High Score Girl II

The most beautiful, cheesy romance story made with a budget that consists of 20$ and a single can of salt & vinegar pringles.

In this season everyone is finally on the same page, the only thing keeping them from revealing their feelings is change and inevitability. No matter what Hidaka could do, there is no way to change his heart. No matter how hard Haruo tries, someday she will be with another. No matter what Ono truly desires, in the end this is a fight she won't win...

........Or.......Is it?

The amount of cheesiness in this season is so potent to the point it's smelly, a fragrance of ... pure fromage from love that blossomed in the springtime of their youth. I genuinely felt bad for Hidaka slowly realizing that there is just zero chance between her and Haruo, if Ono hadn't been there perhaps they could've been an unstoppable duo but...in the end, she'll have to play solo.

Makoto continues to be best girl, mom continues to be best mom and Moemi's progression legitimately surprised me as I rewatched the adaptation in full. You truly get to feel like she just wants the best for the girl and believes that by toughening her up she'll take up the duties of her status without having to worry about her personal interests and/or relationships one day fading away as Akira will likely be set up to enter a loveless marriage done for profit rather than love.

However, the future is not set in stone, you can't give up before the battle ends. Even if it'll end in a K.O., you need to sit and grit through it. That's the only way to achieve true victory!

I would make a joke about this show as the opening of my review but it seems the 9 episode runtime of this season of High Score Girl is enough of a joke. High Score Girl 2 is the hyped(?) second season to the sleeper hit first season anime that mixed video games and romance in a way that felt new and fresh... well at least enough to make an enjoyable binge. Did the second season live up to the bar that High Score Girl 1 set or did this fun little gamer romance run out of lives?

The positive parts of this new season ... can best be seen in the animation. The biggest issue season one had was how spotty the animation quality happened to be scene to scene. The 3D CGI of the second season feels more smoothed out and consistent, never leaving you with hideous looking shots like the first season had from time to time. My next positive might come as a surprise but the 9 episode runtime felt perfect for the story. The pacing was never halted and nothing this season felt like filler in the way that some of the Hidaka episodes in the first season felt. It's hard to make a show feel natural with fewer episodes then a normal seasonal show, but High Score Girl 2 did it perfectly.

A lot of the issues I find with this show however come down to the simple fact that this season doesn't make an effort to change the dynamics of or characters. The vast majority of romance anime fall into this trap of showing our characters just dip a toe into the world of being a relationship and sadly this second season of High Score Girl spends all of the runtime just teasing you with the possibility of our main characters becoming a couple. When you reach the end and finally get the conclusion to the two season arcs for our characters all you're left with is...oh? I guess that's it. For most younger audiences i'm sure this isn't an issue, but for anyone who's older or have seen more romance anime it just feels like a waste of time and if you're a romance show that fails at being a compelling romance what do you have left? Maybe I'm just cynical though.

High score girl isn't bad. It's worth watching and if you can, you should binge the show because I think that's the best way to watch it. This show won't stay on your mind for more then a month though. It's just a simple, easy, average little anime, but sometimes those are all you really need.

High Score Girl II is the second season of the romantic comedy and 90s nostalgia anime that follows the rivalry and romance between the gamer Haruo and the girls Oono and Hidaka. However, this season disappoints by becoming a cliché and boring harem, in which the two girls run after Haruo and he pretends to be clueless and innocent. The plot does not progress, the characters do not evolve and the jokes are repeated. It does not seem to be an anime aimed at an adult audience (Seinen), but rather at a teenager who likes to see girls fighting for a boy. The only thing ... that saves this season is the soundtrack, which brings classics from video games. I give a grade 4 for this season and do not recommend it for those who expect a smart and fun romantic comedy