why?

Back in 1997/98 I was a fresh-faced teenager whose childhood interest in Japanese animation had revived itself thanks to frequent viewing of the Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon television series. I was absolutely mad on magical girl shows due to Sailormoon and found myself searching for titles to feed my addiction after the series ended. Some kindly Chinese students at my school (with whom I often shared anime) recommended I borrow a VHS tape their aunt had recently recorded from television, it apparently featured a newish magical girl series called Wedding Peach. Although utterly ignorant of the language, I borrowed the tape and fell in love.

The very first episode of Wedding Peach I watched was a Cantonese dub of episode thirty-eight and, though I was enjoying all the interesting battles, it wasn't until a mysterious redhead entered the scene that I found my eyes really glued to the screen. From nowhere, Salvia burst onto the scene, addressing her companions curtly and brandishing a huge sword. I was shocked- I'd never seen a magical girl with such an attitude (such GUTS!) before. Intrigued, I continued to borrow tapes from my Chinese friends in the hopes of seeing more Salvia.

Soon English language fansubs became more readily available and I began watching the series from episode one. Although disappointed that the enigmatic Salvia didn't appear in these early episodes, I continued to adore the scenario and cast. Thanks to interaction with some wonderful online friends, I was soon learning about the Wedding Peach manga serial and the anime like never before. Because of my interest in the series, I established website dedicated to it (entitled The Peach Tree). The site ran for well over five years before time simply got the better of me and it was placed on an indefinite hiatus.

Two rather big things happened to me while I was running The Peach Tree. The most important of these was beginning email contact with Yazawa Nao, the mangaka behind Wedding Peach. Yazawa-sensei emailed me out of the blue during 2000, offering both advice and assistance to me as a webmaster. I was floored- my fan site had caught the attention of the series mangaka! As an ignorant teenager I bombarded her with questions but, like the talented professional she is, Yazawa-sensei was patient and generous in all of her replies. It was through Yazawa-sensei that I truly came to learn about Wedding Peach in all its forms and for her kindness and assistance, I will be forever grateful.

Secondly, while running The Peach Tree I realised that out of all the sections I updated, it was Salvia's profile that I enjoyed editing the most. When thinking back to my first Wedding Peach experience, it was the mysterious Salvia that had truly brought me to care about the series. As I had some spare time and the Internet was severely lacking in information on the fourth love angel, I decided that the only thing left for me to do was build a shrine devoted to her.

Passionate was born.

Angel Salvia has had a lasting impact on me over the past decade primarily because she is such a deeply flawed individual. While most magical girls don't have personal issues that extend beyond standard teenage woes (shyness, awkwardness, difficulty with responsibility) Salvia has a whole other lifetime of problems weighing on her mind. War, death and isolation- Salvia has suffered through unimaginable horrors. A cynical loner, it is only when she is challenged by the kind-hearted Momoko that Salvia begins to comprehend just how far she has fallen. Instead of being a cheerful girl who must weather a storm of suffering, Salvia is a sullen girl who must learn to smile again. It is the way in which she contrasts with her fellow love angels (and most other magical girls) that really makes Salvia stand out as a character.

I created this site in 2002 out of both adoration for Salvia and desperation regarding information on her. Passionate was the first shrine ever created that focused on Salvia and continues to be her only shrine on the Internet. It is my sincere hope that visitors to Passionate will be able to discover unique articles/images relating to Salvia and that myths about her will be debunked through easily accessible information.