Ranked #5483

High Score

This anime is something unique and unfortunately, it is very short.
I do not even remember how i stumbled upon this anime, but I am happy i did.

Its too short of an anime for what it has to offer which kind of ruins it for me and at the same time, makes me want to watch it more.

The story line is easy to follow as long as your brain can handle quick conversations and jumping story lines.

For the most part it follows the main heroine, Fujiwara Megumi; her beauty brings men to there knees - She is however, very violent, bossy, controlling, demanding towards any other man than her boyfriend-.

The conversations and certain personalities (although they are extreme in the anime) remind me of how me and certain friends acted in High School or how I observed certain people behaving.

This anime brings back a nostalgic feel, yet great for quick laughter if you just want to watch something short and sweet.

I recommend this anime 100% and its very unlikely to waste your time even if you don't end up liking the anime because each episode is around 3 minutes.

:) enjoy High Score!

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High Score is probably the most random and weirdest anime comedy/parody to come out in Fall 2011. Its awkward characters and arbitrary storylines/jokes will have most running for the hills in a confused state.

====Story====

High Score is based off the manga adaption of the same name. Just like its manga counterpart this too is a fast paced comedy and parody. One thing about this anime is that this series is more like anime shorts. None of the episodes require previous knowledge of the ones before, meaning that a viewer can watch them in any order that he or she chooses.

In High Score the shorts follow anything from a cheating boyfriend to a student becoming a deranged nurse and all the way up to what is love. Although, each episode is different in plot and storyline they all have a similar aspect to them in mixing violence, dirty jokes and humor to create a chaotic atmosphere for the viewer. Conversations are relatively easy to follow but they are once again fast.

The one thing that I like about each story is how unpredictable they can be, but that’s about it. However, this is a double edged blade in that it makes some episodes very annoying because from within the anime shorts it changes from one scenario to another without having any correlation whatsoever.

Now this wouldn’t be a problem if the episodes were longer, but given the short amount of time each episode is given (a mere 3 minutes) they come off as just being duds. This means that most viewers will seem baffled on why they even bothered to watch it anyway. Also some of the jokes in this anime fall very flat.

Much of the time when watching this series a viewer will just be completely dumbfounded on trying to figure out what is going on, which by the end of each episodes is still a bit unclear.

====Art======

The art itself makes High Score look like a crudely made flash game. Characters just seem like they are standing in front of a piece of paper with a drawing on it. There isn’t a 3 dimensional feel that most other animes have.

Taking one look at the character models, and environments, a viewer will see how awkwardly they are drawn. But I believe that was the point of it, because the art does fit the style of the nonsensical plot. The animation is actually done pretty well. It isn’t choppy and flows very smoothly.

The color scheme well is actually quite bland even though, it utilizes very bright colors for scenes. They are often flat and demean of any depth.

In any case High Score’s art is just decent enough and pulls off the “what in the world” factor to keep those who are watching in laughter as they see how absurd it is.

====Sound====

The sound and music in this anime fit the comical mood as well. The sound effects had a very childish and playful theme going on with them. The opening was nothing special. The ending song had very ridiculous lyrics. When reading them I couldn’t make heads or tails of what the song was even about.

My one complaint is that the opening was 10 seconds long and the ending was 30 seconds long, which leaves 2:20 seconds of actually content to watch. To me that was a pretty poor decision since the content we do get is pretty lacking. In the end the sound and music are just average.

====Characters====

Just like the storylines, the characters themselves are also just silly. The most memorable character is Megumi and that’s it. Nevertheless, Megumi is still only slightly more memorable than the rest. She’s a violent person, who takes advantage of males because her beauty is so shocking to them. She has a boyfriend named Masamune who doesn’t mind that she likes to play around with other guys. The rest are very forgettable because they all feel like they were based way too much off of Megumi, even their characters designs look just too similar.

Attitudes in most characters are pretty immature and violent. All episodes have at least one scene where they are beating the crap out of each other to solve differences. Characters sometimes pull pranks on one another just to get a point across as well such as pulling off some funny costume changes.

But the fact still remains that these characters will not leave a lasting impression, and since most are just a copy and paste of one of the main characters, they all feel pretty much the same. So if you’re looking for characters that have some complexity to them look elsewhere because High Score’s characters are barebones and are just for a quick giggle. They are NOT meant to be taking seriously.

=====Enjoyment====

For me it was just average. I like once again how unpredictable each episode was, but it was just missing a lot of substance to make it a solid comedy anime. High score gave me a chuckle here and there but throughout the series it had many missteps.

Many of the dirty jokes (blue jokes) weren’t all that dirty, and most of the time when watching it just didn’t make sense. I will also will say that some of the scenes and jokes where gave me. However, a slight majority of them was like when you understand what a person is saying but you still have no idea what they’re talking about kind of feeling.

====Overall====

Overall High Score receives a low score in execution. I understand that it is supposed to be a comedy/parody anime, but when much of the audience doesn’t get what the anime is trying to joke about it just loses many points on delivery. High Score isn't really dreadful but it is between just being okay and mediocre.

High Score is just one of those adaptions that shouldn’t have come to be because many of traits are lost in translation during the 3 minute skits. If the episodes where 8 minutes instead then it would have been a bit better to watch.

Unless a viewer is really bored, or really wants something that is bizarre to pass the time then I say give High Score a try. It is the length of 1 standard anime episode anyway.

However, if a viewer wants something that has unforgettable jokes that will make them laugh their butt off then I suggest passing up High score and aiming for something else that has a much Higher Score.
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