Peach Girl: Super Pop Love Hurricane

Peach Girl is about an average high school girl, Momo Adachi, who everyone thinks is a beach bunny / slut because of her tanned skin. The actual reason she is so tanned is because she was on the swim team and tans very easily. She likes a boy, Toji, who she heard only likes non-tanned girls. This causes her to question who she is and have low self esteem. She spends a lot of time trying to remake herself into the girl she believes he wants. However, she has a friend, Sae, who likes to go behind Momo's back and make her life terrible, mostly by trying to take Toji away from her. All the while there's another boy, Kairi, who is in love with Momo.

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NANA 85%

47 eps · 2006

It swaps the school love triangle for adult ambition, but the same messy, dream-vs-love tug will pull you in.

Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers) 83%

51 eps · 1996

You'll recognize that same slow burn of a bullied girl refusing to break, this time against a whole gang of rich boys.

Marmalade Boy 82%

76 eps · 1994

Family chaos replaces beach drama, but the tangled love triangle and shoujo heart-ache feel just as raw.

Lovely Complex 82%

24 eps · 2007

It trades tanning-related insecurity for height jokes, though the comic self-doubt around love hits the same nerve.