Review: Wedding Peach (Manga)

When ordinary schoolgirl Momoko Hanasaki is attacked by a demon, she is saved by a mysterious angel named Limone and is gifted magical powers. She, along with her friends Yuri Tanima and Hinagiku Tamano, learn that they are the mythical Love Angels and that they must find the Sacred Four Somethings in order to defeat the maniacal Reine Devila.

Wedding Peach is a six volume shōjo manga series written by Sukehiro Tomita and illustrated by Nao Yazawa.

Originally published in 1994 during the height of Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon’s popularity, Wedding Peach is a magical girl series that is often (unfavourably) compared to its iconic predecessor. Much like in Sailor Moon, its lead characters use magical items to transform into warriors of love and whose goal is to seek out legendary artifacts. Further similarities exist in its themes and the concept of past lives ruined by an evil queen. That said, Wedding Peach manages to hold its own against its forerunner. It proves itself to be a heart-warming series about the inexhaustible power of love and the ultimate triumph over evil.

Wedding Peach focuses on a trio of likeable characters – Momoko, Yuri and Hinagiku – as they navigate through their first experiences with love on top of having to fight the forces of evil as Love Angels. In this respect, there is a surplus of character development. As readers, we quickly understand who these characters are even in the broad strokes that are initially used to paint them. Momoko is the scatterbrained leader, Yuri is the soft-spoken and elegant one, and Hinagiku is the impulsive tomboy. We’re able to see the characters grow through their relationships, especially with Hinagiku and her increasing feelings for her childhood friend Takuro. Even still, much of the attention is squarely placed on Momoko. There’s poignancy to her family life, particularly in how her loneliness and forced independence is acknowledged through the absence of a maternal figure in her life. There’s also the complex relationship she has with the soccer player Yousuke, who goes from being a total lout to being a sweet guy who genuinely cares for her.

Wedding Peach has its fair share of shortcomings. Despite being immersed in a world where angels must protect their heavenly realm from the invading forces of demons, this series is remarkably light on world building and on developing its own mythology. Yazawa and Tomita borrow from Christian and Greek lore, juxtaposing it further with traditions from wedding ceremonies, but do little to elaborate on anything. The first few volumes of this series work nicely and unfold an engaging plot, but things begin to fall off the rails by the fifth volume. A fourth Love Angel is introduced, Angel Salvia, but her personality is extremely aggressive and there’s very little to like about her. Her introduction also leads into a random, but welcomingly unexpected, plot twist about Yousuke. Sadly, the series is abruptly wrapped up before the team behind Wedding Peach can execute anything worthwhile with these revelations. This also means that the conclusion to the series feels tacked on and wholly anticlimactic. The final battle against the Big Bad Reine Devila is depressingly underwhelming.

Wedding Peach is unlikely to ever crawl out from under the shadow of its more famous antecedent Sailor Moon, especially since the latter became a media juggernaut and whose manga series remains a sweeping epic with elaborate mythologies and multi-dimensional characters. Wedding Peach is a satisfying, but somewhat disposable, read. The action sequences are well done and the adherence to the wedding motif is thankfully kept to a bit of a minimum, instead opting to focus on character development and the fight against the forces of Reine Devila. As a whole, what makes Wedding Peach fun to read is its colourful cast of characters who are easy to relate to and its overall youthful tone. However, it fails to build an immersive world, provide necessary backstories and motivations to its villains, and never quite settles on a cohesive narrative that has a distinct sense of direction.

RATING: C+