Peach Girl

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This manga is a must read for all romance lovers! This manga has a fantastic story line and it is very compelling. You'll fall in love with the characters, and hate the others making it an amazing manga. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll want to punch Sae over and over again. The only thing I don't like about this manga is how the mouths are drawn, but that is no reason to not read this manga. So what are you waiting for go read this!

I remember the first time I read this manga, I was about 10 years old. I thought it was brilliant and hilarious, and loved every panel of it. But after reading it now, I can see so many flaws in not only the storyline, but also the characters.

The story itself is a unique idea, but is poorly executed. Most of the chapters consist of Momo complaining about how people view her as a slut and isolate her because of her tan skin. Not only is this highly unrealistic, but brought to the utmost extreme. Let me explain what I mean.

Most people might think of her ... that way at first glance, but they most likely wouldn't isolate her as much as the characters in this manga did. It was as if every single character in this manga was a complete idiot. Not to mention, all of the characters always fell for Sae's tricks. Who is Sae? Sae is the conniving little bitch who makes it her top priority to make Momo's life a living hell. Basically the plot consists of her doing everything possible to Momo. Even going as far as to have someone rape her.

Which brings me back to the plot being unrealistic, with millions of plot holes. Not only is the extent that Sae goes to unrealistic, but how the characters react to it are unrealistic too. The whole entire time Momo acts like a complete idiot. She continues to do nothing about what Sae, even when Sae was blackmailing her. The whole entire time, she could have reported Sae. Yeah, it wouldn't be as "exciting", but it would be the smarter thing to do. But no, instead, Momo continues to complain about how much her life sucks.

They also never explain why Sae would go such extremes just to ruin Momo's life. What does she have against Momo? Instead of answering these questions, the writer decides to just throw more unrealistic dilemmas at us to keep the story going.

Then there's Kairi. The only interesting character in this show, who shows the most character development. Not to mention, he gives the manga some comedy. The comedy is probably the manga's best point. You can't help but laugh at many of the scenes.

While all of the characters in this manga seem to be idiots who lack common sense, by far the most boring and painful character to see....is Kazuya. He has absolutely no personality. It was honestly just plain painful reading his dialogue. He makes everything needlessly dramatic, instead of taking the smart way out.

To be honest, it is an interesting read, I admit that I somewhat enjoyed it for some of the chapters. But the whole series of basically just Momo switching back and forth from Kazuya and Kairi. Sae going to ridiculous lengths to ruin Momo's social life. It not only lacks common sense, but also any real development.

As for the art, it was nothing special. Wasn't bad, but wasn't really good either.

Story: 5/10
Art:5/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

I apologize for any misspellings or grammar errors in my review.

I've been slowly reading more shojo manga and Peach Girl was a title I've heard about for years because of its popularity. I can see why it was popular, but holy manga gods was this a frustrating read.

First off, this manga is manipulative. The characters in it are manipulative and the author is trying to manipulate the audience as much as possible. It was so frustrating reading the first few chapters because of how obvious the characters were about creating plot and tension that I hate read the first three or so volumes.

Characters:
There is definitely a problem with characters. What this manga does really well ... is that it shows the emotions of the leading characters in ways that are relatable, but it's pulled off in a sloppy way. Momo, the main character that has a complex about her skin tone, goes through a lot of pain and suffering and throughout the series she doesn't learn from any of it.

The side characters are incredibly wishy washy. They are the ideal mob mentality where they'll hate Momo or they'll love her and they're not afraid to switch on a dime. They have no personal thoughts. When side characters befriend Momo and they're her friends for the rest of the manga we hardly get to know them. The series is so focused on the core four characters that everything and everyone outside of their emotional lives is irrelevant.

Then there's Sae. God, I hated her with the passion of a thousand burning suns. You could tell that Sae was nothing but a plot device for a good chunk of the manga and what she did was beyond horrendous. She was evil incarnate. It wasn't until the last few volumes where I started to feel any sympathy towards her and that was only because her character did a 180.

The character development isn't good. It's very basic and if a character changes too much there isn't much explanation. Take Sae, when she falls in love for the first time she's a new character. There is no transition, it's just boom, there she is now.

Peach Girl has a bad habit of bringing up adult and serious situations only for it to mean nothing. I can't even tell you how often this manga brings in attempted rape. Actually, I will tell you. There are at least 4 major events where Momo or Sae are about to be raped and it's so gross how the manga handles it as if it were nothing. The first time there were repercussions. Momo was traumatized. Every time after that this situation was used to build tension and have one of the potential boyfriends come rescue them.

I don't know what Japanese High School life was back when this came out, but there are so many uncomfortable situations of characters that are between 15 and 17 being sexually assaulted, or dating men in their 20s, or doing porn, or something else that you wouldn't expect to find in a shojo romance.

The part that frustrates me so much about this manga is that no matter how much I complain about it, it's effective. This manga is super manipulative, but I kept with it. Whether I was enjoying myself or hate reading it out of spite I was continuing with these characters that on the surface I like. However, for every time I'm enjoying the manga there are at least three instances that make me facepalm, like the two male love interests literally pulling on Momo's arms as if she's a toy in their toddler years arguing over who loves her more.

I'm glad I read this, but it did not age like fine wine. I think I have a better grasp of Shojo, but I would not recommend this to anyone.

Story: 4/10
Art: 5/10
Character: 4/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Overall: 4/10