You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll put your coin on the machine to tell people you’ve got next.
Earlier today, the official Hi Score Girl anime website updated with a new trailer for the show’s upcoming OVA. The three-minute trailer focuses on the trials that await Haruo, Akira, and their circle of friends.
The Hi Score Girl OVA is a three-episode series that will hit retailers and Netflix’s Japanese service on March 20, 2019.
The main Hi Score Girl anime launched worldwide on December 24.
Yoshiki Yamakawa (B: The Beginning, Hells) was tapped to direct the project at J.C. Staff, with Michiru Kuwabata (Danchi Tomoo, Penguin no Mondai) providing character designs. Tatsuhiko Urahata (GATE, Horizon in the Middle of Nowhere) was in charge of series composition.
Composer Yoko Shimomura (Street Fighter II, Kingdom Hearts, Xenoblade Chronicles) scored the show’s soundtrack. sora tob sakana performed opening theme song New Stranger.
The ninth volume of the Hi Score Girl manga hit Japanese retailers on June 25.
An anime adaptation was originally announced in 2013, though progress was stalled due to legal concerns. Specifically, the Hi Score Girl manga was pulled from publication in 2014, following an incident in which the Osaka police department’s Consumer and Economic Crime Division searched the offices of Square Enix’s headquarters, as well as locations linked to the publisher.
Game publisher SNK alleged that the Hi Score Girl manga contained over 100 instances of unauthorized uses of characters from various SNK-Playmore properties. The King of Fighters and Samurai Spirits were among the named properties. Moreover, the end notes of compiled volumes contained a copyright notice that includes SNK, complete with the © mark, which implies that some form of consent was granted for the characters’ usage.
SNK alleged that they found out about the infringements in the summer of 2013, when a Tokyo-based production company approached SNK for permission to use their properties in an anime adaptation of the title.
SNK Playmore formally filed a formal complaint in May 2014. According to Article 119, Section 1 of the Copyright Law of Japan, such a filing required the company to press criminal charges. According to SNK, the company repeatedly requested that Square Enix stop publishing the title, both in collected volumes and in print, though Square Enix never gave a real response to the matter.
In October 2014, Square Enix filed counter-suit against SNK Playmore, claiming that Square was willing to reveal that SNK’s claims were invalid. The charges were officially settled between the two parties on August 24, 2015, when SNK Playmore officially filed documents in the Osaka District Court dropping its criminal charges.
The Hi Score Girl manga returned to publication in Square Enix’s Monthly Big Gangan magazine in July 2016.
Source: Comic Natalie
