Fighting games have the power to break out into different forms of media, and we’re not just talking about things like the Mortal Kombat movies or UDON’s Street Fighter comic books.
The manga series Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games (Tai Ari Deshita: Ojоu-sama wa Kakutоu Gēmu Nante Shinai) is reportedly set to receive an anime adaptation fairly soon.
According to the leaker account Sugoi LITE, the series about school girls getting way too into fighters currently has an anime in production with a broadcast scheduled to start in Japan some time in 2025.
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games follows Aya Mitsuki after she joins the Kuromi Girls Academy through a scholarship as opposed to her more privileged classmates.
She wishes to become a “proper young lady,” but she catches one of the most popular girls Shirayuri playing the non-descript fighting game Iron Senpai 4 using an arcade stick and her laptop.
TV Anime “GGWP.: Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games” (Tai Ari deshita.: Ojou-sama wa Kakutou Game nante Shinai) is currently IN PRODUCTION; Broadcast scheduled for 2025. pic.twitter.com/QUv59bNxLz
— Sugoi LITE (@SugoiLITE) November 8, 2024
The usually reserved girl pops off after winning and shouting expletives about her opponent being a noob, but after being caught, she cries and begs Aya not to tell the teachers about it because video games are banned from the school.
And perhaps Aya has more of a history with fighting games than she lets on.
This drama comedy (with some girl love mixed in) features a lot of in-jokes for fighting game fans and over the top reactions that you’ve likely seen online before.
The manga written by Eri Ejima originally began in early 2020 through Kadokawa’s Monthly Comic Flapper with its most recent volume 8 dropping just last month.
Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games already received a live-action TV drama back in 2023, which you can see a trailer for below where they actually play Street Fighter 5 and feature some familiar faces from the Japanese FGC.
This obviously isn’t the first manga / anime to focus on those who play fighting games since Hi Score Girl and Daigo The Beast: Umehara Fighting Gamers have been around for over a decade.
An anime adaptation for Young Ladies was previously announced all the way back in 2021, but had mostly gone quiet until now.
Faye Mata, the voice actor for A.K.I. in Street Fighter 6, has already expressed her interest in auditioning for the English dub for the anime should it eventually come our way.
I mean
I just want to audition. https://t.co/S39YZ1KdyU
— Faye Mata @ AX Chibi (@FayeMata) November 9, 2024
There’s no real details on which studio is working on the anime adaptation or where it’s going to be broadcast upon release, but we should be finding out more fairly soon.