Hadashi de Bara wo Fume
Stepping on Roses

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At first, I wasn't very sure I'd enjoy this manga. It started very suddenly, giving the reader no chance what-so-ever to get used to the rapid storyline & threw the reader into the happenings right away. What I assumed to be a bad thing at first, soon developed to be one of the story's main strenghts: the sudden change of scenery, the rapid pacing of the Storyline & twists and turns that give it its special spice. The further you proceed in the Story, the deeper the characters and the main storylines get. What seemed to be a pretty usual and ordinary storyline full of ... stereotypical characters soon develops into a beautiful, slightly melancholic & sad touch and deep story that is able to make the reader cry, smile and excited. Especially the Art Work caught my Eye. It's simply magnificent. Everyone should at least take a Look at this great manga. I promise you won't be disappointed.

First, let me say my opinion of this manga when first seeing the cover and the plot summary.

I thought that, " Well, it's gonna be one of those marriage agreement thingy and one's gonna fall inlove w/ his/her partner... since this is shoujo might as well expect it. But, I'm gonna give it a try... just one try, ".

I WAS WRONG. SO WRONG IN SO MANY WAYS.


I never knew this manga had the PYSCHO thingy in it which was so beautifully expressed! The characters portrayed themselves very well. Especially, Nozumo and Soichirou.

At first I was like, " Yep, Nozumo's attitude's gonna be like this, ... " but NO! It was on a total different level! And personally, I didn't like Soichirou's predictable and overly used character at first, but THEN! It was like I was slowly falling inlove with him.


I couldn't even choose between the two of them! Both drawn maturely and professionally.

Sumi's character was very lovely as well. It couldn't go wrong in any way. She was so mature. I looked up to her in every chapter of the manga.



The manga started simple at the beginning and suddenly confusing but confusing in a GOOD way. At the end of the manga, I didn't even expect a plot twist!

My journey reading this manga was full of emotions. Some happy, some sad and some I just don't know how to express.

I was really sad that it ended at Chapter 57. I don't even care if it goes until 500!
I finished this manga in a day and regretted how I only read it until now. This manga is on par with Faster Than a Kiss for me.

I really love this manga and people should give it a try.


And of course, my overall review of this manga is a perfect 100.

Hadashi de Bara wo Fume was really good manga. But I think final chapter was really disapponting one. There was a issue (Don't worry I won't do spoilers) that take too many chapters and then problem was solved in one or two page (in the final chapter) I was like ''Whaaat???'' and few more pages and the end. To sum up I think it started great, continued really great but the ending was terrible. (Sorry for the bad english.)

First of all, I had pretty hard time getting the name 'Hadashi de Bara wo Fume' right. I don't know why. I'm sure I have been able to memorize even more complicated Japanese phrases. Anyway, let's get to the point.

This manga had initially been a decent read but right on from the fifth volume, it got downright annoying. The first two volumes were too fast paced. It took me some time to digest the happenings. On the contrary, the volumes that follow were equally slow paced. The story was getting kind of repetitive and the characters were getting on my nerve. Just when I ... thought something 'sensible' would happen, the author dragged the story back to where it was. And by the time I reached the 39th chapter, I have had it enough so I decided to drop it once and for all.

S T O R Y (7/10): The plot is nothing special in my opinion though it still has some potential but thanks to poor character development and fluctuating pace, it got ruined. The backdrop is Meiji 25. We have the female protagonist, Sumi, from an extremely poor background. Her elder brother is a womanizer and an epic fail at gambling. He keeps on getting owned by his fellow gamblers and loses whatever money he manages to get by seducing women with his pretty face. Moreover, he brings home abandoned kids to feed in an attempt to make Sumi happy so that she doesn't feel lonely (now this is what I call the limit of idiocy. How on earth did he figure out that something like that is going to make his sister happy when she herself is starving?). Sumi being an extremely kindhearted woman takes pity on the kids and adopts them as her siblings. When one of the kids falls ill and Sumi has no money for the treatment, a young man comes to her help, and Sumi immediately gets infatuated with the 'prince'. Later, her brother runs away from home to escape the rising debt. When Sumi gets threatened that her siblings would be sold off to a foreign country as slaves if she doesn't pay off her debts as soon as possible, she makes up her mind to sell herself to make quick money. When she almost gets raped by a man who had no intention of paying her, she is saved by Ashida Shouichirou, a wealthy young man, who offers to give her money in exchange for marrying him. Also, he places a condition before her: There will be no love between the two. Having no other way, Sumi agrees and realizes that she has 'stepped on roses barefoot'. While on the brighter side, she becomes rich overnight- expensive dresses, elegant parties and mouthwatering delicacies which she could have never imagined, she is also faced with odds- a cold husband who will never love her, an unfaithful society full of conspiracies where money and power matter, and above all, her 'prince' whom she never expected to meet again turns out to be her husband's best friend, Ijuuin Nozumu. The predicament begins when Nozumu falls in love with Sumi or I should say, gets obsessed with her, putting Sumi in a bind.
Pretty interesting story even though it is somewhat clichéd. However, one requires patience to continue. The story gets cheesy. If that's what you're looking for, you may like it. If not, you will get frustrated like me.

A R T (7/10): The art is the typical shoujo style but not that great in my opinion. The excessive blush hides the characters' facial expressions. On the other hand, the hair, the clothes, the architecture and other things are beautifully drawn.

C H A R A C T E R (6/10): The characters are clichéd and as the series progresses, they get annoying, especially the female protagonist, Sumi, and the male antagonist, Nozumu. Initially, Sumi had my pity but later on, she got on my nerves, to the point that I found myself cheering on Nozumu's jealous wife when she attacked Sumi. Speaking of Nozumu, he doesn't love Sumi; he is just plain obsessed with her. I don't know what the author wished to portray- obsession or love. If it's the latter one, I beg to differ, you don't kidnap your love and let them die in fire.

E N J O Y M E N T (6/10): How much you will enjoy this manga depends on what you expect from it. If you expect a cheesy plot in which the girl romances with two handsome guys and is unable to decide with whom she really wants to be, then you may enjoy this manga. However, if you're looking for a concrete plot with good character development and a strong female protagonist, you will end up losing your interest.

O V E R A L L (6/10): Not worth of recommending in my opinion. Enough said.

To start out with the positive aspects to this manga, what probably pulled me into the story was the way the fashion or clothes are drawn. This is as the story is set in the Meiji era and therefore it is interesting to see both very beautifully drawn traditional Japanese and Western clothing incorporated into the manga. Sumi (lead female character) also clearly comes over as very pretty through the drawing style. Yet sadly these few perks are unable to outweigh the problems which I have found with this manga.

Beginning with the pacing of the story, it truly throws the reader around, which does not ... help at all to try to create an emotional connection between Sumi and the reader, or for that case any other character either. Partially also the pacing's fault is that the character development appears as inconsistent. Characters seem to change, but only to revert back the next instant, something that is obviously confusing. Moreover each character does face their own traumas or radical changes in personality, however these seem poorly expressed, through the fact that it is used, but without great depth to it and just cast aside or ignored when of no use to the plot. This is also what makes the story so predictable from the very beginning, the plot is character driven, but the characters themselves are predictable! It should also be noted if one does make use of psychological profiling of the characters, it should be consistent and "reading in between the lines" should let the reader try to figure out how each character is influenced by an event and why they act in a certain way. The essence of ambiguity and uncertainty to how the antagonists in the story would act, is something that is completely lacking in this story.
These are just some of the spoiler free inconsistencies I would like to mention in the story, as there are many spoiler related things I could add, especially about how there are quite a few occurrences that are just plain out not fitting to the time period. There are many things that can stretch the boundaries of a manga in a good way, but for this manga which is supposed to be rather serious, there are just too many loose ends to be understood as charming.

The most disappointing thing about this manga is especially that it could have so much potential for a more enthralling and gripping plot, as well as characters. If you are looking for a manga that will grip your emotions and keep you internally screaming at the most important moments, then this is certainly not the one. I would not recommend to read this manga, as there are so many better shoujo romance mangas out there, that deserve so much more praise then this one, and have far better developed plots and characters that are able to take hold of the reader without letting go.

I feel like the manga could have been better, instead it was mediocre. Sumi, the main girl is just so irritating! She constantly causes trouble by her naiveness and then nobody blames her. Also, she is a master of shogi, she can't even read, how she can play shogi, does she just recognize the characters as the same? Her dislike of roses seems infrequent as well, she freaks out at seeing roses sometimes but other times she seems fine and fear of roses is questionable, *spoiler* she doesn't remember being a baby so how she still have her fear of roses when she was abandoned ... in a field?
Unlike most shoujo manga I did not get that mushy feeling I get when reading them. Instead, my most prominent feeling was that of being creeped out by Nozomu's actions, yandere guys are scary as heck! He os overly obsessed and ends up being a total creep. I mean he saved a RICEBALL from her, the heck, who does that?! There was also the fact that *spoilers* it was too predictable.
When I first saw the picture of Aiko and Nozomu's mention that Sumi resembles his mother, I knew already that they were siblings. Also tying in to Nozomu's insanity, after finding out, he still wants to marry her.
Sumi's "brother" was also questionable, he seems like a nice guy, taking care of orphans but he still uses Sumi and leech off her, as well as constantly getting into trouble, it was not until the end did he seem to act like an actual brother.
I feel that the background stories were something that were impromptu, that it was just made up on the spot and the ending was kind of rushed.
The author barely touched on Souichi's background and his family and Keiko, the maid that was a spy sent by his cousin suddenly seem to give up her spy. I seriously feel that the best character was Komai, the freaking butler, that's kinda sad.
The redeeming part of the manga was the art, it is not anything really special but still pretty and the best part of the manga, the story was not bad either but doesn't seem to have enough reasoning backing things up. All in all I would rate the manga a 6.5/10, too bad MAL dont have decimals.

"Can you throw away love for money?"

Hadashi de Bara wo Fume, or, Stepping on Roses, is quite an appropriate name for this beautiful series. While drinking up the soft, tender, velvet petals of the story, there's also the sharp pain of the thorn, hidden, and out of sight.

Sumi, our selfless heroine, is thrown into turmoil when her older brother gambles away all of their money, leaving her adopted siblings literally no money for survival. Frantic, Sumi runs around town, offering herself for money. Then, our heartless hero, Souichirou, offers to buy her. He explains he must get married in order to receive an ... abundant inheritance from his grandfather, but there shall be no love in the marriage. He is not to love her, and she is not to love him. Souichirou narrows his eyes as the questions arises, "Can you throw away love for money?"

Sumi could have said no. But then, there would be no story.

Thus begins Stepping on Roses. Sumi's job? Don't mess up. Don't embarrass Souichirou. Don't disgrace the Ashida family. And above all: Don't let anyone find out that she is actually from a poor family.

The first person who introduced this story was my younger sister. She could not stop gushing on how wonderful the characters were, how breathtaking the art was, and how captivating the story was. I just didn't want to read it, however. But, at the constant urging of my sister, I finally picked up the first volume. I was very disappointed that I had put it off for so long. Because she was absolutely right: The characters are wonderful. The art is breathtaking. The story is captivating.

Sumi herself makes the story so enjoyable. Her caring spirit is a beautiful contrast to the terrible character of Souichirou. She is creative, thrifty, and compassionate, not to mention beautiful and really sweet. She tries her best at everything, and when she has the opportunity to benefit herself, she chooses to bless those around her and the people she cares about. She tries very hard not to upset Souichirou, her husband, who very often threatens to "sink her to the bottom of the sea" if she were to embarrass him in the slightest way. When dazzled by the charming Nozomu, she regrets to say, "I forgot... I'm the wife of this awful man!"

Hadashi de Bara wo Fume. Under the flowers and loveliness, the story still has mysteries yet to be uncovered. Under the fake impression of husband and wife, is a young girl who puts up with a heartless man in order to keep her family from starvation. Under the typical overrated story line of a tsundere male and a helpless female is the beautiful story of Stepping on Roses.

Whew, my first ever review. The only reason I'm bothering is because I really hope people won't waste their time with this awful piece of poop.

At first, I thought this story had potential. I've read quite a few manga now where the male lead is mean at first to the female lead before gradually letting his soft side do him in.

However, the amount of abuse in this story is appalling. You think that he's going to admit his feelings, then he treats Sumi like garbage and expects her to understand that it's because he's so into her despite his history of verbal abuse. Of course ... she isn't going to realize his true feelings when he blusters and insults her.

With the supporting characters, too, it's hard to understand their motives at times, and many of them are equally abusive. Maybe the psychosis of a couple of them makes you want to excuse them, but then Sumi just takes the abuse and actually comes back for more. Her naivety is too much to be believable.

Basically, I could not get past the abusive nature of so many of the relations of the characters.

Tl;dr don't waste your time with this manga. The only reason I read to the end was because I had a sort of morbid curiosity for how much worse this manga could get. I honestly don't understand why it has such a high average rating or why so many people enjoy this, it's seriously so awful.

STORY: The story is about a young girl whose brother drops off orphaned children for her to take care of. The brother is a gambler and the girl is always in need of money to take care of them The story is fairly original, though when the romance is introduced it is kind of cliche. Two boys fight over the girl. Though with one of them it takes a little longer. The romance is, however, the best part of the story. The various twists that go along with the plot increase the enjoyment. This is definetly for romance lovers with some mature themes but most ... of it is kept along 13-14 and up.
ART: The art was fairly good but certainly not the best part of the series. The men look handsome(though I have seen better bishies). But the females are drawn noticably better. Sumi(the lead girl) when drawn in various dresses is pretty impressive.
CHARACTER: The characters were above average and met my standards.
Sumi's personality is almost like Tohru Hondas from Fruits Basket. No matter how harsh the circumstances, she does what she can for the orphaned children. She at first seems very dumb and clueless, but as the series progresses she has her bright times.
Soichiro is the man who marries Sumi. He brought alot to the story and I adore him. He has a harsh exterior which makes him more mysterious. He plays into the romance element very nicely. Despite his exterior, he eventually falls for Sumi. He is very protective and he cared for his family alot.
Nozumu is a young man who gives Sumi some money and she eventually falls for him. The feelings soon become mutual and he is the main antagonist throughout the series. Ueda does a very good job with his personality and background. There are major changes and twists regarding his personality and character(~im not going to give too much away~). He is seen as a prince-like character but he soon turns possessive and agressive.
ENJOYMENT:
I enjoyed this series very much. The three main characters re wonderful. And like me, any shoujo romance fan would adore this. Despite some cliche elements, everything was new and original. I really enjoyed the romance and love triangle.

= Story =
- These stories are ones I tend to read for the sake of curiosity. Sumi decides to marry Souichiro b/c she needs money to support her brother and younger siblings. He agrees due to the fact that he needed to marry someone before a certain deadline to get the presidency to his grandfather's (I think) company. So Sumi is learning how to act ladylike b/c she's pretending to be some aristocrat from another part of Japan. She marries Souichiro even though she fell in love with Nozomu. But it's quite obvious she ends up falling for Souichiro after a series of events. That's ... basically it. It's a simple, yet enticing plot that males you want to finish the manga regardless of whether or not you like it. So yeah, very basic plot with great suspense. Perfect for 56 or so chapters. -

= Art =
- As for any of my reviews, art always gets a 10 b/c we probably can't draw better and most of us probably wouldn't be reading a manga where the art is so bad you can't identify who is who. -

= Characters =
- I honestly don't care much for the characters. I'm not as... sympathetic/empathetic towards them as I had hoped. Sumi is one of the characters that just dead weight and is easily manipulated by others. She has obvious good intentions unlike other female heroines, but she's so... gullible to the point where I literally yell at the scream asking why she's so ignorant and naive. Souichiro is also quite gullible. He's arrogant and naive. There's not really much you can say about it. Nozomu... the only thing I can about him (without spoiling anything) is that he becomes... mentally unstable. Not psychotic in that sense, but just... unstable. -

= Enjoyment/Overall =
- Again, not a fan of the characters per say, but the plot is fairly enticing. So overall enjoyment of the series would be a 7. And yes, this is a manga I would recommend to Shoujo readers. -

Story: The story was really good, I actually really liked it. There were a lot of twists and turns within this story that made it quite enjoyable. There are a few points in the story that were left unanswered. One major question is... how did Sumi end up in a garden of roses in the first place? How did they suddenly figure out Nozomaru (sorry fir the bad spelling) was automatically her biological brother?

Art: I thought the art style was really cute, minus the constant blushing which was really annoying!

Characters: Eh... I'm nit too big on weak characters like Sumi and she does ... a lot of decisions that are usual wrong or dumb. Nozomaru was a really creepy and disgusting. He wanted to marry his own sister...WAIT WHAT!? Sochiro he was cute but irritating. At first he was like, "I will never love you and you will never love me" and now at the end he's like. "I love you..." dude, make up your mind!XD

Recommend this for like younger girls...

*spoiler free*

The story at the beginning is pretty cliche. Poor girl marries rich guy to pay off debt: simple. However, from there, it takes some dark psychotic turns, and instead of going down the cliche jealousy route, everyone's using someone for something. It's very fast paced, so you likely won't get too bored. If you ever do, wait it out for a chapter or two, because it moves so quickly that you'll be caught up in a new subplot by then. There's an overarching plot that makes sense, but some of the plot points and motives aren't explained very well. The pace was pretty nice ... up until the end, where it lost major points.

I didn't really like the ending. It was awfully cheesy, everyone was just fo I feel like the author was given a deadline so she just threw stuff together to finish off the series. I enjoyed it until then, honestly.

The art wasn't too impressive in the beginning (I didn't like it at first) but it soon grew on me. I probably didn't like the art because I was used to sharp-jawed men with massive shoulders compared to the realistic, lithe men that the author drew. The main character and all the women are drawn beautifully though, so they didn't go wrong there. The clothing is all gorgeous as well. Definitely pleasing to the eye.

The characters were so-and-so. The characters reminded me A LOT of Hokuto and Chiwa from Hapi Mari, especially with the whole 'bastard child takes over company' deal and the 'woman of a poor family with irresponsible men who create debt had to sell herself for money but instead got bought by a rich man who will pay off her debt' trope. There were a few events when I was sure they were copied plot points entirely. Regardless, the psychotic love triangle aspect of this gives it a unique touch that separates it from Hapi Mari, even if by a little. The characters weren't very well developed in my opinion, but there was at least a little bit of fluctuating personality, even if they weren't really round.

I enjoyed this a lot mostly because I adore shojos and the arranged marriage trope is always a lot of fun.

Overall, I give this a 6.

I would recommend if: you like arranged marriage AUs, you like shojos, you like love triangles, you like a little bit of obsessive tendencies in side love interests, you like Hapi Mari, you like hot business dudes in suits, you like fast-paced things

I would NOT recommend if: you want something slow, you wanted something extremely focused on the romance itself opposed to everything else, you are opposed to love triangles, you hate cliches

NOTE: I will say that I read the first two chapters of this and then I put it on hold. It didn't keep my attention at the moment, so I moved on. I have a thing about not finishing mangas or anime, so I finally came back to read it and found it to actually be quite exciting. So if you're disappointed by the start, don't let that be a reason for you to drop it. Give it a chance! :)

Have a great day!

This is the greatest manga I've ever read. At first I thought it is a duplicate story, but after read the first chapter I didn't want stop reading, and I wanted to read more.
For the characters, it were very beautiful and the drawing was great, I could see the beautiful girl ,the handsome man,the old man or woman and the different expressions so clearly and anyone will enjoy it, like me.
The story was very genius, I don't know if I use the right expression, but the arranging of the events was wonderful and it's why I put the Enjoyment's degree 8"very good".
The historical shoujo ... manga is not successful a lot, because there's a few authors can write like this story, and Rinko Ueda was one of those few and she proved that in "Hadashi de Bara wo Fume" .

maybe love is something that money can buy


Hadashi de Bara wo Fume (stepping on roses barefoot) is a manga written by the same author of tail of the moon. The story takes place in the 1890's and evolves around a 15 year old girl (sumi) with 3 youngers sibling to care for and a womanizer of a brother who gambles away all his earnings, which leaves them in debt.

Desperate for money, Sumi goes out into the town to "sell" her body. She comes across a wealthy and handsome man (Soichiro) who says he will buy her. She goes with him only to find out that ... she has to marry him. There is a condition for this marriage, she cannot fall for him and he cannot fall for her.

I'd definetely recommend this manga for shojou fans. This manga charmed me with its cute artwork and intriguing storyline. There are twists in every chapter which will leave you with wanting more.

This was a truly touching and lovable manga. the touches of insanity that were thrown in also added a bit of excitement to the plot. The two main characters as well as Sumi's family (such adorable little children) were truly lovable and I couldn't stop rooting for them all the way through. This was one of those mangas that I had to stay up all night just to finish because I couldn't get myself to stop reading it. It's true that it starts out rough and somewhat unenjoyable but if you hang in there, it's likely that you will be pleasantly surprised. There is also ... a great twist ending that is thrown in there to make things more interesting!

There is absolutely nothing bad that I can say about this manga. I started reading it when it first came out but lost patience waiting on chapters. I recently found it again and got hooked immediately. The two main characters aren't what kept me, though. It was Nozomu. I don't want to spoil anything, but his rapid character development had me on the end of my seat throughout the entire story. I absolutely loved it. The only down side I can see to it was the ending. I expected someone more dramatic to happen but I was not at all disappointed. Very good read. I've ... been recommending it to everyone!

When I started reading the manga, I thought it would be the stereotypical "Poor Girl-Meets-Rich Guy" story. But as I continued on reading, there were sudden twists and turns that began giving the story more depth. I am excited to find out how the story develops. The characters are also well developed. I find that the main antagonist in the story is hard to completely hate because he is such a sad character. The female protagonist starts out weak but eventually as the story progresses, she becomes strong. The art is also great. The details are exquisite and the bishies made me drool. I'm ... glad I stumbled upon this manga. :)

I'll keep it sweet and simple, no matter whether your big on shoujo or not I recommend you check this one out.

The synopsis and the covers of this manga may look like your cliche shoujo manga, and whilst yes a chunk of it is that since it is obviously made with the intent of being a shoujo, I can tell you now that this manga has it's fair share of dark moments for what the main synopsis is described as.

So even if you aren't big on this type of thing, I highly recommend this as this manga gave me a roller coaster ride ... of emotions.

"Hadashi de Bara wo Fume" is like fast-food: Easy, comforting tropes; but very, very toxic with unhealthy character patterns. Think normalized rape, abuse, gambling, and almost very nearly incest - all wrapped tidy and pretty within a sugar-coated fairytale.

The plot contained interesting elements - particularly the antagonist's psychosis which could have created an amazing psychological thriller (like Light from Death Note's psychopathy). It could have completely subverted the syrupy shoujo genre, except the author was superficially focused on what she liked best: fashion and faces (literally, the characters have great faces but awkwardly proportioned bodies).

It's an alright manga for some PG ... love - lots of kissing, chaste sleeping at night, occasional kisses, no sex until attempted rape occurs (lol). I can see why this manga would appeal to the worst of tween fantasies.

10/10 to stay away from. Buyers beware.

I started this manga with low hopes, and I was proven wrong for the first half. The first half of the story was extremely well written and the characterizations were just so beautiful and realistic. The story was a little fast-paced, but it suited the style and the setting it created was wonderful.

HOWEVER! The second half, at around chapter 30, the plot goes completely downhill. It was like it was written by a completely different person. No spoilers, but it was like none of the characters made any sense anymore, all of their motivations were practically thrown out and did a whole 180. The ... plot became extremely unrealistic and almost every chapter made me want to throw my laptop.

So! If you're willing to read only the first half and then drop it, I would recommend. If you're like me and wanted to finish it just to get it over with, it's not worth your time.