Genre Romantic comedy-drama | ||
Peach Girl (Japanese: ピーチガール, Hepburn: Pīchi Gāru) is a Japanese shōjo manga series by Miwa Ueda. A high school drama centered on character Momo Adachi, her love life, friendships and rivalries, 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 a Japanese animated television series in 2005. A manga sequel set 10 years after the original manga, titled Peach Girl Next, began its serialization on Be Love on August 12, 2016.
Contents
The North American version of the manga is published in two parts by Tokyopop: Peach Girl, covering the first eight volumes of the Japanese release; and Peach Girl: Change of Heart, comprising the final ten books. The animated TV series is distributed by Funimation Entertainment in North America.
Plot
Momo Adachi, a Yokohama high school student, is a former member of the junior high school swim team. She tans easily and her hair is bleached out because she spends so much time in the pool. Unfortunately, she is stereotyped by her classmates and is forced to endure rumors about being an "easy girl" who has had many sexual relationships. Her only "friend" is Sae who is actually responsible for copying her and spreading nasty gossips due to her jealousy of Momo. Momo is in love with Toji, a taciturn baseball player, but the scheming Sae also has her sights set 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.
Things become even more complicated when Sae, in an attempt to make Momo miserable, spreads rumors about Momo and Kairi making out. The rumor about the kiss between the two is true, but it was Kairi who initiated it while Momo remained stunned by the interaction. As a result of that, Toji gets jealous and openly admits his feelings for Momo so they end up dating. When Toji is hospitalized for appendicitis, Sae manipulates Toji to break up with Momo. Thanks to Kairi, he finds out about all the lies and rumors Sae has made up, e.g. Momo has stolen Toji from Sae. Toji saves Momo from being bullied (due to Sae's lies again) and tells the truth about being a couple, resulting in the students apologizing to Momo and hating Sae. Toji and Momo get back together, but Sae later tries to complicate their relationship again by threatening to discredit Momo with her newly acquired access to the mass media as she has a compromising photo of Momo and Goro (one of Sae's plots to make Momo's life miserable). Though Toji is initially defiant, he reluctantly breaks up with Momo and is forced to date Sae in order to protect Momo. Momo is heartbroken at first, particularly due to not knowing (Toji doesn't reveal her the truth, he just lies that he likes Sae better). However, she eventually begins dating Kairi, whom she had previously considered annoying, and soon begins to fall in love with him. To complicate things even more, Ryo, Kairi's brother, and Morika as well as Kairi's past (his unrequited love for Misao) interfere into Momo's and Kairi's relationship, thus, causing them to break up. Meanwhile, Sae breaks up with Toji and starts dating Ryo who is treating her poorly. During the break-up with Kairi, Momo discovers why Toji broke up with her so Momo is left to choose between Toji and Kairi; she chooses Toji this time. More problems arise and another love triangle appears: Misao-Ryo-Sae. In the end, Misao blows off Ryo due to his personality and goes to an arranged marriage meeting, Ryo is getting interested into children, Sae becomes kinder and is back to her normal high school life, and Momo and Kairi are back together.
In "Sae's Story", Sae is left back a year, for she was always 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 her over. He takes care of Sae's dog, Sora, when her parents would no longer let her keep it. The dog walks with a little limp; one day when Sora tried to follow Sae, she threw a rock at its paw and injured it. 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, and he later turns her down. Sae meets another guy named Shinji but realizes he never really liked her. All these ups and downs make Sae realize that Momo, Kairi, and Kanji are the only people who care for her.
Characters
The English-language manga uses the non standard romanization "Kiley Okayasu". Other groups, such as FUNimation, Kodansha, and non-English language publishers, use "Kairi".
A boy 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 overhears Momo's love confession 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, especially believing what Sae says over what Momo says, much to the frustration of Momo. He doesn't like Kairi because of their rivalry, although he accepts him because he takes good care of Momo and he sees her to be more easy-going and happier while hanging around with Kairi. Sae later blackmails Toji into dating her using pictures of Momo and Goro in a hotel bed together. He then reluctantly breaks up with Momo and, as part of Sae's blackmail, starts to date Sae who after some time leaves him for Ryo. More problems arise but Momo and he eventually get back together but he feels that her heart isn't into it, especially during some intimacy occasions. In the end, she breaks up with him.
The Tokyopop manga renders his family name as "Toujikamori".
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 Misao dated and broke up with Ryo, she still loves him. Nevertheless, after confessing Ryo her feelings again, she decides that his personality doesn't match hers and, instead, goes for an arranged marriage meeting.
Peach Girl: Sae's Story
Peach Girl: Sae's Story (裏 ピーチガール, Ura Peach Girl, lit. Reverse Peach Girl) is a sequel to Peach Girl, told from the point of view of Sae, the main antagonist of Peach Girl. It was published in Japan by Kodansha in Bessatsu Friend from 2004 to 2006 and collected in three tankōbon volumes. It is licensed in North America by Tokyopop.
Live-action drama
In November 2002, a 13 episode Taiwanese drama of Peach Girl was adapted titled (Chinese: 蜜桃女孩), starring Annie Wu, Vanness Wu of F4 and Kenji Wu. The setting was changed from high school to college. It was produced by Comic Ritz International Production (可米瑞智國際藝能有限公司) and Chai Zhi Ping (柴智屏) as producer and was broadcast in Taiwan on free-to-air Chinese Television System (CTS) (華視). The events of the drama stay true to the original story up until the forced break up between Xia Tao(Momo) and Dong Si(Toji) after which many events differ possibly due to the limited number of episodes.
Reception
In 1999, Peach Girl won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.