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Anime / Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls

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The girls of Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls. From left to right: Mega Drive, Dreamcast, and Sega Saturn.

"Haneda, Tokyo. Next to Ootori, the symbol of the ward, is Sehagaga Academy. This is the story of the struggle of the girls who attend this school."
—Opening narration

Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls is an anime television series that first aired in Japan via Animax Japan on October 8, 2014. It was produced by TMS Entertainment with the show being directed by Sōta Sugahara. This is based on the overall Sega Hard Girlsnote  multimedia franchise developed together by Sega Japan and Dengeki Bunko. It's scheduled to air a total of 13 episodes. It's also available for online viewing on Crunchyroll for legal viewing in North America. In November 2016, a DVD of the complete series was released in Japan containing a bonus episode. The series was licensed to Discotek Media for a North American physical release, and was released in a Blu-ray/DVD combo in May 2017, missing the bonus episode.

The show centers on the various Sega consoles as anthropomorphic students as they go to a Sega-centric school called Sehagaga Academy, located in Haneda, Tokyo. The students consist of Dreamcast, Mega Drive, and Sega Saturn as they work under the instruction of their teacher, Center-sensei, in order to earn enough credits to graduate from the academy. The Bonus episode also features Master System, Mark III, Mega Drive 2, Robo Pitcher, V-Saturn and Hi-Saturn.

See the Neptunia series, which has a similar premise (various game consoles are shown as anthropomorphic persons), enough that it had a Crossover with the Sega Hard Girls.

Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls provides examples of:

  • Abhorrent Admirer: Gilius Thunderhead really likes Sega Saturn. Alas, Sega Saturn does not reciprocate.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Played for Laughs with Caroline Powell, the president's daughter and the Damsel in Distress from Dynamite Cop (Die Hard Arcade). She also attends Sehagaga, but she's surrounded by all kinds of nasty rumors, such as using her riches to buy off the judges in the Festival contests, and plans to buy the school and rename it "Powell Academy". She also spends 1,000 yen on haircuts and buys her clothes from bargain sales online.
  • Adaptation Deviation: Most of the games the girls visit don't follow their plot. One example is the final stage of the Space Channel 5 lesson, which bears no resemblance to that of the original game and has a completely different Final Boss, likely done to avoid revealing spoilers for the actual game itself.
  • All-CGI Cartoon: One of the few anime shows that uses CGI entirely, and in MikuMikuDance, no less!
  • Anachronism Stew: The anime is supposedly set in the present day, but reference to Dreamcast's dial-up modem is brought up as a Running Gag, past and present day SEGA games from arcade, console, to mobile, are prominently featured and the ending reveals that after graduation they will be released to the real world to become the respective consoles.
  • Art-Style Dissonance: Depending on the game they visit, this can happen. Compare the Hard Girls, rendered in MikuMikuDance, against the Virtua Fighter characters, which are 32-bit low-poly models. This can also happen across games, such as Jeffry shuffling side-by-side next to the much-higher-poly Ulala.
  • Back for the Finale: All of the characters from the various Sega games the girls entered make one last appearance in the final episode to cheer Dreamcast on as she graduates.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Dr. Eggman drops in on episode six, trapping our heroines in the video game Border Break and shrinking them to chibi size. Before the mad doctor can do anything, Sonic the Hedgehog himself drops in to save the day.
  • Big "NO!": Dreamcast lets one out when she's denied the medals in the Virtua Fighter lesson. Saturn gets a moment when she finds out that her swimsuit denied her any medals for the Space Channel 5 lesson.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall:
    • Center-sensei says his role is to explain the objective for the class for "each episode", and after his long explanation of Virtua Fighter, he says it has little to do with the anime.
    • When the girls begin their journey through Black Asobin's Tower, the Opening Scroll indicates he's a recolored version of Center-sensei, which helped save on the show's budget.
  • Butt-Monkey: All three of the girls qualify, but poor Saturn seems to get the worst of it.
  • Call-Back:
  • The Cameo: A great many.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Mega Drive's book in the Border Break lesson. When they arrive back at the arena later on, the Hard Girls find the discarded book and use it to summon an Invincibility TV Monitor for Sonic.
    • In the penultimate episode, when Black Asobin steals the girls' medals just as they were on the cusp of graduating, Saturn has one medal remaining. This medal allows them to play Space Harrier and chase down Black Asobin.
  • Comic Trio: Dreamcast is the one who comes up with ideas such as putting Saturn in a swimsuit to raise ratings. Mega Drive, while not an idiot, never questions them and goes along with it, and Sega Saturn is the Only Sane Woman. It's rare that they do any actual planning, but there's a lot of conversation to this effect.
  • Continue Your Mission, Dammit!: Saturn flips her lid when Sonic jumps into the Giant Gold Ring at the end of the level and goes to the Special Stage instead of chasing Dr. Eggman like they were supposed to.
  • Covers Always Lie: See Opa-Opa and the Chao in the picture above? Although they're seen in the intro, they only appear as cosmetic decorations in Sehagaga Academy and not as actual characters.
  • Crossover:
  • Distracted by the Sexy: During the race in the Jet Set Radio lesson, Dreamcast points out a hot guy in the distance, which catches Saturn's attention. It's actually Adam Hunk, but Saturn's distracted long enough that she hits an obstacle, falls down and loses the race.
  • Dualvertisement:
    • The anime has cross-promotion in Phantasy Star Online 2 in the form of Dreamcast's costume and a weapon skin for the Dream Blade.
    • One episode features the girls going into Chain Chronicle. The Play Station Vita version of Chain Chronicle V later ran a brief Sega Hard Girls campaign, and some of the girlsnote  were available to use for a limited time.
  • DVD Bonus Content:
    • The 2016 Japan-Only Complete DVD includes a Bonus Episode and a music video for the full version of "Seha Gagaganbacchau!! (Haha Hang in there, Seha!!)" featuring the four additional Hard Girls. The set also includes a download code for two MikuMikuDance bundles: One that includes Dreamcast, Saturn and Mega Drive in their swimsuits, and another that includes chibi versions of Mark III, Master System, Robo Pitcher and Mega Drive 2. Both bundles were only made available for a limited time.
    • The Discotek release includes the opening and ending credits without text, an art gallery, and the Blu-ray includes liner notes explaining many of the games references and Japanese-centric gags.
  • Evolving Credits: In episode 12's end credits, Mega Drive dances properly with the other two, after spending the other episodes being shy about it.
  • Fanservice:
    • The show seems to be dedicated to cramming every Sega-related reference as physically possible into a 12-minute episode.
    • Saturn's swimsuit in the Space Channel 5 lesson, and all of the girls wear them at the end of the Puyo Puyo lesson.
  • Funny Foreigner: Adam Hunk, a foreign African-American baseball player who appears throughout the show in various roles. Dreamcast thinks he'd be great for Saturn, but Saturn doesn't want to date him.
  • The Ghost: The girls never get to meet Segata Sanshiro.
  • Gilligan Cut: In the Border Break episode, Saturn is volunteered by the others to serve as a decoy for the enemy Blast Runners. Being the only girl without one, making her the easiest target, Saturn adamantly refuses. After the commercial break, she's out on the field complaining the others made her the decoy anyway.
  • Heroic/Villainous Mime: Sonic and Dr. Eggman.
  • Homage/Internal Homage: The show does a lot of references to the various Sega games and consoles that were sold from the company's inception.
  • How Do I Shot Web?: Dreamcast's idea of piloting a Blast Runner boils down to "push random buttons until you get what you want".
  • Instant-Win Condition: Winning the Sehagaga Beauty Contest by showing "spillage" nets the winner 100 Medals, which means instant graduation. Unfortunately, none of the Hard Girls win and the prize goes to a certain ape who is somehow female.
  • Intrepid Fictioneer: Almost every episode has the Sega Hard Girls traveling into the worlds of Sega games. The characters from Sega games are also capable of traveling between worlds, like characters from Wreck-It Ralph. Up until the part where they enter Sehagaga Academy to cheer on Dreamcast.
  • Law of 100:
    • Students at Sehagaga graduate upon earning one hundred medals.
    • The Virtua Fighter lesson also requires the girls to win a hundred consecutive matches to earn their medals for the episode.
  • Leitmotif:
  • Long-Runner Tech Marches On: Averted and lampshaded. Dreamcast always has connection to the internet whenever she wants. The problem is, it's slow dial-up (in a world where broadband and Wi-Fi are common, no less) and when she connects at the wrong times she has to pay. She doesn't like paying because she's a poor girl.
  • Macross Missile Massacre:
    • Dr. Eggman tries one against Sonic. Of course, this being Sonic, he simply dodges the payload a la Sonic Unleashed and moves in to defeat Eggman's guns.
    • Saturn is on the receiving end of this when she faces off against Black Asobin in Space Harrier.
  • Make My Monster Grow: When a giant Morolian shows up as the Final Boss of Space Channel 5, Jeffry suddenly becomes mega-gigantic to crush it. Gilius tries it too, but it only makes his axe mega-gigantic.
  • Medium Awareness: A large part of the show's humor plays with this, as the girls are fully aware they're inside the games. They'll notice things like HUD announcements, how many lives they have, and complain about things like the game's budget, Palette Swaps, and overdone clichés.
  • Mental World: The final episode reveals that everything that happened throughout the series all occurred in the minds of Sega's creative geniuses, and graduation meant each girl would venture out into the real world as Sega consoles to be played and enjoyed by the entire world.
  • MikuMikuDance: Animation software used for the show. The same models for the girls have also been made available to use for the program.
  • Moe Anthropomorphism: How the consoles are portrayed in the show.
  • Moral Guardians: Sega Saturn was not awarded any credits at the end of the Space Channel 5 lesson because the Space-PTA complained about her use of sex appeal.
  • Multi-Part Episode: "Center-sensei's Center Exam" reaches its conclusion in "Eggman vs. Sonic with the Sega Hard Girls".
  • Mythology Gag:
    • All of the Hard Girls have traits based on their hardware counterparts. Dreamcast is poor, plays the maracas and connects to the internet (with a dial-up modem), Mega Drive falls into the unpopular bookworm archetype, based on how the system was perceived in Japan, and the world seems determined to bring Saturn down no matter how hard the poor girl tries.
    • In the School Festival episode, other Sega Hard Girls were mentioned, including Game Gear, who gets tired quickly and leaves before third period to watch TV (a joke about the Game Gear's miserable battery life and TV Tuner add-on); Master System, a musician who has fans in Brazil and South America, and "Genny", an exchange student from America.
    • Dr. Eggman's secret weapon against Sonic and the Hard Girls is... a checkered wrecking ball.
    • In the Discotek release, the subtitles in the Jet Set Radio episode state that Mega Drive's handicap rocket skates grant her "Blast Processing" so she can catch up with the others.
    • Sehagaga Academy's name references the game Segagaga, which also focused on a group of Sega-affiliated main characters struggling to succeed against all odds.
  • Nitro Boost: Due to Mega Drive's inability to skate in the Jet Set Radio lesson, she's given a pair of skates with training wheels as a handicap, but they also come with rocket thrusters that give her this as an advantage. Unfortunately, she can't control it, goes straight into a wall and later goes airborne.
  • No Fair Cheating:
    • At the end of the Virtua Fighter lesson, Dreamcast was awarded no medals since she knocked out an opponent before the round actually began.
    • In the Space Channel 5 lesson, Dreamcast forcefully changes Saturn into a swimsuit to make their View Ratings skyrocket. Unfortunately, this causes Saturn to miss out on the lesson's medals because the Space PTA called in and complained about sex appeal.
  • "No" Means "Yes":
    • Saturn tells Dreamcast and Mega Drive repeatedly that she has no interest in dating or marrying Gilius Thunderhead. They remain convinced Saturn isn't being honest with herself.
    • In the Border Break episode, Dreamcast and Mega Drive volunteer Saturn (the only one without a Blast Runner) to serve as a decoy to distract the enemy Blast Runners. She refuses and says she doesn't want to, but they interpret it as just the opposite.
      Mega Drive: "I'm not doing it!" means "I really want to do it!" right?
      Dreamcast: A woman who can't be honest... I like it!
      Saturn: I seriously, from the bottom of my heart, don't want to do it!
  • Noodle Incident: Lampshaded in the final episode. The "Words of Farewell" at the girls' graduation had them recap everything they did and learn, including almost getting caught speeding in Crazy Taxi, trying on different outfits in Love and Berry, and completing all sorts of unusual tasks in Feel the Magic. Considering no episodes covered them, Saturn remembers none of these lessons, but the other girls tell her they did and to just stick with the narrative.
  • One-Hit Kill: The Dreamcast controller Dreamcast wears on her head is apparently so tough, it will instantly knock out anything that touches it, be it Akira Yuki, Alex Kidd, or even an energy core!
  • Opening Scroll: One appears in Episode 12 that parodies the first Streets of Rage game, including the same music and even ends with the line, "Betting everything... on their fists".
  • Palette Swap:
    • Lampshaded in the Virtua Fighter lesson, where the girls take on the Bad Brothers several times. Mega Drive finds it incredibly lazy.
      Saturn: Why do we keep getting green ones?
      Mega Drive: To cut down on costs, maybe?
    • Also lampshaded in Episode 12, which even admits Black Asobin is Center-sensei painted black to save costs on the show's budget.
  • Panty Shot: Happens in the bonus episode when all seven Hard Girls jump in the monitor and get stuck. Only the girls already wearing shorts are spared.
  • Popularity Power: The appearance of Jeffry McWild in the Space Channel 5 episode suddenly boosts the ratings to the girls' surprise, even against the World Cup. They speculate his celebrity status will lead him to become a daytime TV host for the housewife demographic, have his own line of TV dinners, a debut CD and appear nude in magazines.
  • Reference Overdosed: This show references various Sega-made games and consoles throughout the season, enough that the Discotek release attempts to explain the more obscure references in its liner notes, but acknowledges it couldn't get them all.
  • Retraux: Some of the show's unique background music tracks are arranged to sound like they come from an 8-bit game.
  • Rollerblade Good: For the Jet Set Radio lesson.
  • Running Gag:
    • Dreamcast can never seem to land on her feet when traveling between worlds.
    • Dreamcast and Mega Drive convince themselves that Gilius Thunderhead and Saturn were meant to be, long after she's made it clear that she's not interested in him.
    • Adam Hunk himself.
    • The school's festival events, as indicated above, have very long titles.
    • Center-sensei bringing up Vinegared Mackerel at inappropriate moments.
  • School Festival:
    • The subject of the eighth episode, but most of it is spent with the girls planning for it and looking at who's attending. The Culture Festival itself isn't seen until the very end.
    • Also the subject of the bonus episode, which brings in Master System, Mark III, Mega Drive 2 and Robo Pitcher as they all face off against each other in a race to the finish, with help from the other game characters already seen in the previous episodes.
  • Shout-Out: Sega references aside, the title is one to High School! Kimengumi. (Sega not-so-coincidentally got a port of the MSX2 game based on it for the Master System.)
  • Skinship Grope: Dreamcast pulls this on Mega Drive in the Phantasy Star Online 2 / Shining Force Cross Exlesia lesson when the girls are given a short time to change into their costumes. Mega Drive quickly tells her to knock it off.
  • Slice of Life: When the girls aren't participating in games, they discuss things like Saturn's love life, her future career plans and adopting a pet for her. Naturally, whatever the advice the other girls have for her, it's related to a Sega game somehow.
  • Stock Sound Effect: Because Sonic is a Heroic Mime, he instead gets a lot of recycled sound effects from his classic titles.
  • Super-Deformed: How the consoles actually appear when they first show up in the academy... until they go inside a game. In the bonus episode alone, all the girls retain their default small sizes.
  • Summon Bigger Fish: When the Hard Girls go toe to toe with the famous Hercules Ricky Blue beetle, they get hyped up for a grand battle... then they find out that it's a normal size beetle. After unusual difficulty in attempting to KO it, it flies off after a while, and calls its mother, a gigantic Hercules Ricky Blue. It looks to be a much bigger threat, but its large size allows Dreamcast to headbutt it for the KO.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: After the first wave of Morolians, Space Channel 5's View Ratings start dropping for no apparent reason. When the Hard Girls glance up at the headline above their heads, they find out that it's because another channel is playing a Japan vs. Brazil World Cup match, and Japan is winning. In the bonus episode, Ulala changes the format into a quiz show to avoid the ratings from dropping again.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Puyo Puyo lesson consisted of the girls proposing new games using Puyo Puyo. Said suggestions basically consisted of reskinning Fantasy Zone, Phantasy Star Online 2, Virtua Fighter, and Roommania #203 with puyos.
  • Sword Fight: Dreamcast vs. Sakura Shinguji
  • Talk to the Fist: In the Phantasy Star Online 2 x Shining Force Cross Exlesia episode, Dreamcast tries to tame a gigantic dragon boss with a dance. Said dragon promptly tail whips her into outer space.
  • Theme Music Power-Up: When Sonic goes in for the finishing blow against Dr. Eggman, His World accompanies him and the Hard Girls.
  • To Be Continued: Some of the episodes end with this phrase, although only one is a Multi-Part Episode. The early episodes have the girls enter a game toward the end only to be covered fully in the next episode.
  • Transformation Sequence:
    • Upon going into Virtua Fighter, the Hard Girls get a flashy animation that transforms them into their full-size forms. This is later condensed into just showing their full-size forms at the end of the sequence in future episodes.
    • In the final episode, each of the girls fly through a tunnel depicting games featured on their console, and then into Sehagaga Academy, before transforming into their respective console.
  • Trapped in TV Land: Dr. Eggman's hacking causes the heroines to be trapped inside Border Break until Sonic lends a helping hand.
  • A Twinkle in the Sky:
    • Used to highlight Sonic's entrance in episode 6, appearing from a distance behind Eggman.
    • Occurs to poor Mega Drive in episode 10 when she loses control of her rocket skates and goes airborne. The next shot has her in the ocean.
    • Happens to Saturn twice in the bonus episode. First when she's on the receiving end of Akira's Tetsuzanko, and again when Gilius helps her catch up to the others by hurling his axe into the air with her on it.
  • Voice for the Voiceless: The Hard Girls for Sonic.

Alternative Title(s): Sega Hard Girls

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