Peach Boy Riverside is a Fantasy webcomic made by Cool-Kyou Shinsha, which first started in 2008. In 2015, a remake of the webcomic was released, with the art by Yohane. The story is loosely based on the Japanese fairy tale Momotarō.
After her kingdom is attacked by Oni, princess Saltherine Aldarake is rescued by a mysterious fighter called Mikoto Kibitsu. Intrigued, she decides to go on a quest to find him, meeting a rabbit demihuman called Frau, a female oni called Carrot, and a knight called Hawthorne.
In 2020, an anime adaptation of the manga was announced by Asahi Production. It started airing as a part of the Summer 2021 anime season.
Tropes in the webcomic and adaptations:
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: In the anime, Sally has a phobia of octopus caused by when one grabbed on to her when she was a child, leading her to suffer PTSD induced hallucinations of being groped by Naughty Tentacles.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Exactly What It Says on the Tin — Mikoto's --originally Hiko's-- dog is literally named Dog. Whether Dog is a dog-shaped demi-human or just a regular dog gifted with the ability to talk is not made clear.
- A vampire oni in Ep.5 (airing order) is named Kyuuketsuki — in Japanese that literally translates to "vampire".
- Adaptation Distillation: The manga's events and the Anime's events are quite different. A prominent example being when in both adaptations Mikoto's past is revealed. In the Manga, it's told by Dog to a blacksmith after Mikoto's sword breaks in half when trying to kill Todoroki. In the Anime, it's presented as a nightmare Mikoto has after being put to sleep by another oni just outside a village.
- Anachronic Order: The anime adaptation was created with an anachronistic order in mind, skipping around to end of a climax and occasionally resulting in Remember the New Guy? when watched in this order.
- Episode 2 was the first broadcast, the 3rd broadcast episode takes place after a time skip, the 1st episode was the 4th broadcast, episodes 5 & 6 being a Day in the Limelight arc on Carrot, episode 7 picking up where episode 3 (the second one broadcast) left off, episode 8 picking up after the third aired episode left off, Episode 9 is a Whole Episode Flashback about Mikoto's upbringing, Episode 10 is the Cliffhanger ending with Sally's group heading off to Legedia, while Episodes 11 and 12 backtrack and deal with Winnie's introduction.
- Artificial Human: The "Peach Boy" is a person born from a peach. Hiko, Mikoto's dad is revealed to be one of these in Episode 9. Sally is also implied to be one of these too, though no one, not even her, realizes this. When Winnie shows Hawthorne exactly what Sally's capable of or even what she is, The Anime and Manga both cut away to other events before any explanations are given, with the Anime skipping ahead to after the first encounter, and the Manga shifting focus over to Carrot as she sends out her eye to Sumeragi as part of her initial mission as The Spy.
- Attack Its Weak Point: An ogre's horn is the source of its powers, and once the horn is cut, it's vulnerable to all sorts of attacks.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: After Sally gives her a carrot, Frau decides to follow her around, feeling indebted to her.
- Buxom Beauty Standard: More than a few characters ogle Sally due to her ample bust.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Due to a Peach Boy's powers only being useful against Ogres.
- Cute Monster Girl: Unlike some of the other Oni, Carrot looks like a human with purple hair and Pointy Ears.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Frau easily kills the rooster-like Oni in the first episode. Later on, she's on the receiving end of the beatdown when Sett takes all her hits and easily throws her around... until Sally comes to save her.
- Deadpan Snarker: Dog. Everything he says is either sarcasm or a jab towards Mikoto.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Mikoto, with his feminine face and long hair, looks almost entirely female. Sally doesn't realize his gender until he tells her even though she sees him topless.
- Easily Forgiven: Despite murdering quite a few people, including children, Sally saves Carrot from getting executed.
- Fantastic Racism: The world has a ton of prejudice between all of the races, which Sally wants to make sure is stopped, no matter what.
- Demihumans are discriminated against by humans, being treated as no different than oni and not being allowed in several towns. Which upsets the party, who are only able to get into some of them thanks to Hawthorne's position in the military.
- It is also shown that humans that team up with demihumans are treated with similar derision, such as when Sally ends up being ridiculed for traveling with Frau when the two of them reach Hawthorne's village. When Carrot sees this abuse firsthand in another village, and gets judged herself by a shopkeep, she tries to do something about it; but isn't able to due to Sally's pushover nature, her own powers being largely cut off thanks to her horn being removed, and the oni she tries to talk into doing the deed for her going after Sally first. Sally's own reaction to seeing Frau and Carrot be treated poorly by said merchant is to punch the guy, to Carrot's amusement.
- Mikoto has a "kill-them-all" perspective when it comes to Oni due to their threatening nature and out of revenge for killing his dad, and when he and Sally meet again in episode 7 (episode 4 in story order), reveals that he'd do the same to Demi-humans if he was able to. Despite this, he does appreciate that Sally wants to eliminate the prejudice between Humans and Demi-Humans when she tells him about wanting to stop the hate. in spite of this, when asked what he'd do if she allied herself with one of them in episode 8 (10 in story order), Mikoto very nearly comes close to attacking her before some Oni invade the city they're in. His hate is further justified as of Episode 9, which reveals him to have been ostracized by both humans and Oni for being a hybrid as a kid, with only the resident Peach Boy Hiko to look out for him.
- Orges, much like humans, treat Demi-Humans as practically nothing, see them as humans and kill them whenever they can.
- An entire part of the plot is dedicated to Sally and her group having to deal with a feud between Elves and Reptilians, which she manages to quash after she defeats two oni using her powers. It's brought up during Sally's conversation with the leaders of the opposing factions that humans are not well-liked due to their prejudice towards all other races in the land, not just the oni and demi-humans.
- In the Manga The Demon King holds hostility towards all races and doesn't care at all who he kills. When he dies after being stabbed by Mikoto while trying to save Todoroki, one of the conditions hoisted upon him once resurrected is to cull the relations between humans and Oni while in his Rabbitman form.
- Dog is treated as an outcast from not only humans, but his own kind as well due to his ability to speak. Hiko —and later Mikoto— are the only ones willing to help him out for extended periods of time.
- Hated by All:
- The oni and demi-humans are considered The Dreaded by everyone for a reason. Attacking anyone in sight regardless of race or species, though they like targeting human settlements the most.
- According to the leaders of the Reptilian and Elven races Sally encounters; humans are judged the same way by every other sentient race the same way humans judge them - with absolute scorn and distrust. They're shocked upon learning Sally announces that she wants to stop all the discrimination between every race, including the humans.
- Hulk Speak: Frau refers to herself in the third person whenever she speaks.
- Hunter of His Own Kind:Mikoto grew up as a half-Oni, half-human hybrid who after witnessing the oni kill his adoptive father, decides to rip off his own horn and begin hunting them down in revenge.
- I Work Alone: Mikoto's response to Sally when she tries to get him to join up with her party. Refusing and instead going on his own journey with Dog.
- Important Haircut: Sally chops off her hair before she goes on an adventure to find Mikoto.
- The Immune: Sally is immune to oni attacks, though even she isn't sure how this is possible. During her battle with Sett, he exploits this by simply targeting her clothes instead before going in with his finishing move. It is all but implied that she's definitely not fully human, though what she is, be it Peach Boy or something else entirely, remains a mystery.
- The Manga takes it a step further and makes her just as immune to demon abilities, which catches the Demon King himself off guard as she rips his hand off and survives his strongest attacks.
- Killer Rabbit: Frau herself. She looks like a harmless rabbit, but is capable of great feats of agility and strength, killing an oni in a few hits. She even comes back from the dead, and has apparently done so several times.
- Major Injury Underreaction: Sally casually rips Sett's arm off the first time she demonstrates her powers. His only response is to say that he's excited to face such a powerful opponent.
- Mood Whiplash: The series is rife with adventure, comedy, and then characters getting obliterated into nothing or gorily torn apart. If an Oni battle is about to ensue, it's almost assured all good times are going to violently come crashing down.
- Nice Girl: Sally. To the point where she can't harm anyone unless they directly threaten her, as Carrot objects to Sally not beating up a shopkeeper after he insults the group over Frau's presence.
- Nominal Hero: Mikoto. Though most of the ogres he encounters are pretty nasty characters, he only kills them out of his own hatred for them and explicitly states he has no interest in protecting others.
- The Political Officer: Dog is always trying to steer Mikoto into a correct (to him) direction.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Whenever Sally encounters an oni, or if someone just pisses her off, her eyes glow and becomes very violent. No one, much less Sally herself, knows why this is. When she finds out it doesn't work against Sumeragi, a high oni with mysterious abilities of his own, she instantly gets her butt kicked by him.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: While Hawthorne does arrest Sally and Frau, he lets them go after they point out they didn't do anything wrong. As an apology, he gives them a free lunch.
- Sadistic Choice: At the end of Episode 3 (episode 9 in story order), appropriately titled “Sally at a Crossroads”, Sally is faced with a dilemma: Choose Sumeragi, who claims to bring peace to both the oni and humans, or choose Mikoto, who has a personal vendetta against oni. Episode 8 reveals she chooses Mikoto, which Sumeragi initially supports, only to reveal his true colors by beating her up when she tries to save Hawthorne from being killed.
- Stealth Sequel: The series is a Stealth Prequel to the rest of Cool-Kyou Shinsha's manga.
- Stock Animal Diet: Frau really loves carrots.
- Except that she appears to be a rabbit only superficially.
- Talking Animal: Oni that resemble animals, such as Sett, exist in the world, and are capable of a telepathic-like speech than can be understood by others, but doesn't make their lips move like the more human-like ones. This is also true of both Dog and Frau.
- Two Lines, No Waiting: While most of the series is focused on the journey of Sally and her True Companions, occasional glimpses into Mikoto's exploits are shown. When the two plotlines do cross over with one another, neither Hawthorne, Frau or Carrot are present when Mikoto's around, neither side is really privy of the other.
- Vampire Episode: The fifth episode (in airing order) focuses on Sally and her companions entering a town haunted by an oni who kills his victims with his horns like an actual vampire.
- Wham Episode: Episode 9 shows us that Mikoto used to be an Oni-Human hybrid himself, and forced his horn off in revenge against them for killing Hiko, his adoptive father. It is also through Hiko that Mikoto got his Peach Boy powers.
- Would Hit a Girl: Sally gets abused and targeted frequently by her attackers due to her unusual nature. Mikoto, despite being one of her friends, is also not above threatening to kill her if she tries to get in his way.
