I dont think it was made for me but I resonated with it all the same. High score girl. Whatever I write here probably wont put everything I love about this show on paper. This show takes place in the early 90s with our protagonist a 6th grader named Yugichi Haruo. Hes not very kind and his grades arent the best to be honest hes kind of a shithead. But he is good at one thing his passion video games. He spends a majority of his time just dicking around at various arcades around town. On one faithful day Haruo encounters a beautiful smart rich girl from his class named Ono. Who absolutely decimates him in street fighter 2. After 30 consecutive wins against him Ono follows him around various arcades playing various different games. From then on the two create a strange bond with each other. High score girl is a small slice of life comedy that takes place over Haruos life. From his elementary school years until his first year in high school. The story describes his growth and how Ono along with the various other characters in his life help Haruo grows and improve. This by itself sets itself off of a lot of other slice of life shows. Where they dont go through long periods of someones life. The only example I can think of off the top of my head is Clannad which is in my top ten and is considered one of the greatest anime of all time. Main difference is aside from the smaller eyes is that the characters are a bit more one dimensional then Clannad is. Its not that theyre bad its safer and uninspired. They fit into normal protagonist and dere stereotypes but they are handled in a wonderful way where you dont mind. I must say Ono is the only main character Ive seen who never says a word over the course of the entire show. She only communicates by facial expressions actions and the occasional grunt. Shes cute though. Its heartwarming. As you can guess the shows main driving point initially was that it has to do with being a kid in the 90s and an obsession with video games. This describes its audience pretty well. It was appealing to mid to late 30s Japanese men who grew up to playing these games. To them its a nice nostalgia trip tied up with a protagonist that they could easily imprint themselves on. I understood this from the beginning of the show and I didnt think I would particularly enjoy it due to how I couldnt relate to growing up in the 90s. But I was wrong and ending up being very invested in these characters and how theyre relationship grows. I loved their character dynamic and what they did together as friends. Just friends playing video games Harou treating her as a rival and Ono just following him around. Video games is the backbone of this entire show. If video games were involved I doubt this show would have gotten any traction at all for reasons I will explain later. This show was made/sponsored by square enix themselves. Therefore they had enough to get entire clips of game footage where the characters explain and react to whats happening on screen. The very first episode they explained how some cheap strategies worked in Street Fighter 2. Its not just Street Fighter they reference and directly mention a bunch of big time games that were popular or hyped at the time. There was an entire scene talking about how hype they were for the new virtual boy coming out which if you know youre gaming history didnt do very well. High Score Girl really put you in the place of a kid thats hyped for the newest games in the 90s. Im not even a fan of arcade games and I feel like Im that kid being excited. The main problem which is pretty major when watching this show is the animation. High Score Girl is an entirely CG show but do not take that away from the experience this show can give you. But man it does look pretty garbage. I loved the soundtrack for this show especially with the OP New Stranger and ED Houkago Diestrauction. I mostly compare this show to Dagashi Kashi. Mostly where 1 its 2 people being brought together by the same passion and 2 its a show made to sell things. Yeah High Score Girl is an advertising show it displays games coming out now in the transition periods between in the middle of the show where ad breaks would role. Its sort of off putting but its neatly and clearly separated from whats happening in the actual show so it doesnt really matter. I give this show a 10 out of 10 with the recommendation for everyone and anyone to watch if they dont mind some CG that isnt really disruptive to the type of show. This was truly the best show of the Summer anime season. This has been PixEFits spoiler free but not really review of High Score Girl.