In 1991, during the heyday of arcade games, a character appeared who seemed almost out of place in the entertainment district of game centers, where people's true nature is revealed. The young lady who achieved the incredible feat of 28 consecutive wins with Zangief was none other than Ohno Akira. There have been many events surrounding High Score Girl, but now that it has finally been made into an anime, we would like to introduce its heroine, Ohno Akira.
Heroine "Oono Akira" with genius techniques
Source: High Score Girl
Oono Akira has such extraordinary game sense that the main character Yaguchi Haruo is jealous of her, for example, at the time, she used Zangief, who was the weakest character in Street Fighter 2, to win 28 games in a row, and in the side-scrolling action game "Final Fight," she used Haggar, the mayor of Metro City, who is said to be difficult to use, and deliberately reduced her remaining lives to 0 to push herself into a corner before getting a high score. As an aside, the current mayor of Metro City is a different person.
Ongoing rigorous education for the elite, "Oono Akira"
As the daughter of the Ono family, she is forced to take so many lessons that she barely has time to play, and of course she is not allowed to play home video games. She is frustrated by her cramped life, and often tries to escape and go to the arcade to vent her frustrations.
Meeting the main character, Yaguchi Haruo
Source: High Score Girl
Haruo's pride was broken after 28 consecutive wins with Zangief, including 7 wins against Haruo, and in the original Street Fighter 2, especially against Zangief, he was stopped from winning by a forbidden strategy called "waiting Guile" and a trap called "throw trap" that almost ended his streak. However, as a result, an enraged Akira challenges Haruo to a real fight, making him lose in Street Fighter 2. That was the beginning of their feud.
What is a "throw trap"?
In fighting games, there is a technique called a "throw trap" where you stop your opponent's movement with a weak attack and launch an unblockable throw. Nowadays, there are various ways to deal with this, such as a small punch attack, guard cancel, and throw escape, but back then, weak attacks had a long freeze time and throws were in time, so there was no guard cancel or throw escape, so it was a very effective technique if you just wanted to win.
Heroine "Oono Akira" is not good at expressing her emotions
Source: High Score Girl
She is a very quiet girl, and rarely changes her expression even during games or lessons. However, when she is frustrated or scared, she resorts to violence to protest or express her anger towards Haruo.
Her catchphrases include "Hunga" and "Moga"
Source: High Score Girl
In the story, the heroine barely speaks, and even in the few scenes where she does speak, it's only "Hunga" when she feels frustrated, or "Moga" as a reaction while eating. It will be interesting to see how much Ohno will talk when the story is made into an anime.
"Oono Akira" doesn't like horror!
Source: High Score Girl
At first glance, she seems to be a perfect young lady with no fear of anything, but in fact she is very bad at horror. On the way back from watching Haruo play the game "Splatterhouse", she relentlessly chases Haruo around, but the reason for this is that she was scared after watching "Splatterhouse". After that, it is shown that she is not good at horror.
Zangief's weakness is projectiles
Oono's favorite Street Fighter 2 character, the Russian red cyclone Zangief, officially hates projectiles. As mentioned in High Score Girl, this is probably because he was badly hurt by soldiers and fighters with projectiles.
"Oono Akira" is a young lady who is also good at real fights
Source: High Score Girl
As the daughter of the Oono family, she practices martial arts as part of her education and is also a black belt in karate. She shows her strength when Haruo uses a trap on her or against a couple who are having a tantrum, and she is merciless and quick to fight in real fights. She also sometimes acts violently towards Haruo as an expression of her feelings.
Ohno Akira has a high LUK value
Because her favorite candy store and arcade were closed, she decided to go to the summer festival with Haruo at short notice. At the festival, she won high-value prizes in "shark fishing" and "shooting gallery" that she would never win in real life. She has extraordinary luck. However, even if she won software or hardware, she couldn't take them home due to family circumstances, so they were given to Haruo.
Oono Akira's favorite characters
He likes to use heavyweight characters who are difficult to input commands and have weak moves, but can have great firepower when they get it right, such as Zangief in the Street Fighter 2 series, Haggar in Final Fight, Akira Yuki in the Virtua Fighter series, and Victor in the Vampire series.
Favorite characters are Zangief and Haggar
The characters he has a special attachment to are Zangief and Haggar. They were characters who were treated poorly at the time due to their appearance, preconceptions, and character performance, so he started using Zangief and Haggar out of sympathy. Final Fight and Street Fighter share the same worldview, so many characters who appeared in the original Final Fight also appear in Street Fighter.
A rough summary of "Ohno Akira" from High Score Girl Elementary School Edition
Source: High Score Girl
She threatens Haruo's reason for existence and pride with her natural gaming techniques, and in the end, he uses a forbidden trick to force a real fight. The two of them have a grudge against each other. However, they both share a common interest in venting their cramped daily lives through games, and they are just as passionate about games.
Ohno visits Haruo who has caught a cold
Source: High Score Girl
Because of the above feud, they are at odds with each other and often have skirmishes at school. During one of these skirmishes, Ohno splashes cold water on Haruo while cleaning the pool, causing Haruo to get a fever and become bedridden. A series of coincidences lead Ohno to visit Haruo's house, with the hope that maybe they could play a game together.
Haruo begins to care about Ohno
Source: High Score Girl
When Haruo sees Ohno having fun playing games, he is almost experiencing withdrawal symptoms from games, but he learns that playing games is taboo at home and that Ohno is a game lover at heart, and he begins to care about Ohno. The two deepen their bond through games, and Haruo begins to think of Ohno as a comrade who shares the same values as him.
Oono also begins to be attracted to Haruo, who teaches him about a world he doesn't know.
Source: High Score Girl
Even though Ohno loves games, he can't play them due to family circumstances, so Haruo's stories about games are stimulating and fascinating for Ohno. He is especially good at expressing his emotions and has never been able to make friends, so Haruo is a great source of emotional support for Ohno.
However, Ohno had decided to move overseas
Source: High Score Girl
Haruo felt that Ohno was a threat to his place in the world and his pride, but he was confident in the rise of the fighting game world and began to look forward to playing games with Ohno, who had genius gaming techniques. However, Ohno had decided to move overseas.
Just before she left for overseas, Haruo appeared and handed her a token of their friendship.
Source: High Score Girl
Just before she left for overseas, Haruo appeared at the airport and handed her a toy ring she had won at a 10-yen arcade as a token of their bond. Her suppressed emotions exploded and she cried out in ecstasy. She would become violent when her emotions were heightened, and this continued until the very end. From then on, she would carry the toy ring around with her as a neck accessory.
Then to the Junior High School Chapter
Haruo sees Ohno off and resolves to hone his skills so that he can compete on an equal footing the next time they meet. The story then moves on to the Junior High School Chapter.
High Score Girl: Akira Ohno Summary
I've explained the general plot from the character introduction to the elementary school chapter, but High Score Girl continues on to the junior high and high school chapters. To find out what happens next, watch the anime or read the book for yourself!
