Hiya!

One of my most anticipated animes of the season was Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games for several reasons. For one, I do like watching anime, although my passion for the media does come and go. I also do consider myself a “lady” so this should be made for me. Another reason is I love fighting games, especially the Street Fighter franchise. The biggest reason, however, is how Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games was going to be using actual footage of Street Fighter 6 matches into the show. They weren’t going to show us a fake fighting game! They were going to show a real one and it just so happened to be Capcom‘s Street Fighter 6? Sign me up!

So, I watched the first episode of the anime just to see if the people behind Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games did Street Fighter 6, and all of fighting games in general, any justice. I even gave my initial thoughts on the first episode, something I usually don’t do because I want to wait for the entire season to wrap up before I do so. That’s how hyped up I was for it!

The first season just ended and all 12 episodes have aired. So, was Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games able to keep up the pace when it came to the quality of the first episode? Well, I think it did but I do think it has quite a number of issues as well.

Before I do give you my thoughts on the first season, I do have to warn you there will be massive SPOILERS in this review for both the anime and the manga, which I also read up to a certain point. I know the last episode just aired but some of my problems with Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games do stem from the plot and the pacing. As such, I do need to discuss those aspects. So, yeah. SPOILERS!

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games initially follows Aya, a young girl to transfers to a prestigious all-girls school in the hopes of learning how to be a “proper lady.” She runs across White Lily, the school crush because of her seemingly demure attitude. Aya, however, discovers White Lily is actually a big fighting game fanatic, specifically a Street Fighter 6 fanatic. Aya, as it turns out, also loves Street Fighter 6 but gave it up as the school bans all kinds of gaming while on the grounds. Still, seeing White Lily’s passion for the game reignites her love for fighting games. The two then start playing in secret. They then get other students who also secretly play fighting games and start their own secret Street Fighter 6 gaming sessions. When the group realizes EVO Japan, is just around the corner, they all sign up to join.

Now, I did expect them to all join a major tournament but not EVO Japan! What’s even more surprising to me is how the EVO Japan arc took over more than half the season! They really didn’t ease us into things, did they? To be fair, the girls do join EVO Japan around the same time as depicted in the anime. My problem is how quickly they bumped things up when they needed to take some more time with the characters, especially the new girls who join them during their late-night fighting game excursions.

Since we get to a major tournament arc at around the halfway point of the anime, we barely had enough time with these new characters and we hardly got to know them. As such, I really didn’t care what happened to them while they were at EVO Japan. Then again, we don’t really see much of what happens to them so it does seem like the people behind the manga and the anime felt the same.

That’s not to say there isn’t some really good writing here, though. I do like how the first and the last episode of the season mirror each other but with Aya and White Lily’s roles reversed. I also enjoyed the introduction of the other new young ladies who join their fighting game club. Despite me complaining about how abrupt they got into the EVO Japan arc, I did like the stories they told while they were there. I did find it weird they used it to still try to add more characters into the mix here when they didn’t do so with the new characters they just added a couple of episodes ago. Heck, they even took the time to give these new characters detailed backstories instead of the two new girls from the school!

What I did find exceptional about the Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games anime is all they work they needed to put in when adapting it from the manga. The manga uses a fictional fighting game but it does seem it’s based on Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V. Street Fighter 6 is a different beast altogether! While some of the basic mechanics works, there were things like the fictional fighting game having a Stun meter, something Street Fighter 6 doesn’t have. So, they had to work around this but still make it as faithful as possible. I do think they did a good job. They even had to change the frame data when explaining the Backwalk Flash Kick from the last episode. I guess what I’m saying is they really paid attention to it all.

I do wish they had more diversity with the characters, however, as they wasn’t a single grappler shown! I guess that makes sense and the manga didn’t really feature one as well and that’s probably because the fictional fighting game was based on Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V. Grapplers weren’t really any good in those games. Still, I did want them to get some representation.

Finally, the best part of Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is the actual fighting in the fighting games! I loved how they do the typical anime trope of an expert explaining what happened. The final match shown between White Lily and the bratty kid was an exaggeration of what it feels like to play against another really good player, where it feels like all of your senses are just focused on the game, trying to react to everything in a split-second. The final hit may seem anti-climactic as it didn’t end with a big flashy Super Art or a Critical Art. However, in the context of the situation, that simple whiff punish was super exciting when you know what’s happening. Everything is so over-the-top but it’s expected in an anime like this.

Here’s the thing, though. I have a feeling this won’t get another season because the next few chapters after the EVO Japan arc doesn’t really feature the fighting game aspect that prominently. A part of me believes Capcom’s involvement helped the get anime made in the first place. So, if the next few chapters won’t get a chance to show off Street Fighter 6, then why would Capcom ever give them the green light to make another batch of episodes? Maybe they can animate the “real” fight scene between White Lily and her mom and swap that out with Street Fighter 6 gameplay. It would be a creative roundabout way to show some Street Fighter 6 but, at the same time, that would look silly.

That’s not me saying I don’t want another season of Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games. I would but, at the same time, since there won’t be that many fighting game scenes, I know a lot of viewers would get bored. After all, they weaned us on a big EVO Japan story arc and then just go through multiple chapters of the young ladies actually not playing fighting games? That’s just going to make people quit the show! They won’t care that it’s all about the characters and the aftermath of the EVO Japan arc and how they were found out because White Lily was shown on the stream! They just want to see more Street Fighter 6 gameplay and they won’t really get it if they follow the manga.

So, I can say I enjoyed Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games while it lasted. I do think, if you like fighting games and especially Street Fighter, you should give this a go. Even if you’re a casual fighting game enjoyer, this is still a good watch. Just don’t be surprised if you don’t get another season.

Byee!

Have you seen Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games in its entirety? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!