Brittany 's Reviews > Peach Girl, Vol. 1

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.