To be frank, i did not know there is a Peach Girl anime series. My first knowledge of this anime was a Taiwan drama serial but i was not a least interested in catching it due to the poor casts. Recently i search over youtube of several fan videos of best romance anime, and decided to watch it. Surprisingly, it is watchable and the plot kinda captured my interest. It took me 2days to finish this series.The Expressions/Thoughts :
Overall - 6.7
Animation - 6.0
Sound - 7.0
Story - 6.0
Character - 6.0
Value - 8.0
Enjoyment - 7.0
Plot : Love Quadrangle...coincidence...misunderstanding...break-up...realization...relationship restored...blackmailing...misunderstanding (again)...break-up (again)...realization (again)...relationship restored (again)...and...what’s next? Well, simply return to square one. Then...rinse and repeat...yup, that’s Peach Girl in a nutshell. It’s soap opera at its hardest core. It’s an outrageously melodramatic shoujo. It has more twists and turns than driving up the hill. It’s as insubstantial as the nonsensical Hollywood celebrities’ news from California. Nonetheless, this anime is not without merit. For one, it’s bloody entertaining. Secondly, it’s damn addictive. Like anime of its kind such as Hana Yori Dango and Marmalade Boy, the plot will never stay still. The twists, turns, and misunderstandings will come one after another; and as a result, viewers will never be able to predict whether who will end up with whom until the very end. It is true that Peach Girl’s characters are not complex or 3-D; however, that does not make the show becomes less enjoyable. Revolving around Momo, Toji, Sae, and Kairi, Peach Girl is a high school melodrama executed in a refreshing manner. Momo is a character who is easy to empathize with. She’s caring, sincere, and above all, she is sensitive and vulnerable; nevertheless, she often got misunderstood to be a ‘bad girl’ because of her tanned skin. That, combined with her blunt and passionate personality which caused her to use her heart instead of her head when it comes to dealing with things, makes it more unlikely for people to be doubtful that their impression of her is erroneous. However, these qualities do not stop the viewers from caring for her. In fact, she is the first person whom I bonded with in this series. In the beginning, Momo was misunderstood by the whole class because of Sae’s accusation. Though Momo was indeed angry, she did not say the truth to others to break Sae’s face. Furthermore, on a later occasion when Momo found out that Sae was being harassed, she immediately rushed to help Sae despite the fact that Sae had been mean to her before. Regardless of her look and her personality, Momo is a very likeable heroine. Actually, she reminded me of Makino from Hana Yori Dango. Both Momo and her have so much in common. Touji is amazingly idiotic that his actions often made me rolled my eyes in disbelief. In fact, the stupidest scene this anime has to offer revolves around Sae and him. In this incident, Sae who wanted to ‘steal’ Touji from Momo asked him whether he knows how to kiss a girl. After Touji admitted that he was rather inexperienced, Sae suggested that he should practice his ‘kissing’ with her. Well, to my surprise, he actually did so. What a dumb jackass. In any case, it is impossible for me to root for him. Sae is indeed an important character. Yes, she is so insincere and manipulative that it’s hard for anyone not to hate her (the most hated anime character ever in my path of anime) ; nonetheless, had Sae not been so malicious, this anime wouldn’t have been so engrossing. Kairi is my favorite character in the series. He is the first person who ‘knew’ the true Momo that is hidden inside. One of my favorite scenes in the series was when he came to visit Momo during the swimming tournament. Kairi knew that Momo was cheated and bullied; however, he also realized that it is impossible to do anything about it at that moment. Thus, he simply gave Momo a hug which gave her much morale and courage: the things she needed most at that moment. His plans to avenge Sae are also excellent. Kairi does have some stupid moments. Rest assured, however, nothing he did is as idiotic as Touji’s. There are a few interesting side characters; the most memorable is likely to be Kairi's brother who has a hardcore playboy attitude. Combining these characters with the constantly unpredictable plot...and you have one hell of a roller coaster ride.I almost feel guilty that I am unable to betray my own rating scheme so that I can give Peach Girl a higher rating. Because of its many twists and cliffhangers, Peach Girl is one of the (not so many) anime which I couldn’t stop watching. Despite its addictiveness, however, I cannot deny that this is an insubstantial series. And because of this, Peach Girl would certainly not be suitable for everyone’s tastes. If you are not a fan of shoujo melodramatic romance, it is unlikely that you will find this anime to be appealing. Nevertheless, if you are a fan of the aforementioned genre, you are almost guaranteed to be pleased. I certainly was, and I recommend it. Peach Girl is certainly one of the most engaging idealistic romance anime of its time.
Animation: The animation of Peach Girl is halfway between average and above average for 2005 standard, which would be a six and a half if I were to rate it. Because of my personal bias to this genre, I initially contemplated to do a rounding up to make a seven in this category. However, there is one CGI scene in which the movement is not fluid, namely the scene when the train was running. Because of it, I decided to round the score down to a six instead.
Sound: The OP/ED are decent, as well as the voice acting.
Value: I recommend this if you are a fan of romance genre. Furthermore, if you liked this, I highly recommend Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers). Actually, I must say that these two anime do share some considerable similarities. I also recommend Marmalade Boy if you enjoy this. Like Peach Girl and Hana Yori Dango, Marmalade Boy is also full of love triangles and twists…though in my opinion HYD is the most appealing (and apparently the most well received) of these three.
Information to interested viewers:
* Anime series of episodes : 25
* Manga chapters : -
* Author : -
* Genre : Drama - Life - Romance
* Watch Online : Email to prishlc@hotmail.com for episode links
