Reccing Awesome! - Peach Girl
Peach Girl
Synopsis: Adachi Momo is a girl whose tanned skin and bleached hair gets her into all sorts of trouble with those who assume she's a tanning salon-hopping tramp. It doesn't help that her "best friend", Kashiwagi Sae, couldn't be less of a friend. Sae is constantly stealing Momo's fashion sense, and Momo tries to avoid mentioning her crush on Toujigamori "Touji" Kazuya (can't have Sae stealing her hopes of dating *him* too, right?) In doing so, Momo gets caught in a lie when she points to a random guy and tells Sae she likes him. Turns out he is Okayasu Kairi, a smart-mouthed joker with a playboy reputation ... who sees right through Sae and immediately starts chasing Momo to protect her from the other girl. What sort of mess has Momo gotten herself into now?
Review: I’d heard about Peach Girl before I watched it, but other than its genre (shojo high school romantic comedy - try saying that three times fast) and the fact it’s based on a long-term manga, my knowledge was frugal. Therefore I went into the anime without any of the preconceptions manga fans apparently have of it. Result? I bloody enjoyed myself; to the point where learning about naysayers afterwards left me confused.
Granted, this series isn’t perfect. From start to finish some of the character designs felt odd (such long lashes on all the boys! Did the make-up artist from Rocky Horror run amuck with a mascara brush? And all the cast had Kim Possible lips, which was a real distraction during a couple of gloomier scenes) and we did have floating bubbles, sparkly lights and soft-focus animation to signify moments of high emotion. However, these problems were minor and offset by the positives. As in introduction to this type of show, Peach Girl is brilliant - it’s fast, frenetic and follow-able. The comedy is funny, the romance is tender and believable, the tragedy will rip your heart out, and the music keeps it all ticking along with a mixture of funky and emotive themes that augment the mood without overpowering the events onscreen.
Yet the part of this anime that really makes it? The characters. With the possible exception of Touji, who felt cardboard in places, I defy anyone to watch these characters and come out the other side not caring about them. Even Sae, whom I thought I’d hate (alongside the rest of the cast who fall foul of her self-serving lies and manipulations) in the first two thirds of the series, ended up registering on my emotional radar by the end. Momo is an engaging heroine who walks the fine line between Nice Girl and Mary Sue (including a few elements of Tsundere) without falling on her face. Well, not too often, anyway. Maybe she is a little too obsessed with her own love life, but in my opinion that just makes her more human and a definite teenager. I liked her. I wanted her to be happy, and notwithstanding her fixation with her appearance and boyfriends I still admired her for being able to do the right thing in situations where I’m not sure I could do the same. Like the series itself, Momo isn’t perfect, but she is likeable and good at heart. You can happily spend twenty-five episodes watching her bumble, stumble, fumble, laugh, cry, blush, cringe and enjoy her way through teenage romance and the perils of growing up without feeling you’ve wasted your time.
Plus the opening song is catchy as hell. Just to warn you. You will be singing it in the car and making other drivers look at you askance when you pull up at traffic lights. Trust me; voice of experience here.