Story: 6/10
If you are no stranger to the "magical girl" genre, then the start up to "Wedding Peach" shouldn’t be anything unfamiliar to you. We start off with a young 15 year old girl named Momoko, who is chosen to fight the forces of evil between the angel world and the devil world, as one of the Love Angels. She is not alone in this however, as she will be joined by devoted allies, trusted friends, and maybe even some she never thought would help. Wedding Peach has quite a lot going for it with it’s plot (despite the fact that it borrows heavily from Sailor Moon). The main heroines, always seem to be caught up in different situations in their day to day lives, most of which end up getting foiled by the forces of evil. This comes in the form of the devil world possessing human beings, or sending out evil monsters to do their bidding. Now the villains in this story aren’t sent just for the sake of causing havoc, they are looking for something called the "Saint Something Four". These four magical marriage items are extremely powerful, and whoever can get their hands on all the pieces will be given great amounts of power. However, they are hidden in different locations throughout the land. So as long as the Love Angels can stop them from obtaining these pieces, the world won’t be taken over. The plot works well enough for a magical girl title, as new information on the overall storyline is revealed at a steady but good pace. Most episodes don’t really lead into the next, unless a key plot point has been reached in the series. And in this, is where I feel Wedding Peach’s greatest weakness in the story lies. Whenever a certain key plot point is reached in the show, it seems to happen more at random than leading into any kind of build up. Without saying any spoilers, I can best describe it as this: picture you’re watching your favorite anime series. After many many episodes of waiting for your favorite hero to obtain something he or she needs, it is finally obtained and celebration follows. But, let’s pretend that instead of obtaining this item by defeating a foe, or doing it in a more stylized way, they instead have the main hero find simply by accident, or just have said item appear out of nowhere. In that mediphore, is the best way I can describe how some of the plots in Wedding Peach come into play. There is little to any build up, or even clues for the viewer, since some seem to happen at random (not all though). Fight scenes usually end up with the girls struggling against a foe, then using the same magic moves each time against an enemy, which can make the fight scenes get repetitive. To Wedding Peach’s credit though, there are good romance elements going on between many of the characters. These can lead into bitter rivalries, heart breaking misunderstandings, and deep romance twists. The Wedding theme doesn't play as big a part as some might think, but in fact "love" plays more of a role. As the villains can sense what is called "love waves" from any human that shows any kind of remote affection. There are episodes that feature couples getting married and what not, but they don't happen that often. The storyline takes many curves in it’s plot, and many of them are quite unexpected, and actually do play a big part in the story later on. The ending to this was quite good, as all loose ends are tied. So you don’t have to worry about going through the series only to be dissapointed in the end. Overall, Wedding Peach has it’s ups and downs, and most viewers fill find that their disappointment will walk hand in hand with their enjoyment. Not all episodes are winners, but they defiantly have their good points.
As far as possible offensive material goes, Wedding Peach has little to none. Some adult jokes appear every blue moon or so, but rarely ever. All the character relationships are kept clean, and there is no blood in this series. Some of the monsters could scare the little ones, but this anime is nothing past a PG rating.
Animation: 8/10
Wedding Peach first aired in the mid 90’s, and despite the colors coming off as a bit washed out by today’s standards, the series itself was just beautiful for it’s time. Character animations run smoothly, magical attacks are quite nice to look at, and you overall get a nice array of color schemes in this. Cast members have good distinctions from one another too, and have some pretty good facial expressions. The only thing I didn’t like in the animation, was the actual monster design. They were garbage! The main henchmen that appear through out the series work well enough, but the subordinate monsters just come off as silly, and most times unimaginative. Such examples include a door with a face, and a small clown with a little hat. Most aren't even human size. The battle outfits are created with nice colorful detail and flare, but they also have different styles of Wedding Dresses that they wear before hand in order to heal the monsters. Not a whole lot of detail is put into the latter, but they still look nice.
Sound: 7/10
You get a nice mix of high beat magical girl sounds in this series. The opening and closing themes change twice through both seasons. The first two opening and closing titles really match well with the wedding theme, and you of course get the traditional wedding instrumental played everytime the preview for the next episode starts. Background music isn’t really much in the way of special, but you do get some nice lite hearted tracks throughout. When deciding which version to watch (sub or dub), I would defiantly go with the sub version. They feel more natural and easier to listen to, because the English actors can get on the corny side. Especially when the dub version has some of the cast featured in *shudders* accents!
Characters: 8/10
This was probably my favorite thing about Wedding Peach. The main cast interact well with one another, and get off some pretty funny lines. Friendship plays key role in this series, and the Love Angels certainly have big hearts in this department. Always willing to help get one another out of a jam. We have Momoko, who typically is a bit on the clumsy side, to Yuri, the well mannered of the bunch. Expect to see quite a bit of romance in this series, most of it starts out as baby crushes between the cast members, but later on in the anime develop into something beautiful. The only negative things are--there weren’t many staple supporting characters, and some of the cast didn’t get enough back story to them. Even still though, they were quite a lovable cast.
Overall: 7/10
If you are a magical girl fan, then I think Wedding Peach should be given a chance at. Its ups and downs in the storyline might turn off some viewers, which doesn’t make it a series for everyone. But if given the chance, I feel many people will get caught up in it’s character development and romance themes. So while Wedding Peach might not be the big bash of all weddings, it never the less still remains a fun one.
