Hadashi de Bara wo Fume

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. :)

At the start I only read because I thought it would go somewhere, I am so glad I continued reading because I really liked the way things turned out. Even if so many things had happened for the ending to happen I think it was totally worth it because I like drama. I highly recommend it :). It was one of those mangas that actually drew me in and made my heart melt yet feel so many other emotions at the same time. The art is pretty good, I loved the way the artist displayed the story, when the art and plot are combined it is so pleasant.

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!

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.

*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!

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.

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.

"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.

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.)

I will make this fairly short. You know the story already, cinderella has family issues, rich man finds her, tells her not to love him, theres money involved blah, blah blah... you can guess the ending . There were serious problems with the story line, that none of the other reviewers mentioned. The story started great, then it slowed down to the point of me skipping pages! and as if there was a problem the last 4 chapters sped in such a whirlwind to tie up all the ends and get all the characters to their respective places. The characters seemed to either develop slowly or remain stagnant, and of course the issues created were seemingly from a telenovela. In all honesty I felt that the manga could have been finished in 2 volumes and it still would have had the same ending and overall feel. I did enjoy the artwork especially the attention to detail and the building work. The only reson i stuck with this is because i was invested the first 10 chapters and i have to finish what I start otherwise this would have been on my dropped list.