Momo is a girl constantly misunderstood and slighted because of her tanned and blonde good looks. Guys think she’s easy and girls hate her California looks with pained jealousy. But Momo is just a shy and insecure girl who has a tender heart, one that has held a secret crush on the reserved Toji since Junior High. But when her so-called best friend tries to sabotage Momo’s life, Momo ends up not only with Toji finding out how she truly feels, but with the school playboy chasing her! High school life just got a whole lot more interesting for Momo! With jealousy, misunderstandings, and teenage hormones and emotions running high, a whirlwind melodrama is about to unfold!

Based on the popular manga by Miwa Ueda, this shojo series finds new vitality in this anime. The story unfolds quite faithfully to that of the manga so far with Momo being crushed by girlfriend Sae’s constant evil interferences and machinations. By the end of the first volume, Momo and Toji have shared confessions, maybe have started to see each other and broken up all in the span of five episodes! And this is just the beginning of the teenage soap opera. Kairi (known as Kiley in the manga) proves to be the same playboy with a good heart underneath his suave womanizing ways. He may also prove to be Momo’s only true friend and champion against Sae’s spiteful rumors spread throughout the school and hateful bullying and undermining from Momo’s fellow classmates are unleashed upon the poor, unsuspecting Momo.  It all culminates by the end of this first volume with a swim meet arranged by Sae, where anything might happen.

Like any soap opera, there is the person you’ll love to hate. In this anime it is Sae. The reasons for her hateful backstabbing behavior towards Momo, aside from outright jealousy, remain to be seen. But she clearly will stop short of almost nothing to get what she wants. And like most soap operas, there are the usual over-the-top melodrama and accompanying frustrations such as why do those silly girls all listen to Sae constantly? And why on Earth does Toji listen to her? In fact, Toji’s rampant naiveté and siding with Sae when she lies will likely drive you up the wall. It makes Kairi look like the more worthy hero despite his bad boy ways. The diamond in the rough may yet prove true for Peach Girl.

The anime does an incredible job of mirroring the art style of Miwa Ueda. So much so that it is exceptionally impressive. The only mild flaw is that Kairi isn’t quite exact, but it is a mild complaint at best. The colors are well thought out, mostly bright with watercolor seeming backgrounds to give the show a soft look to accentuate its shojo style. This is a romantic soap opera set in high school so expect that energy in the anime and all the angst, highs and lows that go with it and make these types of series so addictive.

EXTRAS:
Bonus features include FUNimation trailers, textless opening and ending songs, a video interview with Japanese voice actress Chiba Saeko (Momo), and episode commentary by English ADR Director Zach Bolton and English voice actress Kate Oxley (Momo).

The starter set includes an art box to contain the entire series, volume 1 DVD, the first volume of the Peach Girl manga from Tokyopop (i.e. English translated manga), and a cute pink carry bag with white trim and Peach Girl logo on the front. Volume 1 is also offered as a regular DVD without all these extra trimmings.

IN SUMMARY:
Peach Girl is soap opera done well. It will strongly appeal to fans of Western live action shows like Degrassi, The OC, One Tree Hill and Beverly Hills 90210. Any manga and anime fan who loves shojo with the angst and the romance will definitely want to check this anime series out.

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