This was a beautiful yet tragic story. The art style is gorgeous.
This may seem like an ordinary story with an mmc who's an emperor and the fmc, daughter of a noble. But they have a beautiful past. A past struck by a tragedy.
I can't wait to see both our mmc and fmc recognize each other. I'm so excited for the next volume.

3.5 star!

I’m so invested in this, I can’t wait to read the next volumes and find out how the story will continue.

This was such a cute story! I wish it was longer because right as it was starting to get really interesting it ended.
I don’t usually read manga but this definitely makes me want to dive in.

I am very intrigued to see where this story goes. I've read a lot of reincarnation stories and they all seem to blend in together. But this one has such a unique way of telling the story and magic system that it is a strong contender to stand out.

Thank you Netgalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Boy I Loved Became The Jaded Emperor in particular is bringing a fresh air to historical slash reincarnation-themed manga where the FMC was reborn from unusual looking commoner to a beautiful noble lady. Both of the main characters suffer from their supposed to be home/family until they meet and find comfort in each other. It's tragic also could be comedic at the same time. It has a fast pace and very much simple conflict, perfect if you're looking for refreshing and wholesome manga.

Pie, a friendly monster, found and rescued a young boy unknown to her that he was Prince Alexei in the woods whom she named Ham. They lived together for many years until tragedy struck and Pie was killed. Ham tried to save her but believed he had failed. Ham grew up and became a cold Emperor, while Pie was reborn as a noble lady called Eleonora. Their fates were bound to cross again, but neither recognized the other.

The story appeared to be a fantasy romance from the cover, but it turned out to be a fantasy with a different twist. The ending left me desperate for more, and I can't wait for the next instalment. However, I really hope their relationship remains like that of a mother and son and doesn't develop into a romance, as it seems to be heading in that direction.

It's all backstory and setting up for the next volume, I would have liked to see a little more happen to get me interested enough to want to continue the series. The idea of the plot is interesting though.

While I really liked the amount of background we're given to the Emperor in this first volume, I found that the book ended before I could really care to see how the two lead's relationship with each other would develop. They had very little interaction with each other in current day, so I don't know what to expect. I'm interested, but I would have loved more time between the two characters in this volume.

Thanks NetGalley and Kodansha Comics for the ARC.

As the art is one of the most important parts of any manga I will start my review there. The art is gorgeous and my preferred style. I would happily pick up any manga drawn by this artist just to enjoy looking at it.

However, this isn’t where the enjoyment of this story ends. There are two parts of the story told: one in the past when the emperor was just a boy abandoned in the woods and taken in by a ‘monster’ who cares for him and keeps him safe over the years. They form their own family in the woods with all the magical creatures who live there as well. The second part is in the present after the boy was ‘rescued’ and has grown up and is now the ruler of his lands. He holds a ball to find a wife and is reunited with the person who saved him who has been reincarnated as a Duke’s daughter. Will they remember each other? Will they find love? I can’t wait to find out.

This was a sweet read and I can't wait to read the next volume. Both the Art style and the plot are cute. It starts of with the immortal prince as a kid, being abandoned in a forest where he's killed repeatedly.
He meets a green squishy hooded creature he named Pie in the magical forest who saves him and looks after him. Now this relationship felt more like a grandma and child relationship and not the love between the ML and FL but guess what?
The Pie gets killed by the imperial knights and reincarnates as a noble. Now both have grow. The prince has become cold hearted and the princess still has her previous commoner accent lol.
They finally meet and have a discussion on hams and pies xD

Can't wait to find out what happens next. I only wish they didn't have a granny and child relationship at the beginning it's weird reading about their love now.

In summary if you like historical mangas, reincarnation and royalty then this is for you.

The cover art caught my attention because of the art style. I love how this artist's draws their characters so delicately. Their coloring style is soft and vibrant only adds to it.

The manga itself is well-formatted with beautiful panelling. You can tell Ii Oshikawa has a lot of experience, and I love the variation between each page. Even though some of the panels lack backgrounds, pages never feel empty because of the detailed background that other panels provide. I love that they've added a white glow around the characters so that they stand out against the backdrop. The character expressions are pretty and well-drawn with a good amount of variation too.

As for the story, we meet Eleonora, the neglected daughter of the Purpleus ducal household. She was the daughter of the Duke's previous wife, and was sent off to the annex once he remarried and had another child. Eleonora was a creature called Pie in her previous life, and she cared for Prince Alexei for a few years. He was escaping an assassination attempt and learned to find a home in the forest. He was eventually discovered and brought back to the castle while Pie and everyone in the forest were killed. We don't spend enough time with them for it to pack an emotional punch, but it provides enough information to give us a good idea of what Alexei has been though. Eleonora doesn't hold any grudges about the past but Alexei is haunted by that day. They meet again in their second lives, and we end the Volume 1 there. Both characters seem pretty taciturn, so I have a hunch that future volumes will have a lot of flashbacks to happier days.

The plot is easy to understand, and Pie didn't see Ham/Alexei romantically at all, so I wonder how that's going to develop. Outside of the plot, it's really fun to see the contract between her peers and Eleanora's own heavy southern accent. It's a cute introduction to the series and I'm interested to learn how their relationship will develop, and how they'll realize eachother's identities!

4.5 stars

I was a bit concerned that the "speaks like a country bumpkin" plot device was going to be overused and become annoying, but so far, it hasn't gotten too bad.

Otherwise, the art is beautiful, and the plot is interesting. I look forward to reading more.

This volume spent a lot of time setting up the story and introducing us to characters and not a lot actually happened. I'm excited to see where it's going to go next!

Thank you to Kodansha for the ARC

"The Boy I Loved Became the Jaded Emperor" is a slightly more-light hearted version of the isekai genre. I don't think this story will be for everyone, but it definitely appealed to me.

The premise starts like a mix between isekai (reincarnation) with a past being like a familial "Beauty and the Beast." The non-human, "ugly" looking girl gets reincarnated while the ML got scarred from the incident as a child and became jaded because of it.

The "female protagonist reincarnation" trope puts a slightly more realistic take where some habits from the past are bound to show up. So I personally appreciated that "flawed" aspect of the heroine; although I can see where some readers might get quickly tired of how much the "peasant speech" gets used/emphasized. I personally found a charm in that.

It feels like an interesting narrative hurdle for the girl who saw the young boy more as "family" in the past to eventually turn into the romance (as this book seems to want/imply). For now, it seems like a lot to ask of this story without forcing it too much. So far, that's my only worry for future volumes, but I want to trust the author's approach to do so.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for the advanced copy. Especially since I didn't have to wait on this copy. I look forward to the rest of this story and how the dynamic changes.

I was a little bit confused at first with the bit of back and forth, however this is due to the fact that this volume is mainly setting up the backstory and has only really begun to move forward with the plot towards the end.
Seems like it’ll be a wholesome story in future volumes and the characters seem sweet.
I’d advise turning off the brain in regards to thinking about ages as it gets confusing with a reincarnation.

This went by really fast for me! I was so surprised when it was over. This manga has an interesting plot. Nothing too complex but I actually want to know how things will play out between Pie & Ham.

Thanks NetGalley for the arc!

thank you to the publisher for an arc!

this was an interesting start to a new series, and the art was absolutely gorgeous. i'll definitely check out the rest of the series

I wasn't too sure about the story at first, but it got better later on. It was a cute introduction of a reincarnation story that didn't deal with revenge or changing a villainess's way in the past. It was hilarious that Alexei and Eleanora were having a conversation about ham and pie when they first met.

I really enjoyed this manga and definitely want to continue on the series. It was interesting to see resurrections and I’d like to see more magic come into play. This is about a boy who his step mother empress tried to unalive him by leaving him stranded in the demon woods and someone saved him. The gave each other names him being Ham and her being Pie. After three years of living together in the woods like show white with the animals, the knights came to bring Ham back and the story evolves from their with Pie being reincarnated as a Dukes daughter who has had similar treatment of her step mother trying to cast her out. All in all I really enjoyed reading this and will love to read more.

From my first impression, this is a ligh, heartwarming read that does nothing new but still can still serve as fine entertainment all the same.

The leads are your typical demon emperor vs. daughter of the duke -- except with a reincarnation twist. I literally don't have an opinion on their characters, as typical as they are, and their dynamic is... interesting. I was getting more of a cute found family vibe from their shared past and I'm slightly curious to see how the author would develop their chemistry into something more convincing. As a side note, it was funny that Eleonora's one character trait was "peasant" speech, lol.