Peach Girl

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This manga is a must read for all romance lovers! This manga has a fantastic story line and it is very compelling. You'll fall in love with the characters, and hate the others making it an amazing manga. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll want to punch Sae over and over again. The only thing I don't like about this manga is how the mouths are drawn, but that is no reason to not read this manga. So what are you waiting for go read this!

I remember the first time I read this manga, I was about 10 years old. I thought it was brilliant and hilarious, and loved every panel of it. But after reading it now, I can see so many flaws in not only the storyline, but also the characters.

The story itself is a unique idea, but is poorly executed. Most of the chapters consist of Momo complaining about how people view her as a slut and isolate her because of her tan skin. Not only is this highly unrealistic, but brought to the utmost extreme. Let me explain what I mean.

Most people might think of her ... that way at first glance, but they most likely wouldn't isolate her as much as the characters in this manga did. It was as if every single character in this manga was a complete idiot. Not to mention, all of the characters always fell for Sae's tricks. Who is Sae? Sae is the conniving little bitch who makes it her top priority to make Momo's life a living hell. Basically the plot consists of her doing everything possible to Momo. Even going as far as to have someone rape her.

Which brings me back to the plot being unrealistic, with millions of plot holes. Not only is the extent that Sae goes to unrealistic, but how the characters react to it are unrealistic too. The whole entire time Momo acts like a complete idiot. She continues to do nothing about what Sae, even when Sae was blackmailing her. The whole entire time, she could have reported Sae. Yeah, it wouldn't be as "exciting", but it would be the smarter thing to do. But no, instead, Momo continues to complain about how much her life sucks.

They also never explain why Sae would go such extremes just to ruin Momo's life. What does she have against Momo? Instead of answering these questions, the writer decides to just throw more unrealistic dilemmas at us to keep the story going.

Then there's Kairi. The only interesting character in this show, who shows the most character development. Not to mention, he gives the manga some comedy. The comedy is probably the manga's best point. You can't help but laugh at many of the scenes.

While all of the characters in this manga seem to be idiots who lack common sense, by far the most boring and painful character to see....is Kazuya. He has absolutely no personality. It was honestly just plain painful reading his dialogue. He makes everything needlessly dramatic, instead of taking the smart way out.

To be honest, it is an interesting read, I admit that I somewhat enjoyed it for some of the chapters. But the whole series of basically just Momo switching back and forth from Kazuya and Kairi. Sae going to ridiculous lengths to ruin Momo's social life. It not only lacks common sense, but also any real development.

As for the art, it was nothing special. Wasn't bad, but wasn't really good either.

Story: 5/10
Art:5/10
Character: 6/10
Enjoyment: 5/10
Overall: 5/10

I apologize for any misspellings or grammar errors in my review.

So.. Peach Girl's story is good, between good and very good. The good side in Peach Girl is the Momo's skin, very original for start, and the characters are good too. For art, is different for me, but is good and sometimes realist! ^^. The bad side is Momo... she's so dramaqueen... so much... and Touji believes so much, and the story sometimes is foreseeable. But, Peach Girl is very funny and your heart sometimes beat! ^-^ ( if don't is the SUPERDRAMASQUEENS SCENES from momo, seriously, sometimes you think: '' i hating this anime and i'll stop watching!'')

I've been slowly reading more shojo manga and Peach Girl was a title I've heard about for years because of its popularity. I can see why it was popular, but holy manga gods was this a frustrating read.

First off, this manga is manipulative. The characters in it are manipulative and the author is trying to manipulate the audience as much as possible. It was so frustrating reading the first few chapters because of how obvious the characters were about creating plot and tension that I hate read the first three or so volumes.

Characters:
There is definitely a problem with characters. What this manga does really well ... is that it shows the emotions of the leading characters in ways that are relatable, but it's pulled off in a sloppy way. Momo, the main character that has a complex about her skin tone, goes through a lot of pain and suffering and throughout the series she doesn't learn from any of it.

The side characters are incredibly wishy washy. They are the ideal mob mentality where they'll hate Momo or they'll love her and they're not afraid to switch on a dime. They have no personal thoughts. When side characters befriend Momo and they're her friends for the rest of the manga we hardly get to know them. The series is so focused on the core four characters that everything and everyone outside of their emotional lives is irrelevant.

Then there's Sae. God, I hated her with the passion of a thousand burning suns. You could tell that Sae was nothing but a plot device for a good chunk of the manga and what she did was beyond horrendous. She was evil incarnate. It wasn't until the last few volumes where I started to feel any sympathy towards her and that was only because her character did a 180.

The character development isn't good. It's very basic and if a character changes too much there isn't much explanation. Take Sae, when she falls in love for the first time she's a new character. There is no transition, it's just boom, there she is now.

Peach Girl has a bad habit of bringing up adult and serious situations only for it to mean nothing. I can't even tell you how often this manga brings in attempted rape. Actually, I will tell you. There are at least 4 major events where Momo or Sae are about to be raped and it's so gross how the manga handles it as if it were nothing. The first time there were repercussions. Momo was traumatized. Every time after that this situation was used to build tension and have one of the potential boyfriends come rescue them.

I don't know what Japanese High School life was back when this came out, but there are so many uncomfortable situations of characters that are between 15 and 17 being sexually assaulted, or dating men in their 20s, or doing porn, or something else that you wouldn't expect to find in a shojo romance.

The part that frustrates me so much about this manga is that no matter how much I complain about it, it's effective. This manga is super manipulative, but I kept with it. Whether I was enjoying myself or hate reading it out of spite I was continuing with these characters that on the surface I like. However, for every time I'm enjoying the manga there are at least three instances that make me facepalm, like the two male love interests literally pulling on Momo's arms as if she's a toy in their toddler years arguing over who loves her more.

I'm glad I read this, but it did not age like fine wine. I think I have a better grasp of Shojo, but I would not recommend this to anyone.

Story: 4/10
Art: 5/10
Character: 4/10
Enjoyment: 4/10
Overall: 4/10

My reviews are horrible, so don't hold anything to me. I just want to point out my final thoughts on a manga when I review it.

This was a good story, had good art, and decent characters. But while I rate it high, I really didn't enjoy it too much. But that's because it's pretty dramatic the entire time, and when things are depressing, I feel depressed too. And the depressing portions of the story really outweigh the light-hearted moments.

Though overall, based on the ending, you can call this Manga a Happy story. At least in the same way that the ... Little Mermaid is a happy story, lol. It ends in a somewhat depressing manner, but still leaves you feeling happily satisfied, because not all is bad.

So have fun reading this. I finished it in 2 days, but since I spent so much time on it, it felt like it would never end, lol. I'm glad it's over, cause now I can move on to other manga.

I give this Great overall rating. And I would recommend to people who enjoy good drama.

To be honest, I wanted to drop it after vol 15. I thoroughly read from the first volume, but I JUST CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY. JUST WHY. Augh.
Anyway, it's your typical shoujo manga at first and all like that, but it got so dragging and I got so upset with the character development that I lost my fondness of it. I was hoping it could turn for the best but I just got disappointed near end (I even sacrificed sleep for this).
But the good side for this manga would be are the tidbits lessons about love. But it still got overboard and the characters got ... so irrational, that I can't even. Whatever.

Man, this series was an emotional roller coaster.

The story was bearable. It wasn't special at all but I enjoyed it. Sometimes parts of it was disappointing. The art was pretty but can be improved upon. The panels are a bit all over the place.

I gave the characters a low score because they weren't believable. Some characters did not change while some did. ( To be honest, Kairi was the most delusional character.)

I gave Enjoyment a higher score because I actually liked it. I read this at the time when I was very lonely, and I could relate to some events.

Overall, ... I actually liked it but it isn't the best manga I've read.

finally, i am free of this manga. i thought i'd develop ulcers after the amount of stress this gave me

the manga is so well drawn and I read it in one sitting. But oh my fucking god none of these characters have any common sense and the miscommunications between them were driving me up the wall. I usually drop mangas with annoying characters, and even though all of the characters were annoying, i couldn't stop reading and I don't reggret finishing it.

Very mixed feelings towards this manga. I don't even know what to say anymore about it, other than that I don't want to put ... myself through it again. A one time experience is more than enough for me.

Convenient City of Peach Girl's manga
Extremely small population, anything anyone ever does never goes unnoticed.
Phones constantly run out of batteries and there's never good reception.
People do not know how to talk and they can't explain anything.
Police is basically a modern myth.
Love is RNG and changes with a strong wind.
Rape, pregnancy, alcohol these are normal topics for high schoolers of Peach Girl's city.

The biggest problem is of course the characters, they never explain anything that's going on and ALL of the problems with the manga could be fixed with a few words.

Even though it should be a Shoujo manga, there's nothing ... that makes you feel fluffy or happy inside.

Peach Girl is a nostalgic series for me, it is one of the first shojo series that I really got hooked onto. I loved the bold art style and the characters, the romance, the drama. I really related a lot to Momo, an outgoing but insecure girl that worries about her tanned skin and struggles with a manipulative and jealous friend, Sae.

This manga struck a chord with me particularly because of the duality between Momo and Sae. I knew a girl that was a lot like her when I was growing up, she always seemed to be changing to fit around other people. Every girl ... in our friend group came to resent her because she always found a way to get her hooks into other people’s crushes, boyfriends, and later in life a husband, and usually threw all of those boys away after causing a break-up. I never understood that girl, what motivated her, and what she really got out of these things. This was what made Peach Girl so memorable to me, it perfectly encapsulated a part of my life and it reminded me so much of that time.

Going back to this series as an adult, however, I found myself feeling really conflicted about this series. The story starts off strong, it’s so easy to cheer for Momo with an antagonist like Sae. The romance was believable and sincere, and despite some ups and downs everything felt contained. By the fifth volume, however, things started to go downhill and fast. The drama spirals so drastically out of control, and sexual assault is used as a plot point, and again as a scheme for revenge. It was never treated with any real care and it is gut-wrenching that it was used flippantly for a dramatic story arc. There are other very huge problems later on in the series with plot points that are hideously inappropriate. It left a bad taste in my mouth, but I tried to look past this as being a story of its time.

Even putting that all aside, characters seemed to change their minds so quickly and everything always felt so melodramatic and blown out of proportion. Momo finds herself in a love triangle with two equally wonderful and toxic boys and was hurt over and over again. After eighteen volumes, it frankly became exhausting. The indecisiveness of the characters becomes so frustrating, and I stopped caring about any of the characters.

It is the type of pop drama that was popular when I was a teenager, and it’s amazing that there is both a spin-off and a sequel because it all feels like a never-ending empty trashy drama. I wanted so much to love this series, and for it to be one of my all-time favorites, but I just can’t get past the problematic content to love this series, it just carried on for far too long and went way too far.

I first saw Peach Girl when I was 13 with one of my cousins and I absolutely loved it. There's a lot of anime/manga I saw/read when I was 13 that I absolutely loved, and after rewatching some of them as an older teen/young adult, I realized how shit some of them are. Given that there's been a bunch of series that I loved as a kid and then reintroduced myself to later in life and hated, I knew the same thing would happen if I ever rewatched the Peach Girl anime. So I didn't rewatch it. I read it. I've been on a nostalgia ... kick recently & I couldn't help myself. And the verdict is: I hated reading it.

Is it the worst thing I've read? No, by no means. Is it exhausting? Very. All the characters are so much more annoying than I remember them being. Especially Momo. I normally really like characters like Momo, and I did at first. But as the manga went on she just became extremely insufferable. As well as Kairi. I remember loving Kairi but jesus christ is he annoying as hell during the last couple volumes. And it's not like it's the last couple chapters no it's the last couple VOLUMES that are so obnoxious and exhausting to read. The story is very much high school drama, but it feels like the mangaka said "hey, let's throw shit on the wall and see what sticks". There's so much bullshit, it's so exhausting.

In case you couldn't tell, I find this manga exhausting

I love cheesy melodrama and I have a huge thing for nostalgia so I can't entirely hate it, but god is it worse than I remember (And I read the sequel manga, it's not any better. If you don't like Peach Girl in itself, you're not gonna like the sequel you can live without reading either.)

TLDR: It's not horrible, but it's not lifechanging

Years ago I watched the anime, I was probably 15, and I remember being so absolutely addicted to it. Naturally since I'm a big shoujo fan, I'd eventually want to check out the manga.

Let me just say, I acknowledge that this series has issues, but it was just so much FUN! The melodramatic story really worked for me, and I think that comes down to two major components, enjoyable characters, and a fantastic execution of the story. Normally I have such a hard time reading longer series, usually I get burnt out halfway through and I have to force myself to finish or just give ... up. But this was different. And that's all because of the insanity and soap opera qualities the story has. You never quite know what'll happen next. I wasn't sure if the anime followed the manga closely or not, and I didn't remember everything that happened, so even I had that sense of anticipation.

I just love the dynamics between the characters too, they offer up one of the best love triangles that I have ever seen. We have Momo, who's our protagonist, and is torn between two guys throughout the. entire. story. It's unclear if she'll end up with her childhood best friend, Toji, or if she'll fall for the former player who has a heart of gold, Kairi. But we can't forget Sae, the "friend" of Momo who just wants to take everything from her, and keep if for herself. She always has some horrible scheme cooking, and sometimes she actually ends up victorious in her plans. The whole setup is just great.

There were moments that dragged, times the characters pushed my patience too far, and not every storyline was as interesting as the others, but that didn't really detract much from my own personal enjoyment. Overall it's a fun, if ridiculous series.

Side note, the live action movie is surprisingly good, I recommend it!

Peach Girl is the kind of story that can make you really hate it, but also still make you want to finish it. The drama is just that ridiculous, absurd, and engaging. This manga has its good points, but also has a lot of bad points, too.

As the plot summary describes, Momo is a girl who seems a bit misunderstood and is constantly targeted by her classmate Sae. All Momo wants is to have a normal high school experience and crush on boys, but jealous Sae is determined to prevent that. Sae is a character that every reader comes to hate, but that is her ... role in this melodramatic manga.

Without Sae, this story wouldn't be what it is. Even though she is infuriating, she was necessary to create the theatric level of drama found in Peach Girl. Truthfully, the drama is what makes this story, as there isn't much character development. As long as you are looking for a dramatic romance and a wild rollercoaster of a plot, you may enjoy Peach Girl.

However, as other reviews have stated, there's a lot of triggering content in this story that is often brushed off (mostly frequent accounts of SA and age gaps). So please be warned before you read.

Besides the drama and crazy events, the romance in this story is actually very sweet. I won't spoil it obviously, but I actually really enjoyed the different romantic moments and how they are portrayed in this story amongst the main characters (not including any age gaps, as I don't enjoy those). Both the suitors in this love triangle are (for the most part) likable in their own way. They each have their own pros and cons to their characters, but in the end their devotion is nice to see.

I also personally love the art style of Peach Girl, but I personally love the style of 90's and 2000's manga, so I could be a bit biased. I think the way their eyes, hair, and mouths are drawn are just so different from how modern manga is now, and I honestly really miss this style. I think it has a special feel to it, and Momo's design definitely stands out from other manga heroines.

To close, I think that readers who enjoy the older manga vibe and art style may like Peach Girl. It definitely has some unlikable elements to it, but the story overall is still pretty entertaining if you enjoy melodrama. It isn't a story I would necessarily recommend to someone who is really new to manga, but it could be a recommendation for readers who may have already seen their share of weird things in manga, haha.

I remember reading this manga a while ago, and it was a hot mess from start to finish! I will say that I personally liked Sae. Not as a person, because she was honestly trash. Though I did like her character. Her character made me angry because she was so messy and had so many schemes. That is what made this such a stressful hot mess, and I lived! lol. Sae would go through hell, just to be messy and scheme in Momo's life. Sae got her everlasting life from the misery of Momo, and I got ... my life as Sae plotted her schemes! We honestly do need more villains like Sae. Not those boring villains from Yumeiro Patissiere that are just boring evil jealous girls who like a guy. I want more unhinged female villains like Sae! There was never a dull moment with her, and she carried TF outta this manga! I'm just saying!

Though other than the lovely hot mess that was Sae, I related to Momo. Momo basically gets bullied due to her naturally dark skin. People either make fun of her, or they fetishize her as overtly sexual because of it. I relate to that as a black person. I related to the frustration she felt of her friends lying to her, talking behind her back, and the cruelty she faced. I felt frustrated when her own boyfriend believed another woman over her. It was an emotional rollercoaster that I went on with her.

I highly recommend this manga. I'd recommend it for several types of people. I'd recommend it for the people who get treated unfairly, due to looking different to everyone else. I'd also recommend it for people who like hot messes like Sae, who are always full of schemes. Seriously, Sae is a female villain for real. She's a hot mess.

SPOILERS! DON'T READ AFTER THIS!!!

I was happy when she got with Kairi. This is one of the few times that I actually support the second male lead. The first male lead, Touji, was very frustrating. He contributed to the gaslighting and abuse that Momo was facing. I was so happy when she left him in the dust. He's too oblivious, and it does hurt to be that stupid.

I base my score not on any critical lense but purely on enjoyment. I don’t usually read Manga - but Peach Girl had me hooked (I inadvertently actually read Peach Girl Next First but somehow that made me enjoy all the foreshadowing in the original series more!!)(I got through both in a day).

The greatest assest of the series is it’s ability to make you CARE about the characters and what happens to them. You feel the agony and love and understand each thinking pattern - even if you don’t agree with it. By the end of the story you’ll definitely feel some ... type of way…

I know it is a really old manga, but i just read it several days ago and i can say that i enjoy this manga.

Story (7/10)
This is a really long manga and there are so many dramas. But i still think the story is okay since i still enjoy reading it (i can’t believe it i am not bored by this manga at all). The things that keep bothering me to give the story a better score is the fact that the author takes the dramas too far sometimes. (SPOILER) For example, momo, the main character, keep changing her partner between toji and kairi everytime ... she has a huge problem with one of them. The funny thing is This girl is not even trying to find out more about what is really happening and just keep thinking about her own happiness. But the worst drama is when toji has to break up with momo because sae (the villain) threatening him. I know from the first time that kairi is the first male lead, but i never think that the author would pull a plot like this to make kairi and momo together. I think it is a really bad way to break up relationship and it is so unfair for toji, he needs a happy ending too. (SPOILER STOP HERE) Anyway, despite the drama that is so long and too much, i still enjoy every chapter of this manga and i think that is the most important part.

Art (6/10)
If only the author can maintain the art just like the first 20 something chapter i would give it a better score (Maybe she is tired and forgot how to draw the character lol). The art keeps dropping and dropping. When i read it, i realized that the character becoming more like a child (smaller and smaller), especially kairi. At the end of the chapter kairi looks totally different than the first time u read it. He looks more like a cute guy at the end instead of a cool guy. It is a really big dissapointment for me.

Character (8/10)
For me, the character is quite good but not that great. First, lets talk about this MC, momo. I think she is not impressive at all. She keeps worrying over a small thing and doesn’t developed so much at the end of the series. Next is kairi. He is good and so funny, i like how he transform to become a better and more serious. Next is toji. Tbh, i dont see any development in him at all, he is not a bad person to start with though. The last one is sae. I never hate this girl although she did so many bad things and even cross the line. She is funny and makes the story keeps going and interesting. For the role of a villain, she is not that annoying and i think shoujo manga this days have worse MC than this girl (well, i mean look at that MC crying all the time just irritates me).

Enjoyment (9/10)
Like i said before, never even once i bored reading this manga. And i think when u read something. Enjoyment is the most important thing. So, i really appreciate the author for making this manga so fun to read.

Overall (8/10)
Overall it is a really good manga for me since i enjoy it so much. I also love the ending. U must read this manga instead of searching for shoujo manga nowadays which is full of a slut, crybaby, goody two shoes MC.

This is less of a review for others and more of a: >my< thoughts on Peach Girl.
So it DOES include spoilers!!!!! (but if you’re familiar with the TokyoPop version, you know about the titles. And if you know about the titles, I’m sure you can at least guess where I’m going at).

~INTRODUCTION~

Listen, Peach Girl means a lot to me. It was the first shoujo I ever read, the first manga I ever collected and the first manga that I bought completely “blind”: all of the other mangas I bought I had already watched the anime adaptation first and knew at least a little bit about ... the story.

All I did was look at the cover and the art style, which are VERY PRETTY and appealing to me, so I bought it.

Today, I’m 25 years old and have finished rereading this story. And while I still hold it dear to my heart, I gotta admit this is a very problematic story.

~SEX~

First, I think that while it is considered a shoujo, it is definitely more suitable for late teens (like… 18+). Sex is an important feature in this story, even though there are NO sex scenes. There’s a bit of nudity, there’s /almost/ sex scenes, there’s RAPE ATTEMPTS (!!!!!!) (though this concerns more violence) and more. I first began reading it when I was about 8 years old, so I definitely shouldn’t have.

There were no warnings concerning this in the cover and while I am in no way a prude, I think that the reader needs to have at least a little bit of maturity to understand what is really going on.

~RAPE~

As I mentioned previously, there are rape ATTEMPTS. More than ONCE, even. This could potentially trigger a percentage of readers who have been through something similar. And, to a younger audience, it could potentially “teach” them wrong notions about it.

By the time I reached this part in the story, I was around 15 years old. Much older than when I first started reading, but still not that mature enough. I understood that those were rape attempts but I didn’t understand what rape really was about.

~LOVE TRIANGLES~

As a kid, I liked the idea of two handsome men fighting for the love of… well, me. As a teen, I thought that it was an unrealistic idea, but I just shrugged it off. As an adult… I HATE love triangles.

This trope is more used to bring drama into the story, and in this case, it brought ALL the (unnecessary) drama. To the point that you start to wonder: did Momo ever really love ANY of those guys?

As alluded in the subtitle of vols 8-18 (“change of heart”), Momo starts to love Kairi instead of Toji. As a “Team Kairi” person since a kid, I was ecstatic to read that. But when I found out HOW that turned out… oof. Big oof.

I’ll comment more about the couple’s lack of conversation in the next topic, but in this one I’ll focus on all the shifts the story had with Toji and Kairi:

Momo starts with Toji > Toji breaks up with her, she dates Kairi > bullshit happens (lol) and she goes back to Toji > even more bullshit happens and she gets confused as to “who to pick” (???) > She ends up with Kairi.

Look. I’m happy that she ended the story with my prefered character, but it seemed so far-fetched. She had at least 3 CHANCES to pick Kairi (in the last few chapters) and in all 3 she chose Toji. At the very last moment, as if she was an actress in a movie and had just remembered that the script told her she had to choose Kairi, she sprints towards that ending.

I already said that love triangles are unrealistic, but this manages to top that. There were several times in my reread that I was furious with Momo’s indecision and that, had I not known the ending, I’d have dropped the manga.

I understand that she was fragile when the whole switcharoo started to happen, but wow. A side character tells Momo that to her it didn’t matter who she ended up with, as long as someone “showed up”. I kinda think she’s right.

(Not to mention: the whole love triangles trope is inconsiderate towards the “unchosen one”. One of these people will always have to give up the person they love and in Toji’s case, I think the way Momo handled the situation was VERY inconsiderate.)

~LACK OF CONVERSATION~

Toji breaks up with Momo to protect her from Sae. Did he really need to do that? Answer: NO.

He could’ve just talked to her and told her that Sae was blackmailing him. He could’ve tried a better way to protect Momo, instead of having to do what Sae wanted. But nope. “I’d rather take decisions by myself about my relationship without even talking to my girlfriend”.

Many chapters later, Momo was now with Kairi and they had an agreement. “I’ll wait for you for 5 minutes and if you don’t come by then, I’ll know your answer”. Something comes up, Kairi CALLS HER and DOESN’T SAY WHAT HAPPENED and expects her to still wait for him.

Like??? He already called her, he SHOULD have said what happened and why he’d be late. He could’ve told her everything by the phone and she’d have waited for him, but instead, he did exactly what Toji did in the beginning: didn’t. Talk. to. Her. about. Important. Stuff.

At least 80% of the drama in this story could’ve been prevented by having a conversation. That drove me mad.

~THE GOOD POINTS (AND CONCLUSION)~

There are many many other little points that I’d like to share but I think I’ve already said the most important ones and I already gave too many spoilers, so I’ll wrap it up:

With these many flaws, how can I still LIKE this story and give it a somewhat high rating?

Peach Girl, while flawed and problematic, is entertaining. Even though I already knew how it ended, it had me avidly reading page after page, on the edge of my seat, hoping that it would all end okay for my favorite characters.

Momo is kind and good-hearted, even though she should hate Sae’s guts and wish her harm, she keeps worrying about her and even considers her a friend. Sae starts off as a bitch but through character development she gets better and even helps Momo and Kairi towards the end. Toji is a good boy despite everything. Kairi starts off as a funny guy, perfect even, but through character development and his backstory we can see a whole new side of him.

Many points of the story are absurd to the point of being unreal, but at least the characters are very real to me.

Plus: it was fun! True, I did have waaay more fun reading it as a kid/teen than I did as an adult, but it was still nice.

Would I still love it if I read it for the first time as an adult?
Probably not. I probably would’ve dropped this a long time ago lol

Should you read this, after this monstrous review?
I don’t know. You tell me. If you don’t, I won’t blame you. If you do, I hope you can grow to love these characters as much as I did :)

Characters - 5.5/6
Momo Adachi's best trait is the fact that I have never seen a shoujo protag like her. She is very powerful but emotional, and she is a character the perfectly defines that everyone should have self-love. She is dark-skinned, and deals with sexual harassment. Sae Kashiwagi is a very evil girl; her character is terrible, but not in a bad way. Sae's character is very well written, and 100% relatable for people who have dealt with girls like her. On the complete other side of the spectrum, however, the male characters are TERRIBLE. Toji is ... like a piece of cardboard, I don't understand why he of anyone is the love interest. He is stale and clueless, so clueless that it's annoying. Kairi/Kylie is a bit better, but his hypocrisy is equally irritating. You'll understand if you read.


Art - 7
Art style is very good, and deviates from the norm, especially from the 90s and early 2000s when anime was developing it’s very moe look. Colored art on manga cover is a little unappealing, looks out of place for art style, and may drive possible modern readers away. Very expressive and I found no issue with anatomy. Again the cover art is…..hm...

Plot - 6.5
Plot is overall actually really good, but the reason I’m giving a 6.5 rather than a 7 or 8 is because of some of the actions that the protagonists make that seem COMPLETELY out of character. I will not go into detail to avoid spoilers. A lot of things are over dramatic, but I never attended Japanese high school, so I have so clue from experience if drama is the same as it’s treated in the manga. I don’t see why Momo would even have respect for Toji after much of the drama. Just give up on him girl! But the reason I’m giving a 6.5 rather than a 6 or 5 is because the plot problems didn’t start happening until about halfway through the series, and I can forgive some of the issues.

Enjoyment - 8
Honestly couldn't put the series down despite it's flaws!

Total - 7