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Anime DVD Review

Peach Girl Vol. 1 – Deluxe Anime DVD Review

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So at first, I thought Peach Girl was supposed to be some kind of modern version of Momotarou. In fact, it’s an old shoujo manga that is pretty much the opposite. Except both characters have “momo” in their name.

peach-girl-art.jpg

So at first, I thought Peach Girl was supposed to be some kind of modern version of Momotarou. In fact, it’s an old shoujo manga that is pretty much the opposite. Except both characters have “momo” in their name.

Company Blurb:
Looks are everything for most High School girls… The same goes for Momo Adachi! With a dark tan, an athletic build and golden hair, most of her classmates just assume she is a party loving, freewheeling beach bunny. But beneath the skin of this “peach” really lies a shy, insecure teenage girl who wants nothing more than to turn the head of Toji, her secret crush since Junior High.

With a jealous “best friend” dogging her heels and a lecherous playboy from her past watching in the wings, things just get even more confusing. Will she ever be able to confess her feelings for the boy of her dreams… or will she just end up caught in the middle of a wild and crazy love hurricane?

Analysis:
Let me start by explaining my particular demographic. I’m a 23 year old male college student. Now, I believe this anime is geared more towards the teenage middle to high school girl demographic. Basically, this anime is not for me at all.

As such, I thought the plot was horrible. I’m glad to have escaped from the lameness of high school. Why would I want to high school drama? Then again, I tend to like shows that are set in high school, just not stupid emo romance dramas.

I think they should rename this anime “The Melancholy of Adachi Momo.” Basically, everyone in the school is an ass to her, except for one or two people. Mae, who claims to be her friend, is a total bitch for no apparent reason at all. Even Gargamel had a reason to capture the Smurfs! In this volume, Momo continually gets picked on by everyone, even her boyfriend. Note to self: Don’t get a tan if you’re a Japanese high school girl.

Towards the end of the volume, the anime does seem to get a bit better since Momo starts making some allies. It’s still really annoying to watch these really stupid characters and their meaningless drama, though.

Character Designs and Art:
Peach Girl is drawn in typical shoujo style. Which is to say that even the guys have some formidable eyelashes. Considering the shoujoness of it, I can’t really complain too much about the character designs either. I’ll just let them be.

As far as the animation goes, it works. Every now and then, Sae will go into cat girl mode, which is both really funny and really annoying. I do have to hand it to Sae, I have a feeling everyone loves to hate her.

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The Actual DVD:
The version of Peach Girl I got was the Deluxe Starter Kit thing. It came in a cute pink bag (which I’d probably appreciate more if I was a teenage girl) and included an art box and the first volume of the DVD and the manga from Tokyopop. I didn’t really read the manga yet. Considering that the manga covers like the first two anime episodes, I dunno if I need to…

I listened to the anime in the original Japanese audio track. There’s an English dub, too, if you’re into that. There’s also an actor/director commentary and an interview with the original Japanese seiyuu for Momo included as extras on the DVD. It’s a pretty nice package overall, with the bag and everything.

Conclusion:
Considering that I’m pretty much done with high school drama, I didn’t really enjoy Peach Girl too much. At parts, I was really pissed at how the characters were handling the situation. I guess it’s pretty accurate for a high school drama, though.

Still, I did gain some guilty pleasure from watching, especially towards the end. I’m not sure it was worth the frustration though (anime is supposed to be fun to watch)! I can see why this anime is geared towards girls, though. It’s really a story about being true to yourself, even when everyone is a complete ass. I suppose it succeeds on that level.

Many thanks to Funimation for sending me a review copy of Peach Girl Volume 1!

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