Beyond the inherent comedy of ojou-samas nailing extended combos on fight sticks, what’s really caused the show to take off on social media is that its in-world matches play out entirely in Street Fighter 6. Capcom is sponsoring the show, meaning that instead of focusing on Iron Senpai 4, the fictional fighting game from the source material manga, it uses staged footage from the latest Street Fighter.
The move from a fictional game to a real one is a risky gambit, largely because fighting game players are a very specific bunch who would be sure to point out any gameplay inaccuracies or strategic problems in these fights. But at least through the show’s premiere, the creative choice has paid off.
The first episode of Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games features a battle between the protagonist, Aya Mitsuki, a scholarship student who has sworn off fighting games, and her rival, Mio Yorue, who pulls Mitsuki back into a world of uppercuts and oki pressure. Mitsuki plays Cammy, while Yorue plays Ryu, and in their first bout, the former absolutely mauls the latter, perpetuating the stereotype that Ryu players play like unga bunga cavemen who don’t block.
The match between the two shows off broadly applicable fighting game techniques, like conditioning (when one player repeats an action to bait their opponent into a certain response), as well as Street Fighter 6 specifics, like Cammy’s infamous drive cancel pressure. There’s also the incredibly relatable act of ripping an EX reversal even though your opponent very clearly did a safe jump because you are on tilt.
As a Reddit user pointed out, the animation team even captured certain controller inputs accurately, like how Yorue does a “crosscut” shoryuken by inputting forward and half circle back instead of the usual “Z” motion. This may sound like incoherent nonsense to those who don't play fighting games, but the point is the anime's creators did their research.
Pro fighting game player and streamer Broski weighed in on the impressive level of detail in the first episode, while the legendary Evo winner Justin Wong described it as his favorite anime of the year for its accurate use of genre lingo.
That said, there are a few detractors. Some miss the original manga’s fake fighting game, which gave the story flexibility and its own style. Another critique is that the cuts from 2D animation to Street Fighter 6 gameplay can be quite jarring because of some questionable editing. Others argued the tie-in makes the show come across like an advertisement rather than its own thing.
While we’ll have to wait and see how Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games’ use of Street Fighter 6 plays out in the long run, there’s no denying that this tie-in with one of the most popular fighting games got people talking who may not have paid attention otherwise.
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is now streaming on Crunchyroll. Eri Ejima's original manga is available both physically and digitally through distributor Seven Seas.
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Image: Kadokawa
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