Peach Girl

I remember the first time I read this manga, I was about 10 years old. I thought it was brilliant and hilarious, and loved every panel of it. But after reading it now, I can see so many flaws in not only the storyline, but also the characters.

The story itself is a unique idea, but is poorly executed. Most of the chapters consist of Momo complaining about how people view her as a slut and isolate her because of her tan skin. Not only is this highly unrealistic, but brought to the utmost extreme. Let me explain what I mean.

Most people might think of her that way at first glance, but they most likely wouldn't isolate her as much as the characters in this manga did. It was as if every single character in this manga was a complete idiot. Not to mention, all of the characters always fell for Sae's tricks. Who is Sae? Sae is the conniving little bitch who makes it her top priority to make Momo's life a living hell. Basically the plot consists of her doing everything possible to Momo. Even going as far as to have someone rape her.

Which brings me back to the plot being unrealistic, with millions of plot holes. Not only is the extent that Sae goes to unrealistic, but how the characters react to it are unrealistic too. The whole entire time Momo acts like a complete idiot. She continues to do nothing about what Sae, even when Sae was blackmailing her. The whole entire time, she could have reported Sae. Yeah, it wouldn't be as "exciting", but it would be the smarter thing to do. But no, instead, Momo continues to complain about how much her life sucks.

They also never explain why Sae would go such extremes just to ruin Momo's life. What does she have against Momo? Instead of answering these questions, the writer decides to just throw more unrealistic dilemmas at us to keep the story going.

Then there's Kairi. The only interesting character in this show, who shows the most character development. Not to mention, he gives the manga some comedy. The comedy is probably the manga's best point. You can't help but laugh at many of the scenes.

While all of the characters in this manga seem to be idiots who lack common sense, by far the most boring and painful character to see....is Kazuya. He has absolutely no personality. It was honestly just plain painful reading his dialogue. He makes everything needlessly dramatic, instead of taking the smart way out.

To be honest, it is an interesting read, I admit that I somewhat enjoyed it for some of the chapters. But the whole series of basically just Momo switching back and forth from Kazuya and Kairi. Sae going to ridiculous lengths to ruin Momo's social life. It not only lacks common sense, but also any real development.

As for the art, it was nothing special. Wasn't bad, but wasn't really good either.

Story: 5/10
Art:5/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

I apologize for any misspellings or grammar errors in my review.

I know it is a really old manga, but i just read it several days ago and i can say that i enjoy this manga.

Story (7/10)
This is a really long manga and there are so many dramas. But i still think the story is okay since i still enjoy reading it (i can’t believe it i am not bored by this manga at all). The things that keep bothering me to give the story a better score is the fact that the author takes the dramas too far sometimes. (SPOILER) For example, momo, the main character, keep changing her partner between toji and kairi everytime she has a huge problem with one of them. The funny thing is This girl is not even trying to find out more about what is really happening and just keep thinking about her own happiness. But the worst drama is when toji has to break up with momo because sae (the villain) threatening him. I know from the first time that kairi is the first male lead, but i never think that the author would pull a plot like this to make kairi and momo together. I think it is a really bad way to break up relationship and it is so unfair for toji, he needs a happy ending too. (SPOILER STOP HERE) Anyway, despite the drama that is so long and too much, i still enjoy every chapter of this manga and i think that is the most important part.

Art (6/10)
If only the author can maintain the art just like the first 20 something chapter i would give it a better score (Maybe she is tired and forgot how to draw the character lol). The art keeps dropping and dropping. When i read it, i realized that the character becoming more like a child (smaller and smaller), especially kairi. At the end of the chapter kairi looks totally different than the first time u read it. He looks more like a cute guy at the end instead of a cool guy. It is a really big dissapointment for me.

Character (8/10)
For me, the character is quite good but not that great. First, lets talk about this MC, momo. I think she is not impressive at all. She keeps worrying over a small thing and doesn’t developed so much at the end of the series. Next is kairi. He is good and so funny, i like how he transform to become a better and more serious. Next is toji. Tbh, i dont see any development in him at all, he is not a bad person to start with though. The last one is sae. I never hate this girl although she did so many bad things and even cross the line. She is funny and makes the story keeps going and interesting. For the role of a villain, she is not that annoying and i think shoujo manga this days have worse MC than this girl (well, i mean look at that MC crying all the time just irritates me).

Enjoyment (9/10)
Like i said before, never even once i bored reading this manga. And i think when u read something. Enjoyment is the most important thing. So, i really appreciate the author for making this manga so fun to read.

Overall (8/10)
Overall it is a really good manga for me since i enjoy it so much. I also love the ending. U must read this manga instead of searching for shoujo manga nowadays which is full of a slut, crybaby, goody two shoes MC.

To be honest, I wanted to drop it after vol 15. I thoroughly read from the first volume, but I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY. JUST WHY. Augh.
Anyway, it's your typical shoujo manga at first and all like that, but it got so dragging and I got so upset with the character development that I lost my fondness of it. I was hoping it could turn for the best but I just got disappointed near end (I even sacrificed sleep for this).
But the good side for this manga would be are the tidbits lessons about love. But it still got overboard and the characters got so irrational, that I can't even. Whatever.

finally, i am free of this manga. i thought i'd develop ulcers after the amount of stress this gave me

the manga is so well drawn and I read it in one sitting. But oh my fucking god none of these characters have any common sense and the miscommunications between them were driving me up the wall. I usually drop mangas with annoying characters, and even though all of the characters were annoying, i couldn't stop reading and I don't reggret finishing it.

Very mixed feelings towards this manga. I don't even know what to say anymore about it, other than that I don't want to put myself through it again. A one time experience is more than enough for me.

This is less of a review for others and more of a: >my< thoughts on Peach Girl.
So it DOES include spoilers!!!!! (but if you’re familiar with the TokyoPop version, you know about the titles. And if you know about the titles, I’m sure you can at least guess where I’m going at).

~INTRODUCTION~

Listen, Peach Girl means a lot to me. It was the first shoujo I ever read, the first manga I ever collected and the first manga that I bought completely “blind”: all of the other mangas I bought I had already watched the anime adaptation first and knew at least a little bit about the story.

All I did was look at the cover and the art style, which are VERY PRETTY and appealing to me, so I bought it.

Today, I’m 25 years old and have finished rereading this story. And while I still hold it dear to my heart, I gotta admit this is a very problematic story.

~SEX~

First, I think that while it is considered a shoujo, it is definitely more suitable for late teens (like… 18+). Sex is an important feature in this story, even though there are NO sex scenes. There’s a bit of nudity, there’s /almost/ sex scenes, there’s RAPE ATTEMPTS (!!!!!!) (though this concerns more violence) and more. I first began reading it when I was about 8 years old, so I definitely shouldn’t have.

There were no warnings concerning this in the cover and while I am in no way a prude, I think that the reader needs to have at least a little bit of maturity to understand what is really going on.

~RAPE~

As I mentioned previously, there are rape ATTEMPTS. More than ONCE, even. This could potentially trigger a percentage of readers who have been through something similar. And, to a younger audience, it could potentially “teach” them wrong notions about it.

By the time I reached this part in the story, I was around 15 years old. Much older than when I first started reading, but still not that mature enough. I understood that those were rape attempts but I didn’t understand what rape really was about.

~LOVE TRIANGLES~

As a kid, I liked the idea of two handsome men fighting for the love of… well, me. As a teen, I thought that it was an unrealistic idea, but I just shrugged it off. As an adult… I HATE love triangles.

This trope is more used to bring drama into the story, and in this case, it brought ALL the (unnecessary) drama. To the point that you start to wonder: did Momo ever really love ANY of those guys?

As alluded in the subtitle of vols 8-18 (“change of heart”), Momo starts to love Kairi instead of Toji. As a “Team Kairi” person since a kid, I was ecstatic to read that. But when I found out HOW that turned out… oof. Big oof.

I’ll comment more about the couple’s lack of conversation in the next topic, but in this one I’ll focus on all the shifts the story had with Toji and Kairi:

Momo starts with Toji > Toji breaks up with her, she dates Kairi > bullshit happens (lol) and she goes back to Toji > even more bullshit happens and she gets confused as to “who to pick” (???) > She ends up with Kairi.

Look. I’m happy that she ended the story with my prefered character, but it seemed so far-fetched. She had at least 3 CHANCES to pick Kairi (in the last few chapters) and in all 3 she chose Toji. At the very last moment, as if she was an actress in a movie and had just remembered that the script told her she had to choose Kairi, she sprints towards that ending.

I already said that love triangles are unrealistic, but this manages to top that. There were several times in my reread that I was furious with Momo’s indecision and that, had I not known the ending, I’d have dropped the manga.

I understand that she was fragile when the whole switcharoo started to happen, but wow. A side character tells Momo that to her it didn’t matter who she ended up with, as long as someone “showed up”. I kinda think she’s right.

(Not to mention: the whole love triangles trope is inconsiderate towards the “unchosen one”. One of these people will always have to give up the person they love and in Toji’s case, I think the way Momo handled the situation was VERY inconsiderate.)

~LACK OF CONVERSATION~

Toji breaks up with Momo to protect her from Sae. Did he really need to do that? Answer: NO.

He could’ve just talked to her and told her that Sae was blackmailing him. He could’ve tried a better way to protect Momo, instead of having to do what Sae wanted. But nope. “I’d rather take decisions by myself about my relationship without even talking to my girlfriend”.

Many chapters later, Momo was now with Kairi and they had an agreement. “I’ll wait for you for 5 minutes and if you don’t come by then, I’ll know your answer”. Something comes up, Kairi CALLS HER and DOESN’T SAY WHAT HAPPENED and expects her to still wait for him.

Like??? He already called her, he SHOULD have said what happened and why he’d be late. He could’ve told her everything by the phone and she’d have waited for him, but instead, he did exactly what Toji did in the beginning: didn’t. Talk. to. Her. about. Important. Stuff.

At least 80% of the drama in this story could’ve been prevented by having a conversation. That drove me mad.

~THE GOOD POINTS (AND CONCLUSION)~

There are many many other little points that I’d like to share but I think I’ve already said the most important ones and I already gave too many spoilers, so I’ll wrap it up:

With these many flaws, how can I still LIKE this story and give it a somewhat high rating?

Peach Girl, while flawed and problematic, is entertaining. Even though I already knew how it ended, it had me avidly reading page after page, on the edge of my seat, hoping that it would all end okay for my favorite characters.

Momo is kind and good-hearted, even though she should hate Sae’s guts and wish her harm, she keeps worrying about her and even considers her a friend. Sae starts off as a bitch but through character development she gets better and even helps Momo and Kairi towards the end. Toji is a good boy despite everything. Kairi starts off as a funny guy, perfect even, but through character development and his backstory we can see a whole new side of him.

Many points of the story are absurd to the point of being unreal, but at least the characters are very real to me.

Plus: it was fun! True, I did have waaay more fun reading it as a kid/teen than I did as an adult, but it was still nice.

Would I still love it if I read it for the first time as an adult?
Probably not. I probably would’ve dropped this a long time ago lol

Should you read this, after this monstrous review?
I don’t know. You tell me. If you don’t, I won’t blame you. If you do, I hope you can grow to love these characters as much as I did :)

So.. Peach Girl's story is good, between good and very good. The good side in Peach Girl is the Momo's skin, very original for start, and the characters are good too. For art, is different for me, but is good and sometimes realist! ^^. The bad side is Momo... she's so dramaqueen... so much... and Touji believes so much, and the story sometimes is foreseeable. But, Peach Girl is very funny and your heart sometimes beat! ^-^ ( if don't is the SUPERDRAMASQUEENS SCENES from momo, seriously, sometimes you think: '' i hating this anime and i'll stop watching!'')

This manga is a must read for all romance lovers! This manga has a fantastic story line and it is very compelling. You'll fall in love with the characters, and hate the others making it an amazing manga. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll want to punch Sae over and over again. The only thing I don't like about this manga is how the mouths are drawn, but that is no reason to not read this manga. So what are you waiting for go read this!

Characters - 5.5/6
Momo Adachi's best trait is the fact that I have never seen a shoujo protag like her. She is very powerful but emotional, and she is a character the perfectly defines that everyone should have self-love. She is dark-skinned, and deals with sexual harassment. Sae Kashiwagi is a very evil girl; her character is terrible, but not in a bad way. Sae's character is very well written, and 100% relatable for people who have dealt with girls like her. On the complete other side of the spectrum, however, the male characters are TERRIBLE. Toji is like a piece of cardboard, I don't understand why he of anyone is the love interest. He is stale and clueless, so clueless that it's annoying. Kairi/Kylie is a bit better, but his hypocrisy is equally irritating. You'll understand if you read.


Art - 7
Art style is very good, and deviates from the norm, especially from the 90s and early 2000s when anime was developing it’s very moe look. Colored art on manga cover is a little unappealing, looks out of place for art style, and may drive possible modern readers away. Very expressive and I found no issue with anatomy. Again the cover art is…..hm...

Plot - 6.5
Plot is overall actually really good, but the reason I’m giving a 6.5 rather than a 7 or 8 is because of some of the actions that the protagonists make that seem COMPLETELY out of character. I will not go into detail to avoid spoilers. A lot of things are over dramatic, but I never attended Japanese high school, so I have so clue from experience if drama is the same as it’s treated in the manga. I don’t see why Momo would even have respect for Toji after much of the drama. Just give up on him girl! But the reason I’m giving a 6.5 rather than a 6 or 5 is because the plot problems didn’t start happening until about halfway through the series, and I can forgive some of the issues.

Enjoyment - 8
Honestly couldn't put the series down despite it's flaws!

Total - 7

Man, this series was an emotional roller coaster.

The story was bearable. It wasn't special at all but I enjoyed it. Sometimes parts of it was disappointing. The art was pretty but can be improved upon. The panels are a bit all over the place.

I gave the characters a low score because they weren't believable. Some characters did not change while some did. ( To be honest, Kairi was the most delusional character.)

I gave Enjoyment a higher score because I actually liked it. I read this at the time when I was very lonely, and I could relate to some events.

Overall, I actually liked it but it isn't the best manga I've read.

Peach Girl is a nostalgic series for me, it is one of the first shojo series that I really got hooked onto. I loved the bold art style and the characters, the romance, the drama. I really related a lot to Momo, an outgoing but insecure girl that worries about her tanned skin and struggles with a manipulative and jealous friend, Sae.

This manga struck a chord with me particularly because of the duality between Momo and Sae. I knew a girl that was a lot like her when I was growing up, she always seemed to be changing to fit around other people. Every girl in our friend group came to resent her because she always found a way to get her hooks into other people’s crushes, boyfriends, and later in life a husband, and usually threw all of those boys away after causing a break-up. I never understood that girl, what motivated her, and what she really got out of these things. This was what made Peach Girl so memorable to me, it perfectly encapsulated a part of my life and it reminded me so much of that time.

Going back to this series as an adult, however, I found myself feeling really conflicted about this series. The story starts off strong, it’s so easy to cheer for Momo with an antagonist like Sae. The romance was believable and sincere, and despite some ups and downs everything felt contained. By the fifth volume, however, things started to go downhill and fast. The drama spirals so drastically out of control, and sexual assault is used as a plot point, and again as a scheme for revenge. It was never treated with any real care and it is gut-wrenching that it was used flippantly for a dramatic story arc. There are other very huge problems later on in the series with plot points that are hideously inappropriate. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but I tried to look past this as being a story of its time.

Even putting that all aside, characters seemed to change their minds so quickly and everything always felt so melodramatic and blown out of proportion. Momo finds herself in a love triangle with two equally wonderful and toxic boys and was hurt over and over again. After eighteen volumes, it frankly became exhausting. The indecisiveness of the characters becomes so frustrating, and I stopped caring about any of the characters.

It is the type of pop drama that was popular when I was a teenager, and it’s amazing that there is both a spin-off and a sequel because it all feels like a never-ending empty trashy drama. I wanted so much to love this series, and for it to be one of my all-time favorites, but I just can’t get past the problematic content to love this series, it just carried on for far too long and went way too far.