Ranked #1533

Peach Girl

“The portions of a man’s brain that control rational thinking crumbles like sand in the desert when faced with an attractive female.”

There’s always one anime out there that you will at some point compare some characters from other anime to. Be it because they’re the most frustrating you have seen, sweetest, or most delusional.

The story has it's good and it's bad. The situations start of as, “sure it can happen,” to, “seriously, again?” It’s repetition is what kills this one to the point of you wanting to poke it with a stick to make sure it's truly dead.

After the first few seconds where you witness a girl getting groped on the street because she more or less looks like she takes cash for it. She is introduced as, Momo. Our Momo, has a little dilemma, she has tanned skin she hates and orange bleached hair all because she is a swimmer. Our orange haired girl loves a boy, Touji (who according to her "sources" hates tans and bleached hair) and has a psychotic best friend with sociopath tendencies who makes her life as complicated as she possibly can. It doesn’t end there though, there’s also Kairi, the popular guy in school who adds him wisdom and pervertness to the show and gives us a few laughs in between, because he’s the only one that gives any sort of humor in this one. Talk about a tough load to carry.
I think the whole plot in this anime revolves around the fact that Momo is tanned and has bleached hair, so take that way and you’ve got nothing at all original. At all.

Momo is actually an ok lead girl, she stands up for herself and aside from her questionable taste in guy’s, I think she has potential. Though watching the back and forth she had going made me wonder if she felt like she was time traveling in her own life to try and change how things turned out. That’s a better story then she just couldn’t make up her mind. I think she got the short end of the stick seeing as she isn’t the only swimmer but she’s the only one with bleached hair and tanned skin.

Sae has serious self esteem issues. She is infuriating to watch and at some points I wish someone would beat her. Not to death of course because then they wouldn’t be able to beat her again. She is the worst friend anyone could ever have. Well maybe not the worst since she never actually killed anyone. Fine, worst shy of murder. “That filthy mouth of yours spills out venom like nobody’s business.” That's our Sae. But thanks to her Momo sees what type of people are actually around her.

Touji, oh Touji, it’s too bad you didn’t have a brain in that head of yours, you could have done great things. It’s not his fault though, he’s just a gullible, nice guy who believes anyone but his girlfriend. His role was horrible and anyone would have looked like an ignoramus on it, through it, around it. You get what I mean.

Kairi is the glass half full of the show, most of the time. He’s what make the last half more or less watchable. Guy with a questionable past and undefined future. He's the comfort and the pain but he's the only one that sees through Sae's facade. Making him the smartest person in a dumb class.

The animation was average to below average. The characters looks stiff and sometimes act that way too, very two dimensional. I found it hard to get into because the dudes look like chicks, but you get used to it and eventually move on. The sceneries aren't memorable and I have definitely seen better, just look at Clannad. Oh how I miss thee...
The soundtrack is below average, with the same music being repeated throughout various scenes in the episodes. The OP is catchy but even that loses it’s charm. The ED is much better, maybe because it’s less upbeat and more harmonized. The English voice adaptation makes Touji sound like he' high sometimes because of his inability to show emotion in his voice. That's harsh I know but still. Sae's voice if on for more than five minutes at a time will cause your ears to bleed. Hmm, they didn't put that in the label. Other voices were fitting and not too bland or out there.

Had the show been better I probably would have picked up the manga for it. My mind couldn’t take anymore Momo+Touji+Sae+Kairi idealistic drama.
Sometimes I think this one should have been called, “Lets Break Up So We Can Get Back Together?” I’m not exactly sure what kept me watching then. Or what drew me in to re-watch the ending years after. Maybe it's because in the end the right guy gets the girl, the guy you liked or wanted to get the girl all along. It’s not because of the (unoriginal) plot or character development, since most of them don’t grow and actually become selfish and immature as time passes. There's something that keeps you interested to see WTF will happen next. Either way, my rating from back then and the rating now are much different, after I have watched many more anime.

Oh Momo, when will you learn.
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Peach Girl is a high school love triangle (square?) story that probably wouldn't surprise most people. It's enjoyable enough if you like the genre anyway, so I'd suggest it to people who like this sort of thing but I wouldn't say you'd have to rush out to get your hands on it.

I kept on being reminded of Bokura Ga Ita as I watched this. They're similar type stories in a way; especially in the main conflict of the heroine and the two men in her life (and also some plot points, frankly). I think the overall quality of Bokura Ga Ita was better than Peach Girl, but I thought that the heroine in Peach Girl, Momo-chan, was a lot more likeable than Nana (she *reallly* annoyed me in the second half of BGI).

Story:
The first thing that comes to mind is that the pacing of the story is a little odd in my opinion. Sometimes it feels like all this time passes by in a blink of an eye and sometimes it's just plain slow. Aside from that, you've got a pretty sweet -- if convoluted -- story about love, indecision, strength and trust. And what it means to be in a relationship with someone else and how and why we choose the people we do. Sometimes things get over the top, but that's more of a character issue (see below).

Art:
The art is generally nice. The two men in Momo's life, Touji and Kairi, made me think of Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge -- I think because of the heavily-lashed eyes. It's also slightly reminiscent of YNSH in the frequent use of SD versions of the characters.

Sound:
Kairi's voiced by Kenichi Suzumura. I LOVE him. All the actors of the main four characters do a good job, but... Suzumura is tops. =) Saeko Chiba also deserves props for doing a good job of making a character who could have been overly mewling and annoying into a likeable person, despite all the tears.

Characters:
I thought they did a nice job of making the conflict here. You can see where Momo comes from and you can see why Touji and Kairi are both so compelling and appealling to her. I was definitely rooting for one over the other, but that's probably more about my own taste. ;) The character I probably had the most problem with was Sae -- I mean, we're not supposed to like her anyway, but it might have been nice to have a better idea why she was the way she was... especially since she was SO over the top and extreme as a character. I didn't like her AT ALL, which made her hard to watch -- if there was something -- anything -- that made me at least sympathize with her, it would have been more interesting, I think. At the same time, a critical viewer could say that all of the characters are somewhat... shallow and under-developed compared to the very best of the romance/slice-of-life type dramas like Honey & Clover. They just are... and there's not much explanation why outside of Momo.

Overall:
I liked it, it was okay. I think the parts I liked made up for the parts that I thought were a little lacking overall. I liked Kairi's character and it kept me interested for the most part. If you're looking for a sweet romance and you've worked your way through the great ones already, this is nice. If you're looking for something really fantastic and haven't seen much, I'd go through Honey & Clover, Nodame Cantabile, Nana, Ouran High School Host Club, and Lovely Complex first, at the very least. read more