Peach Girl Review

Peach girl follows a high schooler named Momo. Momo struggles with coming to terms with her appearences. She is always being accused of being a party girl on the account that she has bronze skin, big doe eyes, and bleach blond hair. Poor Momo always finds herself the center of some kind of rumor. Come to find out, her “best friend” Sae is at the of all the rumors. Sae is out to destroy Momo and her happiness. Anything Momo wants, Sae has to have including Toji, Momo’s love since junior high. Sae is nothing by the epitome of a copycat. Throughout the story, Momo has to deal with being sabotaged by Sae at every turn. She must overcome the rumors of being the school slut, being betrayed by Toji, as well as being date raped. She makes it through these tough times with the help of Kiley, the school flirt, and Momo’s only friend. I guess in short terms, Peach girl is about the daily struggles of a girl in high school including everything from nonacceptance of how different she looks to dealing with sabotage from a supposed friend.

I had to go back and read Peach Girl a second time because I was having a difficult time find anything negative to say about it. Now, I searched for so long trying to find a negative because even I know there is no such thing as a perfect story. However, I simply couldn’t find anything I personally didn’t like about Peach Girl. For what it is, a romance manga depicting the life of a high school girl. It was done outstandingly. I mean if you really want to call it a con, the only thing I can say is that everything is love driven. The story is very much on one track. Again, I am not even sure if you can call it a con because knowing it is a romance, of course everything will be love driven.

Even though I couldn’t find really anything I didn’t like about Peach Girl, I did find quite a few things that I loved about the story. First off, I think what made Peach Girl stand out the most was how realistic it is to being a high school girl. I mean not every ‘mean girl’ is as extreme as Sae, but there are girls like her everywhere you turn. Almost everything Momo experiences is something that girls deal with at least once in their lives. Throughout the entire story, I was finding myself looking back at my high school days, and thinking about the times I experienced some of those moments.

Next, I find character development is probably one of the most important things about any story. I must say Peach Girl did not disappoint. I was invested in every single character no matter how small. I found myself rooting for the underdog. I found myself screaming inside my head at the stupidity of some characters. I mean every time I found Sae on a page, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes and sigh. All I could do is think what is she going to do next, and who will put her in her place? You can’t help but feel bad for Momo. A girl who tries so hard to be a good person just put down at every turn. Then there is Toji. He just doesn’t seem to understand anything. Throughout the entire story, he does thing that make you wonder if there are truly people that dumb. Kiley on the other hand, he is Momo’s rock. You can’t help but to love him for his big heart. Those are just a few of the characters, but I found myself thinking of every character whether it was for them to learn a lesson or for them to finally get their happy endings.

Finally, for having such serious topics in the story, the comic relief was very well done. When there were very heated topics, there would be a brief moment of comic relief and it was always perfectly placed. It was never overdone. Most of these occurrences are done by Kiley, but occasionally other characters got their moments. The humor is anything from over the top high school perverseness to a little bit of slapstick comedy.

Overall, Peach Girl is well worth the read if you are into the high school romance manga. It covers a lot of topics that honestly surprised me, but I also thought was a very good addition. I am a person that truly enjoys when things are not overly predictable. Peach Girl certainly kept me guessing at what kind of crazy Sae was going to bring to the table next. Peach Girl definitely kept me interested from beginning to end. I couldn’t bring myself to put Peach Girl down. It has certainly made my list of manga I would like to own and I would certainly read it multiple times. So with all that being said, I will have to give Peach Girl a four and a half star rating because I couldn’t even find anything negative to say about Peach Girl. I absolutely had to give it a high rating. If you are interested in high school love stories and are looking for an interesting manga read, I highly recommend taking the time to check out Peach Girl.