Sega Hard Girls is a Japanese multimedia project produced as a collaboration between ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunkoimprint and video game company Sega. The project re-imagines various Sega video game consoles as anthropomorphized goddesses who appear all over modern Japan. The project has inspired a light novel series written by Tōru Shiwasu with illustrations by Kei, which began serialization in ASCII Media Works' Dengeki Bunko Magazine in June 2013, 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.
Characters
Media
Light novels
A light novel series, titled Gendai Nihon ni Yatte Kita Sega no Megami ni Arigachi na Koto, is written by Tōru Shiwasu, with illustrations by Kei. 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.
Video games
The Sega Hard Girls version of Dreamcast makes a cameo appearance in ; 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.
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. A bonus episode was released with the DVD box set on November 3, 2016. 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'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 has been licensed in North America by Discotek Media, and was released via a Blu-ray and DVD combo pack on May 30, 2017; the bonus episode is not included in the North American release.
