Peach Boy Riverside
Studio: Asahi Production
Genre: Fantasy, Action
Streaming: Crunchyroll
The latest fantasy action anime to air this season is Peach Boy Riverside, a series originally penned by the same author as the popular Miss Koboyashi’s Dragon Maid. As such fans of that series are likely to look into this one and it is likely to have the same style of character tropes, comedy, and fanservice scenes. The anime thus far follows former Princess Saltorine (casually known as Sally), as she travels outside her castle for presumably the first time. It isn’t long before she joins up with a friendly rabbit demi-human called Frau who feels indebted to her, and the two enter a human village and experience the racism and fear that demihumans incur.
The first episode jumps straight into the action in an almost disorienting manner – made more unusual considering this is not the original start of the manga which delves more into the background of Sally and her reasons for travelling. We’re told very little about Sally’s past or her reasons for leaving other than a brief flashback which shows her looking for a man with long hair. She comes across as confident but ultimately rather naive about society and how they see the nonhumanoid creatures such as Frau. Frau however is clearly made out to be essentially harmless and polite, clinging onto Sally’s casual generosity and protecting her when a terrifying oni attacks. She shows a surprising amount of power for her small frame, which unfortunately makes the other villagers terrified of her instead – much to Sally’s anger. Later they meet a knight who tries to arrest them, only to let them go almost straight away – rather a pointless way to introduce a new character I thought. If arresting them was merely a pretense, I’m not sure why he felt he had to so in the first place just to keep up appearances. Finally, we see some more of the oni’s towards the end of the episode and can see how varied their forms take – and how brutally they can attack humans. This is where the episode really takes a bit of a tone shift as the ensuing massacre is extremely gory which felt a bit at odds with the previously light tone, and marks this show out to be aimed squarely at adults.
Production-wise, there’s not a whole lot to shout about – the character designs are fairly colourful but nothing too out of the ordinary. The oni’s themselves look a little dorky at times, and Sally’s figure is ridiculously accentuated to play up the fanservice. Most other characters are completely forgettable with the exception of Frau who has quite possibly the most interesting design – a rabbit-like creature incongruously wearing a sailor suit. There was also a really unusual moment when the anime descended into pure gratuitous fan service when Sally sees an octopus for sale and has some kind of flashback presumably of an unpleasant experience she had. It comes quite out of nowhere, which is rather odd considering there was nothing at all of that nature beforehand.
Thus far, aside from an interesting twist with Sally’s character towards the end of the episode, this anime comes across as a fairly typical fantasy action show. There were some genuinely nice moments between the characters of Frau and Sally, and both of them were fairly likable. The opening song was pretty good also in setting the mood of the show, but also looked to reveal quite a lot which it would have been nicer perhaps to not know at this point (such as how one of the antagonists in this episode looks to likely join up with the main duo in the future). It’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine when the opening or ending credits reveal big plot points in the show, and it’s a shame that this anime very much falls into this trap.
Peach Boy Riverside performs the tropes of action fantasy anime quite well and doesn’t really stretch its boundaries much yet. It’s hard to say if this one will be a big hit in the coming season given we have some big sequels also airing such as That Time I got Reincarnated as a Slime, and funnily enough the second season of Miss Koboyashi’s Dragon Maid by the same author. It’s not a show that caught my attention enough to carry on, but I can see it developing a fanbase of its own.
Peach Boy Riverside
Peach Boy Riverside performs the tropes of action fantasy anime quite well and doesn't really stretch its boundaries much yet.
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