is a Japanese manga series by Miwa Ueda. A high school drama centered on character Momo Adachi, her love life, friendships and rivalries, it was published in Japan by Kodansha in Bessatsu Friend from 1998 to 2003 and collected in 18 volumes. The series was adapted as a Taiwanese drama in 2002 and Japanese anime television series in 2005. A manga sequel set ten years after the original, titled Peach Girl Next, began its serialization on Be Love on August 12, 2016. It ended with a total of eight volumes, the last of which was released in January 2020. On mid-March 2016, the live-action film adaptation was announced. The film was released in Japan on May 20, 2017.
The North American version of the manga is published by Kodansha USA, with all 18 volumes under the same title. It was previously published in two parts by Tokyopop: Peach Girl, covering the first eight volumes of the Japanese release; and Peach Girl: Change of Heart, comprising the final ten books. The anime is distributed by Funimation, currently known as Crunchyroll in North America.
Plot Momo Adachi is a former member of the high school swim team. She goes tan easily and her hair is bleached out; unfortunately, she is stereotyped by her ignorant classmates and is forced to endure rumors about being an "easy girl" who has had many sexual relationships. Her only friend is Sae, who is actually responsible for spreading the nasty gossip due to her jealousy of Momo. Momo is in love with Toji, a taciturn baseball player, but the scheming Sae also has her sights set on the boy. Momo's life is further complicated with the introduction of Kairi Okayasu, a wise-cracking playboy who is determined to make her his. He reveals to Momo that she had saved him from drowning the summer before high school started.
Things become even more complicated when Sae, in an attempt to make Momo miserable, spreads rumors about Momo and Kairi making out. The rumor about the kiss between the two is true, but it was Kairi who initiated it while Momo remained stunned by the interaction. When Toji is hospitalized, Sae convinces Toji to break up with Momo. Thanks to Kairi and Sae's lies again, he finds out about all the lies and spreads rumors that Sae has made up, then tells the truth about him and Momo, resulting in the students apologizing to Momo and hating Sae. Toji and Momo get back together. However, Sae later tries to make their relationship complicated again by threatening to discredit Momo with her newly acquired access to the mass media. Although Toji is initially defiant, he breaks up with Momo to protect her in a reluctant manner. Momo was initially heartbroken due to not knowing that it was part of Sae's schemes, but eventually begins dating Kairi, whom she had previously considered annoying and begins to fall in love with him. When it is revealed to Momo why Toji broke up with her, Momo is left to choose between Toji and Kairi.
In "Sae's Story", Sae is left back for one year as she was always skipping classes. She is too stubborn so she goes to Momo's and Kairi's university everyday. Toji goes to a good university by himself. Sae meets one of her childhood sweethearts, Kanji, who left for Malaysia when they were young, and promised to marry Sae when he returned. As Kanji falls in love with Sae, he follows her around, trying to win her over. He takes care of Sae's dog, Sora, when her parents would no longer let her keep it. The dog walks with a little limp. One day, when Sora tried to follow Sae, she threw a rock at its paw and injured it. Sae starts modeling and pretends she goes to college with Momo when she is still in high school. She meets Honda and works for CC as a model. She meets a guy named Takuma, only for him to reject his confession. Sae meets another guy named Shinji but realizes he never loved her. Those situations make Sae realize that Momo, Kairi, and Kanji are the only people who care for her.
Characters
Played by: Mizuki Yamamoto (Live Action 2017) Momo is the main protagonist with tan skin and light hair, derived from her constant swimming in chlorinated pools while on the swim team. She mistakenly gives others the impression that she is a "beach bunny", lover of the Ganguro style, or sexually promiscuous. On the inside, Momo is a shy and insecure girl. She has loved Toji for many years, only to herself falling in love with Kairi. When Momo found out Toji disliked girls with tan skin, she started to avoid swimming pools and wore a lot of sunblock to get her skin to its original color, presumed to be fair. Later on, Momo finds out that Toji never said he disliked girls with tan skin. Ryoko, her from junior high school, had made that up because she had liked him too. Momo is often confused later on when she likes both Toji and Kairi at the same time, causing several disputes between the two boys.
Played by: Mei Nagano (Live Action 2017) Sae is the main antagonist who does everything to ruin Momo's life. Her fair features such as her pale skin and dark hair serve as a contrast for Momo, with "innocent" appearance highlighting her mischief and troublemaking nature. She is the one who spreads malicious gossip about Momo, something Momo knows but has trouble dealing, with as people believe in Sae more than the "airheaded ganguro girl" to the point that Toji believed Sae over Momo. She often uses the gossip to make people dislike Momo as a result of her own jealousy and insecurity.
Played by: Kei Inoo (Live Action 2017) Kairi is Momo's popular and carefree classmate. He has the reputation of being a playboy, something he is not exactly proud of. Kairi thought that Momo was the one who once gave him CPR when he almost drowned at the beach when they were younger, only to later find out he had been saved by the local male lifeguard. Once the two started dating, his insecurities about relationships are revealed to stem from his unrequited love for Misao, the school nurse and Kairi's former tutor. However, after Kairi confesses and is shot down by her, he actually feels relieved and confident to pursue his relationship with Momo. The English-language manga translation uses the non-standard romanization "Kiley Okayasu" Other sites, such as Funimation, Kodansha Japan, and non-English-language publishers, use "Kairi".. The English version of Peach Girl NEXT uses Kairi.
Played by: Mackenyu (Live Action 2017) Nicknamed , he is a boy who has been Momo's crush since junior high school, but she never confessed to him due to a friend saying Toji dislikes girls with tan skin. He has a good heart, but tends to be hard-headed and oblivious to what is in front of him, believing what Sae says over Momo much to the frustration of the latter.
Played by: Yuika Motokariya (Live Action 2017) Misao is the school nurse and a big sister figure for Momo. She was once Kairi's tutor and crush as well as an old flame of Ryo's. Misao was dating and broke up with Kairi, but still loves him.
Played by: Kensei Mikami (Live Action 2017) Ryo is Kairi's older brother who works in the video game industry and is considered the male counterpart of Sae. He is in love with Misao and was dating her briefly, but Misao broke up with him due to his cold and manipulating attitude, which stemmed from Sae hurting Misao.
Played by: Daisuke Kikuta (Live Action 2017) Nicknamed , Ooji is a male model who is smitten with Sae and unaware of her true personality. She uses him in her schemes against Momo.
Morika is young woman who was once dating the Okayasu brothers. She has a grudge against Ryo and tries to use Kairi against him. Morika hires some thugs to punch Ryo as revenge for using her.
Media Manga
After the run of the original manga, a sequel titled was published in Japan by Kodansha in Bessatsu Friend from 2004 to 2006 and collected in three volumes. It is told from the point of view of Sae, the main antagonist of Peach Girl. It is licensed in North America by Tokyopop.
Anime
Film
A live action film of the same name directed by Koji Shintoki was released on 20 May 2017. It stars Mizuki Yamamoto as Momo Adachi and Kei Inoo as Kairi Okayasu. Other cast members are Mackenyu as Toji, Mei Nagano as Sae Kashiwagi, Yuika Motokariya as Misao Aki, Kensei Mikami as Ryo Okayasu, and Daisuke Kikuta as Jigoro. Its main theme song is "Call Me Maybe" by Carly Rae Jepsen.
Other adaptations Peach Girl received a 13-episode Taiwanese drama in November 2002, starring Annie Wu, Vanness Wu of F4 and Kenji Wu. The setting was changed from high school to college. It was produced by Comic Ritz International Production and ) as producer and was broadcast in Taiwan on free-to-air CTS. The opening theme song is "Love is You" () by Wang Leehom and the ending song is "I Believe in Your Love" () by . The insert song "Who Do You Love If Not Me?" () by Vanness Wu is also featured in the show.
Reception The manga has sold over 13 million copies. In 1999, Peach Girl won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōjo.
References
External links
FUNimation Peach Girl website