Aya is on scholarship at Kuromi Girls’ Academy, where her goal is simple: to become a proper ojou-sama. However, such is easier said than done. Kuromi can’t get used to the fancy French cuisine, monologues in her head using foul language, and sometimes even lets her not-too-refined thoughts slip. Still, the girls all seem to like her, but that’s not enough for Aya: She wants to be like Mio, the “White Lily of Orchi Class,” who sparkles with the refinement Aya seeks. But she’s about to discover a different side of the “White Lily,” and it’s going to challenge her notion that “young ladies don’t play fighting games.”

Well, well, well… What do we have here? Could it be my favorite anime of the summer? Okay, I might be getting ahead of myself, but it’s not an exaggeration to say that the first episode of Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games absolutely POPPED. Despite being a shoujo-ai series, the GL content is mostly played for laughs (in episode one at least), and the only somewhat romantic moment is used as a gateway toward focusing more on the series overall tone: bold and funny. Take Aya, for instance: Perfectly voiced with this edgy, slightly stressed tone by Ikumi Hasegawa, she’s unfiltered and straightforward, making so much of the episode—which is narrated in her head—highly engaging. Mio is a trip too, acting like three characters in one: the beautiful oujo-san (whom we actually spend the least time with), the insane gamer girl, and a moe blob from a CGDCT series. Plus, there’s a fierceness in the show that matches the subject—the music cranks up when the games are on, and it’s so much fun to see actual gaming from SF6 and SF4, including getting to see Cammy in her delta red costume. Oh, and the blood. SO much blood for a yuri series. Really. Like, there’s a scene where a character takes a piece of glass out of her forehead. Ahem. But that’s part of what I loved about episode one—like Toradora before it (which it reminds me of, along with Kaguya-sama and others), Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games crosses genres and types: GL, yes, but also shonen battle, comedy (I didn’t even mention the other girls acting like sort of a comedic chorus), seinen, and more. There’s so much potential here; let’s hope it keeps up the energy, laughs, and audacity, and fulfills the promise of a superb opening episode.

Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games can be streamed on Crunchyroll.