That's what I kept asking myself for the first few episodes of this new anime, Peach Boy Riverside.
(WARNING! There may be spoilers in this post, but I'll try to avoid giving anything too crucial away!)
There's an old story about a Son of a Peach in Japanese folklore. An old man goes to the hills to farm, and his wife goes to the river to wash her clothes.
Of course that's the extent of the fable told in the anime.
When I eventually looked it up, I was pretty sure I had heard it before, but only a long time ago, so it was still a bit confusing to me. Suffice it to say that a peach was found in the river, and a child came from it. In the story the child says to them that he is a gift to them, to be their own child, which I would think would kinda freak people out, but apparently they were overjoyed. Don't sweat the small stuff as they say. Or don't sweat the demon child from the peach that speaks to you. Something like that.
The premise of the anime "Peach Boy Riverside" is that this fable was true, but there was more than just one Peach Boy, and they were gifts to fight the oni, which unfortunately this anime translates as "ogre". As someone that rather likes fantasy, like those based on JRR Tolkien, them calling a giant rooster with a horn an "ogre" kinda irks me. I just have to remind myself that they're actually talking about Japanese oni, not ogres. In this anime all the Oni can be discerned by horns somewhere on their head, but may be human-like or animal-like. This is stretched a bit with one Oni apparently having his horns in his mouth, and obviously being modeled after a vampire. Especially since they actually call him a vampire.
In Japanese folklore oni are a type of yokai, with horns. They often are portrayed similarly to a horned demon. Many of the standard ones with fangs protruding from their lower jaw and dressed in loin clothes, could possibly easily be called an ogre, or a troll, depending on the depictions. But when you start depicting giant chickens as ogres, I'm gonna have to call foul. That really doesn't help with the translation. Just call them oni.
MINOR SPOILER WARNING!
In the above clip you can see the cursed chicken ogre being defeated by Frau, a harefolk that's met very early on in the series by Princess Peach...I mean Sally. Princess Slitherin Saltherine Aldarake. WhoTF came up with that name?
Sally saves Frau I think in the very beginning of the first episode. She gives her carrots, because of course she does. The drawing style of the harefolk leaves much to be desired, but overall the character is actually pretty cool. Who doesn't want a badass bunny tagging along on their adventure? Though the convenience of running into another overpowered character when your journey through monster infested countryside just begins is rather...bland.
There are certain things that anime just doesn't bother doing differently most of the time. Why mess with a good trope or spend multiple episodes journeying alone before you meet your sidekick or partners in your journey? Just jump right in and have them conveniently laying on the side of the road, waiting for a carrot you just so happen to have. And why not throw in a few more characters in right away in the first major city they visit?
Yeah, okay, I'm a bit annoyed that they didn't try a bit harder. But I suppose Peach Boy Riverside isn't trying to be some great heroic anime that will be remembered for generations. It's just trying to be a cute fun overpowered adventure.
There is something particularly exciting about a character just kicking the crap out of the villains, and then the show going into an endless power increase as villains somehow continue to get stronger and stronger despite the hero supposedly being so insanely overpowered. Like one of the most famous animes to do this, Dragonball Z. More and more insane things keep happening, and somehow you keep getting more and more excited.
Peach Boy Riverside is at least a bit less crazy than DBZ so far though. Though they did kinda just casually kill a few hundred or thousand people. I'll let that be a surprise and not say much more about that, in case you haven't seen it.
Peach Boy Riverside is kind of a story about prejudice and racism, through the analogy of demi-humans and oni. The demi-humans are seemingly hated for no reason, though I haven't seen the whole series yet, while the oni kill massive numbers of humans, and seemingly can't be killed by any normal human, or even dozens. The humans fear the demi-humans because they possess more power than they do, and are different. The oni hate the humans, for many of the reasons humans hate humans these days. They come to an area and destroy everything, chopping down all the trees, and just taking.
Peach Boy Riverside also seems to touch on trauma and hatred and how it grips someone and controls them.
The series has just started on Crunchyroll, but so far it seems like a really good series, and worth checking out. I hope that they continue to explore the themes of prejudice, racism, and the hatred, fear, and distrust within us. It seems like it may just touch on these things in a way that many shows avoid, without being just another fake woke show as is common these days with Hollywood. Add just the right amount of forced inclusivity and they think they're good or something. Many of these themes are common with super hero shows, but so far I like how the anime touches on these issues. Especially since it targets young men.
I hope I didn't scare you off by telling you that it touches on racism and prejudice. It's mainly a story about kicking the shit out of big guys with horns, and also has animated boobs. So you can enjoy that too.
this anime has entertained me a lot this season but the truth is that the order in which the chapters are published has also annoyed me.
seriously i never understood this style of moving the story forward and backward from one chapter to another, thank goodness and a pag published them in chronological order because the broadcast is a mess.
Yeah, it was a bit confusing. Nowhere near as confusing as "So I'm a Spider, So What?" though.