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Comments

3

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Plot Synopsis

Peach Girl is about an average high school girl, Momo Adachi, who everyone thinks is a beach bunny / slut because of her tanned skin. The actual reason she is so tanned is because she was on the swim team and tans very easily. She likes a boy, Toji, who she heard only likes non-tanned girls. This causes her to question who she is and have low self esteem. She spends a lot of time trying to remake herself into the girl she believes he wants. However, she has a friend, Sae, who likes to go behind Momo's back and make her life terrible, mostly by trying to take Toji away from her. All the while there's another boy, Kairi, who is in love with Momo.

Story & Characters

The anime version of Peach Girl, though not yet complete, is very much similar to the manga, though the plotline is far more "compressed". It is a shojo anime, and thus the story revolves round the complex relationships between the three main characters, and the couples also face numerous obstacles.
The main female character is Momo, a tanned, light-haired girl who is often mistaken to be a "beach bunny" (fashion-victim airhead) but is really sweet at heart. Momo is fairly likeable, though she is often hyper-sensitive to things, which I suppose is necessary for the misunderstandings to actually be misunderstood. She is in love with Touji, a often gullible guy at the beginning of the series, but after she breaks up with him due to the plotting of Sae (her evil "best friend", aka jealousy-incarnate), she gradually comes to love Kairi, a cheerful-seeming guy who is very popular. However, even her relationship with Kairi faces numerous obstacles.
The plotline is very exciting, and there's often a lot of tension, and most of the characters are well-developed, but Touji seems to lack solid substance and development and that causes him to seem wimpy and weak, though some will be touched by his devotion. It is a good shojo storyline, but there is nothing especially remarkable about it. It is still a interesting storyline, nevertheless, and worth watching if you like shojo.

Rating

8 (good)

Art

The black-and-white artwork of the manga is superb, but the colors on the color artwork are terrible, and somewhat gauche. Colors are often clashing, and somewhat "weird". The manga itself has good artwork, though.
The artwork of the anime, however, seems very inconsistent. Sae and the SD are well-drawn most of the time, but the scenes of Momo are often sketchy, and her face often seems profoundly different as the angle changes.
Also, although SD is nice once in awhile, there seems to be too much of it in the anime. Much as I find the paper-thin Sae amusing, it gets tiresome after awhile, even though it's somewhat symbolic and representative of her status/mood.
The character designs are good, though. The clothes of the characters are well-designed and each character's design explains a lot about his/her outer appearance/image he/she projects and personality.
I like the lineart, but the anime artwork is sketchy at best.

Rating

6 (average)

Sound

The opening and closing themes of the anime are somewhat inadequate, but the voice-acting pretty much makes up for that. I personally found Kairi's and Sae's voice-acting superb, though the voice-acting for Momo is only average, though she's the main character.
The soundtrack of the anime is fair, but there is nothing exceptional about it. The audio quality/presentation of the whole anime is somewhat average, though the voice-acting is mostly great.
If you don't consider the opening and ending themes, I suppose the sound quality would border around average and a little bit above average. It's not annoying or unbearable, but there is nothing remarkable.

Rating

6 (average)

Presentation

It was a fairly enjoyable anime to watch, despite the sketchy artwork and average sound. The tension and suspense really got me hooked, though I felt that it was "rushed through" a little too much. Although the anime is a compression of the manga, a few more breather moments might have been nice.
The direction of the anime was average as well, and that made the anime a little less enjoyable to watch.
There are humorous scenes, though, and Kairi will often crack the audience up. The SD strikes good balance in a sense, bringing a bit of humor into the exciting tension. However, too much SD can be tiresome - at least, for this anime.
The plotline is somewhat original, though there are occasional hints of typical shojo cliches. Nevertheless, it doesn't feel "repeated" or "copied", and the endings aren't alwasy expectable.
It is an anime mainly suitable for shojo-lovers, but it occasionally introduces more mature themes/content, and becomes more older-shojo. I won't recommend this for overly young audiences/readers.
It is an exciting show, and those who like tension, suspense and excitement would like this. There are also romantic scenes, which are usually well-adjusted. The awkward but sweet moments are touching and pull at heartstrings.
The show would definitely have you rooting for Kairi and cursing at Sae throughout. Shojo-lovers would definitely enjoy it, and most people would find it interesting as well. Unless bad artwork/music irks you exceptionally, the plotline pretty much makes up for everything.
The manga is better than the anime, though, methinks, so if you've never been exposed to Peach Girl before, I recommend trying the manga first.

Rating

7 (above average)

Final Verdict

7.00 (above average)

Reviewed by IllusionistAria, 3y 11wk ago