When Hardware Transcends Gaming: Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls

We've seen and heard of many anime related to gaming. We've witnessed super popular ones such as No Game No Life, and others like Hyper Dimension Neptunia are pretty well known by fans. However, what if one of the gaming companies themselves, decided to make an anime out of their hardware? What would be the result? The answer is Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls!

With that being said, shall we take a look at this wonderful work? To start things off, I'll begin this post with the anime's opening and finish with the ending. Feel free to skip over it or watch it!

Opening

Characters

Dreamcast

In this anime we see personified versions of Sega's respective consoles. We have Dreamcast, the bright, optimistic, and cheerful girl who is prone to causing trouble and antics for the group. She's a personification of well Dreamcast, and her design makes references to the console. (See the obvious controller on her head.) Even though we are shown Sega Saturn first, Dreamcast becomes the center of the anime.

Sega Saturn

Next up, we have Sega Saturn. She's a little different than Dreamcast, but has the same level of energy. She has heterochromia, black twin tails, and somewhat seems to be put in unfavorable situations most of the time. Still, she tries her best and her two friends help her out if they can. (Although they were the ones who usually put her in said situation in the first place.)

Mega Drive (Sega Genesis in America)

Lastly, we have Mega Drive. She's a blonde haired girl with a calm voice and a stoic personality. Although some things can shake her up, she usually keeps this calm air about her. She always carries around a book (16-bit) that holds a lot of information about the games they play. You could call her the knowledgeable straight woman of the group. (This changes a little overtime.)

Story

So you might be asking, what kind of story could arise between console-based anime girls? Well a lot! First of all, the anime itself is very short. Sure, it's a good 13 episodes, but the episodes are about the half the length of a normal anime. Still each episode is packed full of interesting things. 

A trend I noticed throughout the anime is that most of the episodes were split into two parts. One featuring interesting side talk and jokes by the girls, and another featuring the girls diving into the games. It was a great mix of both action and comedy, which is the basis of the anime.

However, we can't forget that there's a bit of education thrown in. Although the series is full of laughs, you can learn a whole lot about Sega's games. I found it nice, because even though they noted their good qualities and fun, they took a few shots at their quirks as well. 

Also, the cuts between points of the episodes where an ad or commercial is placed were filled with a lengthy list of information about the games and characters, which is a great gift to long time and newbie gamers. You get to actually learn something, which is a little different than the usual anime break scene.

With all of this going on, one might ask the reason why this story is happening in the first place. Well, it's very simple, they're trying to graduate! In order to graduate, each girl needs 100 medals, which are received in different amounts and different ways. They are given these medals by completing the tasks at hand. Usually by completing a task in a video game or reaching a certain level they are rewarded these. What will happen when they graduate...? Who knows?

Extra

So all of this is great and all, but what if you want to know more about Sega Hard Girls? Well, there's a few other things that were in the anime that really made it for me. One of them was the numerous references and guest appearances of famous video game characters.

Off the top of my head, we have Sonic, Ulala, Jeffrey (Virtua Fighter), Sakura (Sakura Taisen), and more. They were all surprising and unexpected, but still great to see in an anime. 

Secondly, I really loved that the anime is made like a video game. That's right, it's not completely 2D, but 3D. They are pretty much designed like a video game character model. In addition to this, the girls start off in chibi mode and go through a magical girl transformation sequence when they enter the games. They become normal sized at this point. It was nice to see them in both forms!

The episode length is also pretty great. Although it is short, it's good in it's own way. Many people are very busy and sometimes don't have the time to watch a 25-30 minute episode all the way through. Other times it's just nice to watch something laid-back and short. So I believe that we need to always have anime that fit this description.

The only gripe I can say is that it ended so early. I really wanted to see more of the girls and I wanted to see other games explored. It's also a little sad considering that Sega stopped making consoles after Dreamcast, and this anime is somewhat of a reminder. Still, I couldn' ask for much more when it comes to Hi-sCoool! Seha Girls.

Like with most anime I write about, I highly recommend it to you all. It was a really fun anime, and the characters are lovely. Even if you don't like Sega, any gamer or anime fan will find something about it they enjoy.

Ending