Wedding Peach

 Wedding Peach Review 

I have always had an interesting relationship with the magical girl genre of anime. When I was young, and Toonami was on the air, the first thing that I remember watching was Sailor Moon. I started watching it because right afterward would be Dragon Ball Z or something, but Sailor moon was always on first, and I would always watch it. The magical girl genre, to me, has always been that way. It is something that I watch on the side, something that I regret not watching more of. Now that I’ve grown up, I really respect Sailor Moon, and am really looking forward to the reboot series coming soon. I also respect the genre as a whole. I know it can produce wonder thought provoking shows, really fun action pieces, and even just silly little fun shows. I also know it can produce awful, awful shows, but that is not what today is about. Today is about a little show I once watched part of years ago, and have now completed. It is a show about love and marriage. It is a show about girls who fight for not only their own love, but for all those in love. I am going to be saying love a lot, aren’t I? But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. This is Wedding Peach.

 

Those dresses do not look nice to fight in.

Wedding Peach is an anime from the mid 90’s that only got a dub a couple of years ago in 2005. It is a magical girl show about a war between two worlds, with our world in the middle. On one side, it is the peaceful and loving world of the angels, and on the other it is the world of the devils. The devils hate love and wish to see it eradicated. They plan on doing this by destroying the Saint Something Four. Have you ever heard of the something four? In weddings, it is traditional for the bride to be wearing something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue, and if she does she will have a happy life. The angels started this tradition, and accidently created the Saint Something Four, four objects that emit a powerful wave of love, so powerful that it can convert devils from evil hatful creatures to creatures of love. The problem is that the Saint Something Four were scattered and lost on earth. It is a race to see who can get it first, the angels, or the devils. This is where our main characters come in.

Our heroes! In both their outfits.

The show follows Momoko Hanisaki, a student and photographer for her school newspaper. She lives a normal life, spending time with her best friends Yuri and Hinagiku, and drooling over the captain of the soccer team, Captain Yanagiba, and also fighting with the goalie for the soccer team, Yousuke. One day, she is attacked by a devil, claiming that Momoko has a piece of the Saint Something Four, a ring her mother gave her. Luckily, she is saved by an angel making the scene, Limone. Limone gives Momoko her transformation device, and she transforms into the Love Angel Wedding Peach. Soon she is joined by her friends, Yuri and Hinagiku, becoming Angel Lily and Angel Daisy respectively. They transform into very good looking wedding dresses, which is really hard to fight in, so they get a second transformation, which is more battle ready. They are later joined by the fourth love angel, Angel Salvia. Together they fight evil, save the day, try to find the Saint Something Four, and even maybe find love. 

These girls kick ass!

 The dub for this series is interesting to say the least. I can’t honestly say that it is a well done, at least set by the standards that we hold today. The lip syncing is off, in almost every episode, like noticeably so. But it is all worth it for the line readings, mostly Yousuke’s. Every line he says is perfect. Whenever you watch someone act, or a voice actor, you call that they are doing a voice, that they are doing a character, and a good actor can make the voice, the character seem real. But there is still a disconnect between the actor and the character. But not with Yousuke, he is perfect; every line read is natural and sounds like a real person. His snide comments, his sarcasm, his emotions just seem very real, and it makes the character and those around him better. Also his reactions are perfect. Toward the end of the series Yousuke gets attacked by one of the Angels, and instead of acting manly and fictional he screams a girly scream and runs. It is honestly perfect, and just makes the character so much more human. It really bumps up this series for me, and while the voice actor for Yousuke is the best at this, every single character has moments where their lines were just read so naturally, and it just makes that the show feel more natural. 

This is Jama-P He is awesome. Fear is tiny wrath.

Now as I mentioned above, the Saint Something Four are very important for this series, as is the theme of love, and I love the way they tie together what each piece of the Saint Something Four represents, what type of love they represent, and how that goes with how each Love Angel got her powers, or at least a bit about their back-story. Momoko is supposed to represent the Saint Something New. When she first got her powers it was right after she had first met Yousuke, and the initial spark of love was set off. They were a new love, which is what the something new represents. Yumi got her powers after finding out that her mother made her own wedding dress, and decides that she will do the same, taking up a tradition passed down from mother to child. This represents the Saint Something Borrowed, which is the love of family and friends, the love that is passed down from mother to daughter and that two friends give each other. Then Hinagiku represents the Saint Something Old, which is the love of that comes in the future, the love between the two who got married years later. Hinagiku got her powers on the day of her parents wedding anniversary, which the something old perfectly represents. And then there is Scarlet, or Angel Salvia, who represents the Saint Something Blue. While we don’t see her gain her powers, it is revealed that salvia was always an angel, or at least remembered her past life as an angel. Her story goes that during the war with the devils, her best friend died after showing mercy to a devil. Salvia declared that she would let no devil live. She changes eventually, realizing that killing the devils is just as cruel as the devil that killed her friend, but it is her friend’s death that makes her represent the something blue. To me, the something blue is a sad love, the kind you feel when you look back. It hurts, but you want it to hurt, because then you know it meant something. Of course in marriage it is not something as serious as death, but when you marry someone you are giving up the life that came before, and that can be sad and happy at the same time. That is what the something blue is. Of course these are just my interpretations. The show has their own interpretations about what each piece of the something four represents, but they are wrong because I spent an unhealthy amount of time thinking about this, making me correct. God I love being a nerd sometimes.

OTP! ... You have heard nothing.

At the end I really like Wedding Peach. Yes, it is lame, it is derpy as all hell, and man is it 90’s. Yes, everything is very kiddish, with love being the ultimate power for good and it is kind of sexist because they believe that every girl should find her one true destined love and that marriage should be everybody’s end goal in life. But man oh man does it have heart. You believe in these characters, you root for these characters, you want them to find their loves, you want Momoko and Yousuke to finally start dating. And when they do, you are happy for them. This show is basically a fairytale. There are dark times to be sure, but love will always win, and such a pure message is something right out of a fairytale. And I like it for that. This show is funny, silly, even dark and sad t times, but it was truly an enjoyable watch. If you love the magical girl genre, or just want to watch something that you can really get into, I would recommend Wedding Peach. So until next time, have fun watching. 

Seriously, doesn't look like it, but is a good show.