When I watched the first few episodes, I actually had mixed feelings about it. It seemed very mean-spirited. The main character Momo is this very pretty, charming do-good high school girl dabbling her feet into the world of relationships, which she explores with her classmates Toji and Kairi. Momo is so sweet! She feels like a Marin Kitagawa precursor - she’s that sweet. But she is constantly harassed and emotionally abused and manipulated by the people around her, particularly by a girl in her class called Sae (who is a total narcissist and borderline psychopath. It was so hard to watch at times. I felt so bad for Momo! The girl from ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ went through less than poor Momo! (However, Momo is much more stronger-willed than Hannah Baker for sure, and manages to get over things).
But then, I think I realised what I think ‘Peach Girl: Super Pop Love Hurricane’ was going for. I think it was going for a kind of weird Kafkaesque tone. With this in mind, I escaped from the realism of it and….. I think I actually started to appreciate it more…. Oh my gosh, this must sound so weird. I don’t think I have ever thought that there was such a thing as a Kafkaesque rom-com haha. It’s very unique, for sure...
But strangely… I think the anime works if you view it as such. It didn't work 100% but it did work. There are some scenes that go too far though, especially with some of the secondary characters around the middle and end of the anime. I can think of at least seven characters that should be in jail for what they did. I think the amount of suffering that the characters go through could be scaled down. It also could have gotten away with being a few episodes shorter.
I did like the main characters a lot - Momo, Kairi, and Toji are all equally likeable to me. I even warmed up to Sae eventually. And I liked the ending of the anime too. I don’t think I would change anything about it.
All in all, ‘Peach Girl: Super Pop Love Hurricane’ is a contemplation of the dangers of miscommunication, assumptions, and jealousy, especially in a relationship. The fickle and delicate nature of romance. The consuming and exhausting nature of romance. And the importance of openness with one’s feelings and emotions. It also explores things such as colourism, friendship, family, and letting go.
I’ve seen articles comparing this anime to Toradora. It may be a bit more messy and less cohesive than Toradora although I did enjoy this more. I could never really enjoy Toradora - I found Toradora’s characters, whilst interesting, a bit messy. I felt that Toradora had a depressing and despairing undertone to it. Even though ‘Peach Girl’ is a bit dark too, its comedic timing was better and I laughed at least once every episode. Certainly none of the humour was mean-spirited (unlike in the show Family Guy, with how everyone treats Meg Griffin). Some of the jokes were very funny and some aspects of the animation aided this as well. I could even laugh at Sae a bit! Of course, there were certainly many wholesome moments as well.
I’ll give it a light 7 (oh, and sorry ‘meg rock’ but the OP was terrible! The ED was much better!).
