For starters, there’s no denying that Koharu is the other girl in Hi Score Girl (i.e., the one not referred to in the title).  It isn’t a matter of personal preference or relatability – just simple reality.  But it’s hard to think an another “other” in a romance series that gets more respect from the narrative than Hidaka does.  She’s not only a fully-fledged and complete character – arguably more so than the female lead – but she gets a nearly equal amount of screen time, too.  For all the good it does her…

It’s also striking that Hi Score Girl is to an extent two different series when Koharu and Akira are in focus, and Haruo two different characters.  Hidaka’s episodes almost always feature a lot of her internal monologues – where we (and Haruo) must extrapolate Oono’s inner state from what shows on her face, Hidaka is an open book (and not just through narration, she tends to speak her feelings aloud fairly often).  Haruo is undeniably more comfortable in Koharu’s company.  He can hold real conversations with her, and (tragically, if you’re her) he’s not burdened with the semi-subconscious awareness that he’s in love with her.

This episode is very much Hidaka’s stage, and it’s the agony that is her life in a nutshell.  Her challenge to Haruo was a pure desperation move, a “nothing left to lose” sort of ploy, and I give her a lot of credit for at least giving it a shot.  What would have happened had she won the showdown is an interesting question to which we’ll never know the answer, because it seems even in these circumstances Haruo still didn’t fully grasp the seriousness of Hidaka’s intentions.  And she is serious, make no mistake – both about the implications of the showdown results and about preparing for it.

That preparation leads her to “night gaming” shop Iguana after a meeting with a goth-loli gamer named Nikotama (Izawa Shiori).  Nikotama takes a shine to the younger girl when she sees her deadly-serious intent, and Iguana is full of strong opponents named after Tokyo train stations and played by famous seiyuu like Suwabe Junichi and Suzumura Kenichi.  Indeed Koharu’s seriousness about this can’t be questioned – but that may be part of the problem, as she’s soon to find out.

The showdown between Haruo and Koharu is of course wonderfully presented, a best of three falls match featuring Samurai Showdown, King of Fighters and Darkstalkers, three of the most popular fighting games of the era.  I’m not a hard-core enough gamer to appreciate the subtleties of whether it’s OK to use “confusioner” and how to order the three characters you choose to use in KoF, but that’s never hampered my enjoyment of HSG before – the games are still a blast to watch play out (the CGI really suits these scenes) and as ever, the real show is watching (and listening to) Haruo and Hidaka.

One thing this showdown does make clear is this – there’s a real and profound difference in the way Koharu-san approaches gaming and the way Haruo-kun (and Akira-san, which is really the point) do.  Haruo and Akira genuinely love gaming and everything about it – they’re “gamers” in the purest sense.  Koharu got into this as a means of getting closer to Haruo and while there’s no denying she’s developed an interest in gaming over the years, the cruel irony is that she’s still playing to try and win Hauro’s heart – now more literally than ever.  Maybe it’s a bit of dramatic-romantic license to say it’s Haruo’s love for gaming and Hidaka’s lack of it that allows him to win the showdown, but the point is a crucial one in High Score Girl’s character web.

The question now for Hidaka is simple – where does she go from here?  This is a low ebb for her (though she at least has Huitzil in her corner) – not only did Haruo win their battle, but he clearly never grasped the true consequences of it as Koharu intended them to be.  Does she continue what appears to be a Quixotic chase, or perhaps devote herself seriously to gaming – put all that training (and her obvious skill) to use?  As for Haruo (I’m glad the anime didn’t leave out the part where Oshikiri-sensei showed us that Haruo gives most of his wages to his mom), the upshot of the showdown is that he’s fully regained faith in his own skills – but with Akira forbidden to him, he can’t share that with the one person he really wants to.  Makoto-san (strip mahjong!) may be a big cause of the problem, but Haruo’s life is certain to be more eventful with her in it, if nothing else…