The Spring 2023 Manga Guide

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale

What's It About? 

Anne Halford is a candy crafter determined to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a Silver Sugar Master, a title bestowed only by royalty. In order to travel to the capital and realize her dream, she purchases Challe, a handsome but foul-mouthed fairy, as her bodyguard. Anne wishes to befriend her new companion, but in this kingdom where fairies are treated as property, Challe wants nothing to do with humans.

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale has story by Miri Mikawa, character design by Aki, and art by YozoranoUdon, with English translation by Nicole Wilder, lettered and touched up by Chiho Christie. Yen Press released the first volume on April 18.

Is It Worth Reading?

Rebecca Silverman

Rating:

If you want to experience Sugar Apple Fairy Tale, my suggestion would be to read light novels. The second best is the anime adaptation because this manga version comes in dead last. All three follow the same story of Anne Halford and her quest to become a Silver Sugar Master (at least in the first arc), but the manga suffers from one very specific issue: the art isn't great. This one component of the book becomes overwhelming, to the point where it takes up most of your attention, especially if you've read or watched the other two versions.

In the simplest terms, the manga's art is stiff. Anne's clothing has no flow, looks like it's made out of cardboard, and facial expressions feel wooden and awkward. Hugh looks deceptively young, Jonas is bland, and poor Mithril Lid Pod has the world's tiniest feet. Challe comes through the best, but even his elegance doesn't quite shine through enough. Add in very crowded pages and this feels more like a chore to read than anything else.

It's not without its good points, of course. The way that YozoranoUdon draws the fairies' wings is actually better than the novel illustrations or the anime; they add interesting detail and make each fairy's wings unique. Mithril Lid Pod has ruffled wings, Cathy's looks more like butterfly wings, and Challe's remains the long, classical translucent fairy wing of 19th-century illustration. Given that everything else is simplified from Aki's illustrations in the light novels, this is a definite high point and something that I'd love to see the anime emulate.

I've spent most of this review talking about the art. That's because, as the third version of this story to come out in English (in collected form, at least; Yen Press releases this one by chapter digitally), there's not quite as much to say about the story. We all know that Anne starts out as a hypocrite, that Challe is keen to point that out to her, and that Jonas has yet to reveal his true colors. The plot is a little more condensed in this version, but it still follows the same familiar path, which you probably already know if you're willing to consume. But if you don't, I suggest trying one of the other two story forms. This has a few good points, but it is far and away the weakest of the three.

Jean-Karlo Lemus

Rating:

Sugar Apple Fairy Tale promises a much lighter, sweeter story with its title, but there's a surprising amount of grit to this fairy tale than you'd expect. Between Anne losing her mother and having to navigate both owning a fairy slave and her travel to the Royal Candy Fair, we see her undergo a lot of struggle in this first volume. By that same notion, Challe isn't just some cold, aloof love interest; he's been trodden upon and faces immense indignity at being the slave to a girl who won't hurry up and treat him like one. I think the story is better for it. Anne has a ton of backbone as a protagonist, and even when we see her facing a painful setback she endeavors to overcome her obstacles (after a good cry). The world around her needs her to be that strong. And it looks like Challe needs someone like Anne in his life, too.

For a story that's ostensibly about candy makers, there's precious little actual candy-making involved. But that's okay, I think; this is a fantasy story about a young woman setting forth on her own and the cold-hearted guardian who makes sure she doesn't get pecked to death by deadly crows. We have a stellar cast and tons of great emotion here. I really do hope to see Anne give Challe his wing back—literally and metaphorically.

There are some graphic depictions here, particularly when Challe slaughters a gang of bandits or with some of the tough discrimination the fairies face. The base story, along with Anne and her courage, would make it a good choice for younger readers, but parents might want to be aware of the violence. Nevertheless, this story earns a strong recommendation.