Wedding Peach

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
"...for that, I cannot forgive you! The Love Angel Wedding Peach is extremely displeased!"

Wedding Peach is a standard Magical Girl Warrior show, reminiscent of Sailor Moon (more in the anime than the manga, mainly because the Sailor Moon anime and Wedding Peach anime both share the same character designer), but with a wedding motif, and only a fourth as many episodes. The manga ran for 6 volumes.

Momoko is clumsy, gets bad grades, but does have a job at the school paper and has her father's skill in photography. Her two best friends, Yuri and Hinagiku, also work on the school paper, and are rivals with her for the affections of the oblivious captain of the soccer team. One day, Momoko is awakened as Wedding Peach, a warrior in the ancient battle against the devils. What a surprise, her two friends also end up awakening as warriors: Yuri as Angel Lily, and Hinagiku as Angel Daisy. They all fight for truth and justice, and to protect the Saints Something Four from the devils. Occasionally, they get in real trouble, and Limone has to come use his trusty sword to help.

You can more or less tell where this is going if you follow Magical Girl shows. While there is a strong sense of Follow the Leader here, that's not necessarily a bad thing. If you want a crash course in Magical Girl Warrior tropes, this certainly covers as many of them as possible.

The manga was licensed in full by Viz Media, while the anime was licensed and dubbed by ADV Films; currently it is in danger of being on the fence due to it not being part of its mass licensing transfer.

The anime got a lot of flack from the magazine "Animerica" for supposedly pushing women to get married. The problem was that this was based on just the first few episodes that were localized, not the entire show. The wedding theme is actually a relatively minor thing on the show, and more used for a MacGuffin.

Has nothing to do with Princess Toadstool getting married.

Tropes used in Wedding Peach include:
  • Action Mom: Celestia, Momoko's mom. While she did take a break from demon busting to raise her kid, she proves a 15 year retirement did not make her rusty.
  • The Abridged Series: Wedding Peach Abridged
  • Absolute Cleavage: Rain Devila at the end of the anime.
  • Adaptation Dye Job: Lily, Daisy, and Potamos had blonde hair in the manga, which became brown, green, and purple in the anime, respectively.
  • After-School Cleaning Duty: Yousuke has to stay behind to clean the school's pool as punishment for being late. In the first of many Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other, Momoko stays behind to help and their relationship takes a step forward.
  • Aloof Ally: Salvia
  • Alternate Continuity: The manga's Young Love spinoff.
  • Exclusively Evil / Always Lawful Good: Devils and Angels respectively; the latter are all portrayed as evil and the latter as all good. There are exceptions latter on, with many demonic HeelFaceTurns and Salvia being more of an Anti-Hero thann a straight up love-love hero.
  • Always Need What You Gave Up: The beginning of the OVA reveals that the Love Angels chose to have their memories wiped of the ordeal of the battles in the TV series. The OVA then proceeds to show them that it wasn't such a good idea. See also the Victory-Guided Amnesia trope for more details as it works in conjunction with this trope
  • Amnesiac Dissonance: Yousuke's mother found his father passed out with a bad case of amnesia. After helping him recover they ended up falling in love, with Yousuke being the result. His father ends up abandoning them because he recovers his memories. He is actually a powerful devil who acts as The Dragon to the Big Bad. He is the source of Yousuke's devil half Viento. At the end of the series, in the manga at least, his father comes back, presumably to restore his relationship with his family. Power of Love, indeed.
  • Anti-Magic: Wedding Peach has the power to negate devil powers: possession, illusion, mind control etc will be dispelled with her "Lovely Operation Tempete".
  • As Long as There Is Evil: Inverted. "As long as love exists in this world, those of us with hateful hearts will never know peace." Its the villains who know that something intrinsic to the human heart will always be around. The solution, naturally, is to wipe out everyone who can love.
  • Barbie Doll Anatomy: In the anime only during transformations. As far as the manga, well....
  • Bat Out of Hell: Blackie, Ignis's Jama demon.
  • The Bechdel Test: Despite having three strong female leads, most episodes fail this test. Any time a serious discussion is threatened, someone mentions Yanagiba-sama and the heroines fall into lovesickness.
  • Big Bad: Rain DeVilla. The Queen of the devils and the main antagonist. She started the Angel-Devil war pre-series and is responsible for the main narrative's conflict.
  • Big Good: Aphrodite, Queen of the Angels and the ultimate superior for the heroes. She acts as the Barrier Maiden for the angel world, maintaining the barrier that protects it from the devils with her love wave.
  • Bishonen
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Momoko and Yousuke and invoked by Yuri: 'A good relationship is one worth fighting for'.
  • Blow You Away: Pluie, Tornade, Uragano, and Viento can do this. Daisy's Dasizy Blizzard counts as this too.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Yousuke has this happen to him when his half-devil gene starts to manifest later in the series and turn him into Viento
    • More Than Mind Control: This trope also comes into play with the above trope since it's not the standard type of brainwashing that Yousuke falls under as Viento. Since Rain Devila is the queen and his devil gene has awakened he's only following Rain Devila's twisted orders as a result of his devil gene.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Scarlett Ohara is half Japanese
  • Broken Aesop: A lot of the supposed morals of the episodes don't quite seem to fit the actual events of the plot.
    • For example there's the 'fat' episode where guys say they like slim girls. The Aseop being there's more to attraction than looks but the girls themselves (despite knowing this) still crush over Yanagiba based on appearance. In the same episode its played with, as the guy in the episode's couple broke up with the girl not because she was magically fat but because she ruined the hard work she put into athletics.
  • Broken Bird: Nocturne of the Night, who was bitter because she was betrayed by a friend.
  • By the Power of Greyskull (twice for each angel) with separate incantations.
  • Calling Your Attacks: The techniques such as 'Bridal flash' which is a flash of the Power of Love
  • Care Bear Stare: Used to defeat villains by filling them with love, and turning them good.
  • Catchphrase Interruptus: Potamos to Momoko's catchphrase in the third OVA. This could be seen as an hilarious parody in itself since Kotono Mitsuishi voiced Potamos and is most famous for playing the titular Sailor Moon whose catchphrase is very well known amongst Magical Girl series fans.
  • Catgirl: In the OVA
  • Cats Are Mean: Jama-P has catlike features, and is evil at first.
  • Cephalothorax: Jama-P, and others of his kind.
  • Chainsaw Good: Subverted. A string of yarn is imbued with The Power of Love, and not even a chainsaw can cut it.
  • Chekhov's Boomerang: When Momoko first knits a muffler, its for Yanagiba and later in the episode its unraveled to save some classmates in a magic maze. One and a half story arcs later Momoko is reknitting it, but this time its for Yousuke.
  • Clark Kenting: Justified. The girls' bond as friends shields their identities from the devils.
  • Coy Girlish Flirt Pose
  • Dark Magical Girl: Potamus makes a nice contrast to the Heroine Momoko. She's a devil Yandere and her rival in love. In one scene she transforms between human and devil forms by shouting her true name, similar to Momoko. Then she has a Heel Face Turn.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: On a cosmic scale. In the anime, Rain de Villa took over the Demon Realm and waged nonstop war against the Angels because the man she loved married someone else.
  • Eighties Hair: Limone and Plue could front for just about any Hair Metal band.
    • same with Momoko.
  • Everything's Better with Sparkles
  • Everything's Better with Princesses: Subverted in that, while Momoko is technically a princess her mother was the Queen's younger sister, Sakura, meaning that she was a princess, and by default, Momoko is one too, it is never really brought up.
  • Everyone Can See It: From from Hingiku and Yuri, to Yanagiba, to a random alley cat passing by ships Momoko and Yousuke.
  • Evil Costume Switch: Slightly averted in that at first Yousuke transforms into Viento and because of his devil gene does serve the villains but later does a Heel Face Turn when he starts to be able to control it although he keeps the costume
  • Evil Counterpart: Noise, Cloud, and Blitz in the Young Love spinoff to Peach, Lily, and Daisy respectively.
  • Evil Plan: Raindevila's plan, at first, appears to be 'kill people and ruin relationships' because she's Allergic to Love later its revealed that she's a Broken Bird (her first crush had an angel girlfriend) and believes she's acting out of self-defense.
  • Fairytale Wedding Dress: Not just the angels' first transformations, but so many other dresses show up that it makes the show border on Costume Porn.
  • Fashion Show
  • Filler Villain: Tornade, minor Jama demons, and Rampo in the manga.
  • Fist of Enthusiasm: Limone in the toku parody video.
  • Five-Man Band: In the Toku pastiche episode, Potamos becomes the fifth angel.
  • Fluffy Fashion Feathers: The OVA outfits have these on the shoulders, that can grow into full wings.
    • And in one OVA episode, Scarlett wears a feather boa.
  • Forgotten Anniversary: This is the central theme of one of the anime episodes. As it turns out, Hinagiku's dad actually remembered - he was just so busy he couldn't bring it up, prompting her mom to rage at him for forgetting.
  • Forgotten Superweapon: Lily's Sacred Stardust Scepter and Salvia's Passionate Cake Cut were only seen once in the manga.
  • Four Is Death: Averted because the fourth angel is one of the good guys, yet still played straight in that the death of her best friend is crucial to her backstory.
  • Frilly Upgrade: In the OVA, their shoulder guards are now feathers, that can grow into wings.
  • Giant Poofy Sleeves
  • Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Keeping some in their rooms. Jama-P can travel with Momoko disguised as one because of this trope.
  • Graceful Ladies Like Purple: Salvia's dress and armor are both purple and she herself is more mature (or at least more focused) than her fellow angels.
  • Grand Theft Me: In one episode of the OVA, demon-possessed cats switch bodies with the girls, and while in the girls' bodies, they become Cat Girls.
  • God Is Good: Aphrodite is the local equivalent, being the ruler of the angel realm and boss of the angels. She provides what support she can to the love angels and one time she rescued Limone from the Vortex of Destruction. When Momoko's mother Sakura returns Aphrodite offers to shoulder her burden for a day so she can spend it with her family.
  • Groundhog Day Loop: One of the monsters gets the school stuck in one.
  • Hair Colors
  • Hair Antennae: Yuri
  • Happily Married: Yuri and Hinagiku's parents.
    • Momoko's parents including after he mother came back.
    • All four main couples (Momoko/Yousuke, Yuri/Yanagiba, Hinagiku/Takurou, Scarlett/Dean) did so at the end of the manga.
  • Heel Face Turn: Jama-P who becomes the Love Angel's Team Pet as a result of this trope. Several other villains also undergo this including Aquelda, Igunis and Potamos. It should be noted though that only the latter stayed in the human world. Aquelda was healed and presumably went to the Angel world and Igunis was killed by Potamos before her own Heel Face Turn.
    • Rain Devila herself reforms in the very final episode of the TV series and revives the fallen Wedding Peach and Viento before flying off.
      • Also in some way Pluie reforms as after finally getting the ring from Wedding Peach and then being betrayed by Rain Devila he throws it back to her before being sucked into the vortex.
  • Housewife: The love angels have frequent fantasies about being this for Yangiba, and their fights over it is the series' longest Running Gag
  • Hypnotize the Princess: Salvia in the third OVA episode.
  • I Am Your Opponent: Between Limone and Pluie. Limone always steps in to fight Pluie when the latter tries to intervene directly.
  • I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Jama-P when he discovers a girl he liked is in love with someone else.
  • In the Name of the Moon: "...for that, I cannot forgive you! I am the Love Angel! I am Wedding Peach, and I am extremely angry with you!"
    • The subtitles for the Japanese say something like, "The Love Angel Wedding Peach is extremely displeased!"
  • I Will Protect Her: Takaro with the first problem. He wants to protect Hinagiku but he's a wimpy Muggle while she's an athletic Magical Girl.
  • Japanese Pronouns: Hinagiku notably uses "ore," even in her frilly-dressed Angel Daisy form.
  • Kick the Dog: Salvia kills Potamos's familiar Pumpie even though he was pretty harmless.
  • Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: The girls can fight in the wedding dresses as much as their mini dresses.
  • Kill the Ones You Love: Scarlett has to do this to her love interest in the OVA after he becomes monster-ified and asks her to Mercy Kill him.
  • Even Heroes Have Heroes: How the girls act around Yanagiba
  • Knight Templar: Salvia. "My personal crusade is to eradicate all devils in existence." She thinks reforming devils is stupid and kills even the harmless ones.
  • Lethal Chef: Potamos
  • MacGuffin: The Saints Something Four at first. Once found it becomes a Holy Hand Grenade.
  • Mad Libs Catchphrase: Whatever it is she cannot forgive.
  • Mad Love: Potamos's infatuation with Ignis, and later Viento.
  • Magical Girl
  • Magical Girl Warrior: All the girls have special weapons and the second Transformation Sequence is to make a costume better suited for fighting but Salvia stands out. She uses her Saint Pure Sword as as a sword instead of a beam weapon.
  • Making a Splash: Potamos. She can also control ice.
  • Mama Bear: When Viento attacks Wedding Peach, Action Mom Celestia one shots him.
  • Master of Illusion: Nocturne.
  • Mercy Kill: Potamos considers killing a power-drained Ignis to be this.
  • Mini-Dress of Power: A magic phrase turns their wedding dresses into short, armored dresses. Uniquely the new versions are still supposed to be wedding dresses.
  • Minion Shipping: Pluie/Aquelda. Like you didn't see it.
    • Not to mention Potamos fangirling over Ignis. Before she kills him.
  • Monster of the Week: And they are often even goofier than those on Sailor Moon.
    • Special mention must go to the one whose power was to make rice fattening, with the intent of causing teenage girls to become chubby so their boyfriends would break up with them.
  • Mood Whiplash: Near the end of episode 45. Also a Moment Killer...
  • Mysterious Protector: Limone
  • Names to Know in Anime: The main 3 Angels:
  • No Export for You: A particular animated music video caused a lot of fans some puzzlement since they either thought it was from an episode and wondered why it was not in the series or they thought it was an Omake and wondered why it was omitted unlike the other two bonus episodes as listed below. In actuality said animated video is neither. The music video in question shows the girls (minus Salvia) as Idol Singers performing the ending song for the second season, "Virgin Love", for a concert which features their respective love interests and their fathers as backing musicians and their mothers as backing singers as well as virtually every other single character to have appeared in the anime (including Salvia, all the devils and angels not to mention most of the guest characters from each episode) as part of the audience. This short animated music video (along with another animated montage music video for the opening to the second season, "Wedding Wars", which only used scenes from the animated series) was released in Japan on video, LD and later as part of the fourth DVD box set. The DVD/Video/LD in question is a live concert, of which there are also two other concerts also released, featuring the seiyuu who play the love angels singing various songs from the series and the animated music videos feature on the releases as an incentive for people to buy them. Neither of which made it over to the American releases.
  • Official Couple: Lily and Limone are first, since all they had to do was recover pastlife memories / find their lover, respectively. Momoko and Yousuke first had to admit to themselves and then to each other, which took a while.
  • Old, New, Borrowed and Blue: The Saints Something Four
  • "On the Next Episode of..." Catchphrase: "I will devote the love wave to you."
  • Omake: Two bonus anime omakes were produced for the original Japanese releases and were released on the two respective box set editions of the American DVDs.
    • The first short bonus episode was a parody of mecha anime featuring the girls piloting giant mecha that resembled their transformed wedding dress appearances.
    • The second short bonus episode was a pastiche of Toku shows (in particular the Super Sentai shows).
    • Other extras include interviews with the Japanese seiyuu which causes a problem for Western fans since in Japan they were originally released as part of two box sets containing the two respective seasons. The problem is that the American releases have the interviews as extras on Vol. 1 and Vol. 6 which is the beginning of the two seasons respectively and consequently the seiyuu DO mention Spoilers for events that happen to certain characters later in the series.
    • Another bonus is a music video of the three angels singing the second ending song.
  • One-Winged Angel: Jama-P does this in the manga, though he's still beaten fairly easily. The villain of the second OVA does this too.
  • OVA: Wedding Peach DX
  • Pair the Spares: Done in the manga, with all the love angels getting a boyfriend, but humorously averted in the Young Love spinoff with the other girls chasing Sir Limone.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: The love angels' wedding dresses, and several other wedding dresses that show up.
  • Pink Means Feminine: Pink shows up a lot, like in the weapons and transformations.
  • Playing Hard to Get: Hinagiku forcely denies affection for Takuro and walks off. In the next scene she says, "You should have come after me! Takuro you are so slow at picking up on things!"
  • Power Gives You Wings: The girls' new costumes in the OVA have shoulder feathers that grow into full wings.
  • Proper Lady: Yuri. In addition to being the girly girl to Hinagiku's tomboy she's described as 'mature, responsible and polite'. Her Imagine Spots of Yanagiba involve cooking and elegant ballroom dancing.
  • The Power of Love: Practically the whole theme of the show, but usually used to cause enemies to make a Heel Face Turn.
  • Prehensile Hair: Nocturne uses this, as does Cloud in the Young Love spinoff.
  • Race For Your Love: In the manga, Scarlett ends up pursuing an embittered and rejected Dean upon finding out he's returning to America and yes, she does indeed love him. She gets stopped behind security. Eventually the power of the Saint Something Four teleports her in so she can confess and say her last goodbyes. A variation in that Dean does actually leave for America, but as a result of the confession they end up starting a relationship and eventually marry.
  • Rebel Relaxation: Salvia
  • Redheaded Hero: Salvia
  • Redemption Equals Death: Both Ignis and Potamos in the manga.
  • Red String of Fate: Played with. Momoko knits a muffler as a present to Yanagiba and Imagine Spots them wearing it together. In the next frame a thread leads offscreen, and reveals that Yosuke somehow invaded the Imagine Spot and is also wearing it, much to her displeasure
  • Reincarnation Romance: Between Lily and Limone. Made more painful for the latter as he didn't die and had to wait for his love to be reborn.
    • Potamos and Ignis fit too in the anime. The former is reborn so to speak as a human and glomps a boy that looks a lot like Ignis and is willing to have tea with the cute girl he just met.
  • Roof Hopping
  • Rose-Haired Girl: Momoko who is kind and sweet and girlish.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Takuro and Hinagiku. The former is a straight A student but physically inept and the later is the star of the Judo Club. Especially visible when she dragged him on a triple date to help Yuri.
  • Sentai
  • Series Mascot / Team Pet: Jama-Pi
  • Sexy Santa Dress: Momoko wears one in an Omake picture, and Potamos wears one for a festival, even though it's not explicitly for Christmas.
  • Shipper on Deck: Exploited as the girls are happy to ship each other with someone other than Yanagiba so they themselves will have less competition. After one of them wins, its played straight as are they remain supportive of each other.
  • Shojo
  • Shout-Out: In the third OVA episode the character of Golden Mask could very well be in refernce to Tuxedo Mask from Sailor Moon. This could be all the more probable considering Sailor Moon's seiyuu, Kotono Mitsuishi, was in the episode playing Potamos.
  • Spoiler Opening: The second season of the anime technically spoils one of the plot character revelations not because of the animation but because of the song. At one point the singer actually sings "Tenshi" (Japanese for Angel - cue Momoko) and then "Akuma" (Japanese for Devil - cue Yousuke) promptly followed by him being kidnapped by Rain Devila thereby giving away his identity when in actual fact no clues about it were ever given.
  • Stealth Parody: Both the anime and manga were created by the lead writer of the Sailor Moon TV series. Possibly as a space to vent.
  • Suck Out the Poison: Limone to Lily
  • Taking You with Me: In the manga, Pluie tackles Wedding Peach and himself into the path of a demon vortex.
  • Tentacle Rope: Just with vines in episode 16.
  • Theme Naming: All of the girls have names which relate to their Angel name.
    • Momoko means "peach child"
    • Yuri means "lily".
    • Hinagiku means "daisy".
    • Scarlett Ohara both references both Gone with the Wind and her first name references Scarlet sage, another name for two types of Salvia.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Hinaguki and Momoko, with Yuri as more of a proper lady.
  • Transformation Sequence: Again twice for each angel
  • Trouser Space: One of the devils pulls a carnival strong man test from there.
  • Umbrella of Togetherness: The love angels think Yanagiba has a girlfriend because of this trope. Later when they try to stage it themselves, Yousuke comes (with an umbrella) to pick him up instead.
  • Unlimited Wardrobe: The girls' have a surprising variety in their everyday outfits for an animated show.
  • Unlucky Childhood Friend: Jama-P to his friend Jama-Cho.
  • Unspoken Plan Guarantee: Played with in the first piano episode. First Parodied: Yuri's plan consists of invoking the ghost of a friend's dead sister with piano music so she will encourage the friend to resume practicing piano. Both Momoko and Hinagiku think this plan is ridiculous. Played straight in that their real plan, have Momoko pretend to be said dead sister, is interrupted by a devil attack, but ultimately inverted as the plan never actually goes into motion because the real ghost actually shows up and encourages the girl, just as in the original conception.
  • Verbal Tic: Potamos has "Ya know" for the English version, and the original Japanese was "mitai-na" which translates to "something like that".
  • Victorious Childhood Friend: Hinagiku and Takuro despite her claim to the contrary.
  • Victory-Guided Amnesia: Ironically this only happens in the anime. What makes it ironic is that it never happened in the TV series at all. It was first brought up in the first OVA used as a Plot Device but then the OVA goes and undoes it all in the space of the first episode but only for the four main heroines.
  • Wedding and Engagement Tropes: Too many to count
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Jama demon Blackie disappears partway through Volume 6 after serving to distract the Love Angels. The author notes this and comments that he's probably living peacefully in the redeemed demon world.
  • You Fail Religious Studies Forever: For starters, the Judeo-Christian viewpoint is that angels are forbidden/unable to have romantic relationships, and the fact that they are serving a Greek goddess. Also in that, devils are supposed to be angels turned evil. They did pull a Shown Their Work in the Halloween episode, in which the holiday was referred to as "All Saint's Day Eve," which is what the word Halloween actually means.
  • You Gotta Have Blue Hair: Peach's pink hair, Daisy and Pluie have green hair.
  • Zettai Ryouiki: Momoko wears them for what she hopes is a date with Yanagiba; when Yousuke shows up instead this part is what tips him off when Momoko makes an excuse. "Taking photos in that outfit?"