I Love, I Love, I Love My Chocolate Bread

Review: Peach Girl

Manga/Live Action Drama/Fandom

Reviewed by: Amethist

Title rating: PG-13 most of the time, though it moves into R territory because older-girl shoujo likes to do that; sexual themes/situations

-13+ volume manga (Japanese comic) series (1998-present), still running
-13-episode live-action drama (China, 2001-2002), complete
-1 artbook "Peach" (2000), complete
-English version of the manga published through Tokyopop (2000-present), still running

Peach Girl is to the reader as crack is to the crack addict. As anyone who's watched 30 straight episodes of Hana Yori Dango can attest to, shoujo (girls') manga can be addictive as controlled substances and doesn't have the downside of, y'know, dying--and Peach Girl, with all its turns and hijinks, practically requires a patch to keep you from picking it up at every possible opportunity. At its base, Peach Girl is a story about getting through high school with as few scars as possible. Don't be fooled, though. There is way, way more fun involved in this manga than any brief synopsis could lead you to believe.

Manga

Girl meets boy, girl likes boy, boy is too shy, girl's friend tries to steal boy, girl fends off random playboy to get boy--that pretty much sums up the beginning of the manga. If it sounds like pretty standard shoujo fare, that's because it is. The unique thing about this manga, though, is that the characters are believable. Heroine Momo is a tough, levelheaded girl whom everyone misunderstands to be a slut (she's based, loosely, on the author during her high school days). Momo's "friend" Sae is a horrid backstabber who's only happy when Momo is down in the dumps. One of the main threads in the story is Momo's feelings for two guys: Toji, Momo's crush, who's cute but easily manipulated, and Kiley, the playboy bishounen (pretty boy) who pushes unwanted advances on Momo while providing comic relief (favorite Kiley quote: "I love, I love, I love my chocolate bread"). Which boy will Momo go for? Or, more likely, which one will go for her? What new schemes will Sae have tomorrow for destroying Momo's life? I know, it sounds stupid, but don't be fooled--Peach Girl has more twists than you'd believe, and it leaves you begging for more at the end of every chapter. The pace is fast, the characters funny, and the scenes gripping. If I had a nickel every time I heard someone say, "Peach Girl sounded really dumb, but when I picked it up, I loved it," well, I'd, uh ... have a couple nickels, I suppose.

Aesthetically, Peach Girl scores highly. The art style is unique and of top quality, and the manga's worth buying if only to check out the gorgeous black and white art. Still, I won't say the same for the color pictures--whoever has the paint brush (be it the mangaka [writer/artist] Miwa Ueda or an assistant) has no sense of color theory. So much pink and orange and tan. Ew. The artbook may be an easy item to skip over, but don't hesitate to check out the English volumes of the manga. The Tokyopop translations are great despite the fact that the font is all in CAPITAL LETTERS. You get used to that, at least, and the script is high quality (which is far more important).

Peach Girl is quite successful in the East, and in Japan, it's still going strong and often graces best-selling manga lists--even without an anime adaptation. Animerica wrote an interesting article regarding this, saying Peach Girl is too realistic and too aimed at high school girls to succeed animated alongside shows about space cowboys and wild comedies ... but you never know. Hana Yori Dango ran quite a few episodes, you know. Peach Girl also won the Kodansha Manga Award in 1999, and if know how big a publishing company Kodansha is, you realize what a very high honor that is.

The Taiwanese Peach Girl kids are impressed by their gorgeous black and white counterparts ... yet they do not yet know of the terrible terrible color that awaits them!

Peach Girl's hold on China spawned a live-action drama version in Taiwan. Cool. For those of you with Chinese language skills, you can find the official website at http://www.cts.com.tw/prog/drama/girl/ or get unsubbed VCD's for US$45 at yesasia.com. For those of you trapped in the Golden Cage that is English ... you may want to try Angel's Japanese Drama List. I think under the "Meteor Garden" heading she's distributing the Peach Girl live-action stuff, but I'm not sure of the subs. If you're really interested, surf around her page a bit and then e-mail her your questions (politely and simply--she's a very busy distributor!). If I ever get around to ordering the supposed Peach Girl stuff from her, I'll update this review with info.

I first read Peach Girl when it came out in the US magazine Smile (published by Tokyopop), but when I went to the net to check out English Peach Girl webpages I was disappointed to find none. There wouldn't be any until about a year later; it's strange how such a good comic can have little English fandom (and no anime), but lately, to my delight, at least the fandom has been picking up in pace. The official Japanese Peach Girl website (possibly Ueda-sensei's personal site?) has a selection of Japanese Peach Girl fanart in a compilation called "Peach Girl Remix," which is pretty damn cool. For those of you who can't read Japanese, go to the next best site: Just Peach It! It's the most comprehensive English website I've found, and a lot of the info in this review is from that page.

It's also interesting to note that Peach Girl's Japanese magazine (and maybe even Smile) received numerous letters from female readers about how, "I have a girl just like Sae in my life!" For you male readers who think Sae is too cruel to be real ... you'd be surprised. Girl communities in high school can be very scary places.

Overview

Peach Girl is a great manga to introduce to someone who's never seen anime. You can relate to the characters and the plot twists will suck you in--no cultural walls will keep a newbie from dying to find out who Momo will end up with. Peach Girl's also a great read for those who want their manga a little more realistic than the standard sci-fi or fantasy manga fare. For turning me into a panting addict, I happily give Peach Girl 4.5 stars out of 5 (that .5 deduction is due to that idiot Toji). Another hit, please.

Kiley's excited to get stars, but perhaps he doesn't realize how precariously close his knee is to that cup.