Peach Boy Riverside (Volume 1) - This World is Full of Monsters, Both Human and Otherwise...

Princess Saltorine is bored with her peaceful kingdom and wants to travel the world. After a young traveller saved her kingdom from a group of ogres, she finally made her dream a reality and left! What will she discover?

Peach Boy Riverside (Volume 1) – This World is Full of Monsters, Both Human and Otherwise…

What happened?

Saltorine met Mikoto while running from the guards who were trying to stop her from running away. He covered for her so she offered to repay him for his help. Of course, he would need to tell her all about his travels. That was fine with Mikoto. However, an ogre soon appeared before the king and demanded he sacrifices thirty people to the ogres every month. When the king sees Saltorine, he tells her to go on her travels now. Save herself.

However, the entire group of ogres shows up at the gates to collect their sacrifices, but their leader tells them that it’s over and they need to run. He saw a human that changes everything. That human was Mikoto. Saltorine ran to the gates to see the ogres for herself, pulled by a strange feeling within her. She found Mikoto standing before the ogres and watched him slay them all with a relish that was terrifying.

Mikoto left immediately and offered to take Saltorine if she came with him there and then, but she couldn’t. A month later, Saltorine decided to go on that trip. She severed her ties and cut her hair, determined to see the world and learn what she could. So after leaving the castle, she came across a demi-human called Frau who decided to stay with Sally after she gave her a carrot. At the next village, they did not get the welcome Sally was expecting.

Peach Boy Riverside Volume 1 Sally hits the road

What did you think?

I watched the anime a while back and really enjoyed it. Of course, it aired in a bizarre order so reading the manga is just confirming how insane that decision was. This volume worked perfectly as the opening to the story. When you watch the anime in the correct order it pretty much matched everything in the manga which was impressive. How can you stick so closely to the source material and then chop it up and reorder it? That made no sense.

Anyhow, the story is fascinating as it’s a retelling of the peach boy tale of old but there are some notable differences that will become apparent as the story continues. Hopefully, the manga will take things beyond where the anime stopped as there were a number of unanswered questions that I’m keen to have answered.

The dynamic between Frau and Sally is fantastic and was one of my favourite aspects of the anime too, so I’m pleased to see that it’s the same here. I loved the artwork too, particularly the scenes where Mikoto loses it. I’m looking forward to continuing the story in the next volume.