“Hi☆sCool! Seha Girls” anime Episode 4 is here, and so are our impressions

It’s that time again: Hi☆sCool! Seha Girls has a new episode out, and it’s available now on Crunchyroll!

We’re back into the world of games in this episode, as the girls enter Space Channel 5 on the Dreamcast, to save Professor Asobin’s friends who have been taken hostage by Morolians; with the help of Space Diva Ulala of course! The girls must also raise their ratings up to 100%; it won’t be easy however, as they face setbacks such as Mega Drive’s struggle to dance and the fact the World Cup qualifiers are being broadcast at the same time!

It then turns out that the first of Asobin’s friends is actually Jeffry from Virtua Fighter! His mere presence manages to up the ratings of the Seha Girls’ broadcast; but then Dreamcast uses her internet capabilities to find other ways of getting 100%. And the result leaves Saturn… parading around in swimwear. It was only a matter of time before we got some fanservice folks.

…and hey, it’s Saturn so I’m not exactly going to complain.

Unsurprisingly Saturn’s outfit does manage to boost the ratings, and at that point they come to Asobin’s second friend: Gillius Thunderhead from Golden Axe! He’s even represented with a shiny 3D model, which I’m going to assume is ripped from the SEGA AGES PS2 port of Golden Axe rather than the All Stars Racing games, but I digress. Gillius ignores the Morolians holding him hostage, and just walks straight to Saturn, setting off a theme for this episode that I would like to refer to as “Gillius thinks with his dick.” He then freaks out, thinking that he is in an action game a la Golden Axe, only for Jeffry to take him out. Mega Drive communicates to him that it’s Space Channel 5, and there is no Death Adder about, and he calms down a tad; unfortunately for Saturn, Mega Drive actually told him that she’ll marry him if he dances. Ouch!

Eventually the girls manage to reach the final stage, where they are pitted against 10,000 Morolians! Jeffry and Gillius both attempt to take them out, but in the end Saturn decides to settle things her own way, with what I can only assume is a sly nod to a certain Saturn peripheral (for a game I’m reviewing shortly for This is Saturn, no less!), and it’s rather awesome.

What is this rather awesome thing? I’ll let you find that one out!

Overall, this is another strong, and quite funny episode. The story surrounding Gillius brings some laughs, and as mentioned the end of the episode is quite a cool climax. The teamwork of the Girls is also pushed, which is a nice dynamic to see remain central to the show; it also provides some nice character development. I will say perhaps they’ve pulled the shameless fanservice card a tad early, but hey, Saturn in a swimsuit sits just fine with me! Another small complaint is that Mega Drive’s struggle to dance seems to be forgotten almost immediately, which threw me off a bit since the last episode’s ending made it seem like a big plot point, that could have been interesting. Alas, what we’ve got is still pretty great!

Also worth noting is we’ve gotten a look at next week’s episode, which looks to see the girls tackle both Puyo Puyo and… Phantasy Star Online! And at the same time, to boot!

Click here to go to the episode on Crunchyroll!

There’s also a handy gallery below: