So, the story and art I really liked. It’s harder for me to tell with the characters as I ended up skim-reading this. This is a very personal issue but I can not read dialect/accents in text. It gives me a headache because I’m trying to re-create the dialect but also trying to just read. I know this is a very me issue but it will stop me reading anymore in this series.

I got a free ARC of this manga through NetGalley, and i did like very much the story, my main problem was I didn’t know why they give the apple village a scottish accent, and it doesn’t seem quite right… well it was weird and that is the reason why I don’t give full 5 stars, but cant wait to read the second volume ^__^ .

Story: This story did take a complete turn on me. I thought this might be a mysterious but slow coming of age story about a guy who doesn't know who his parents, and marrying into a family that owns an apple farm and slowly remembering and finding out where he comes from and who he is now. Instead this story became a totally different way of mysterious relating to a folklore from the town of this apple farm family. Still we have some kind of coming of age and him falling for his wife as the marriage was mainly an act of convenience for both of them at first. I loved that story but somehow I wish I had known it was about folklore/mythology beforehand. The story is really heavy and what makes it even harder to understand is that nearly the whole manga is written in a dialect. I am not a native english speaker so for a few smaller words it took me like half the manga to even understand their meaning and even after that it just took time reading in that language. I still appreciate the translation though. I often see people either not translating a dialect or know from german translations that they can also be cringy if a dialect is taken that doesn't fit the actual image of the japanese dialect spoken. This manga is set in the countryide of Aomori which is one of the most northern prefectures of the main island of Honshu. I enjoyed that there was also a small travel diary from the research trip the author took to Aomori to write this manga and therefore getting more background as a reader. AND THERE WAS A GLOSSARY. In stories as complex as this one and the background worked into this manga makes a glossary really help readers and understand the effort behind the research for this manga and the story behind it.
The story was amazing and I am really waiting for the second volume now and hope that all 3 volumes will get translated as this will for sure be no easy manga to read a beginner in japanese.
5/5

Art: The art was really simple but with the direction the story went it grew and more details in shadows would maybe have made the whole story too dark in pictures. Also this simple style kind of fits the timesetting of after war in my opinion. I enjoyed it.
4/5

The premise is interesting, however, I was really let down on how it was presented.

It was pretty muc slow paced and the characters as well as the plot didn't really compelled me to the point it was starting to bored me.

Overall, despite the interesting premise, I wished that the execution was also the same.

Rating: 3.88 out of 5
-Characters: 4/5
-Cover: 4/5
-Story: 4/5
-Writing: 3.5/5
Genre: Folklore/Romance
Type: Manga
Worth?: Yes

First want to thank Netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this in exchange for an honest review! The cover is what drew me in the most and then the summary of the story was so/so but enough to want to read it. When I did start it I wasn't so sure if I was going to actually like it. It seems kind of ordinary, it is a bit difficult to explain. I kept reading and was slowly, like the story, becoming interested then when I was very much into the manga the end came up. I was so blindsided. Lol. Needless to say I have to read the second volume. I need to know what happens.

This book has potential but it didn’t quite work for me. The art is nice, but feels more like unfinished sketches than complete drawings. The pacing is unusual. On one hand, time seems to pass ridiculously quickly. On the other hand, the actual plot doesn’t begin until halfway through the novel. The shift from realistic fiction to a supernatural story felt very abrupt and caught me completely by surprise.

A story about a university graduate Yukinojo (who was abandoned as a child in front of a temple, his basket found in the snow) who chooses to marry Asahi and into her family of Aomori apple farmers, in a rural part of Japan. The story evolves into him working on the farm, and after coming across an apple tree in winter, he accidentally gets involved with a local curse which puts his family in jeopardy ...

This is set in the 1960's I believe, and the art is really nice and clean - though I have to say it is fairly slow paced and not much happened. I hate to say this but I found some of the characters a bit bland.

The family have a distinct dialect which is written in a Scottish-type fashion in the English translation, and I have to admit, though familiar with the accent it made it a very difficult read. If you are unfamiliar with the Scottish accent (and seeing it written is an entirely different experience altogether) I think this may be a bit challenging.

Overall I think the art was clean and simple, and the story has potential, though I felt not enough of it was evident in this first volume. It will be interesting to see how far into the 'curse' side of the storyline it goes, and if the pace picks up!

<i>Thank you to Kodansha and Netgalley for the complimentary copy of this volume in exchange for an honest review</i>

First, my gratitude to Kodansha Comics and Netgalley for providing me with a reading copy of this series in exchange for an honest review.

This is late. I was supposed to read this last week but I was held back by a busy schedule. But I'm free now, and I'm just so grateful that I tried to open this tonight. Worth the read, starting from the first few pages, I was already hooked. It left me in tears, and I'm really hungry for more! It just tugs at your poor, poor heart! The plot and the setting (countryside) gives me that Studio Ghibli vibe, and I wouldn't mind seeing it as one in the future. Calling Hayao Miyazaki's attention!

This series is just poetic, beautiful, with a pinch of salt and a slice of life. I just love everything about it. It's a perfect read after my depression with the last book that I read. This just made my heart start beating once again. Gah, this is precious. I need to see more!!

The art style was different, very simplistic. It's not my favorite, but I don't hate it either. The story was pretty slow and boring though. Not much happened overall, and it was a struggle to read through everything that was written in a dialect, as it made the reading experience choppy rather than smooth

This manga follows a character named Yukinojo, who gets married and moves to a smaller area where he helps run an apple orchard with his wife and her family.

This story is slow paced, but not in a bad way - it fits the story. It creeps along as you realize there’s a bit more to the setting than what meets the eye, The artwork and atmosphere were lovely and haunting, and really fit the story, I wish the characters had been a bit more developed - I felt that more of the focus was on the setting and plot.

The decision to translate the local accent into a Scottish dialect was interesting- it definitely emphasized the setting and the main character’s place/feeling as an outsider, but it did take me out of the story a little bit.

Overall, this was a really intriguing manga, and I’m really curious to see what happens in it in the future.

rating: 3.5/5

This was an intriguing Manga that combined rural life and folklore. A translation of the book, the rural dialects were represented by an English and Scottish accent being used. This was an interesting combo as the Celtic folklore and that of the Osaka villagers feel similar in their strong belief and ties to nature.
The story itself is a little slow moving. Foundling and recent graduate, Yukinojo agrees to an arranged marriage to Asahi, a rural woman and heir to a successful Aomori apple farm.
The best part of the story shows the running of the farm and life of apple farmers, until Asahi falls ill. Yukinojo, wanting to help and having found a mysterious tree with apples in the dead of winter, feeds one to his wife.
With her miraculous recovery comes the knowledge that the tree, known as The Tree of the Great Obosuna, is feared by those around it as it is said that anyone who dares to eat it can be chose to be the bride of Obsuna and spirited away a year hence.
This story is an interesting start to the series, setting up the lives of the characters, building the relationship of the young couple, introducing the folklore. I just hope that the next ones pick up the pace a little.

This is more of a 3.75 I was more than happy to round up. Apple Children of Aeon is a slow-moving, atmospheric story that centers around Yukinojo, a man abandoned at a temple as a baby. Never feeling like he quite belonged, Yukinojo wishes to leave home and is connected with Asahi, a woman from a family of apple farmers. Life moves in slow cycles through their partnership until Yuki, unbeknownst to him, awakens ancient folklore and has to fight for his own wife's hand.

I think this is one of those manga where I really liked it but can still see why others wouldn't. As I said, this story moves slowly, so it really helped that I loved the art style and the atmosphere. The story being centrally focused on Yuki did leave the side characters underdeveloped until he had to look outside himself a little more. I really liked the tender moments between Yuki and Asahi and the countryside scenery. I think this would make a really good animation or series!

I read a few other reviews and saw some people off-put by the decision to translate the Aomori accent as Scottish. I've taken Japanese-focused translation courses and accents are a hard thing to convey. I think in this setting it was the right decision, illustrating Yuki's continued isolation from the people around him and also the values and themes of the setting, though I can see why others wouldn't care for it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and I'm looking forward to the continuation!

The story itself was fine, even charming...
but do country folk in Japan really speak with a Scottish accent? I had a hard time focusing while hearing Jaimie Frasier in my head.

Apple Children of Aeon is a fantastic manga that took me by surprise! What first drew me to it was the quality of the cover, which I thought beautiful and, now that I read the manga, I would say it is very representative of it. The story follows Yukinojo, a young man who freshly graduated with a science diploma at the University and whose particularity is that he was adopted—he doesn't know his past. So when he meets Asahi, a very direct and bold girl who is not especially graceful, and when she asks him to marry him, thereby drawing a clear line of his future before his eyes, he accepts her proposal. Here starts their story as apple farmers in the countryside. Yuki has to fake some smiles, be useful, and learn all the traditions of the village. Some on time, some too late: when on a snowy day he picks the apple of a beautiful tree, he doesn't know that he committed a sin towards the God Obosuna and that he has blessed his little wife by making her eat one.

I think that what I liked the most about this story is all the traditions created by the mangaka. I learnt that all of them were fictional, inspired by Shinto legends. There was a theological aspect that I found very interesting, and it was even more after I read the notes by the translators at the end of the manga.
I don't think this is the type of story that makes you fall in love with its characters. You can still relate to them at some points, but I didn't feel particularly close to them. Still, I think that the relationship between Yukinojo and Asahi grew to be very adorable and cute, and I'd love to see where the story is going to watch them grow to be inseparable. It is clear that, by the end of this first book, Yuki is attached to Asahi. She makes him feel like no one has done so before.

There were some parts that touched sensible strings of my heart because it depicted life so fully that it reminded me of my own, and that made me very emotional.

On the whole, I would say that Apple Children of Aeon is a very insightful manga, which I wouldn't recommend to everyone because its themes are very specific and not to be read the same way one would read another manga like, let's say a shojo or a shonen. This one is definitely seinen.

I'm very happy to have read it! It was a great discovery! Thank you so much Netgalley and Kodansha for letting me review Apple Children of Aeon! As always, it was a pleasure!

thank you netgalley & kodansha for the arc!

Yukinojo wants to escape his current life, so gets married to Asahi whose family runs an apple farm in the countryside. He's in the midst of adapting when he accidentally awakens an archaic arrangement with a spirit.

We're given a background to all these characters - most prominently Yukinojo, Asahi, and the rest of her family. As the start of the series, we don't know much about the countryside and its history (which coincides to how Yukinojo feels, struggling to adapt with his need to make people like him in a new environment) nor do we know much about Asahi herself. But surely our understanding of all the characters will grow with further volumes.

The pacing's great. It slows you down. It relaxes you and immerses you into the countryside where all your worries disappear. I was in a reading slump, so this was a great way for me to slowly bring up back my motivation to read. I'd recommend this to anyone who'd like a lighthearted read with down to earth characters.

Pretty interesting start! What appears on the surface to be a fairly straightforward slice of life manga about a newly married couple and their apple farm takes a pretty dramatic turn. The art is very pretty, and I found it interesting how translators chose to portray regional Japanese dialect. Could likely be used in an English classroom to show students how choice of diction lends itself to storytelling, and a good recommendation for students interested in magical realism and Japanese folklore.

A big thanks to the Netgalley team and Kodansha Comics to letting me read this.

What a marvellous beginning into a series.
I really like how it has this unique myth about a god who would talk the girl who eats an apple from his tree as wife. I can sense that the main character, Yukinojo is going to have an interesting character arc - as stopping to run away from things. I also like how this picks up dialects in the English (translation) too (Something I rarely see in German translated graphic novels and Manga). So - This is a great thing done, too.
I can feel that Tanaka put also a lot of effort into the traditions of apple farmers. The details are well executed and just make this story so much more graspable and lively.

I'm looking forward to how the story continues from here on.

Yukinojo recently graduates from college and is looking to settle down. He soon marries Asahi, the Heir to the Aomori apple farm. The life out on the farm is very different than his life before in the city and discovers just how much work goes into running a farm. Life drastically changes one day when he discovers a strange tree in the snow.

I found the story to be a bit slow but it fit with the quiet country life. One thing I didn't like was the rural dialect, I often found myself distracted from the story while I had to stop and figure out what they were saying. The art was beautifully done, simple but fits perfectly. I enjoyed the story and definitely want to know what happens next.

Thank you to Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for the e-ARC.

I requested this book and then promptly forgot why, so by the time I was reading this, I thought I was going to be a cute slice of life story about a now-adult foundling desperately trying to start over with a new family. Well! How wrong I was, lulled by the rustic-chic art style. My first complaint is probably one of its strengths: you've got your cute Stardew Valley-esque life that Yukinoji is now living, only to suddenly turn sinister, so it almost feels like the author changed their mind on what kind of book they're making, or maybe they're just that good at writing suspense. Your mileage may vary. My second complaint is that the way they adapted the accents are annoying and takes some getting used to, since it almost feels like they gave up on adapting it and just decided to give the townspeople some neo-Gaelic accent. In spite of my complaints, I enjoyed reading the book. The first book is a good set up, and the underlying plot is based on mysticism and intrigue that actually makes you wonder what would happen in the second book. (I received a free eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.)

ARC Copy...It was felt like a combination of slice of life within a farming community and farm with a touch of horror. It was interesting aspect but also made it hmmm on how to approach the narrative. The pastoral farming scenes were relaxing with honestly friendly locals + inlaws but the sinister aspects and/or the weird customs of the same world that crawled in did create an air of "what is going on the farm" slightly, so interesting to see how this goes.