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Hi Score Girl Manga Gets Anime by J.C. Staff in July

This year's third volume of Square Enix's Big Gangan magazine announced on Saturday that the anime adaptation of Rensuke Oshikiri's Hi Score Girl manga will premiere in July. Big Gangan had announced in December 2013 that an anime had been green-lit, but has not updated on the project since the manga's legal troubles with SNK Playmore began in 2014. The magazine also revealed the anime's staff.

Yoshiki Yamakawa (Hells, Kill Me Baby, Little Busters!) is directing the anime at J.C. Staff. Tatsuhiko Urahata (Hajime no Ippo, Saki, Tsuredure Children) is in charge of series composition. Michiru Kuwabata (Penguin no Mondai, Danchi Tomoo) is drawing the character designs. Yūsuke Suzuki is the CG director. Yoko Shimomura (Street Fighter II, Final Fight, Final Fantasy XV, Napping Princess) is composing the music. Yuji Matsukura is credited for animation supervision. Tomoyasu Sakakibara (Monster Strike The Movie, Black Butler: Book of the Atlantic) is credited as CGI producer, and Shogakukan Music & Digital Entertainment is credited for CGI. sora tob sakana is performing the opening theme song.

The story of the "90s arcade romantic comedy" manga begins in 1991, during the heyday of the 2D fighting game boom. Sixth-grader Haruo spends practically his entire day at an arcade in the seedy part of town, oblivious to the world around him. However, one day at his usual arcade, he encounters Akira, his female classmate with good grades and money. She may look out of place at the arcade, but she is actually a top-class gamer. Akira completely outmatches Haruo in one Street Fighter II round after another, and their relationship develops from this unlikely encounter.

SNK Playmore (now SNK) filed a criminal complaint against Square Enix in August 2014, asserting that the Hi Score Girl manga features over 100 instances of characters from The King of Fighters, Samurai Spirits (Samurai Shodown), and other fighting games owned by SNK. Square Enix filed a counterclaim against SNK Playmore in October 2014. The two companies settled their claims over the manga in August 2015, and SNK Playmore dropped its criminal charges against Square Enix.

Oshikiri launched the manga in Monthly Big Gangan in 2010. The manga halted serialization in August 2014 following SNK Playmore's criminal complaint, but it resumed in the magazine in July 2016. Square Enix also issued a voluntary recall on all of the manga's five print volumes in 2014, but re-released the first five volumes in 2016 under the title Hi Score Girl CONTINUE. The manga's eighth compiled volume shipped on Saturday.

Update: The official website has posted a key visual and a teaser promotional video.

Update 2: Comic Natalie lists additional staff members:

• Character Model Director: Eri Sekido (SMDE)
• Art Director: Akira Suzuki
• Color Key Artist: Miho Kimura
• Director of Photography: Shingo Fukuyo
• Editing: Kentarou Tsubone(REAL-T)
• Sound Director: Jin Aketagawa
• Sound Production: Magic Capsule
• Animation Production Unification: Yuji Matsukura