REVIEW: ‘Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games’ Season 1 Does The FGC Justice

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1, despite its incredibly absurd humor, is a refreshingly unique anime that offers an interesting look into the fighting game fandom and all its intricacies. The series’s first season does a fantastic job showing the medium’s ups and downs, but its overexaggerated elements can make for a frustrating viewing experience.

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1 follows Mitsuki  Aya (Ikumi Hasegawa) and Yorue Mio (Kana Ichinose). The former is a new scholarship student at the prestigious Kuromi Girls Academy. She’s a bit out of her depth but tries her best to fit in, assimilate into her new high-class surroundings, and be the most refined lady she can be. Aya eventually runs into Mio, the most popular and ladylike girl in her school, who’s regarded as an icon. Aya is understandably jealous of Mio and her reputation, especially because she tries and fails to be just like her.

Despite their differences, the two form an unusual friendship through their love of fighting games, specifically Street Fighter 6. As the episodes progress, hall monitors Yu Inui (Sayaka Senbongi) and Tamaki Ichinose (Shino Shimoji) join them in their mutual love of the game, even though they play for different reasons. Through these characters, Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1 highlights the gameplay elements and intricacies of Street Fighter and the broader fighting game genre while exploring their relationships and ambitions.

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1 is driven by its love of the game.

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1 does this while also including its unique brand of absurd, zany humor. This is seen in many moments, such as the girls yelling absurdities at each other in the spur of the moment, violent delinquents who have no business being video game pros being intensely into the media, and funny moments showing streaming culture and aspects of it, like clipping and hilarious, realistic messages in chat.

However, despite a heavy focus on humor, the anime still does a fantastic job of being as in-depth as possible in highlighting the major parts of fighting games, from the traditional but important mechanics seen in different fighting games to the typical tropes of the FGC culture. This includes patch notes and how players react to them, several fighting game terms, FGC etiquette and slang, pros and their relationships, and even an in-depth portrayal of tournaments like EVO Japan.

These inclusions, and how they’re executed, make Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1 an amazing fighting game anime clearly made with a lot of passion for the genre. It excellently showcases what makes it so great, how detailed and feature-rich games like Street Fighter 6 are, and how good the Street Fighter series is overall, all in an entertaining way thanks to the characters and their peculiar personalities.

While the animation isn’t the strongest, the visual effects and editing keep things moving.

Watching them fight against increasingly tough opponents, especially during the EVO arc, is nothing short of entertaining. It’s almost on the same level as watching actual pros in real-world tournaments. The girls, despite being young, take the game seriously and are appropriately skilled. As such, watching them fight each other, other players, and even pros is often exhilarating, especially during the hype moments.

Production-wise, while it doesn’t feature the best animations and uses real-world in-game footage from Street Fighter 6 instead of traditional animation, Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is still a well-made anime from studio Diomedéa. It includes great visual effects and an engaging editing style during hype moments and exposition.

That said, the anime also has irritating aspects that hinder the viewing experience. The worst part of Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1 is its incessant need to have every side character, onlooker, or audience member comment on every move, every action. This makes many moments in the anime, especially during the EVO arc, insufferable, since many matches would be much better without it.

The dramatics go a little too far in Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1.

The anime can also be too overdramatic at times to the point that it gets hard to watch. These moments range from characters doing cringey acts like slamming their faces into their controllers to spontaneous bleeding from their mouths and noses for no good reason. These were clearly done for dramatic effect, but they only succeed in making the viewing experience oddly awkward sometimes.

Overall, despite its quirks, Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1 is an entertaining and thorough look at the FGC and the fighting game industry. The series does a great job expressing both the highs and lows involved with a passion for fighting games.

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games Season 1 is streaming on Crunchyroll.