Peach Girl

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Peach Girl

Cover of English volume 3
ピーチガール
(Pīchi Gāru)
Genre Romance, Drama
Manga
Author Miwa Ueda
Publisher Flag of Japan Kodansha
Demographic Shōjo
Magazine Bessatsu Friend
Original run 1997 – 2004
Volumes 18
TV anime
Director Hiroshi Ishiodori
Studio Studio Comet
Network Flag of Japan TV Tokyo
Original run 8 January 2005 – 25 June 2005
Episodes 25
Spin-off

Peach Girl: Sae's Story

Peach Girl (ピーチガール Pīchi Gāru?) is a popular shōjo manga series by Miwa Ueda. It was published in Japan by Kodansha in Bessatsu Friend from 1998 to 2003 and collected in 18 volumes.

The series was adapted as a Taiwanese drama in 2002 and Japanese animated television series in 2005.

The North American version of the manga is published in two parts by Tokyopop: Peach Girl, covering the first eight volumes of the Japanese relase; and Peach Girl: Change of Heart, comprised of the final ten books. The animated TV series is distributed by FUNimation Entertainment.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Peach Girl is a high school drama centered on Momo Adachi. A member of the swim team, Momo tans easily and her hair is bleached out; unfortunately, she is stereotyped as a ganguro girl by her ignorant classmates, and is forced to endure rumors about being a beach bunny and a slut. Her only friend is Sae, who is actually responsible for spreading the nasty gossip due to her jealousy to Momo. Momo is in love with Toji, a taciturn baseball player, but the scheming Sae also has her eye on the boy. Momo's life is further complicated with the introduction of Kairi Okayasu, a wise-cracking playboy who is determined to make her his because she had saved him from drowning the summer before high school started.

Things became even more complicated when Sae, in an attempt to make Momo miserable, spread rumors about Momo and Kairi making out. Some of the rumors were true and when Touji was hospitalized Sae forced Toji to break up with Momo. They soon got back together and later Sae tried to make their relationship complicated again by threatening to discredit Momo with her newly acquired access to the mass media. Though Toji was defiant to begin with, he reluctantly broke up with Momo in order to protect her. Momo was heartbroken at first, especially because she did not know that it was part of Sae's schemes. However, she eventually began dating Kairi, whom she had previously considered annoying, and soon began to fall in love with him.

When Toji reveals to Momo what had happened and why he breaks up with her, Momo is left to choose between Toji and Kairi. More problems arose and a love triangle was formed.

She decides to choose Toji, who in her mind was the right one for her, but Kairi was undoubtedly in love with her.

Later, Momo breaks up with Toji because she realizes she loves Kairi. She takes a cab to where Kairi was and saves his life. How they first met foreshadows how they will end up happily together.

In "Sae's Story", Sae is left back a year, for she always was skipping classes. She is too stubborn so she goes to Momo's and Kairi's university every day. Toji goes to a good university by himself. Sae then meets one of her childhood sweethearts, Kanji (or Monkey Boy), who left for Malaysia when they were young, and promised to marry Sae when he was back. In love with Sae, Kanji follows her around, trying to win Sae back over. He also takes care of Sae's dog, Sora, when her parents would no longer let her keep it. The dog walks with a little limp, as one day when the dog tried to follow her, Sae threw a rock at its paw and injured her. Sae starts modeling and pretends she goes to college with Momo, when she is really still in high school. She meets Honda and works for CC as a model. She meets a guy named Takuma, but later he turned Sae down. Later, she meets another guy named Shinji but realizes he never really liked her. All these ups and downs makes Sae realize that Momo, Kairi, and Kanji are the only people that actually care for her.

[edit] Characters

Momo Adachi (安達 もも Adachi Momo?)
Voiced by: Saeko Chiba (Japanese), Kate Oxley (English)
The main character. She has dark skin and light hair (derived from her constant swimming in chlorinated pools whilst in the swim team), mistakingly giving others the impression that she is a "beach bunny", lover of the Ganguro style, or sexually promiscuous. On the contrary, Momo is a shy, sweet and insecure girl, though she has a fierce temper. She has loved Toji for many years, although later on she finds herself falling in love with Kairi. When she found out Toji disliked girls with tan skin, she started to avoid swimming pools and wore a lot of sunblock to get her skin to its original color (presumed to be fair). She is often confused later on when she likes both Toji and Kairi at the same time, causing much dispute between both boys. Her given name means 'peach' in Japanese.
Sae Kashiwagi (柏木 さえ Kashiwagi Sae?)
Voiced by: Megumi Nasu (Japanese), Cherami Leigh (English)
She does everything to ruin Momo's life. Her fair features (pale skin, dark hair) serve as a contrast for Momo; her "innocent" appearance belies her scheming, manipulative nature. She is the one who spreads malicious gossip about her - Something Momo knows, but has trouble dealing with, as people are more apt to believe in Sae than the 'airheaded ganguro girl'. She often uses the gossip to make people dislike Momo, as a result of her own jealousy and insecurity. She spreads rumors that she is dating Toji, and that Momo is trying to steal him from her when it is actually the other way around. She really is mean and doesn't care for Momo and isn't her "real" friend. All she wants is popularity in school, to humiliate Momo and to get Touji all for herself. She will stop at nothing to complete this task. Later she dates a male model named Jigoro and in the end exploits him to help break up Toji and Momo, the nastiest scheme she has ever plotted. She begins to repent after she falls in love with Ryo and understands the hurtful feeling that she caused Momo, when Ryo gets her pregnant then abandons her.
Kairi Okayasu (岡安 浬 Okayasu Kairi?) / Kiley Okayasu
Voiced by: Kenichi Suzumura (Japanese), Orion Pitts (English)
A popular and carefree classmate of Momo's. Sae goes after him after Momo lies that she likes him to protect her and Toji's relationship, but he is the only boy to see straight through Sae for what she really is. He has the reputation of being a playboy, something he isn't exactly proud of. He thought that Momo was the one who once gave him CPR, when he'd nearly drowned at the beach, when they were younger - only to later find out he'd been saved by the local male lifeguard. His interest in her is renewed when Sae spreads rumors about them being a couple - he adds to this by claiming he has kissed Momo. When Momo is upset by his rumour he tries to make the rumor true, by kissing her unexpectedly in the beginning of the series.
After the two start dating, his insecurities about relationships are revealed to stem from his unrequited love for Misao, the school nurse and Kairi's former tutor.
The English-language manga uses the non-standard romanization "Kiley Okayasu". Other groups, such as FUNimation, Kodansha, and non-English language publishers, use "Kairi" [1].
Kazuya "Toji" Toujigamori (東寺ヶ森 一矢 Tōjigamori Kazuya?)
Voiced by: Hidenobu Kiuchi (Japanese), Robert McCollum (English)
A baseball player who has been Momo's crush since junior high school although she never then confessed to him due to a friend saying he "doesn't like girls with tan skin". He over hears Momo confess her love for him to Kairi and then eventually dates Momo but Sae wants him for herself. He has a good heart, but tends to be hard-headed and oblivious to what is in front of him, believing what Sae says over what Momo says, much to the frustration of Momo.

The TOKYOPOP manga renders his family name as "Toujikamori".

Ryo Okayasu (岡安 涼 Okayasu Ryō?)
Voiced by: Sho Hayami (Japanese), Charles Baker (English)
Kairi's older brother who works in the video game industry. He serves as a male counterpart to Sae, only he is much more dangerous. Ryo is in love with Misao, and dated her briefly, but Misao broke up with him because of his cold and manipulating attitude.
Sae met him and quickly fell for him because of their obvious similarities, though Ryo barely took the relationship seriously.
Misao Aki (安芸 操 Aki Misao?)
Voiced by: Mami Kingetsu (Japanese), Colleen Clinkenbeard (English)
The school nurse and a big sister figure for Momo. Misao was once Kairi's tutor and crush, and an old flame of Ryo's. Although she dated and broke up with him, she still loves him.
Goro Oji (大路 吾郎 Ōji Gorō?)
Voiced by: Junichi Suwabe (Japanese), Viktor Walker (English)
He is called Jigoro and is a male model who is smitten with Sae and unaware of her true personality. She uses him in her schemes against Momo.
Morika
Voiced by: Miho Yamada (Japanese), Kira Vincent-Davis (English)
A young woman who once dated both Okayasu men, Morika has a grudge against Ryo and tries to use Kairi against him.

[edit] Spin-off

Ueda wrote Peach Girl: Sae's Story, a spin-off focused on the character of Sae Kashiwagi.

[edit] Reception

In 1999, Peach Girl won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.[2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Kodan club accessed 2007-07-11.
  2. ^ Joel Hahn. Kodansha Manga Awards. Comic Book Awards Almanac. Retrieved on 2007-08-21.

[edit] External links