I really wanted to say that it was surreal to be binging on an anime again, as if it were the year 2000, but that wouldn’t be that accurate. Within the last year alone, I watched stuff like the last two seasons of Initial D, and I watched through Kakegurui on Netflix, so I have in fact watched some anime beyond 2000. Regardless, over the last week, I binged through an anime series, and as if I were 16 years old again, I’m looking forward to when Netflix gets the reigns to the rest of it.
I’m going to assume it’s either Castlevania (which I guess would have classified as anime) or all the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers episodes I’d been watching over the last few months that prompted Hi Score Girl to populate in my recommendations on Netflix, but I guess I have to admit that Netflix does kind of know me, because the preview got my attention enough to where I’d fast track and actually watch it, as opposed to putting it into my list and then never actually watching it until like a year later.
And I absolutely loved it. Without question, Hi Score Girl is a love letter to old school video games and video game culture, and all too often, I felt rushed back to my own childhood watching the daily gaming mania and obsession with video games of Haruo Yaguchi. I was super into Street Fighter II, and I poured hours upon hours into the game, and at differing points of my life, thought I was the best player in the world, until I went to the arcade and occasionally got my ass handed to me by players better than I was. I can’t say I was as maniacal about improvement and wanting to be the best, but I’m still attuned enough to gaming culture to completely understand and relate to some degree.
Intertwined through all the gaming nostalgia is a sweet and fairly innocent love story between children growing up, and the trials and tribulations that come with different classes in school and society, the expectations of a family name, and the innate need and want to simply live our own lives.
To me, it seems like Hi Score Girl was aimed to older geeks like myself, based on all the nostalgia the whole show (or at least the first 12 episodes) revolves around, but I still find myself being transformed into a teenager again, mentally debating with myself on the anime version of Ginger or Mary Anne, Betty or Veronica or Kristen Bell or Mila Kunis, with Akira Ono or Koharu Hidaka.
Only in an anime, would viewers be put into the perspective to choose between, basically teenagers, but the age-old formula still works and transforms nerds of all ages to put themselves into the shoes of Haruo and try to figure out whom they like more. Personally, it’s obvious that the answer is Ono, but the growth and development of Hidaka’s character, as well as the fact that she actually speaks, make her appealingly irresistible too.
Overall, I was transformed into a teenager again watching Hi Score Girl, and I really enjoyed it. Aside from the obvious gaming nostalgia subject matter of the primary plot, as a whole, it’s kind of the simple, slice of life kind of show that I fall in love with all the time, and it’s a simple and uncomplicated series that’s really easy to relax and enjoy.
The first twelve episodes breezed right by, naturally leaving on somewhat of a cliffhanger, and from what I understand, the rest of the series is out there, but Netflix either hasn’t gotten the rights to them, or they have them already, and are just going to deliberately drag their feet on when they’re actually going to release them. But that’s fine with me, because it gives me plenty of time to transform back into my adult form and get back to doing adult things, and hopefully by the time I’m in need for a respite of adult life, the remainder of the series just might be available on Netflix then.
