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ピーチガール [Peach Girl] #1
Peach Girl, Vol. 1
Momo takes on the challenges of high school life, including a lack of friends, a crush on a boy with whom she has never had the courage to share her feelings, and classmates who don't understand her.
184 pages, Paperback
First published June 12, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 216 reviews
July 31, 2024
on one hand, this made me sad. i hated how her own friend told her the guy she likes doesn’t like darkskin girls even tho she’s not darkskin she just tans easily. i hated how much she hates herself just for tanning easily but i get it thats normal for teens and lastly i hated that everyone slut shamed her because she tans, even fandoms on the street. on the other hand, i ate this up! i love the drama and the messiness. it kept me entertained, an issue i have with shojo is that i get bored easily so im glad this kept me from getting bored.
February 10, 2020
Reading this manga again over 15 years after its translated release, I'd be hard put to call it a romance. It's basically a reality show-like drama, with naive innocents Momo and Koji caught in evil mastermind Sae's schemes. And then there's Kairi, the guy who's wise to Sae, and always in Momo's corner supporting her and helping her to lighten up. A lot of Sae's plots depend too heavily on coincidence, and on people--especially Toji--falling for her lies again and again. A pretty face can get away with a lot, I guess. When you realize how impossibly dim and lacking in skepticism her victims are, it's hard to take this story seriously. And it gets more and more extreme, the more volumes go by!
This was one of the first shoujo (teen girls') manga I read back in the U.S. manga boom. While I don't think it's one of the better ones, I come back to it now and then for some trashy fun.
This was one of the first shoujo (teen girls') manga I read back in the U.S. manga boom. While I don't think it's one of the better ones, I come back to it now and then for some trashy fun.
December 4, 2023
this is the equivalent of a soap opera but in manga form and i will keep eating it up thank you very much
December 10, 2015
This is my first manga ever! Weird but interesting I will continue reading the series
Miwa Ueda - Momo preplanula djevojka 1
Peach girl je prava srednjoškolska drama s Momo Adachi u glavnoj ulozi. Ona je bivša članica plivačkog tima, i zbog mnogo vremena provedenog na suncu i u bazenu ten joj je taman, a kosa izrazito svijetla. Zbog njezine tamne puti svi je smatraju lakom curom što je tipičan japanski stereotip. Predmet je izrugivanja i ružnih tračeva. Njezina jedina prijateljica je Sae,koja je zapravo zaslužna za tračeve. Momo je zaljubljena u Tojija, no spletkarica Sae također je bacila oko na njega. Momin život postaje još kompliciraniji kada upozna Kairija Okayasua, popularnog pametnjakovića, koji je zaljubljen u nju i odlučan je u svojoj namjeri da je osvoji.
Ovo je tinejdžerska sapunica na japanski način, čitajući ju imala sam osjećaj da sam pala na neki drugi planet, planet na kojem sitnica poput nijanse nečije kože čini da osoba ima lošu reputaciju. Nadam se da je tako samo u mangama, a ne i u stvarnom životu. Također puno i previše drame je oko toga što tko o kome misli i zašto i toliko tračeva da sam se u jednom trenutku izgubila, činjenica da se čita naopako tj. s desna na lijevo mom je gubljenju dodatno pridonijela. Ovo je moja prva pročitana manga u životu i na pitanje sviđa li mi se ili ne ne mogu odgovoriti, ali mogu reči da me zaintrigiralo, kulturološki šokiralo i da ću bude li mi se pružila prilika opet dati šansu i ovom žanru i serijalu jer me kako to u sapunicama obično biva zanima što će se iduće dogoditi
Miwa Ueda - Momo preplanula djevojka 1
Peach girl je prava srednjoškolska drama s Momo Adachi u glavnoj ulozi. Ona je bivša članica plivačkog tima, i zbog mnogo vremena provedenog na suncu i u bazenu ten joj je taman, a kosa izrazito svijetla. Zbog njezine tamne puti svi je smatraju lakom curom što je tipičan japanski stereotip. Predmet je izrugivanja i ružnih tračeva. Njezina jedina prijateljica je Sae,koja je zapravo zaslužna za tračeve. Momo je zaljubljena u Tojija, no spletkarica Sae također je bacila oko na njega. Momin život postaje još kompliciraniji kada upozna Kairija Okayasua, popularnog pametnjakovića, koji je zaljubljen u nju i odlučan je u svojoj namjeri da je osvoji.
Ovo je tinejdžerska sapunica na japanski način, čitajući ju imala sam osjećaj da sam pala na neki drugi planet, planet na kojem sitnica poput nijanse nečije kože čini da osoba ima lošu reputaciju. Nadam se da je tako samo u mangama, a ne i u stvarnom životu. Također puno i previše drame je oko toga što tko o kome misli i zašto i toliko tračeva da sam se u jednom trenutku izgubila, činjenica da se čita naopako tj. s desna na lijevo mom je gubljenju dodatno pridonijela. Ovo je moja prva pročitana manga u životu i na pitanje sviđa li mi se ili ne ne mogu odgovoriti, ali mogu reči da me zaintrigiralo, kulturološki šokiralo i da ću bude li mi se pružila prilika opet dati šansu i ovom žanru i serijalu jer me kako to u sapunicama obično biva zanima što će se iduće dogoditi
January 15, 2024
As always, this is an overview of all 18 volumes and will contain spoilers, since I want to discuss the story, characters, plot, themes, etc. in depth.
Before I ever read the manga, I saw the live-action drama adaptation and the anime series for Peach Girl. I became a fan through the adaptations, but eventually found myself enjoying the manga the most. A few years ago, Peach Girl got a live action Japanese film and even a continuation series that’s still ongoing as of this review being written, following the cast 10 years after the events of this series' ending (I haven’t read it myself, but for the author’s sake I hope she doesn’t end up destroying the happy ending we got in this series).
Our story focuses on a cheerful, athletic high school girl with tan skin and bleached hair named Momo (which in Japanese means “peach” hence the title ピーチガール pichi garu literally "Peach Girl" phonetically) who is often stereotyped because of her appearance and finds herself at the center of a lot of drama and heartache because of her frenemy, Sae, and two boys, Toji and Kairi, who become entangled with her romantically.
The majority of the story focuses on Momo’s growth and development through her friendships and romances against the backdrop of turn of the millennia Japan with her unusual looks.
The first thing to note is that this series was published in the late 90s to early 2000s and is set in the same time period, so that changes some of the framework of the story from a more liberal current-day mindset. Allow me to explain for context.
Momo’s appearance (bleached hair and tan skin) was, in the late 90s early 2000s, synonymous with alternative youth culture and fashions like ganguro and gyaru. Both these subcultures/fashions were stereotyped; girls who dressed in either style were thought to be garish, bitchy airheads who partied all day and slept around--the view of them was very misogynistic, to say the least. It also doesn’t help that Momo is tall, athletic, and unafraid to be a bit aggressive when she needs to stand up for herself (as seen by her punching Kairi or yelling at the man in the opening scene who was trying to solicit sex from her on the street), which are all qualities that also go against the Japanese ideal for women: very black hair, very pale skin, very petite frame, very delicate constitution, very demure nature.
Now, I do appreciate the author's attempt to convey the message that stereotyping based on appearance is wrong. It's definitely refreshing to see a heroine with unconventional looks be viewed as beautiful and desireable without having to change how she looks. Momo has bleached hair and tan skin the whole series.
However, I also am disappointed that the reason why Momo gets her story told and is the sympathetic main character is because she so completely rejects everything she's stereotyped as being due to her looks.
Like, the story even found a way to give a justification for why she looks the way she does, rather than allowing it to be okay that she chooses to bleach her hair and get a suntan because she likes that look. It's actually presented as being involuntary, of all things: Momo didn't chose to look like a gyaru, it was because she was on the swim team. The chlorine of the pool bleached her hair and all that time in the sun made her skin tan. It kind frames it like so it's not her fault and she shouldn't be lumped in with those Other Girls.
It would have been more subversive if Momo had been a ganguro/gyaru with some of the more stereotypical qualities (liking to date and party, wearing really trendy and bold fashion) and the manga showed how, despite these things, she's still a great person with a kind heart who deserves to be treated with respect.
Still, I will give the story props for how it decided to utilize Momo's appearance as a way to show a different type of adversity teen girls can face and for how it used it to showcase a much more realistic type of bullying: the subtle, hard to prove kind.
Sae is a great example of a truly unsettling bully: she's incredibly manipulative and creates situations where Momo never can win, exploiting people's assumptions of the both of them to her advantage (like how people inherently see Sae as delicate and Momo as aggressive). Most bullies don't want to bully in ways that'll get them caught. The author does a great job at making Sae a really effective villain because her plots can be so insidious and executed in subtle ways that make you think that someone could actually accomplish it without people catching on.
I think the best demonstration of just how deeply insidious Sae is in her pursuit of hurting Momo is when she executes a plot to manipulate her boyfriend, a male model, into faking a scene at a hotel where Momo assumes she's been drugged and raped.
Now, Momo is not actually raped. Sae drugs her, takes her to a hotel, undresses her, fills a condom with shampoo to fake the evidence, and has her boyfriend behave as if they'd had sex together, citing it was what she'd wanted (since Sae fed him the story that Momo was bullying her and idolized him, so if he slept with her, she'd leave Sae alone). But this scenario is so layered in why it works to Sae's advantage that it's... legit diabolical.
So, normally, this ploy would have fallen apart pretty easily if Momo had gone to the hospital and spoken to the police. A pelvic exam would have disprove that anything happened and a police investigation asking involved parties would have revealed what happened. However, Sae banks on the fact that Momo knows that people would victim blame her for the incident, and also react negatively to her accusing a famous celebrity. It all works out in such a way that Momo's going to think that her only choice is to stay quiet and hide it from everyone because no one is going to believe her or, if they do, have any empathy for her.
With it being the 90s/2000s, Momo's at a huge disadvantage because the way she looks and the fact that she went out alone at night as a girl--automatically the reaction will be this is your fault and you were asking for it. Even worse, some people would probably say she ought to be grateful someone so attractive wanted her--framing it like she should see her assault as a compliment. Then, of course, because her assailant is an attractive, popular model, the model's fans are primed to assume the worst of her and the best of him--she'd have to contend with accusations that she's lying to ruin his reputation because he rejected her.
Any attempt at getting justice in the legal system would be a nightmare of a media circus, and anyone in her life finding out about the assault (regardless of whether it goes to trial) would probably harm her social life, making her feelings of shame and self-blame even worse as she feels ever more isolated and like no one is on her side. Girls would probably not want to be around her because they think she's a slut who threw herself at their favorite celebrity and then lied to try ruining her career/blackmail him when he rejected her, and boys would either refuse to interact with her/date her because she's "dirty" and might accuse them of rape or, worse, think that because she's not a virgin anymore that it's fine to use her for sex and discard her.
On top of this, Mom legit thinks that Toji leaves her because of this; she thinks that he blames her for her assault and that because she's not a virgin she's dirty and he doesn't want anything to do with her now, so on top of everything else, the one person she would want to comfort and protect her the most has abandoned her and she's under the impression it's her fault.
Like good lord is this one of the worst things Sae could have done to Momo. It makes for an incredibly visceral villain arc for Sae, and also, in my opinion, is why she shouldn't have gotten any redemption. She should have gone down as a true villain because this ploy is so fucked up that you can't really bounce back from it. Like, yes the rape itself was fake, but the trauma and fear and shame and loss Momo felt? That was all real.
One of the immediate things this story gets right is the emotional punch it packs, which is due to really good characters and development within an interesting plot. Momo is a fantastic heroine who, despite being this talented, beautiful girl, finds herself riddle with insecurities and often in a distressing, sad situation because the people around her don’t understand her, choose to mistreat/use her, or flat out break her heart with their thoughtless actions. It’s easy to feel for her and understand what she’s going through and how she thinks and feels. I love the relationship she has with Kairi and how his joking, upbeat demeanor and his own complexities make a for an interesting contrast to Momo, who handles her emotions a lot differently.
What’s also interesting about this series is its approach to the character of Sae. She is very loathsome and does some horrific things (which, sadly, the author does kind of gloss over and forgive when really, this girl should have gotten arrested for doing some very serious criminal actions; like, you don't just get to plan a date-rape and black mail and the police let you off, intent to do harm is also a crime it's why attempted murder and intent to do bodily harm are both criminal charges) but there is an attempt to humanize and expand her beyond the typical “jealous, petty bitch who wants to steal boyfriends and be popular just because that's what mean girls do” that a lot of high school girl antagonists tend to be. We learn about Sae’s insecurities and problems, the way her personality and beliefs have impacted her ability to interact appropriately with others. We see some changes in her as things go on and she has experiences that make her realize that, for example, she was the only one making Momo into her enemy. Momo never wished her ill or tried to be anything but a friend, it was Sae who let her own internal insecurities make Momo into a someone to hate and attack. She stops being someone who just seems to like being mean to someone who struggles with the reality that their unhappiness can't be fixed just by crushing the happiness of someone else and that they're never going to be happy if they don't make a change in how they view and treat others.
We also find a great antagonist in Ryo because he’s weirdly realistic; it’s not hard to imagine a charismatic guy ending up like Ryo and treating people the way he does with this unapologetically manipulative demeanor and this skewed perception that allows him to manipulate and abuse Sae, but act perfectly charming towards Misao and go to great lengths for Kairi as his little brother but at the same time feel justified in hurting him by seducing away his girlfriends and turning them against him.
I feel like he ends up with better comeuppance than Sae does, which I have a problem with because, again, Sae has her boyfriend kidnap and drug Momo so that Sae can stage what is basically a date rape so that Momo feels violated and Toji becomes disgusted with her, even going as far to fake a used condom with shampoo and take pictures of Momo naked in bed with Jigoro which she uses to blackmail Toji with so that he’ll break up with her, absolutely crushing Momo because she not only is super vulnerable because she was raped but because she feels like he’s breaking up with her because some other guy touched her and took her virginity despite it being against her will. That isn't to say Ryo shouldn't have gotten his comeuppance, he did some really nasty things himself, but that Sae also 10000% needed to have something more happen to her, too.
To be honest, I think trying to redeem Sae was a little farfetched and I think a more satisfying conclusion wouldn't have redeemed her. Like, you can humanize her, sure, but, she's basically Momo's best friend after everything and sees absolutely no consequences for her actions beyond not being idolized at school with a hot famous boyfriend anymore.
Another point of criticism that I have personally is with Toji (first of all, Toji is just not a great name. They should have just called him Kazuya instead of shortening his surname all weirdly. I'm sure in Japanese it sounds fine but it doesn't in English). He’s just… bland and boring. It’s difficult to ever root for him because the serious, stoic thing he has going makes his personality just really bland. He’s basically just a generally nice guy who is ultimately really dense and destroys his relationship by dumbly listening more to another girl than his own girlfriend about matters involving their relationship. It’s hard to like him, even though he has his moments where you can see he cares. Though, the way he acts with Momo on their trip made me kind of hate him because he was acting kind of like a brat by being pissy that Momo wasn’t feeling up to having sex with him—like the girl is trying to process her emotions and deal with a lot she’s not trying to string you along, she’s confused and got a lot of conflicting turmoil ridden thoughts to sort through after dealing with a lot of stuff over the last several months.
But despite these things, I find myself very engaged with the story and ultimately really enjoying it. I’ve read the manga several times throughout my life and still like a lot of the aspects. The art is really nice, the story is well developed, the relationships feel authentic, the conflict and drama is intense but doesn’t step into aggravating territory, the emotional charge is well executed, and it’s overall just a really good manga read for a slightly older teen audience.
Of course, with it being a product of its time, it is important to note that there’s a few mild instances of like homophobia for example (when Kairi’s groupies find out he had CPR given to him by a guy, they’re grossed out) and there’s a good deal of slut shaming with name calling and characters reacting negatively to characters on the basis they’re promiscuous and therefore bad/awful. We have a few instances of sexual assault (Momo is attacked a few times), there’s the fake-out rape Sae crafts that Momo believes is real (so the trauma is the same), and then there’s Sae being tricked into being in a pornographic video and nearly ending up raped by an adult man and filmed.
One thing I would also like to note is that I feel like Momo believing she’d been raped hadn’t been given quite its due, nor that its focus was quite on the root of the issue, because she recovers from it quickly and seems to go on normally, not really afraid of intimacy or really externally affected despite it being a very traumatic thing.
When it’s later revealed that she wasn’t raped, her joy is mostly in the focus of “since I’m still a virgin I can give it to a boy I love that’s so wonderful I’m so glad” which I suppose you can interpret at Momo feeling she regained control and say over her body because now she can make the choice to give her first time to someone and remember it and make it meaningful like she wanted, but it’s framed kind of oddly, as if Momo was more concerned about her virginity being gone so she can’t give it to Kairi or Toji, rather than being concerned about her body being violated and the choice being taken. It’s at least good that the boys don’t hold the situation against her, even if the way Toji acts can make it be implied that he does until more of the story is revealed.
There is also an instance of like a sort of age gap romance with Ryo and Sae and then a fake out with Kairi having feelings for Misao. Ryo is sleeping with an underage girl so he can choke because he’s also abusive towards her and Misao is a champion for not even entertaining the idea of being with Kairi because he's a minor and she's way older (I think Ryo and Misao are in their late twenties).
Ah, what else?
There’s probably more to talk about, but I might have to come back to this review after doing an in-depth reread with notes so I can better target any additional things that happen. Since I’ve read it so much I feel like I know the story pretty well, but some details may elude me.
Before I ever read the manga, I saw the live-action drama adaptation and the anime series for Peach Girl. I became a fan through the adaptations, but eventually found myself enjoying the manga the most. A few years ago, Peach Girl got a live action Japanese film and even a continuation series that’s still ongoing as of this review being written, following the cast 10 years after the events of this series' ending (I haven’t read it myself, but for the author’s sake I hope she doesn’t end up destroying the happy ending we got in this series).
Our story focuses on a cheerful, athletic high school girl with tan skin and bleached hair named Momo (which in Japanese means “peach” hence the title ピーチガール pichi garu literally "Peach Girl" phonetically) who is often stereotyped because of her appearance and finds herself at the center of a lot of drama and heartache because of her frenemy, Sae, and two boys, Toji and Kairi, who become entangled with her romantically.
The majority of the story focuses on Momo’s growth and development through her friendships and romances against the backdrop of turn of the millennia Japan with her unusual looks.
The first thing to note is that this series was published in the late 90s to early 2000s and is set in the same time period, so that changes some of the framework of the story from a more liberal current-day mindset. Allow me to explain for context.
Momo’s appearance (bleached hair and tan skin) was, in the late 90s early 2000s, synonymous with alternative youth culture and fashions like ganguro and gyaru. Both these subcultures/fashions were stereotyped; girls who dressed in either style were thought to be garish, bitchy airheads who partied all day and slept around--the view of them was very misogynistic, to say the least. It also doesn’t help that Momo is tall, athletic, and unafraid to be a bit aggressive when she needs to stand up for herself (as seen by her punching Kairi or yelling at the man in the opening scene who was trying to solicit sex from her on the street), which are all qualities that also go against the Japanese ideal for women: very black hair, very pale skin, very petite frame, very delicate constitution, very demure nature.
Now, I do appreciate the author's attempt to convey the message that stereotyping based on appearance is wrong. It's definitely refreshing to see a heroine with unconventional looks be viewed as beautiful and desireable without having to change how she looks. Momo has bleached hair and tan skin the whole series.
However, I also am disappointed that the reason why Momo gets her story told and is the sympathetic main character is because she so completely rejects everything she's stereotyped as being due to her looks.
Like, the story even found a way to give a justification for why she looks the way she does, rather than allowing it to be okay that she chooses to bleach her hair and get a suntan because she likes that look. It's actually presented as being involuntary, of all things: Momo didn't chose to look like a gyaru, it was because she was on the swim team. The chlorine of the pool bleached her hair and all that time in the sun made her skin tan. It kind frames it like so it's not her fault and she shouldn't be lumped in with those Other Girls.
It would have been more subversive if Momo had been a ganguro/gyaru with some of the more stereotypical qualities (liking to date and party, wearing really trendy and bold fashion) and the manga showed how, despite these things, she's still a great person with a kind heart who deserves to be treated with respect.
Still, I will give the story props for how it decided to utilize Momo's appearance as a way to show a different type of adversity teen girls can face and for how it used it to showcase a much more realistic type of bullying: the subtle, hard to prove kind.
Sae is a great example of a truly unsettling bully: she's incredibly manipulative and creates situations where Momo never can win, exploiting people's assumptions of the both of them to her advantage (like how people inherently see Sae as delicate and Momo as aggressive). Most bullies don't want to bully in ways that'll get them caught. The author does a great job at making Sae a really effective villain because her plots can be so insidious and executed in subtle ways that make you think that someone could actually accomplish it without people catching on.
I think the best demonstration of just how deeply insidious Sae is in her pursuit of hurting Momo is when she executes a plot to manipulate her boyfriend, a male model, into faking a scene at a hotel where Momo assumes she's been drugged and raped.
Now, Momo is not actually raped. Sae drugs her, takes her to a hotel, undresses her, fills a condom with shampoo to fake the evidence, and has her boyfriend behave as if they'd had sex together, citing it was what she'd wanted (since Sae fed him the story that Momo was bullying her and idolized him, so if he slept with her, she'd leave Sae alone). But this scenario is so layered in why it works to Sae's advantage that it's... legit diabolical.
So, normally, this ploy would have fallen apart pretty easily if Momo had gone to the hospital and spoken to the police. A pelvic exam would have disprove that anything happened and a police investigation asking involved parties would have revealed what happened. However, Sae banks on the fact that Momo knows that people would victim blame her for the incident, and also react negatively to her accusing a famous celebrity. It all works out in such a way that Momo's going to think that her only choice is to stay quiet and hide it from everyone because no one is going to believe her or, if they do, have any empathy for her.
With it being the 90s/2000s, Momo's at a huge disadvantage because the way she looks and the fact that she went out alone at night as a girl--automatically the reaction will be this is your fault and you were asking for it. Even worse, some people would probably say she ought to be grateful someone so attractive wanted her--framing it like she should see her assault as a compliment. Then, of course, because her assailant is an attractive, popular model, the model's fans are primed to assume the worst of her and the best of him--she'd have to contend with accusations that she's lying to ruin his reputation because he rejected her.
Any attempt at getting justice in the legal system would be a nightmare of a media circus, and anyone in her life finding out about the assault (regardless of whether it goes to trial) would probably harm her social life, making her feelings of shame and self-blame even worse as she feels ever more isolated and like no one is on her side. Girls would probably not want to be around her because they think she's a slut who threw herself at their favorite celebrity and then lied to try ruining her career/blackmail him when he rejected her, and boys would either refuse to interact with her/date her because she's "dirty" and might accuse them of rape or, worse, think that because she's not a virgin anymore that it's fine to use her for sex and discard her.
On top of this, Mom legit thinks that Toji leaves her because of this; she thinks that he blames her for her assault and that because she's not a virgin she's dirty and he doesn't want anything to do with her now, so on top of everything else, the one person she would want to comfort and protect her the most has abandoned her and she's under the impression it's her fault.
Like good lord is this one of the worst things Sae could have done to Momo. It makes for an incredibly visceral villain arc for Sae, and also, in my opinion, is why she shouldn't have gotten any redemption. She should have gone down as a true villain because this ploy is so fucked up that you can't really bounce back from it. Like, yes the rape itself was fake, but the trauma and fear and shame and loss Momo felt? That was all real.
One of the immediate things this story gets right is the emotional punch it packs, which is due to really good characters and development within an interesting plot. Momo is a fantastic heroine who, despite being this talented, beautiful girl, finds herself riddle with insecurities and often in a distressing, sad situation because the people around her don’t understand her, choose to mistreat/use her, or flat out break her heart with their thoughtless actions. It’s easy to feel for her and understand what she’s going through and how she thinks and feels. I love the relationship she has with Kairi and how his joking, upbeat demeanor and his own complexities make a for an interesting contrast to Momo, who handles her emotions a lot differently.
What’s also interesting about this series is its approach to the character of Sae. She is very loathsome and does some horrific things (which, sadly, the author does kind of gloss over and forgive when really, this girl should have gotten arrested for doing some very serious criminal actions; like, you don't just get to plan a date-rape and black mail and the police let you off, intent to do harm is also a crime it's why attempted murder and intent to do bodily harm are both criminal charges) but there is an attempt to humanize and expand her beyond the typical “jealous, petty bitch who wants to steal boyfriends and be popular just because that's what mean girls do” that a lot of high school girl antagonists tend to be. We learn about Sae’s insecurities and problems, the way her personality and beliefs have impacted her ability to interact appropriately with others. We see some changes in her as things go on and she has experiences that make her realize that, for example, she was the only one making Momo into her enemy. Momo never wished her ill or tried to be anything but a friend, it was Sae who let her own internal insecurities make Momo into a someone to hate and attack. She stops being someone who just seems to like being mean to someone who struggles with the reality that their unhappiness can't be fixed just by crushing the happiness of someone else and that they're never going to be happy if they don't make a change in how they view and treat others.
We also find a great antagonist in Ryo because he’s weirdly realistic; it’s not hard to imagine a charismatic guy ending up like Ryo and treating people the way he does with this unapologetically manipulative demeanor and this skewed perception that allows him to manipulate and abuse Sae, but act perfectly charming towards Misao and go to great lengths for Kairi as his little brother but at the same time feel justified in hurting him by seducing away his girlfriends and turning them against him.
I feel like he ends up with better comeuppance than Sae does, which I have a problem with because, again, Sae has her boyfriend kidnap and drug Momo so that Sae can stage what is basically a date rape so that Momo feels violated and Toji becomes disgusted with her, even going as far to fake a used condom with shampoo and take pictures of Momo naked in bed with Jigoro which she uses to blackmail Toji with so that he’ll break up with her, absolutely crushing Momo because she not only is super vulnerable because she was raped but because she feels like he’s breaking up with her because some other guy touched her and took her virginity despite it being against her will. That isn't to say Ryo shouldn't have gotten his comeuppance, he did some really nasty things himself, but that Sae also 10000% needed to have something more happen to her, too.
To be honest, I think trying to redeem Sae was a little farfetched and I think a more satisfying conclusion wouldn't have redeemed her. Like, you can humanize her, sure, but, she's basically Momo's best friend after everything and sees absolutely no consequences for her actions beyond not being idolized at school with a hot famous boyfriend anymore.
Another point of criticism that I have personally is with Toji (first of all, Toji is just not a great name. They should have just called him Kazuya instead of shortening his surname all weirdly. I'm sure in Japanese it sounds fine but it doesn't in English). He’s just… bland and boring. It’s difficult to ever root for him because the serious, stoic thing he has going makes his personality just really bland. He’s basically just a generally nice guy who is ultimately really dense and destroys his relationship by dumbly listening more to another girl than his own girlfriend about matters involving their relationship. It’s hard to like him, even though he has his moments where you can see he cares. Though, the way he acts with Momo on their trip made me kind of hate him because he was acting kind of like a brat by being pissy that Momo wasn’t feeling up to having sex with him—like the girl is trying to process her emotions and deal with a lot she’s not trying to string you along, she’s confused and got a lot of conflicting turmoil ridden thoughts to sort through after dealing with a lot of stuff over the last several months.
But despite these things, I find myself very engaged with the story and ultimately really enjoying it. I’ve read the manga several times throughout my life and still like a lot of the aspects. The art is really nice, the story is well developed, the relationships feel authentic, the conflict and drama is intense but doesn’t step into aggravating territory, the emotional charge is well executed, and it’s overall just a really good manga read for a slightly older teen audience.
Of course, with it being a product of its time, it is important to note that there’s a few mild instances of like homophobia for example (when Kairi’s groupies find out he had CPR given to him by a guy, they’re grossed out) and there’s a good deal of slut shaming with name calling and characters reacting negatively to characters on the basis they’re promiscuous and therefore bad/awful. We have a few instances of sexual assault (Momo is attacked a few times), there’s the fake-out rape Sae crafts that Momo believes is real (so the trauma is the same), and then there’s Sae being tricked into being in a pornographic video and nearly ending up raped by an adult man and filmed.
One thing I would also like to note is that I feel like Momo believing she’d been raped hadn’t been given quite its due, nor that its focus was quite on the root of the issue, because she recovers from it quickly and seems to go on normally, not really afraid of intimacy or really externally affected despite it being a very traumatic thing.
When it’s later revealed that she wasn’t raped, her joy is mostly in the focus of “since I’m still a virgin I can give it to a boy I love that’s so wonderful I’m so glad” which I suppose you can interpret at Momo feeling she regained control and say over her body because now she can make the choice to give her first time to someone and remember it and make it meaningful like she wanted, but it’s framed kind of oddly, as if Momo was more concerned about her virginity being gone so she can’t give it to Kairi or Toji, rather than being concerned about her body being violated and the choice being taken. It’s at least good that the boys don’t hold the situation against her, even if the way Toji acts can make it be implied that he does until more of the story is revealed.
There is also an instance of like a sort of age gap romance with Ryo and Sae and then a fake out with Kairi having feelings for Misao. Ryo is sleeping with an underage girl so he can choke because he’s also abusive towards her and Misao is a champion for not even entertaining the idea of being with Kairi because he's a minor and she's way older (I think Ryo and Misao are in their late twenties).
Ah, what else?
There’s probably more to talk about, but I might have to come back to this review after doing an in-depth reread with notes so I can better target any additional things that happen. Since I’ve read it so much I feel like I know the story pretty well, but some details may elude me.
July 10, 2013
Review from my blog, The Haunting of Orchid Forsythia
Before my review starts, I just wanted to share with ya'll a quote that popped into my head while I was reading Peach Girl volume 1. Enjoy.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
Sun-tzu Chinese general & military strategist (~400 BC)
Story:
When I first picked up Peach Girl I didn't know what to think, mainly because the cover was just kind of...icky 90s tastic, but the interior art wasn't nearly as bad (thank goodness).
One of the most interesting things (to me) in Peach Girl was the twisted frenemy-ish relationship between Momo (the MC) and Sae (her evil "bestie"). I thought it made for an interesting twist because usually the MCs "enemy" is not within the same social circle as the hero/heroine.
While the whole frenemy aspect was interesting, what I really enjoyed was how Peach Girl was more about Momo's struggle for people to realize that even though she may look like a party girl, she's not; along with how detrimental "poisonous friendship" can be.
Peach Girl was a nice mix between serious and laugh out loud funny.
The funny thing about Peach Girl was the lengths in which Momo went in her effort to become paler (she apparently tans really well). I just couldn't help but laugh, especially since she was doing it all because she over heard the boy she likes saying he doesn't like super tanned girls. Needless to say I found it funny.
Now, with that in mind you would think that there wouldn't really be any serious situations in Peach Girl, but there are because Momo has to deal with the petty barbs that her classmates make at her expense and with a best friend who main goal is to take everything/everyone she has her eye on.
Character(s):
Momo is definitely a miss understood character, and for that I liked her. She ended up being one of those characters for me that I couldn't help but like, especially since she had so much negativity directed at her and yet she continually tried to rise above.
If evil had a name it would be Sae from Peach Girl. She was down right rotten and horrible; frankly, she put most female antagonists to shame with her vindictiveness and the lows in which she'd sunk just to make poor Momo miserable.
Artwork:
I actually almost didn't pick up Peach Girl because I wasn't to hot on the cover art, but I decided to give it a go anyways.
The artwork was so so, not to spectacular, but then again not horrible. Although, once I finally got into the actual story it was easy to over look the slightly dated look of the characters hair and wardrobe and just enjoy an excellent read.
Final Verdict: Peach Girl knocked my socks (I finally found an excuse to say that *hehehe) off with how good it was.
I enjoyed Peach Girl 1 so much that I have already checked out the next two volumes. :)
Peach Girl 1 earns 5 out of 5 pineapples.
Before my review starts, I just wanted to share with ya'll a quote that popped into my head while I was reading Peach Girl volume 1. Enjoy.
Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.
Sun-tzu Chinese general & military strategist (~400 BC)
Story:
When I first picked up Peach Girl I didn't know what to think, mainly because the cover was just kind of...icky 90s tastic, but the interior art wasn't nearly as bad (thank goodness).
One of the most interesting things (to me) in Peach Girl was the twisted frenemy-ish relationship between Momo (the MC) and Sae (her evil "bestie"). I thought it made for an interesting twist because usually the MCs "enemy" is not within the same social circle as the hero/heroine.
While the whole frenemy aspect was interesting, what I really enjoyed was how Peach Girl was more about Momo's struggle for people to realize that even though she may look like a party girl, she's not; along with how detrimental "poisonous friendship" can be.
Peach Girl was a nice mix between serious and laugh out loud funny.
The funny thing about Peach Girl was the lengths in which Momo went in her effort to become paler (she apparently tans really well). I just couldn't help but laugh, especially since she was doing it all because she over heard the boy she likes saying he doesn't like super tanned girls. Needless to say I found it funny.
Now, with that in mind you would think that there wouldn't really be any serious situations in Peach Girl, but there are because Momo has to deal with the petty barbs that her classmates make at her expense and with a best friend who main goal is to take everything/everyone she has her eye on.
Character(s):
Momo is definitely a miss understood character, and for that I liked her. She ended up being one of those characters for me that I couldn't help but like, especially since she had so much negativity directed at her and yet she continually tried to rise above.
If evil had a name it would be Sae from Peach Girl. She was down right rotten and horrible; frankly, she put most female antagonists to shame with her vindictiveness and the lows in which she'd sunk just to make poor Momo miserable.
Artwork:
I actually almost didn't pick up Peach Girl because I wasn't to hot on the cover art, but I decided to give it a go anyways.
The artwork was so so, not to spectacular, but then again not horrible. Although, once I finally got into the actual story it was easy to over look the slightly dated look of the characters hair and wardrobe and just enjoy an excellent read.
Final Verdict: Peach Girl knocked my socks (I finally found an excuse to say that *hehehe) off with how good it was.
I enjoyed Peach Girl 1 so much that I have already checked out the next two volumes. :)
Peach Girl 1 earns 5 out of 5 pineapples.
December 6, 2021
Peach Girl is a heart wrenching yet charming tale about one girl's stance against the social stigmas thrown at her. Just because she tans easily due to previously being in the swimming team, people immediately classify her into one of those premade stereotypes and thus, unanimously agree she must be a slut who spends her days prancing on beaches hooking up with random strangers.
It doesn't help that her "best friend" goes around spreading rumours about her whenever possible. Like UHHH Sae was the very definition of an evil mean girl that ruled high school. She was a queen bee who thought she deserved being the centre of attention and hence, if anyone got in her way she made sure to tear them down bit by bit. Behind that cute face were some serious demons. Every single chapter, every single episode I felt like slapping her left and right and then burying her six feet under the ground because of her hypocrisy and atrocious two faced life.
Momo (our MC) however, wasn't naive, much to my happiness. She wasn't oblivious to the fact that Sae was a snarky bitch who went around envious of other people. I liked that she did not fit the usual mould of female manga characters . She wasn't incredibly beautiful or overly insecure. She wasn't weak, pitiful or extremely jealous whenever more beautiful girls were around. Momo was quite normal and in fact, I loved her lala land comical nature along with her will to fight the prejudices against her.
It's a manga that spreads the message of accepting your appearances and that we should never judge or believe rumours about someone we have not personally interacted with as there's more to it than what's on the mere surface.
I didn't particularly like Toji but Okayasu.... - MY MY HEHEHEHEHE. He never failed to crack me up. His adorable pranks, switched affection and infatuation with Momo. HEHEHEHHE.. I wasn't disappointed at the least.
May 31, 2009
I finally found this at Half Price Books (Borders stopped selling this one ages ago), and it was for 2 bucks! It doesn't get better than that! Anyway- I loved this series in High School. It's so much fun, and so much drama! You never know what Sae is going to do next, and absolutely nothing is too low for her. Descent artwork, and the story keeps you absorbed the entire time you read it. It's best to not read this series one after the other, esp when you get to the "Change of Heart" portion. In my opinion, Momo can come off a tad indecisive (to put it in the nicest light). Still, a great series for anyone who likes to read about everyone else's drama.
March 20, 2009
Peach Girl was a fun manga to read. It is very well written and drawn. It does have a lot of over the top drama but that is typical in the genre.
It's about a girl named Momo with skin that tans much too quickly for her liking. Her so-called best friend, Sae, is very manipulative and always tries to show her up. So when Sae finds out that Momo has a crush on Toji, she decides to make him her own. How can Momo get Toji to see that Sae is just using him? Will Momo ever tell him how she feels?
It's about a girl named Momo with skin that tans much too quickly for her liking. Her so-called best friend, Sae, is very manipulative and always tries to show her up. So when Sae finds out that Momo has a crush on Toji, she decides to make him her own. How can Momo get Toji to see that Sae is just using him? Will Momo ever tell him how she feels?
September 27, 2020
I seem to be on a manga kick lately, specifically manga from the early 2000s. I remember reading chapters of this series in the "sneak peaks" at the back of manga books trying to introduce readers to other series. For the longest time I couldn't remember the name of this manga that I read quite a few chapters of from the sneak peak sections of manga I would read.
This was okay, it definitely is very over the top with the dramatics and characters being extremely gullible/susceptible to manipulation. I don't mind all that as much as I'm bothered by the whole underlying shadism throughout the story. Apparently this story suggests that in Japan in the early 2000s if a girl has tanned skin she is believed to be a "beach bunny" who is a girl that spends a lot of time at the beach in pursuit of sex with guys. Not sure if this is a real thing or just some weird plot device in this story. The main character spends most of this book obsessing over how she tans easily because someone told her that the boy she obsessed with for years "doesn't like tan girls."
The main character decides her skin tone is okay based on the approval of some guy and that is extremely painful to read. I'm still not sure if I want to read this manga all the way through. I may read a few more and see where it goes.
This was okay, it definitely is very over the top with the dramatics and characters being extremely gullible/susceptible to manipulation. I don't mind all that as much as I'm bothered by the whole underlying shadism throughout the story. Apparently this story suggests that in Japan in the early 2000s if a girl has tanned skin she is believed to be a "beach bunny" who is a girl that spends a lot of time at the beach in pursuit of sex with guys. Not sure if this is a real thing or just some weird plot device in this story. The main character spends most of this book obsessing over how she tans easily because someone told her that the boy she obsessed with for years "doesn't like tan girls."
The main character decides her skin tone is okay based on the approval of some guy and that is extremely painful to read. I'm still not sure if I want to read this manga all the way through. I may read a few more and see where it goes.
July 11, 2025
I have no shame, this series still slaps. I said what I said.
November 3, 2024
Dobry początek, ale gdyby ta seria została wypuszczona teraz i dostałaby się w ręce osoby niezapoznanej z kulturą japońską, to by był niezły zong
August 6, 2022
I’ve always been Team Kiley!!
December 21, 2014
Akhirnya dpt mood juga buat mulai baca komik jadul yg satu ini, hehe. :D Soalnya dari dulu disimpan2 terus secara kan uda pernah ntn dramanya yg judulnya sama, jadi kurang lebih masi ingat ceweknya akhirnya jadian dgn siapa dan gmn plotnya secara garis besarnya. Ceritanya ini cewek yg punya kulit coklat kaya cewek ganguro dan krn warna kulitnya itu dia selalu disangka cewek murahan alias playgirl gitu. Pdhl kulitnya coklat krn dia hobi berenang.
Cowok yg bakal berakhir dgn tokoh utamanya ini diperanin Vanness Wu di dramanya, salah satu personil atletis bersuara indah dari boyband Taiwan F4 yg populer bgt sejak drama Meteor Garden alias Boys Over Flowers versi Taiwan itu ditayangkan tahun 2001. Meteor Garden itu adaptasi dari komik populer favoritku Hana Yori Dango.
Tau ga segimana populernya MG versi Taiwan itu di awal2 thn 2000an itu di kalangan remaja dan ibu2, mamaku aja ikutan baca komiknya, tapi yg dia baca itu dlm bahasa Chinese, secara waktu itu yg terbitan Indo kan blm tamat. Krn kita lagi di Penang wkt itu dan nemu rental komik dan novel Chinese di sana, jadilah ibu anak duduk baca komik Hana Yori Dango di rental sono, hahaha. Apel ga jatuh jauh dari pohonnya, hahaha. Waktu aku masi SD dulu mama juga ikutan baca komik Candy Candy, gara2 ngeliat aku tergila2 ama anime dan komik Candy2. Mamaku sbnrnya paling doyan baca novel erotis M/F, dlm bhs Chinese. Kalo novel dlm bhs Chinese sih, aku nyerah deh. Kalo yg di komik, masi mending.
Back to topic. Jadi personil F4 kan ada 4 org. Stlh terkenal berkat MG, masing2 personil F4 Taiwan itu mulai main di drama Taiwan yg diangkat dari komik.
Vanness Wu di drama Peach Girl.
Vic Zhou di drama MARS (salah satu drama favoritku juga, duh Vic dan Barbie Hsu ini cocok bgt loh jd pasangan di drama ini, mana Vic di sana keren bgt dlm kostum balap motornya itu, bikin mataku jadi bentuk hati :p).
Ken Zhu di drama Marmalade Boy (ini dramanya juga sama bagusnya dgn komiknya, ngikut persis dgn yg di komiknya, aku lmyn suka Ken Zhu jadinya sampe squealing hard wkt ntnnya ;p).
Jerry Yan di drama Love Scar (cuma drama yg ini yg blm kutonton dan mgkn ga bakalan kutonton krn aku ga demen ama Jerry Yan dan Karen Mok yg jadi pasangannya di drama ini, utk komiknya jg blm dibaca).
Balik ke drama Peach Girl yg kutonton, awal ntn itu sbnrnya aku kurang sreg liat pemain ceweknya yg rada sporty n perkasa, tapi sbnrnya memang sesuai sih karakternya dgn heroine di komiknya. Dan Vanness Wu juga sbnrnya secara penampilan luar tuh kurang sesuai jadi Kiley, tapi karakternya bnr2 cocok bgt, krn Kiley itu outgoing, periang dan populer di kalangan cewek2. Rmbt panjang Vanness yg bikin ilfil memang biarpun pada masa itu model rmbt Vanness berhasil jadi trendsetter bagi cewek dan cowok. Bikin aku ngakak kalo teringat lagi, hahaha.
Kenji Wu (penyanyi yg jago nyanyi bgt, setara dgn Jay Chou, JJ Lin, Anson Hu, David Tao dlm soal aransemen lagu dan musik...wajib dgr lagu2nya deh pokoknya, bgs2 lagu ballad dan pop-nya) yg jadi Toji juga ga cocok bgt, krn dlm komiknya itu Toji itu tinggi dan tipe sporty gitu. Sementara Kenji Wu aja tingginya hampir dikalahkan Annie Wu yg berperan sebagai tokoh utama ceweknya.
Walaupun pemainnya kurang serasi, tapi aku suka bgt ama dramanya waktu itu. Aku sampe terbius bgt dgn ceritanya, hahaha, saking serunya drama percintaan segitiga yg diwarnai kesalahpahaman sedari awal. Kesalahpahaman itu kebanyakan disebabkan oleh tmnnya heroine yg namanya Sae yg suka nusuk tmn dari belakang. Cewek fake yg total bitch gitu lah. Aku lupa siapa yg meranin Sae.
Cowok yg bakal berakhir dgn tokoh utamanya ini diperanin Vanness Wu di dramanya, salah satu personil atletis bersuara indah dari boyband Taiwan F4 yg populer bgt sejak drama Meteor Garden alias Boys Over Flowers versi Taiwan itu ditayangkan tahun 2001. Meteor Garden itu adaptasi dari komik populer favoritku Hana Yori Dango.
Tau ga segimana populernya MG versi Taiwan itu di awal2 thn 2000an itu di kalangan remaja dan ibu2, mamaku aja ikutan baca komiknya, tapi yg dia baca itu dlm bahasa Chinese, secara waktu itu yg terbitan Indo kan blm tamat. Krn kita lagi di Penang wkt itu dan nemu rental komik dan novel Chinese di sana, jadilah ibu anak duduk baca komik Hana Yori Dango di rental sono, hahaha. Apel ga jatuh jauh dari pohonnya, hahaha. Waktu aku masi SD dulu mama juga ikutan baca komik Candy Candy, gara2 ngeliat aku tergila2 ama anime dan komik Candy2. Mamaku sbnrnya paling doyan baca novel erotis M/F, dlm bhs Chinese. Kalo novel dlm bhs Chinese sih, aku nyerah deh. Kalo yg di komik, masi mending.
Back to topic. Jadi personil F4 kan ada 4 org. Stlh terkenal berkat MG, masing2 personil F4 Taiwan itu mulai main di drama Taiwan yg diangkat dari komik.
Vanness Wu di drama Peach Girl.
Vic Zhou di drama MARS (salah satu drama favoritku juga, duh Vic dan Barbie Hsu ini cocok bgt loh jd pasangan di drama ini, mana Vic di sana keren bgt dlm kostum balap motornya itu, bikin mataku jadi bentuk hati :p).
Ken Zhu di drama Marmalade Boy (ini dramanya juga sama bagusnya dgn komiknya, ngikut persis dgn yg di komiknya, aku lmyn suka Ken Zhu jadinya sampe squealing hard wkt ntnnya ;p).
Jerry Yan di drama Love Scar (cuma drama yg ini yg blm kutonton dan mgkn ga bakalan kutonton krn aku ga demen ama Jerry Yan dan Karen Mok yg jadi pasangannya di drama ini, utk komiknya jg blm dibaca).
Balik ke drama Peach Girl yg kutonton, awal ntn itu sbnrnya aku kurang sreg liat pemain ceweknya yg rada sporty n perkasa, tapi sbnrnya memang sesuai sih karakternya dgn heroine di komiknya. Dan Vanness Wu juga sbnrnya secara penampilan luar tuh kurang sesuai jadi Kiley, tapi karakternya bnr2 cocok bgt, krn Kiley itu outgoing, periang dan populer di kalangan cewek2. Rmbt panjang Vanness yg bikin ilfil memang biarpun pada masa itu model rmbt Vanness berhasil jadi trendsetter bagi cewek dan cowok. Bikin aku ngakak kalo teringat lagi, hahaha.
Kenji Wu (penyanyi yg jago nyanyi bgt, setara dgn Jay Chou, JJ Lin, Anson Hu, David Tao dlm soal aransemen lagu dan musik...wajib dgr lagu2nya deh pokoknya, bgs2 lagu ballad dan pop-nya) yg jadi Toji juga ga cocok bgt, krn dlm komiknya itu Toji itu tinggi dan tipe sporty gitu. Sementara Kenji Wu aja tingginya hampir dikalahkan Annie Wu yg berperan sebagai tokoh utama ceweknya.
Walaupun pemainnya kurang serasi, tapi aku suka bgt ama dramanya waktu itu. Aku sampe terbius bgt dgn ceritanya, hahaha, saking serunya drama percintaan segitiga yg diwarnai kesalahpahaman sedari awal. Kesalahpahaman itu kebanyakan disebabkan oleh tmnnya heroine yg namanya Sae yg suka nusuk tmn dari belakang. Cewek fake yg total bitch gitu lah. Aku lupa siapa yg meranin Sae.
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August 18, 2011
Momo is not your typical high school student- she’s constantly, completely misunderstood. Not only does she have an undeserved bad reputation, but she can never work up the nerve to tell the boy of her dreams, Toji, how she feels about him. The only girl in her class that will befriend her is Sae, but she just may be Momo’s greatest enemy!
I was just hanging out with my friend at booksale and I accidentally see this without cover so I read the whole book there. I know you're not supposed to read a book at book store specially the whole book. well luck me the one in that store is one of my friends too.
Peach girl is about Momo, the main character whose always picked oh not picked more on misjudge because of her super tan skin. They think shes a party girl with wild-side and other kind of thing they assume shes doing. And theres Sae the mighty "friend" or what do you call a friend in disguised? Oh yeah, frenemy. Sae is that kind of girl. I suppose you can call her the antagonist in the story. She always pretend, backstab and other shit loads that your suppose to do when you have enemies in high school. Sae always copycat what Momo's doing or have. Or she just seize all from Momo. That is how the story started. I will not tell you more about it or I might tell you the whole volume 1.
All in all its kind of cliche story but I still liked it. Theres the high school drama and all. there might gonna be a love triangle. as usual.
I was just hanging out with my friend at booksale and I accidentally see this without cover so I read the whole book there. I know you're not supposed to read a book at book store specially the whole book. well luck me the one in that store is one of my friends too.
Peach girl is about Momo, the main character whose always picked oh not picked more on misjudge because of her super tan skin. They think shes a party girl with wild-side and other kind of thing they assume shes doing. And theres Sae the mighty "friend" or what do you call a friend in disguised? Oh yeah, frenemy. Sae is that kind of girl. I suppose you can call her the antagonist in the story. She always pretend, backstab and other shit loads that your suppose to do when you have enemies in high school. Sae always copycat what Momo's doing or have. Or she just seize all from Momo. That is how the story started. I will not tell you more about it or I might tell you the whole volume 1.
All in all its kind of cliche story but I still liked it. Theres the high school drama and all. there might gonna be a love triangle. as usual.
October 25, 2007
two words to describe the things that Momo goes thru in this book::
NO. FAIR.
Sae is a terrible girl who likes to copy Momo, a talented swimmer with a tan that gives her the worst reputation. Other students in her highschool thinmks she's a playbunny, a party girl, and a slut. but all she is is really a girl witha crush on Toji, the boy she's admired since grade school.
But when Sae, the sneaky, lying bag of scheme she is, finds out that Momo has a crush on the boy, she tries to trick him into going out with her instead of Momo! SO UNFAIR!! by book three, i couldn't stand how Sae could be so horrible to Momo! i was furious, but glad there was somehting i could read about that was at least half true.
i hope other girls look out for the Sae's in life.
description of a basic SAE is:
-copies other girls styles
-flirts with every boy, dating at least three at the same time.
-pretends to be a victim of abus from her 'friends'
-latches onto one person to gossip about and humiliate
-black mails other girls
-tricks girls into breaking up with their boyfriends so she can have them, and then dump them.
LOOK OUT FOR MODERN SAEs!
NO. FAIR.
Sae is a terrible girl who likes to copy Momo, a talented swimmer with a tan that gives her the worst reputation. Other students in her highschool thinmks she's a playbunny, a party girl, and a slut. but all she is is really a girl witha crush on Toji, the boy she's admired since grade school.
But when Sae, the sneaky, lying bag of scheme she is, finds out that Momo has a crush on the boy, she tries to trick him into going out with her instead of Momo! SO UNFAIR!! by book three, i couldn't stand how Sae could be so horrible to Momo! i was furious, but glad there was somehting i could read about that was at least half true.
i hope other girls look out for the Sae's in life.
description of a basic SAE is:
-copies other girls styles
-flirts with every boy, dating at least three at the same time.
-pretends to be a victim of abus from her 'friends'
-latches onto one person to gossip about and humiliate
-black mails other girls
-tricks girls into breaking up with their boyfriends so she can have them, and then dump them.
LOOK OUT FOR MODERN SAEs!
March 30, 2018
A few years ago I read the Peach Girl manga online, but now that I finally bought the books, I can safely say that I remember now why I felt so angry reading them: Sae. This girl is a bitch! I don't understand why the heroin in the story should be dump. We can see that Momo knows she's bad, but she doesn't do anything about it.
June 20, 2017
Very soapy, and that's a compliment. Pure indulgent ridiculousness. :)
March 5, 2023
what just happened?
June 12, 2020
I'm not sure why this manga is so popular. I was absolutely infuriated by Sae for the first half of the story. How can a girl be such manipulative attention whore that she can't stand it when anyone around her gets more attention than her? The lengths she's willing to go to to ruin Sae and Toji's relationship (including drugging Momo and almost having her raped by Sae's own boyfriend) is absolutely disgusting and shouldn't belong in a shoujo manga setting.
Momo was much better morally speaking, but I still found her annoying in a different way. She was so wishy washy when it came to Toji and Kiley! It was a true love triangle by the end and the author keeps us guessing until the last minute about which guy she was going to pick.
I honestly didn't have a preference between the two guys. I was so frustrated with Toji at the beginning when he kept on falling for Sae's manipulations, but seeing how he put up with dating Sae, who he hated, to help protect Momo was sweet. I liked Kiley until it was revealed that he still loved Misao and didn't return Momo's feelings wholeheartedly. Momo is the unluckiest girl in the world, to have Sae as a "friend" and then Kiley as a boyfriend when he loves someone else. It's enough to break anyone's spirit.
I don't think I've ever been so frustrated and angry reading a shoujo manga. I heard there's a sequel but I'm not going anywhere near that. It sounds like another hot mess.
Momo was much better morally speaking, but I still found her annoying in a different way. She was so wishy washy when it came to Toji and Kiley! It was a true love triangle by the end and the author keeps us guessing until the last minute about which guy she was going to pick.
I honestly didn't have a preference between the two guys. I was so frustrated with Toji at the beginning when he kept on falling for Sae's manipulations, but seeing how he put up with dating Sae, who he hated, to help protect Momo was sweet. I liked Kiley until it was revealed that he still loved Misao and didn't return Momo's feelings wholeheartedly. Momo is the unluckiest girl in the world, to have Sae as a "friend" and then Kiley as a boyfriend when he loves someone else. It's enough to break anyone's spirit.
I don't think I've ever been so frustrated and angry reading a shoujo manga. I heard there's a sequel but I'm not going anywhere near that. It sounds like another hot mess.
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April 1, 2024This was my first manga series as a little weeb preteen. The contrived drama ALREADY!! I remember poring over these pages and redrawing them; some of these panels were much more deeply burned into my memory than I thought.
October 13, 2025
Consider this my review of the entire series but IT’S SO MESSY AND HAD ME IN A TEENAGE CHOKEHOLD 😵😵😵😵😵😵 Don’t read this for the satisfaction (karma is never really fully served), read it for the gag.
September 20, 2017
I enjoyed it. Maybe I'll continue reading it. I wish it had more substance. However, it was nice to get to know that Japan has different stereotypes.
February 28, 2024
Re-reading this series since I was in high school! It's so dramatic, I love it as much as I did when I was a teenager!
July 16, 2024
The nostalgia! Sae is a piece of work 😖
August 28, 2024
Silly and beautiful to look at.
November 9, 2024
toji deserved better
December 11, 2025
omg rage issues fk sae
July 13, 2010
well, i’m not finished this as of yet, and i’m not too sure i will. don’t get me wrong it’s not horrible, in fact i’ve read much worse… but neither is it the best. when i started reading it i thought it would be interesting because the premise at the beginning is that people misjudge her based on her skin tone which is darker than the other girls because she’s on the swim team. this makes people assume she a party girl, or easy i guess would be a g- rated translation. but i think they’re called ganguro girls in japan. either way, she isn’t one of these girls but people see her tan and assume that she is. so as i say, i walked into this expecting this kind of thing, and while there was some of this conflict in the beginning, it soon fell away to needless drama. now drama isn’t all bad, in fact it can be quite good, but the issue of her tan wasn’t really resolved. she was kind of ashamed of her tan, but only because toji supposedly didn’t like tanned girls. if a person were to consider this issue resolved in the first couple of volumes, when it stops being the primary focus, than it would be because she thought the guy didn’t mind. basically it seems like a lot of her resolutions are based on his acceptance of her rather than some inner reassessment and acceptance of herself. and this kind of thing generally tends to get under my skin.
another thing i have issues with is the lack of communication up to the point of… i don’t even know. i mean when her friend is sabotaging her, that stretch of the plot line, well i got sick of it about half way through. i’m all for jealousy n such, i mean it’s a shoujo, we’re kind of expecting relationship problems yes? but it seemed like it was dragged on for too long.
drama is good, but it’s a delicate emotional tool. just enough and you’ve got gold, too much and it sucks. the lack of communication seemed a bit unbelievable at times, which frustrated me a bit, and the characters in general seemed to act in a way that almost deserved the angsty agony they brought upon themselves. i mean i haven’t even finished it and i already dislike most of the characters, not so great.
but, even though i have these criticisms, i do admit that i could see myself finishing the series sometime in the future because it does have that shoujo draw where you want to know what happens in the end and you want them to be happy (… though you hate them). so i say read it, but there is definitely better out there.
another thing i have issues with is the lack of communication up to the point of… i don’t even know. i mean when her friend is sabotaging her, that stretch of the plot line, well i got sick of it about half way through. i’m all for jealousy n such, i mean it’s a shoujo, we’re kind of expecting relationship problems yes? but it seemed like it was dragged on for too long.
drama is good, but it’s a delicate emotional tool. just enough and you’ve got gold, too much and it sucks. the lack of communication seemed a bit unbelievable at times, which frustrated me a bit, and the characters in general seemed to act in a way that almost deserved the angsty agony they brought upon themselves. i mean i haven’t even finished it and i already dislike most of the characters, not so great.
but, even though i have these criticisms, i do admit that i could see myself finishing the series sometime in the future because it does have that shoujo draw where you want to know what happens in the end and you want them to be happy (… though you hate them). so i say read it, but there is definitely better out there.
January 16, 2015
Peach Girl is the first manga I'd ever read. I was in the 8th grade, or so. It was great to grow up with. All the angst, deception, and drama was exciting at that age. I did, however, reread this series last year at age 21. Not quite the same. It's super cheesy now, but still incredibly enjoyable for me. It may just be a nostalgic bias though.
This series is about a high school girl named Momo Adachi who is on the swim team and tans super easily. Now, this sounds trivial, but back in the early-mid 90's when this was released in Japan, 'tan girls' were seen as beach bunny bimbos who were promiscuous. She was anything but. Now the whole ganguro thing is in, so I think that relevance is lost a bit.
She is crushing on Toji, super nice boy next door type. The only thing getting in her way besides her nerves and self conscience is Sae, the backstabbing friend who wants whatever Momo wants, and makes damn sure she gets it instead-- including Toji.
Then comes in Kairi (Kiley), the adorable pervy friend who has feelings for Momo. Typical shojo set up, but has such betrayals by Sae that I'm still quite surprised that she wasn't murdered or something by the end of the series. Some of it is shocking.
The art is gorgeous, one of my favorite things about it. This manga will forever hold a special place in my heart, even though it's a tad dated if you're past age 16 or so, but it's still really cute and mindless and sweet.
This series is about a high school girl named Momo Adachi who is on the swim team and tans super easily. Now, this sounds trivial, but back in the early-mid 90's when this was released in Japan, 'tan girls' were seen as beach bunny bimbos who were promiscuous. She was anything but. Now the whole ganguro thing is in, so I think that relevance is lost a bit.
She is crushing on Toji, super nice boy next door type. The only thing getting in her way besides her nerves and self conscience is Sae, the backstabbing friend who wants whatever Momo wants, and makes damn sure she gets it instead-- including Toji.
Then comes in Kairi (Kiley), the adorable pervy friend who has feelings for Momo. Typical shojo set up, but has such betrayals by Sae that I'm still quite surprised that she wasn't murdered or something by the end of the series. Some of it is shocking.
The art is gorgeous, one of my favorite things about it. This manga will forever hold a special place in my heart, even though it's a tad dated if you're past age 16 or so, but it's still really cute and mindless and sweet.
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