Abandoned as a baby, Yukinojo can't help but feel adrift in life, so when an heiress to an Aomori apple farm proposes to him, he takes up her offer.

However, after he feeds his newlywed wife an apple from a mysterious tree, she becomes irrevocably changed, and the two of them are left trying to deal with the consequences.

Apple Children of Aeon, Vol. 1 by Ai Tanaka is a surreal and contemplative slice-of-life manga that’s steeped in Shintoism and magical realism.

I’ve got to say, this manga has such a wonderful sense of place, transporting readers to the idyllic Aomori countryside. I think it’s precisely because the setting and characters feel so grounded that the subtle fantastical elements woven into the story feel all the more believable.

On top of that, the art style feels like you’re opening up an old illustrated folktale. It’s simple yet charming and atmospheric. Honestly, the artwork and covers are so gorgeous that I wish that Kodansha will eventually come out with a print release.

Lastly, I love how introspective this manga is. Yukinojo is a poetic narrator who meditates on themes of life and death and identity through dream sequences. He lays bare his doubts and fears to the reader, making for an earnest and heartfelt read.

Overall, Apple Children of Aeon is a wistful and poignant beautiful gem of a manga that’ll endear fans of Go with the Clouds, North by Northwest and Spice and Wolf.

I found myself drawn into the storyline as it is such a unique and beautiful premise. Definitely interested in how this story continues!

Thank you Kodansha and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Apple Children of Aeon, Volume 1 is a story that follows Yukinojo, a young, educated man who marries into a family of apple farmers in rural Japan. In this first volume, we don't really see much development between Yukinojo, his wife, and his new family. The plot moves very quickly, so as a reader, it felt like I had very little time to get to know the characters and their motivations.

Aside from the quick pacing, one of my biggest gripes with this manga was the dialogue. There's a stark difference between Yukinojo's and his new family's speech. And while I understand where the translator is coming from in portraying a rural accent, I feel like the dialogue for the apple farmers was a bit distracting and sometimes hard to understand.

Here's an example of Yukinojo's wife's dialogue: "Da says 'e windnae hae gotten an education were it no fer this tree an' what it gave the family." Pretty much all the townsfolk of the rural village speaks like this, while Yukinojo's dialoge is written to be polished and grammatically correct. I think there are better ways to portray this difference in speech.

Overall, Apple Children of Aeon had potential, but I the pacing was too fast and the dialogue was too distracting for to find the story worth reading.

*I received a free copy of this manga from NetGalley*

Thank you Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for the opportunity to read and review this.

I found this hauntingly beautiful to read. Written in a country dialect, which was hard to understand, this story follows a young graduate who marries a girl, whose family runs an apple orchard. When she falls ill, he picks an apple from a mysterious tree, and strange things start to happen...

I really look forward to the next volume!

What a pleasant surprise! I went into this knowing almost nothing about it, and it went in a direction that I did not expect. The artstyle is simple but unique, and the mysteries and folklore throughout were really interesting. The only slight complaint would be some of the dialogue, as most of the characters speak in a countryside dialect. I don't mind this, however I definitely stumbled in reading some lines as they were a bit difficult to interpret at times. However, I thoroughly love the direction the story seems to be going in based off of the ending, and I will definitely be picking up the next volume in this series!

Absolutely gorgeous manga with contemplative themes. I hope more licenses such as this are forthcoming, and that this is coming to print eventually.

This book was a little difficult for me to get into, as I found chapter 1 to be a little boring. As I dived into chapters 2 and 3, the plot really begins to get set up and my interest grew. I found the characters to be a little flat and not show much in the way of development, or even care at all about their relationships and marriage. It felt like a very surreal reading experience, but the mystery might call me back to check out volume 2 when it's released.

Basically it’s about a young graduate who marrys a girl and when she gets sick, he goes to an apple tree where strange things happens around him such his wife shrinking to a child, her hair growing and that she is marrying someone else. It’s pretty strange manga I’ve read but it shows Japan back in the day so the historical sense is interesting! Pretty good manga I’ve read yes yes!

Thanks Netgalley and publisher for the first volume!