THE MOVIE:

This review contains spoilers, as it's the fifth in a series. If you're new to Peach Girl, then perhaps try the earlier reviews as a start: vol. 1 vol. 2 vol. 3 vol. 4

Peach Girl: Super Pop Love Hurricane began with a bang, trucking along for two excellent volumes before sliding to a low point that, thankfully, bottomed out on DVD 4. This newly released fifth volume puts the series back on track, and as the penultimate collection of episodes, prepares us for what will hopefully be a satisfying conclusion.

Bringing together episodes 18-21, Peach Girl - Volume 5 almost has me believing that the animation team back in Japan read my review last time and took my complaints to heart. Alas, since this series is a couple of years old, that can't be true, but it's nice to dream every once in a while. Where this handful of shows works and where the previous installments did not is that it gets us back to the core four that started out Peach Girl, letting the newer characters like Kairi's brother Rio drift off to the side. The driving line of the entire high school drama has been the question of whom Momo will end up with in the end, the jockish heartthrob Toji or cute class clown Kairi. All the other subplots were only there to draw the action out, a gamble that didn't pay off since it made at least one viewer (this one) restless.

At the start of Peach Girl - Volume 5, Kairi and Momo are a couple, seemingly getting along and enjoying their summer job as convenience store clerks. Sae is back to form, however, and the cunning villainess is once again manipulating everyone to see how easily she can snap the tenuous bonds of the heart. In vol. 4, we learned that Kairi has had a longstanding rivalry with his brother that went supernova when they both vied for the same woman. Convinced that he and Momo can't truly be happy until he confronts his feelings for her, Kairi sets out on a journey away from home to sort himself out. Momo promises to wait, unaware that Sae sees all.

In her usual way, Sae makes sure that Momo is in earshot when she finally breaks things off with Tojii, letting him off the hook and confessing to the various threats she blackmailed the boy with in order to get him to dump Momo and date her. At long last, Momo understands that Tojii doesn't hate her, but he would go to great lengths to protect the girl he loves. Even so, Momo stays true to Kairi...for as long as she can. The fun of Peach Girl, both in the anime and the Miwa Ueda manga the cartoons are based on, is the constant up and down of the love affairs, the misunderstandings and mishaps that lead to Momo bouncing from one boy's arms to another. In vol. 5, there are misread messages, acts of violence, and even that hoariest of soap opera conventions, the raging storm, conspiring to split Momo and Kairi and put Toji back in pole position. He was Momo's first choice back when this whole thing started, after all.

From an animation standpoint, much of vol. 5 looks quite good. The exaggerated elements are still dialed back in comparison to the early shows, but once they get Momo out of her work uniform, the animators start to play around with her clothes and hair again. The seaside scenes look quite lovely, and in particular, the scenes of Kairi caught in the typhoon are exceptional.

Still, it's the story that makes this serial work, and Peach Girl is making the all the right moves by getting back to the fickleness of romance. Most of the segments here are sappy and overly dramatic, just the way it should be. With only one more DVD and a few more episodes to go, Peach Girl: Super Pop Love Hurricane is getting charged up for what is sure to be a raucous finish. Stock up on the tissues, this one could be a tearjerker!

THE DVD

Video/Sound:
One thing that has remained consistent with the Peach Girl series is that, from a technical standpoint, the discs have all been very good. Vol. 5 is full frame like the rest, and just as colorful and good looking as them, too. You'll get no complaints from me.

The audio mixes--a 2.0 English audio and 2.0 of the original Japanese soundtrack--are also standing strong. Though my normal preference is to stick to the Japanese audio, I actually like the English cast for the series and have no problem recommending that you could choose either option depending on your preference.

Extras:
As with the preceding DVDs, we get the opening and closing credits with textless options and trailers for other Funimation titles. There are eight trailers, including one for the next Peach Girl disc. Another short trailer is set up as a forced viewing before the main menu loads.

As an added bonus, two Japanese advertisements are also included. A thirty-second spot highlights the manga, showing two covers with surrounding Japanese text. This is silent, and not translated at all. They do, however, subtitle the two-and-a-half minute Japanese commercial for the Peach Girl anime series, which largely uses footage from the first batch of episodes.

Certainly non-essential bonuses, but they are there nonetheless.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Peach Girl - Volume 5 kicks us into the homestretch for the anime series by getting us back to the original concept: four high school students dueling it out in the confusing wilderness of romance. Miscommunication, manipulation, and lots of overwrought emotions are the order of the day, and it makes for one of the goopiest teen soap operas you're likely to see from Japan, America, or anywhere else. With consistently good animation and solid designs lifted straight from Miwa Ueda's comic books, Peach Girl is a serial worth sticking with. Recommended.

Jamie S. Rich is a novelist and comic book writer. He is best known for his collaborations with Joelle Jones, including the hardboiled crime comic book You Have Killed Me, the challenging romance 12 Reasons Why I Love Her, and the 2007 prose novel Have You Seen the Horizon Lately?, for which Jones did the cover. All three were published by Oni Press. His most recent projects include the futuristic romance A Boy and a Girl with Natalie Nourigat; Archer Coe and the Thousand Natural Shocks, a loopy crime tale drawn by Dan Christensen; and the horror miniseries Madame Frankenstein, a collaboration with Megan Levens. Follow Rich's blog at Confessions123.com.