Manga Review: Peach Girl, Volume 1, by Miwa Ueda

Rating (Out of 5): ~3-3.5

Publisher: Tokyopop

Publish Date: 2000

Volumes: 18; 8 Peach Girl + 10 Peach Girl: Change of Heart

Spoilers?: No.

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Goodreads Synopsis:

It's not easy being beautiful. The envy...the jealousy...the vicious rumors spread by your best friend...that's life for young Momo. Thought to be a wild party-girl, she is shy and lonely in reality. Can Momo confess her love to her classmate Toji--or will her best friend steal him away? Winner of the prestigious Kodansha Manga Award, Peach Girl is a bittersweet coming-of-age drama with incredible artwork that will captivate readers everywhere.

Review:

I watched the anime of this series forever ago, back when I was in like seventh grade or something. The last couple of years I’ve had my eye on the manga, almost bought several volumes a handful of times, and finally got the full set (aside from two of the Sae’s Story volumes) a little while ago.

This series, as was confirmed by this volume, is going to be very full of drama. I’ll probably compare it to both Kare First Love and Mars, and probably more the former than the latter. Kare First Love dramatizes everything, and this series is likely to do much of the same. And I’m along for the ride, no matter how frustrated I get. I’m looking forward to it.

This volume introduces the characters: Momo, the tanned swimmer who everyone thinks is a slut (spoiler-not-a-spoiler: she’s not). Her “friend” Sae, who really just wants to take everything away from Momo, particularly the boy she likes. There’s Toji, the good boy that she’s liked for years, who might just like her back. Then there’s Kiley, the popular play boy at school, who has started showing a sudden interest in Momo.

Momo is alright. She’s not a weak crybaby, so that’s nice, although she falls for a lot of more things than she should. I’m not a huge fan of Toji, he’s alright. I hate Sae, and just want her to go away, although I don’t think she ever does, and I know that’ll take a while. Kiley, at this point, is just alright, hasn’t really won me over. But from what I remember of the anime, he’s my favorite, so I’m looking forward to that.

This volume is already full of drama. Mostly because Sae wants to ruin Momo’s life, and so causes all kinds of drama between her and Toji, kissing him, manipulating him from all sides, lying to both him and Momo (although Momo shouldn’t believe a word she says, because she knows how Sae is). 

The end of this volume isn’t very good, and there is just going to be so much more drama coming. So much. And while I know I might possibly be raging later on, I will also be enjoying it, because it’s entertaining, and horrible, in a good way.