Peach Girl

To set the record straight, I wasn't even interested in this anime when it was still showing. What changed my mind was Kiuchi Hidenobu who is the voice actor of Touji. Oh well, to cut the story short, I was doing a search of the works he appeared in and I happened to see this title. And when I checked out the storyline and some reviews, my interest was aroused so I decided to see this for myself. In actual fact, my main motive was to hear Kiuchi-san's voice again ever since he made me swoon with Oshitari Yuushi and I kind of liked him as Tenma in Monster. ^__^

Basically, the story is about this senior high school girl, Adachi Momo who is tanned and her hair bleached. On the surface, she seems like a very wild girl but she looks like this as she was previously from the swimming team in junior high. She has been secretly in love with her ex-junior high schoolmate Toujigamori Kazuya (Touji) but has never told him about it. In addition, she heard from her friend that Touji doesn't like tanned girls so Adachi is trying her very best to make herself fairer so that she can confess to Touji about her feelings when the time comes. However, she has a classmate, Kashiwagi Sae who loves to copy her and snatch her favourite things. To prevent Sae from laying hands on Touji, she lies to Sae that she likes Okayasu Kairi who is a popular playboy in school and this marks the beginning of her turbulent friendship and relationship with Okayasu. Touji overhears that Adachi likes him and tells her that he likes her too so they start dating. Sae decides to spoil Adachi's happiness and drives a wedge between her and Touji. Things get really bad and they are even on the edge of a breakup. Touji manages to see through Sae's true colours through Okayasu and makes up with Adachi. Nevertheless, things do not go well as Sae is yet again jealous about Adachi. She sets a trap which she took compromising photos of Adachi and another guy and threatens Touji to break up with Adachi or she will leak the photos to the press. Touji has no choice but to do Sae's bidding and hurts Adachi badly. Through the pain, Okayasu supports Adachi through it and they even start dating. However, Adachi realises that she is only second-best in Okayasu's heart since he's in love with their school's medical teacher, Misao. Even though she tries to convince herself that she is content with this position as long as she can be with Okayasu, she is unable to bear it when he does not give a clear indication of his feelings and breaks his promise again. Under such circumstances, Touji and Adachi make up again much to Okayasu's shock when he finally realises how important Adachi means to him. However, Adachi shows no signs of returning to him but her stand is shaken when she realises that Okayasu did mean to fulfil his promise. As such, she is torn between Touji and Okayasu which means she has to make a choice between them.

Talking about the characters, let me discuss the guys first. Personally, I like Touji better and it's not really because Kiuchi-san is the voice actor. It's just that I find him more of my type and a very "otoko-mae" type of person. Besides, I like his looks better i.e. cool and yet very kind and caring. However, the only thing which I don't like about him would be his handling of the incident concerning Sae's blackmail. Well, I do understand his kind intentions about protecting Adachi and bearing the pain all by himself but when the cover was blown, it made Adachi rather guilty and it could have formed part of the reason why Adachi went back to him after Okayasu failed to make it for their promise. If I was in that situation, I would have preferred that both of us go through this together instead of going through such a painful experience. What if Touji had chosen to brave through this with Adachi instead of listening to Sae? This might not have brought about Adachi falling in love with Okayasu later. As for Okayasu, I just don't feel too secure with such a guy. He keeps too many things to himself, too distrusting and very unclear about what he wants to do. He only realises a lot of things when it's too late to make amends and I can't imagine trying to do a lot of guesswork in a relationship. It's simply too tiring. In addition, he seems too frivolous (although his real nature is not really like that) for my liking. With regards to Adachi's final choice, all I can say that it's logical but not really what I had wished for. And it's evident whom I was rooting for. Somehow, I felt that Adachi and Touji had love between them but Adachi and Okayasu seem to have begun on the basis of sympathy and being the substitute for each other's true loves. That is why I don't really like the idea of Adachi professing how much she loves Okayasu when it's evident that Touji still means a lot to her.

For the girls, Adachi is a kind person especially for her repeated attempts to help Sae despite the latter being a bitch but I was rather sick of her going to and fro in her relationships and moping around too much. I know there are 2 wonderful guys in front of her and it's hard to choose but by this changing attitude, it would have hurt a lot of people. As for Sae, I had the urge to strangle her when she kept irritating people with her antics especially when she forced Touji to break up with Adachi. Although she became a better person in the end after going through a relationship with Okayasu's playboy elder brother, Ryo, I really can't say that I like her.

On the whole, this anime is quite entertaining and I finished it in 2 days. However, I wouldn't say that this ranks in my all-time Top 10 favourite since I thought that the to-and-fro relationship was kind of hard to accept. Well, the biggest reward of watching this anime is getting to "know" Touji and hear Kiuchi's voice again... ^__^