Ai Tenshi Densetsu Wedding Peach

What if you combine mahou shoujo anime and wedding theme with a lot of English named things? You will get Ai Tenshi Densetsu Wedding Peach!

If I had one word to describe this anime, it would be "Pure". It is basically a trio of high school girls/magical girls fighting evil while being dressed as brides. A lot of school life, first love, hardships, monsters, saving the world - all the normal school stuff, nothing new here. There are a lot of comparisons with Sailor Moon - and yes, it is indeed correct (it uses almost same formula for villains and monsters of the week), Ai Tenshi ... resembles Sailor Moon a lot... and as you can guess it didn't work good for critical reception of this anime. Coming out in 1995, it were overshadowed by SM and in result not many people know about existence of Ai Tenshi. Me myself only found it while looking at old anime mag scans.

BUT! As I may say, Ai Tenshi is not worse than SM. In fact, it has own upsides. Wedding thematic is... well, novelty in mahou shoujo anime. Also, music is fantastic, OP/ED are really melodic and these songs as beautiful as heroines are. And watching this, you can really dive in 90s anime aesthetic. Characters develop strong bonds through story, and sometimes you wonder if they really could beat "the great big bad". And I would also like to praise monsters, uhh, I mean, demons designs - there are so many with various powers, appearances and even characters, that I wouldn't mind even them being one trick pony.

So overall it is good mahou shoujo anime. Would recommend if you like 90s and classic themes like humans vs. monsters, or angels vs. demons in this particular example. And if you are looking for more Sailor Moon like anime - this is a great one to watch!

"What's old is what's new," right? For those who Wedding Peach rings nostalgic for, this sentiment probably hits the mark, including myself. But after re-watching this anime, the rose-colored glasses have unfortunately shattered. Still, its inherent charm still carries on.

Story: This anime has a persistent--almost borderline obsessive--fascination with the concept of love, yet its portrayal of love is one-dimensional at best, and stereotypical at worst. Many of the episodic couples have similar themes, with similar dynamics, with similar endings. Some episodes promote outdated premises, which could be uncomfortable for some viewers. There was also an episode that, while not intentional, could have really drawn out ... some Madoka Magica vibes if it had been taken to its logical conclusion. Fortunately, Wedding Peach is a purebred, through-and-through supernatural shoujo anime, where there is no such thing as debilitating, permanent hardship and where love always wins.

Like Magic Knight Rayearth, one of the female leads unfortunately gets the short end of the stick. In particular, that latter love square (I'll call it a square because of the innuendos (whether perceived or canonical)) had so much potential, which was unfortunately wasted. I really can't say more without spoiling it, but it does involve one of the later villains in the show. I've seen many shows (including Sailor Moon, Wedding Peach's aunt-in-law) showcase various types of loves with various endings, and THAT would have been the time to really delve into it. Wedding Peach's insistence on its certain portrayal of love really hindered it.

Characters: The three main characters all fill a "cliche" (the fourth appearing literally 3/4th into the show), yet have some trait that benefits the story. True, Momoko is a naive, loud-mouthed, childish, hot-headed, sometimes-slower-than-her-peers female lead that makes you either sigh in second-hand embarrassment or irritation, but she's THE kindest character in the entire show, including the so-called "angels" of love. She has repeatedly given second and third chances to her enemies, earning her several allies and the hearts of her viewers. It's occasional, but you'll find she's worth watching for. Her friends, well...

Then there's Yousuke. Initially, he's presented as a side piece to the guy who should have been the ML, Kazuya Yanagiba, but ends up outshining him over the course of the series. He comes off as a supporting character, but is actually a main character. Which is great, because his character is generally likeable and a bit more complex than the main cast. He initially comes off as brutish, snarky, and insensitive, but is revealed to be so much more through his interactions with Momoko and her friends. He's also implied to be more than he appears from relatively early in the series, which encourages the viewer to want to watch it despite the entourage of cardboard foes in each episode.

Speaking of foes, most of them felt like a horde of NPCs with a few notable exceptions. In hindsight, Lord Pluie was great foreshadowing for the show, despite his piss-poor performance. His charismatic bravado will either make you love him or not care for him. The other notable villain (besides the great mummy herself) is Igneous, who operated less as a villain and more as a construct and catalyst. Although his job was similar to his predecessors, he took a much more lackadaisical approach and had no problem enjoying himself along the way. He's not entertaining because he's a good villain; he's entertaining because of his relationship with the other characters.

And then there's Potamos, the bane of the viewers' existence.

Last Thoughts: Besides its stubborn portrayal of love, Wedding Peach also falls down with its reused footage each and every bloody episode. Worse, skipping 2-3 minutes during the transformation scenes sometimes allows viewers to miss vital parts that progress the overarching story. That said, Wedding Peach has stood the test of time, and while predictable, is still entertaining to watch to some degree. If you have your sanity after lasting 15 episodes, you'll probably scrounge up the patience to last the whole 51.

Despite being one of the worst anime series I've sat all the way through, I can't bring myself to *completely* hate Wedding Peach. It does just enough marginally interesting things and dips frequently enough into 'it's so bad it's good' territory (in the English dub, especially) for it to not be a complete waste of time--though it's close.

Wedding Peach is essentially Sailor Moon, only wedding themed. Remember the marginally interesting things that I mentioned? This is one of them. It's also pretty dumb and more than a little creepy, but let's roll with it for a little. Basically, the three girls (for starters--one more ... is added later) all gain the ability to transform into Love Angels, in order to do battle against the world of the devils, who seek to extinguish love from the human world. To do this, they are given the power to transform into wedding dresses and perform various wedding-based attacks ('Wedding Engagement Gift!' Saint Crystal! Love for You!') until the hapless devil succumbs to their Love Waves, transforms into a 'cute' version of itself, and disappears in a shower of sparkles, thanking the girls for the love they showed it. Yes, this happens every episode. Yes, there's a ridiculous amount of repeated animation. (For the record, I love Revolutionary Girl Utena and can handle my stock footage. Yet even I found the repeated animation and shortcuts in Wedding Peach to be too much to bear a lot of the time.) But, like Sailor Moon, there's something charming about its earnestness, and its ideal audience will probably love it.

It does other things worth noting as well: the biggest stand-out to me was how each of the three main female characters (the lead and her two side-kicks) each get a love interest. Typically only the lead does and the side-kicks are just out of luck, so this was nice to see. (Even if one of the girls sort of draws the short straw, so to speak.) Another little twist was how their 'cute' animal side kick actually starts out working for the bad guys, before being persuaded to join the Love Angels. Frankly, I wish he hadn't, because he might just be the most obnoxious anime animal sidekick in anime history, but there you have it. Other than the genuine laughs that the awful English dub and script will inspire, there's not much else that's too positive that I can say about Wedding Peach. Though I sure can say a lot of negative things. Let's run through these negative things briefly.

1. Dear god, the filler. There is so much of it. Seriously, at least half, if not more, of this series is downright filler. And I swear that a good fourth of every episode is the characters taking the time to tell us that anyone with half a brain already knows. Couple this pointless exposition with the repeated animation and literally half of every episode is essentially wasted.

2. This is an *ugly* anime. The backgrounds are washed out, minimal, and lacking in any interesting detail. The character designs are average at best and terribly ugly at worst. The characters rarely move like real people. The monster designs are impossible to take seriously. There is no hint of mood establishing, directorial flair, or style. It's almost completely artless.

3. The soundtrack is even worse. A couple of exceptions aside, it sounds like it was all done by one guy and his cheap synth in about a day or two of recording and writing. It's truly groan worthy.

4. The characters, oh man, the characters. Momoko might just be the worst heroine of all time. (Well, other than Tohru from Fruits Basket.) Her 'character arc' is laughable, her voice actress (in both versions) a squealing nightmare, her personality overbearing, and her intellectual capabilities practically non-existent. None of the other heroes fare much better intelligence-wise, but otherwise they're all winners compared to poor Momoko. I will say that the series handles her required several-episode span of depression better than series like this typically do, though it has the negative side effect of also turning the complete thing into a lifeless drag.

5. Speaking of the characters: can we just all agree that this series has the worst, most ineffectual villains ever? And in an unfortunate twist, they only continue to get worse as the series goes along. I mean, I was absolutely thrilled when the first villain finally bit the dust. I was thinking it could only go up from there. By the time the series was drawing to its close I actually *wanted him back.* Everyone that opposes the girls after him is not only even less threatening than he is, but they also manage to continue to grow steadily more and more annoying, culminating in Potamos, who, at least in the English dub, is the single-most grating character I have ever encountered in animation history. Ever. No exceptions. My hate for this character knows no bounds. Every time she showed up on the screen I fantasized about brutally murdering her, and I was sorely disappointed that she actually got a happy ending.

So, there you have it. I would recommend that you avoid it, but I suppose if you're purposely looking for an awful blast from the past then this might fit the bill. And looking back on it, I do feel a strange, totally unexplained warmth for some of the characters, which makes me think that maybe the whole thing would have worked better as a slice-of-life than as a Sailor Moon clone. Some of the relationships are 'nice,' and it's hard not to like Yousuke, the closest thing that the series has to a male lead. All that aside though, if you're the sort of person who regularly hosts bad movie nights (or perhaps bad anime series weeks?), then this should be on top of your list of things to check out.