High Score Girl
Started reading the manga High Score Girl. This is really good so far, completely unexpected. Reminds me a bit of Sekitou Elegy, the same kind of “messy” romances with coming-of-age vibe.
Where have I seen before this trope that an important character never speaks but it still manages drama quite nicely? Punpun maybe? I recall Punpun does speak but in boxes rather than bubbles, and we get to see his thoughts, I’m not really sure though. Googling now: Yuru Yuri (Rise Matsumoto) Tonari no Seki-kun (Seki). Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei (Otonashi Meru).
Reading the 4th volume now, so good. This second girl Koharu is so sweet, could go to the best kind of romance, but I guess in the end it will be the first girl who is on every volume cover. And it really would be more like Haruo (MC) winning the girl rather than the first girl winning. I suspect there is a good chance they don’t get together — this manga has a bit of harsh aura about it I would say. I get the impression the author wants to show passions are great, but with one like video games you are up for a difficult life.
I also absolutely love coming-of-age manga that span many years with the characters growing.
Hilarious how the fighting game characters spill into to the real life. Guile is like Haruo’s inner voice (Oono has some macho muscular guy, lol) and sometimes the other fighters come to beat Haruo. Two of the teachers look like fighting game characters and most of players also act out fights in real life, most notably Oono beating Haruo’s face at every opportunity.
Haha, now he is made to play Tokimeki Memorial, and all the girls are coming to watch, including his mom.
I saw earlier that this series has a sequel, and now I checked what it’s about: “The manga will focus on the character Koharu Hidaka, who is a middle school teacher close to 30 years old in 2007.” That… was unexpected but possibly excellent?
Read the rest of High Score Girl. Kind of predictable. Tried reading the sequel but didn’t like it.
Skimming through this manga again. I have no idea how much fans of Japanese fighting games might like it, but it seems very in-depth and it nicely chronicles evolution of the games and arcade systems as the characters age.
About Koharu, I think she is so likable because she goes so far with her one-sided crush on Haruo that she learns to play the figting games and eventually becomes very proficient. She reminds me of Taichi from Chihayafuru whose desire to master the game of Karuta seems to be almost entirely sourced from his crush on Chihaya. In a way, I find such portrayals quite realistic because I think few professionals in any field actually have true “passion” for their field of excellence — their success is in reality entirely based on their devotion and sacrifice to the pursuit. So then it’s not so hard to believe that love for a person could be ample source for such devotion.
Whatever the cause of their desire, we want people like that to win more than those who seem to be in the game just because of their raw talent and passion (Arata in Chihayafuru). Although, one way to enhance such a character is to make them obsessed. Chihaya herself is an example of that, but I feel the manga Sangatsu no Lion does it much better with several characters, and it also many example of the “devoted” category players.
