of the anime and are interested in the retro video games then this series is for you.
