The new anime season rolls on, churning out new shows for fans to consume. One series I’m enjoying quite a lot is Peach Boy Riverside, a fun story about heroes fighting demons called Oni. It’s got great characters, great battles, and great animation. Oh, and it’s also got this…
Yes. If you like your fantasy anime with a side of bouncing anime boobs, then Peach Boy Riverside might be the anime for you!
Peach Boy Riverside is the Story of Momotaro
One of the most famous children’s stories in Japan is the tale of Momotaro (“Peach Boy”), about an elderly couple who find a giant peach floating down a river. The peach opens to reveal a baby boy who they name Momotaro, who the couple raises as their son. When the boy grows up, he goes off to fight some evil ogres who are ravaging the land and returns with many riches. The story emerged out of old folk tales and was first written down in the late 17th century.
In a nutshell, the premise of Peach Boy Riverside is that there was more than one peach containing more Momotaro-esque heroic characters to fight the Oni demons…
The first character we meet is Sari, a princess who’s escaped from home because she’s seeking adventure, and a mysterious boy named Mikoto who slew demons near her home. It turns out that both Sari and Mikoto are children born from river peaches, and thus have special powers that allow them to defeat these Oni demons. Sari is soon joined by a cute rabbit demi-human named Frau who wears a Sailor Moon cosplay suit and constantly hungers for carrots, a human named Hawthorne, and a defeated former demon named Meki as they adventure with Mikoto.
Based on a Manga that was Moved Due to Gore and Sexy Fanservice?
Peach Boy Riverside originally appeared as a manga published in Weekly Shonen VIP, but it was moved to another magazine due to concerns over its use of grotesque images during combat, as well as sexy visual fanservice. Eventually, it moved to a web manga format, where there’s less sensitivity about what you can portray in comics.
The anime is based on a remake of the manga which, thankfully, maintains the blood, violence, and “plot” that caused Japanese fans to embrace the story. It also remixes the original work a bit, focusing more on the character of Sari and showing the story out of order to better present the complex story to viewers who might not know the manga.
Why You Should Watch Peach Boy Riverside!
The characters are great. I am loving them all, from Sari to rabbit-girl Frau and especially the former demon Meki. The show gets the balance of its characters right.
The scale of the story. Good storytelling involves dramatic situations where the stakes are high enough that we care about the outcome of a struggle. When Hawthorne’s kingdom gets blown up in an instant, leaving him with no home to return to, we realize that there’s more in this universe than we bargained for.
The moral ambiguity of the story. It’s interesting, hearing Meki give the ogres’ take on why they’re making war on humans, who ceaselessly expand into their territory and use up all their resources. At this point we’re not sure if Sari and Mikoto are heroes or villains when they slay the Oni demons left and right.
Frau. There’s no better reason to watch this anime than Frau, the carrot-loving demi-human. Go watch it now, we’ll wait.
Thanks for reading my thoughts on the fun and ecchi fantasy anime Peach Boy Riverside. Got any other series or topics you’d like us to write about related to anime or Japan? Post them in the comments below, or let us know on Twitter!
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