Haruo and Akira seem designed to pick up where they left off in elementary school now that she’s returned from her stay overseas. But two things have changed since then:
- Akira’s responsibilities have only grown since her return, and that’s one of the reasons Haruo’s relationship with her isn’t the same.
- He has a new friend, Hidaka, who’s developed a crush for him.
And because his brain is all gaming all the time, he fails to realize any of this, which is where things go off the rails with both girls at one point. One more than the other in this volume though!
But it’s because of that, Haruo…might be realizing he has to grow up?
Hi Score Girl volume 3 continues to throw in more arcade and video games of the 1990’s that I’m either remembering with glee (Street Fighter), understanding (Virtua Fighter) or just discovering (Parodius). You again are reminded that his manga references how Japanese players grew up with video games, but that feel of stopping back at an arcade and wasting coins on games designed to eat your money continues to reverberate the more I read it. And discovering games other people played growing up is also cool too.
Of course, I reference arcade games eating my coins, but for Akira and Haruo, they’re great at avoiding that! However, both end up taking part in a Super Street Fighter II X tournament that ends up with them facing off against each other in the finals. That finals match almost seemed clear-cut, until Haruo discovers something that made him think Akira didn’t respect him. And that only leads to actual fight! And manages to end with the two coming to an understanding about each other.
This also gets Haruo to become serious for the first time ever. Once he learns of a certain truth, he’s now determined to actually make something of himself. His problem is because of his slacking off, he’s got a lot of work to do. This also includes him changing his attitude, because as good as a guy as he is, he sure does come off as rude early in this volume. Of course, video games dominate his brain, but you can probably guess why Hidaka ended up hating him at one point — just totally obsessed and a jerk.
Despite all of that, this was another solid volume of Hi Score Girl. It’s also nice that while video games are the main focus, other types of games — like crane games and those punching games — also shine here. There’s even a special chapter where Haruo and Oono play in a bouncy castle at an amusement park. They also end up again competing, this time on who could get the most valuable prize from different machines.
…Somehow this ends with lobsters being sent back to the ocean…