Peach Girl volume 1

Peach Girl 1 by Miwa Ueda, 1998. 184 pages. Published by Tokyopop. Source: Borrowed from library.

It's not easy being beautiful. The envy, the jealousy, the vicious rumors spread by your best friend. That's life for young Momo. While everyone thinks that Momo is a wild party girl, the reality is that she is shy and honest. Can Momo confess her love to her classmate Toji, or will her best friend Sae steal him away. It's a bittersweet drama of growing up and fitting...moreIt's not easy being beautiful. The envy, the jealousy, the vicious rumors spread by your best friend. That's life for young Momo. While everyone thinks that Momo is a wild party girl, the reality is that she is shy and honest. Can Momo confess her love to her classmate Toji, or will her best friend Sae steal him away. It's a bittersweet drama of growing up and fitting in that will charm girls everywhere.

Before my review starts, I just wanted to share with ya'll a quote that popped into my head while I was reading Peach Girl volume 1. Enjoy.

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Sun-tzu Chinese general & military strategist (~400 BC)

Story:
When I first picked up Peach Girl I didn't know what to think, mainly because the cover was just kind of...icky 90s tastic, but the interior art wasn't nearly as bad (thank goodness).

One of the most interesting things (to me) in Peach Girl was the twisted frenemy-ish relationship between Momo (the MC) and Sae (her evil "bestie"). I thought it made for an interesting twist because usually the MCs "enemy" is not within the same social circle as the hero/heroine.

While the whole frenemy aspect was interesting, what I really enjoyed was how Peach Girl was more about Momo's struggle for people to realize that even though she may look like a party girl, she's not; along with how detrimental "poisonous friendship" can be.
Peach Girl was a nice mix between serious and laugh out loud funny.
The funny thing about Peach Girl was the lengths in which Momo went in her effort to become paler (she apparently tans really well). I just couldn't help but laugh, especially since she was doing it all because she over heard the boy she likes saying he doesn't like super tanned girls. Needless to say I found it funny.
Now, with that in mind you would think that there wouldn't really be any serious situations in Peach Girl, but there are because Momo has to deal with the petty barbs that her classmates make at her expense and with a best friend who main goal is to take everything/everyone she has her eye on.

Character(s):
Momo is definitely a miss understood character, and for that I liked her. She ended up being one of those characters for me that I couldn't help but like, especially since she had so much negativity directed at her and yet she continually tried to rise above.

If evil had a name it would be Sae from Peach Girl. She was down right rotten and horrible; frankly, she put most female antagonists to shame with her vindictiveness and the lows in which she'd sunk just to make poor Momo miserable.

Artwork:
I actually almost didn't pick up Peach Girl because I wasn't to hot on the cover art, but I decided to give it a go anyways.
The artwork was so so, not to spectacular, but then again not horrible. Although, once I finally got into the actual story it was easy to over look the slightly dated look of the characters hair and wardrobe and just enjoy an excellent read.

Final Verdict: Peach Girl knocked my socks (I finally found an excuse to say that *hehehe) off with how good it was.
I enjoyed Peach Girl 1 so much that I have already checked out the next two volumes. :)