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Hi Score Girl Manga Ends in 10th Volume in Winter

The ninth compiled book volume of Rensuke Oshikiri's Hi Score Girl manga (seen right) revealed on Monday that the manga will end in its 10th volume. The volume is slated for this winter.

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.

The manga is inspiring a television anime adaptation that will premiere on Tokyo MX and BS11 on July 13 at 24:30 (effectively on July 14 at 12:30 a.m.), before airing later that evening on MBS.

Oshikiri launched the manga in Square Enix's Monthly Big Gangan in 2010. The manga halted serialization in August 2014 following SNK Playmore's (now SNK) criminal complaint against Square Enix in August 2014, which asserted that the Hi Score Girl manga featured 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. The manga resumed in Monthly Big Gangan 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.

Source: Hi Score Girl manga's ninth volume