Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls

2014 was a bit of a drought for me, so when I saw Hi☆sCoool! SeHa Girls, not only was it a surprise, it was probably my favorite anime of 2014.

The episodes are 10 minute each, about the classic Sega systems, the Mega Drive (Genesis in U.S.), Sega Saturn, and Dreamcast, imagined as girls attending "Sega highschool," where they enter old skool Sega games and interact with other Sega characters from Virtual Fighter, Sonic, Golden Axe, Phantasy Star, etc.

I think this show is particularly for the retro gamer. If the idea of knocking someone silly with a huge Dreamcast controller, or seeing the Sega systems ... dreading to enter an iPhone in realization of their impending obsolescence is funny to you, just this may be your show. It's all very lighthearted, with cute game references of a bygone era, and still entertaining by its own right.

The art designer for the series is Kei, who also designed the Vocaloids like Hastune Miku, which is a great plus. The Sega girls themselves have cute SD forms and normal-sized in-game forms, which would make excellent toy figures for nendoroid and figma lines (hint, hint).

At the end of the series, you'll be glad you kept your old Genesis. You kept it...right?

Okay, straight up: I love Sega, and I have done so since I was literally five years old. So, naturally, one day when I was playing "Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax" for PS3 for like the umpteenth billionth time, I realized that during story mode, the "Denshin" had assumed the form of a girl wearing Sega Dreamcast-themed clothing, complete with a controller strapped to her forehead. I was actually very intrigued. Who is this person? However, at the time, I had just shrugged her off as being a completely new character specifically for that game. So, after looking up the words Dengeki Bunko on the Steam ... application for PC one other day, I came across a DLC item called the Dengeki Bracelet, for a game titled, "Superdimension Neptune Vs. Sega Hard Girls". Upon investigating the actual game, one could imagine my shock when I found out that half the playable characters in the roster were physical embodiments of Sega. I was later in that same week compelled to see if there was an anime of these girls, similiar to that of Virtua Fighter's anime or Valkyria Chronicles' anime. And I was actually slightly taken aback when I found out there was. I won't lie, I had slight doubts about it at first, but the fact that the people who did certain art for Hatsune Miku also worked on the art for this series had me convinced the second I heard about it. This show was going to be good, and I hoped it would be fantastic. But I was vastly unprepared for the full truth.
Hi Scool! SeHa girls is an anime following the school adventures (and sometimes misadventures) of three out of four main playable Sega Hard Girls in the previously mentioned video game, being Dreamcast, Saturn, and Mega Drive. I was at first a little disappointed that they had apparently forgotten about the existence of the vast numbers of the other Sega Hard girls, especially in the case of Game Gear, but later on, one of the episodes drops a F***ton of cameos and references to all the other Sega Hard Girls who, as it turns out, are all attending the exact same school as the three main ones, which completely amazed me, all things considered. And the fact that this show had SOOOO many other damn cameos and references galore to the rest of the Sega multiverse helped add to the overall charm of the show. This show, for a comedy anime, was actually as amazing as I was hoping it to be before I started watching it. And don't even get me STARTED on that amazing ending, despite this show only being 13 episodes long.
I think the only major fault of this show, at least for me, was the characters mainly staying in their chibi forms for what felt like most of the show's run. I personally have never really had much love for Chibi forms, but I also have never really hated them either. I think it's just because of how often the tiny versions of characters in anime are associated with comedy and/or comedic jokes. That being said, the chibi versions actually didn't take away from the humor of the show almost at all, at least for me. However, one other issue with the show is pretty minor to me personally, but I still believe it should be said. I am an adequate judge of 2D and 2D/3D blended animation at best, but enter 3D animation exclusively such as with this show, and I am a terrible, terrible judge when it comes to judging it. I couldn't tell you if the animation quality is good or bad for sh**.
In summary, this show is perfect for someone who actually cares deeply about Sega and/or someone who likes the Dengeki Bunko multiverse and likes checking other things out.

I first found this anime through a gorgeous figure of Sega Saturn. It was a big shock on the first episode when I saw the art style, very unique x) I wouldn't say that there is much of a story to this, it's basically about three girls who need to achieve 100 medals by going into games in order to graduate. Their names and style are based from Sega consoles. You have, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast and Mega Drive. Despite this anime only having 11 minutes per episode, it is surely going to keep you entertained! Especially if you're a Sega fan.

Sega Saturn is more of ... a tsundere type, however you don't see that side of her much since there isn't that many main characters. I think she shows more different emotions then the other characters, one minute she can be really happy and the next minute embarrassed or sad.

Dreamcast is a very confident character, who you would think is the clumsy "sakura" type of character from the Naruto series. But she isn't, she helps out a lot in each of the games they characters go into and play but of course she has those moments where she just needs a rest. And she always pushes her friends to go further x)

Mega Drive, is more of a smart kind of character, she's not very good in the fighting or dancing type of games, however, that's because she's a healer. She has high expectations in her life when she graduates and that's one of the things I like about her. She's rather emotionless until she has to do something she doesn't want to do which makes her embarrassed.

Overall I think everyone should check out this show at least once, its very long and the games they play are pretty fun. However it might not be for everyone

I don't know which is weirder: the fact that someone thought this was a good idea or the fact that Sega gave the go ahead to do it. Sega must be on drugs. However, this is Japan, and one of the first laws in anime based on real things is "if it's an inanimate object or an animal, it must be turned into a cute high school girl." I really want to actually see what that meeting was like when this was pitched. The creators come to Sega and are just like "Hi, we wanna do an anime based on your consoles. We were thinking ... it would be about a high school where kids play different Sega games in order to graduate." Then we just have the president of Sega stroking his chin knowingly and nodding, and then responds with "Yes, that's great, but you know what this really needs? Cute high school girls who look suspiciously like Vocaloids." I guarantee you that's how it happened. Anyway, I've wasted enough of your time. On to the review.

This series is bad. If I start with that, you might be wondering to yourself: "Flare, if it's bad, why are you giving it such a high rating?"

In a nutshell, this series is bad in all the right ways.

First, let's start with the actual art style. It's pretty easy to tell right off the bat that this series is low budget, and the series itself tends to make comments on that fact, nullifying any doubt you might have on the series' budget. Now, I will concede and say that the animation is VERY awkward most of the time. It's good for the most part when the characters are in Chibi Mode, as I call them, but when it comes time to transform Magical Girl-style, it starts to look very awkward with the lip flaps and movements.

The characters themselves aren't much to write home about, given this is an 11-per-episode series, so you can't expect some kind of tragic backstory that'll bring the main characters even closer as friends. Despite these facts though, I at least thought they were pretty good (though this may be me acting relieved at the fact that none of the characters were like Toradora!'s Ami in terms of personality). Going over each one, Dreamcast is kinda ditzy and kind of a Cloudcuckoolander (I hope I spelled that right), Sega Saturn is kinda the butt of the joke (which I'm sure is done on purpose due to the Saturn's commercial failure as a console), so she tends to be the unluckiest one of the three, and then Mega Drive, who is the intelligent bookworm who takes the logical approach at things.

The music itself can range anywhere from catchy to annoyingly catchy, but what's really cool are all the callbacks to classic Sega games. Not much else to talk about here.

The story is decent at best. You have Dreamcast, Mega Drive, and Sega Saturn all in a high school called SeHaGaga Academy, where they must play games in order to earn medals. After they've earned 100 medals, they graduate. Ultimately, it's a lot of fun seeing the characters go inside different games and participating, but the major complaints I have with it stems from the awkwardness. Only twice do their appearance change to match the game's graphics themselves, and it would've worked to their advantage if they did that for all games.

All in all, this series is bad, but it's so bad that it's surprisingly fun and charming. It's got a really campy feel to it and I just can't bring myself to hate that. I can completely understand why people would hate on this series, but if you're someone who enjoys the campy stuff, you're more likely than not to find enjoyment within this series.

Real quick before I end this review though, I feel the need to point something out. This series came out back in 2014, two years prior to this review. This series is obviously product placement, but it's product placement for extremely outdated consoles that are ranging anywhere from 20-30 years old. Weird but hilarious business practice there, Sega.

Its an anime about sega consoles turned into humanoid anime girls. If that doesnt draw you in, then I dont know what will. My only major complaint is that the show only focuses on 3 main characters instead of having each sega hard girl get their own turn in the spotlight, as I was excited to see what type of anime girl obscure sega systems such as the master system, VMU, and 32X would be. Unfortunately, besides some cameos in one episode, Dreamcast, Saturn, and Mega Drive are all you get. But eh, the animation is OK, gillius thunderhead is a total pervert in love ... with ulala, Saturn gets in a bikini, and Dreamcast goes for the ol' one-two titty grab on mega drive at one point, and theres a sonic episode where sonic uncomfortably doesn't talk. 8/10