Peach Girl 1: Sae's Story (Peach Girl

裏ピーチガール [Ura Peach Girl] #1

by Miwa Ueda

Kairi and Momo are off to college, leaving Sae lonely while she repeats her last year of high school, but her mind is still not on her studies when she becomes jealous of others and tries to find her own perfect boyfriend.

Genres: Manga, Romance, Graphic Novels, Shojo, Comics Manga, Young Adult, Comics

Paperback

Published January 1, 2006

About the author

上田美和 in Japanese

Miwa Ueda become mangaka in 1985 with Momoiro Biyaku (Peach Colored Elixer). The pinnacle of her career was in 1999, when she won the award for best shōjo manga's publisher Kodansha with Peach Girl.

View the author's Japanese page here

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of thought we would get a little character redemption for Sae. I mean I didn't mind her in this, but then the bonus story came around and oh my god she's the fucking worst. Like wow she pisses me off and she tries so fucking hard to be the victim. She literally tries to destroy people's lives then gets so upset that she doesn't have any friends.

Also she won't go to school and it's annoying me!!! Like she's so stupid, she's going to get held back AGAIN.

Can't deny it though as frustrating as this series is, it's so entertaining.

[Judyth · Rating 3 out of 5]

~2.5-3/5

[Read more at my blog, Geeky Reading!]

I don’t really know what to think of this.

I’ve never been a fan of Sae. She’s kind of a horrible person, even if she got a little better by the end of Peach Girl. Especially since she doesn’t seem all that better in this book. I still kind of hate her. And I think my biggest problem with growing out of that, growing to even like her a little, is that there isn’t enough development. Her story, her background and reasons, have to be extremely believable for me to get into it, and it just isn’t.

I mean, so far we’ve got that her home life as a kid wasn’t good, and she got close to this boy, but then he moved and now he’s back in town, but she doesn’t want that back in her life. And I was ready, and hopeful, to buy her back-story and reason for how she turned out this way. But I just don’t buy it. There just isn’t enough depth for me.

I did like seeing Momo and Kiley again, as they’re great. I also did like the boy from Sae’s past, even though I have a hard time believing that Sae is worthy of him or that he can actually help her be better.

I just don’t buy Sae’s reasons or that she actually will ever want to be a better person.

So I don’t know if I’m going to pick up the other books in this series. There are only two, but I just might dislike Sae too much to be interested, especially since I don’t think there will be enough development by the end of the series. But I might, since there are only two books. I don’t know yet.

[MargReadsManga · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew I was going to hate this. Why did I do this to myself.

[Chelsea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ueda just couldn't leave Peach Girl alone. She developed a three-volume spin-off following Peach Girl antagonist Sae. Due to an excessive amount of absences, Sae has been held back and has to repeat her senior year of high school. Momo and Kiley are going to college together and Sae keeps sneaking on campus to be with them since she doesn't like being left back. Kanji, a friend from childhood returns, but Sae isn't warming up to his affections. She decides to go after a male model because she feels she deserves a gem. There are some revelations about her past when she was apparently very sick. We also finally get to meet her parents; her mom is a lazy housewife and her dad an indifferent absentee. It was interesting to finally get some insight into Sae, but honestly it was kind of boring.

[Noelle · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sae is irredeemable. One of the worst characters I’ve ever read about. There were many points in the Peach Girl series where the author would write situations in which Sae could be sympathized for, and perhaps even redeemed, but this spin-off series is infuriating because I know now that she will never atone for her actions. She will never be a good person. It is so annoying to see her trample on everyone again, including Momo who is somehow still “friends” with her. (Kiley is a terrible boyfriend to Momo too, which doesn’t help.) Overall, I felt irritated reading this, but I only wanted to in hopes that it would wrap up any loose ends from the original series. I want to finish this since there are only three volumes, but I have a feeling it will be painful.

[Liam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sae is my QUEEN

[Ricki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spin-off of Peach Girl, but it is not necessary to read the original.

[Phoebe A · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I bought my last manga (I was cutting my expense because it is pricey to collect mangas). I was just looking around to buy cheap old novels but to my surprise there were cheap new mangas!! The 2nd set of Peach Girl 6-8 & this (Peach Girl Sae's story 1) were more than half the price so I bought it in a heartbeat.

Actual Review: (i love the extra chapter)
This series justifies Sae's personality and perspective. She was full of insecurities and instead of improving herself, she's doing bad and annoying things as her defense mechanism. She acquired it because of her sad childhood. And her parents did not help to her situation.

It was also shown here how she became Momo's friend. I think Sae felt empty after she knew all about Momo. Hence, she copied her endlessly, out of admiration & to fill what's missing in her. She thought by pretending to be Momo, she can be happy like Momo. But what she only lacks were trust & honesty.

[Isabella · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's nice to get to see Sae's side of the story in one of the chapters, but man... this spin off is lacking a lot of stuff.

Most of my opinions of it from the first time i rrad it still stands : a love triangle? really??????

also why introduce two new guys if, at the end of peach girl, sae is still in love with ryo?!?!?! they only acknowledged him ONCE in ura peach girl and they made it sound like she's over him. oof.

let's see how this will turn out.

[Vero · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like it half as much as the original story about Momo and expected a much deeper - and somehow very different - story in this version. I like Sae, but I don't have the feeling that those three manga about her depict her well. Somehow, I missed the passion in this book, that made reading "Peach girl" so turbulent.

[Wileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

i can not believe how good this book was. a high school girl that thought she was goning to college but end up back in high school becuase so many absent days. then she finds her childhood love and reapeats high school again.

[Jayl Mehrten · Rating 4 out of 5]

i feel very sad for say but when i first watched the peach girl i knew somewhere out there is a good sae and i saw that in the last episode of peach girl and now i now the reason and hopefully she will be better, or should i say she should go back to the she is, when she was young.

[Mosley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sae had some redemption in the last volume of Change of Heart but I'm not so sure how a Sae spin off really works. She's just not very likable.... Though it is fun to see the little sprinklings of Momo and Kairi.

[Nikki Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute story with cute art. It was a bit too teenage-drama-ish for me, but still an amusing read.

[Tab · Rating 4 out of 5]

B/B-

[Monica · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's interesting to see Sae as a more of a person than a evil plotting girl.

[Shally · Rating 1 out of 5]

frivolous girl story

[Marvette Angelina · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is about a girl named sae the gets left back in high school but she thinks that she in college but she not

[P-ai Nguyen · Rating 5 out of 5]

pretty goos story for teenage girls

[Jenny Derochemont · Rating 4 out of 5]

She's pretty much the same old whiney girl. But, that dude was ridiculous. He was so indecisive. I think they should have made it a five series manga instead of three.