Peach Boy Riverside (Episode 4) – The Princess and the Peach
Saltorine is the princess of a peaceful and wealthy kingdom, however, she’s never even seen outside the castle walls. She’s desperate to see the world, even if it is full of man-eating ogres!
Peach Boy Riverside (Episode 4) – The Princess and the Peach
What happened?
Saltorine has everything she could possibly want, well, other than the freedom to make her own path. Life is good, but it’s boring. She feels like her choices have been taken away from her. So, when a traveller comes to town and helps her avoid the guards for a while, she demands to hear about the outside world. Mikoto is happy to oblige, especially as Saltorine is willing to give her food and a place to stay. The next morning Saltorine barges into Mikoto’s room and is surprised to find out that Mikoto is a boy.
Meanwhile, a group of ogres have their eyes on the kingdom. Their leader barges into the king’s throne room and makes him an offer, although it’s more like a threat. He will destroy their entire kingdom unless they sacrifice thirty people to the ogres each month. The ogre leaves them to consider his offer, but on the way out he spots Mikoto and decides to run, abandoning his threat. However, Mikoto sensed the ogre and isn’t one to let them get away. Saltorine gets a strange urge to see what’s going on and witnesses Mikoto’s bloodlust for herself.
What did you think?
I’d imagine the first thing you’re thinking here is – episode 4? What happened to the first three episodes? So, I started watching this series in the order the episodes were released. Episode 1 throws you into the depend and leaves a lot of details out. That was when I discovered that the director, for some bizarre reason, released the episodes out of chronological order. That’s right. Episode 4 is actually episode 1. So, here we are.
Ironically, I still feel like there is quite a bit of information missing. Saltorine starts recalling a story about an old man and an old woman. The old man goes into the forest for wood and the old woman goes down to the river for water. Then, it skips to an ogre and apparently, we all know what happens next… We really don’t. I understand this is based on a legend, but I really feel like we should be brought up to speed on that before you assume we know it. Otherwise, it was a fun episode and makes me want to see more. I shall continue to watch in chronological order, but keep the release order in my thoughts so I can see if it really wouldn’t have worked cut up like that.
What have you learnt?
We learnt the bare minimum needed to understand what was going on without getting much more information about Saltorine and Mikoto. It works better as a first episode than episode 1 did, but I wouldn’t say it was that revealing. If anything, I feel like this episode could have been cut completely if it wasn’t going to be the first episode. Having to come back afterwards would have been frustrating. I’m curious how this would fit after episode three which is actually the eighth episode…
I know, it’s pretty confusing, so here is the full chronological order for the series. At least that way you can decide how you want to watch it.
4, 1, 2, 7, 11, 12, 5, 6, 3, 8, 10, 9
That’s right, it ends 8, 10, 9. Part of me wants to watch it in the order it was released just to see how much that would mess with things, but I also want to enjoy the series. Decisions, decisions! I’m sticking with chronological order. My gut tells me this isn’t going to be clever enough or put together in a way that will make sense in this wacky order. This should be interesting, at least.
Episode Highlights
Other reviews in the series
Anime
- Season One
- Episode 4 – The Princess and the Peach
- Episode 1 – The Ex-Princess and the Harefolk
- Episode 2 – Ogres and Humans
- Episode 7 – Species and Belonging
- Episode 11 – Ideals and Reality
- Episode 12 – Resolutions and Goodbyes
- Episode 5 – Frau and the Vampire
- Episode 6 – Carrot and Millia
- Episode 3 – Sally and a Crossroads
- Episode 8 – Companion and Companion
- Episode 10 – Horror and Resentment
- Episode 9 – Mikoto and Mikoto
Manga
- Series Review
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That episode order is just bizarre, why would you release any series out of order like that? I can get starting a story in media res and then going back to the origins, it’s not my preferred way of story-telling, but I can see the appeal. This is just…bizarre is the only word I have for it.
Absolutely, and from what I can tell, they had the entire thing animated and ready to release when the producer/direcetor decided to do this. It makes no sense and even more bizarrely there was a station in Japan that aired it in the correct order, so it feels like a stunt.
You can’t just cut up a story and rearrange it. There are characters that are introduced long after they would have been established and not in a flashback sort of way. It’s truly baffling.
Hello. It’s been awhile, and I see you’re purposely writing reviews of Peachboy Riverside starting with this episode number because yes, this is the correct timeline.
Up to this day, I’m still appalled in why the anime director insisted to do this non-chronological storytelling when the source material isn’t written like that. You only do this sort of storytelling when the manga/LN has actual NCS. Boogiepop is a prominent example of it. Even if he did say the reason for doing this is to end the anime season without any filler and that he’s doing this for the manga readers of this series. Eventually, there’s no difference if he aired them in chronological order.
If you ask me, it feels like a whole big lie that some viewers will not forgive the director airing the episodes with NCS method for it ruined the experience of learning and/or piecing important clues. The fact that Boogiepop doesn’t suffer this kind of style is because the source material was intended like that.
Peachboy wasn’t meant to be aired in this order, and yet I’m giving this series a second chance for the premise and world-building is worth its storytelling values. It’s just that it was a distracting, if not frustrating, watch when I had this on my seasonal watchlist. But I don’t regret it since I’m on board if season renewal happens. If it does happen, here’s hoping it’ll be in chronological order.
Hey, it’s been too long. Glad to see you’re still keeping busy.
Yes, I had planned on watching this series when it aired but never got around to it. Then, after watching the first episode (episode 1) I looked at the comments and discovered the chronological order so decided that would make this an interesting one to talk about too.
I’ve enjoyed a lot of storied where the pieces aren’t in a chronological order, but the transitions make them work. This series, however, was a hatchet job. There are episodes that end on one image and then that image is the start of an episode four episodes later and everything in the middle is just there. No links, no transitions, no clever order. It’s utterly infuriating.
I enjoyed the season and would also watch another if it was made, but I would ensure I watching it in the correct order too. I still can’t get my head around how they let this happen, although part of me thinks it was a gimmick to get people talking… madness!
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