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 ...

' Dengeki Bunko imprint 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, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...

company Sega. The project re-imagines various Sega

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

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 language ...

series written by Tōru Shiwasu with illustrations by Kei, which was serialized in ASCII Media Works' '' Dengeki Bunko Magazine'' between 2013 and 2014, and an

anime is hand-drawn and 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 Japanese, (a term derived from a shortening of ...

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 employees in October 1994. A division of the company makes otome game An , is a story-based video game that is targeted towards women. Generally one of the goals, besi ...

'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 rema ...

'' 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 terri ...

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

Premise

The project focuses on various anthropomorphised Sega 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 as ...

, 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, designer and producer. He is the former head of the Sega studio Sonic Team, where he was the lead programmer of the original ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series on the Sega Mega Dri ...

Media

Light novels

series, titled , was written by Tōru Shiwasu, with illustrations by Kei. It began serialization in ASCII Media Works' '' Dengeki Bunko Magazine'' on June 10, 2013. ASCII Media Works published the first volume on December 10, 2013 under Dengeki Bunko imprint while the second volume followed on June 10, 2014.

Manga

An anthology

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 use ...

series, , featured stories written and drawn by multiple creators. The series was serialized in '' Dengeki Maoh'' magazine in 2014, and was later compiled in a single

tankōbon is the Japanese term for a book that is not part of an anthology or corpus. In modern Japanese, the term is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a manga series: most series first appear as individual chapters in a weekly or m ...

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 A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one pers ...

'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 ...

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 vaporizat ...

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 Y ...

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 hea ...

and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. An additional OVA 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), 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 produ ...

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

, 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