Sega Hard Girls
Sega Hard Girls is a Japanese multimedia project produced as a collaboration between ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko imprint and video game company Sega. The project re-imagines various Sega video game consoles as anthropomorphized girls in modern Japan. The project has inspired a light novel series written by Tōru Shiwasu with illustrations by Kei Garō, which was serialized in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko Magazine between 2013 and 2014, and an anime television series adaptation titled Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls by TMS Entertainment, which aired in Japan between October and December 2014. A crossover video game with Idea Factory's Hyperdimension Neptunia franchise, Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls, was released for the PlayStation Vita 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, Sega Saturn, and Mega Drive, 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. The light novels instead depict the girls as goddesses who come to live with the book's protagonist, high school student Isao Sugawara.
Characters
;Dreamcast
;Sega Saturn
;Mega Drive
;Sega Mark III
;Master System
;Game Gear
;Robo Pitcher
;VMU
;SC-3000
;SG-1000
;SG-1000
;Mega CD
;Sega Genesis
;Sega CD
;Super 32X
;Sega Genesis
;Sega TeraDrive
;Center-sensei
Media
Light novels
A light novel series, titled Gendai Nihon ni Yatte Kita Sega no Megami ni Arigachi na Koto, was written by Tōru Shiwasu, with illustrations by Hatsune Miku artist Kei Garō. 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 series, Chikiu Boueitai! SeHa Girl, 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 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's Hyperdimension Neptunia series, titled Superdimension Neptune VS Sega Hard Girls, was released for PlayStation Vita 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 was released on June 12, 2017 via Steam. Other games have featured the characters during limited time events, such as Kaden Shoujo and Super Robot Wars X-Ω.
Anime
An anime adaptation titled Hi-sCoool! SeHa Girls, which was produced by TMS Entertainment using the MikuMikuDance animation software and directed by Sōta Sugawara, aired in Japan between October 8 and December 24, 2014 on Animax and was simulcast by Crunchyroll. An additional OVA was released as part of the DVD box set on November 3, 2016. The Japanese DVDs included download codes for the show's character models for use in MikuMikuDance. 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 Garō's original concepts. Shigeyuki Watanabe handled the CG direction. The opening theme is "Sehagaga Ganbacchau!!" sung by Dreamcast, Sega Saturn and Mega Drive. The ending theme is "Wakai Chikara ", based on the Sega company song "Wakai Chikara", sung by SC-3000, SG-1000, SG-1000 II, Game Gear and Robo Pitcher. The anime was licensed in North America by Discotek Media, 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.