High Score Girl
Hi Score Girl

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Hi Score Girl is a manga made by a gamer for gamers. If you were not a gamer you wouldn’t understand many of the plots and jokes. I am a gamer, love video games, and grew up in the same period depicted in this manga. Thus, I loved this manga.

However, video game reference is not the only thing this manga offers. It is a quite good love story centered around video games. More amazingly the female protagonist does not talk at all during the entire 10-volume manga. And she is not mute. All her feeling are displayed through her facial expression and action.

Let’s ... be honest, the character art in this manga is not very good. But I was able to forgive and forget the flaw and completely enjoy it.

STORY & CHARACTERS 8/10
This is a simple yet lovely story about three main characters and the troubled dynamic between them in what is esentially a love triangle. Although the story is focused on two characters only early on, with the third character being introduced later. To describe HSG as just a love triangle story would be understatement, however. The story takes its time to develop each of our three characters individually as well as each of the dynamics between two of them, making our love triangle a web of feelings of love, rivarly and friendship.

To talk about the plot is to talk about the characters ... and their need of growth. The tension of the story comes from the different wants of the three protagonists, their struggle to express it to others and how it reflects on their relationships. This is where lies the strength of this story.

This is gag manga with quite effective and creative jokes. The comedy relies mainly on putting our male protagonist Haruo in absurd situations with goofy people in which sometimes he gets harmed either phisically or emotionally. It doesn't get to a point of inhumanly torturing the prota, just life being unfair to him from time to time. Although the story is comedic in nature, it does a good job in setting serious moments with relevance to the development of the characters. Comedy never interferes with the developing plot.

The story seems to have a loose direction at times resulting in it deviating of the plot and it extending subplots more than necessary. Some side characters could have better development. However since this is a fairly short manga spanning 10 vols it doesn't get too annoying, especially if you like both characters and comedy.

Another strong point is the whole retro-videogames/arcade theme. This a common interest relevant to our protagonists. It is what unites them and it is what drives the situations our characters get in. The plot becomes a competetive sport type of story at times. It is not the main focus and it is worked on superficially. But it serves our characters relations and development in a way that it is, nonetheless, very exciting.

ART 8/10
The art is very cartoony and it's not super detailed. It can be exaggerated to the point of being ugly for comedic purposes. However, the characters are designed in a cute way resulting in "ugly-cute" art overall. When seriousness is due, the visual element of the story serves in portraying the characters' emotions with detail. It's very distinct, unique to the author. I personally really like it.

ENJOYMENT 8/10
Loved the characters. Loved the romance. Loved the videogame theme. This is not a very complicated romance story but it is filled with both wholesome and heartbreaking moments. It is neither too long nor too short, reaching a well made conclusion when it needed to. Loved it overall.

High Score Girl is about a Haruo, a guy who is obsessed with video games with no particularly redeemable traits about him, and the innocent romance with Oono, a girl who beats him in every game they play in--oh, and she also beats him up in real life too.

The beginning was pretty good. It showcases the innocent romance that young people go through, and it goes pretty well. Haruo, awkward as hell, only talks about games, slowly becomes more familiar with Oono, who despite hits him and teases him, clearly appreciates his company. Both the characters have different backgrounds. Oono's a mute, rich girl that's ... got a strict teacher and schedule, her only respite being the arcade games she plays, and Haruo's company. Haruo's completely irredeemable in basically anything except games, and so he treats Oono as a rival for intruding upon his "sanctuary" of being the best in games.

It peaked at around chapter 12, when Oono and Haruo get separated for a decent amount of time, and another girl, Hidaka, also falls in love with Haruo.

Why, why why? Lets just consider it a suspension of disbelief that an idiot like Haruo can reel in a girl by being nice and kind, sure. It's a manga. It could happen. How the hell could it happen twice in a row? Hidaka's not a flawed character in terms of her personality, but just the near impossibility that two girls would just both fall in love with, well, a protagonist with no real redeemable traits is a bit out of the wild. The manga just throws in a wrench because it turns from an innocent romance to a rom-com sort of deal, where Haruo just attracts more and more women. Even later in the series, another girl tries hooking up with Haruo. How?

The manga, however, does do a good job of showing off the late 80s and 90s of retro games like SF, Tekken, Final Fight and a lot of other classics. I'm honestly not that old to have grown up with them, but the feeling of being in the arcades and having fun, with only so much pocket money to spend does come through. The gaming motifs and Guile being Haruo's inner voice is nice.

That being said, the wish fulfillment in the manga is just cringe. It's okay for romance, with Oono, since it was something "special," but it just seems like it devolves to a wish fulfillment where girls out of Haruo's league start competing for him.