is a Japanese multimedia project produced as a collaboration between

ASCII Media Works ASCII ( ), abbreviated from American Standard Code for Information Interchange, is a character encoding standard for electronic communication. ASCII codes represent text in computers, telecommunications equipment, and other devices. Because of ...

Dengeki Bunko is a publishing imprint affiliated with the Japanese publishing company ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks). It was established in June 1993 with the publication of '' Hyōryū Densetsu Crystania'' volume one, and is a light novel imprint a ...

imprint Imprint or imprinting may refer to: Entertainment * ''Imprint'' (TV series), Canadian television series * "Imprint" (''Masters of Horror''), episode of TV show ''Masters of Horror'' * ''Imprint'' (film), a 2007 independent drama/thriller film ...

and

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

company

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

. The project re-imagines various Sega

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that Input/output, outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home video game console, home consoles, which are generally placed i ...

s as

anthropomorphized Anthropomorphism is the attribution of human traits, emotions, or intentions to non-human entities. It is considered to be an innate tendency of human psychology. Personification is the related attribution of human form and characteristics t ...

goddesses who appear all over modern Japan. The project has inspired a

light novel A light novel (, Hepburn: ''raito noberu'') is a style of young adult novel primarily targeting high school and middle school students. The term "light novel" is a ''wasei-eigo'', or a Japanese term formed from words in the English languag ...

series written by Tōru Shiwasu with illustrations by Kei, which was serialized in ASCII Media Works' ''

Dengeki Bunko Magazine was a Japanese light novel magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks). The magazine succeeded the light novel magazine '' Dengeki hp'', and originally was published as a special edition issue of '' Dengeki Daioh'' for the fir ...

'' between 2013 and 2014, and an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation titled by

TMS Entertainment , formerly known as the , also known as or , is a Japanese animation studio established on October 22, 1946. TMS is one of the oldest and most famous anime studios in Japan, best known for numerous anime franchises such as ''Lupin the Third'', ...

, which aired in Japan between October and December 2014. A crossover video game with

Idea Factory is a Japanese video game developer and publisher founded by former Data East , also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 ...

's ''

Hyperdimension Neptunia is a series of role-playing video games created and developed by Compile Heart and Idea Factory. The series debuted in Japan on August 19, 2010, with the video game of the same name for the PlayStation 3, later re-released as an enhanced rem ...

'' franchise, ''Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls'', was released for the

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

in Japan in November 2015, and in North America and Europe in October 2016.

Premise

The project focuses on various anthropomorphised

consoles, known as "Sega Hard Girls" or "SeHa Girls" for short, each with their own unique personalities. The anime series follows three such girls;

Dreamcast The is a home video game console released by Sega on November 27, 1998, in Japan; September 9, 1999, in North America; and October 14, 1999, in Europe. It was the first sixth-generation video game console, preceding Sony's PlayStation 2, N ...

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

, and

Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan a ...

, who must graduate from Sehagaga Academy, a special school located in Haneda, Tokyo, by venturing into the worlds of various Sega games and earning medals.

Characters

; : : A pink-haired cheerful girl who wants to make friends with everyone and to excel in school. She wears a white and orange dress with a Dreamcast controller as her headgear, and can also access the internet using a dial-up modem. ; : : A black-haired serious girl seeking to accomplish great things in life who is the object of several male Sega characters' affections. She wears a silver coat with black dress and a huge black ring hanging on her neck. ; : : A blonde-haired cool and genius girl who knows everything, holding a wealth of knowledge in her 16-bit encyclopedia. She wears black and pink attire, large eyeglasses, and has a Mega Drive controller as her hairclip. ; : :An upbeat girl who wears bunny ears and likes to perform magic tricks. ; : :A silver haired girl who has a Master System controller on her sleeve. She has a talent for music. ; : :A moody negative girl with multicolored hair. She tires easily and prefers to stay indoors, often leaving class early. ; : :A small sports enthusiast. She has a split personality that changes based on whether she's playing baseball or tennis. ; : :A blue-haired goddess who loves to talk. ; : :A proud warrior. ; : :A timid crybaby who carries a giant controller on her back. ; : :A white-haired goddess. ; : :A royal knight armed with sword and shield. ; : :Mega Drive's little sister. ; : :A sporty goddess who rides around on a hoverboard. ; : :A fairy-like goddess who likes to tease others. ; : :A self-obsessed American cowgirl. She prefers the nickname "Genny". ; : :An intelligent and graceful goddess. ; : :A teacher at Sehagaga Academy. He issues lessons to his students via a monitor and uses a pixelated rabbit, based on former Sega mascot Professor Asobin, as his avatar. His true identity is that of former Sega game designer and programmer

Yuji Naka , credited in some games as YU2, is a Japanese video game programmer, video game designer, designer and video game producer, producer. He is the former head of the Sega studio Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original ''Sonic t ...

Media

Light novels

series, titled , was written by Tōru Shiwasu, with illustrations by Kei. It began serialization in ASCII Media Works' ''

'' on June 10, 2013. ASCII Media Works published the first volume on December 10, 2013 under

while the second volume followed on June 10, 2014.

Manga

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series, , featured stories written and drawn by multiple creators. The series was serialized in ''

Dengeki Maoh is a Japanese seinen magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks). It first went on sale on October 27, 2005, and is sold every month on the twenty-seventh. The magazine features information on video games, manga, and light nove ...

'' magazine in 2014, and was later compiled in a single

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

volume in February 2015.

Video games

The ''Sega Hard Girls'' version of Dreamcast makes a cameo appearance in '' Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax''; the game's updated release, ''Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax Ignition'', adds an additional stage based on ''Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls''. A crossover game with

Compile Heart is a Japanese video game developer founded on June 2, 2006 as a subsidiary of Idea Factory. The company was formerly managed by Compile's former executive Masamitsu "Moo" Niitani, most well known as the creator of the ''Madou Monogatari'' and ''Pu ...

's ''

'' series, titled , was released for

in Japan on November 26, 2015 and later on released in North America on October 18, 2016 as well as Europe on October 21, 2016. A high-definition port of the game for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

was released on June 12, 2017 via

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporization ...

Anime

adaptation titled ''Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls'', which was produced by

using the

MikuMikuDance MikuMikuDance (commonly abbreviated to MMD) is a freeware animation program that lets users animate and create 3D animated movies, originally produced for the Vocaloid character Hatsune Miku. The MikuMikuDance program itself was programmed by Yu ...

animation software and directed by Sōta Sugawara, aired in Japan between October 8 and December 24, 2014 on

Animax , stylized as ANIMAX, is a Japanese animation satellite television network, dedicated to broadcasting anime programming. The channel also dubbed other cartoons in Japanese language. A subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment Japan, it is headq ...

and was simulcast by

Crunchyroll Crunchyroll is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service owned by Sony through a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex. The service primarily distributes films and tel ...

. An additional

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

was released as part of the DVD box set on November 3, 2016. Sugawara also co-wrote the anime's screenplay with Masayuki Kibe. The CG character designs used in the anime were co-designed by Sugawara and Kio, who based the designs on Kei's original concepts. Shigeyuki Watanabe handled the CG direction. The opening theme is sung by Dreamcast (

Mao Ichimichi is a Japanese actress and voice actress. She started her career as a Japanese idol member of Horipro's HOP Club under the stage name and is a gravure idol. She started an extensive voice acting career under the stage name . Biography Ichimic ...

), Sega Saturn (

Minami Takahashi is a Japanese idol, singer, tarento and a former member of the Japanese girl idol group AKB48. She is in Team A of AKB48. She became the first of AKB48 and its sister groups. In an interview with Nippon Television in June 2010, AKB48 produc ...

) and Mega Drive (Shiori Izawa). The ending theme is , based on the Sega company song "Wakai Chikara", sung by SC-3000 (

Mai Aizawa is a Japanese voice actress and singer affiliated with Aoni Production. She played Ayano in '' Lucky Star'', Natsumi Murakami in ''Negima'' and Mio Naganohara in ''Nichijou''. Her album, ''Moi'', was illustrated by Ken Akamatsu. Aizawa performed ...

), SG-1000 (Yū Serizawa), SG-1000 II (Naomi Ōzora), Game Gear (Minami Tanaka) and Robo Pitcher (Haruna Momono). The anime has been licensed in North America by

Discotek Media Discotek Media is an American entertainment company based in Altamonte Springs, Florida, focused on distribution and licensing Japanese anime, films, and television series. Formed in 2005, Discotek primarily focuses on licensing retro titles fr ...

, and was released via a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack on May 30, 2017; the OVA is not included in the North American release.

Episode list

References

External links

* * {{TMS Entertainment 2013 Japanese novels Animax original programming Dengeki Bunko Kadokawa Dwango franchises Fantasy anime and manga Light novels Moe anthropomorphism TMS Entertainment Sega franchises Works based on Sega video games Discotek Media