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Description
From Viz:
Poor Sumi Kitamura… Her irresponsible older brother Eisuke keeps bringing home orphans for her to take care of even though they can barely afford their own basic needs! Just when Sumi's financial problems become dire, wealthy Soichiro Ashida enters her life with a bizarre proposition: he'll provide her with the money she so desperately needs if she agrees to marry him. But can Sumi fool high society into thinking she's a proper lady? Moreover, is it worth giving up everything for this sham of a marriage?
Type
Manga
Related Series
N/A
Associated Names
玫瑰契約 裸足でバラを踏め ก้าวย่างบนดอกกุหลาบ Hadashi de Bara wo Fume Stepping on Roses Stepping on Roses Barefoot
First the butler who abandoned his master and it really doesn't seem like it's fake. But the actual reason the butler quit is even more stupid. A little trust issue, and that's it. But the master is actually not trusting his butler, who has been that for well over 10 years, on an issue concerning a month-old maid. So this whole part made me want to hit them. But it was already inconsistent from the beginning : a wedding before a fixed date to inherit while he is the only relative of his grandfather ???? Come on... And now it seems like he doesn't have anything left, no money or anything... HOW did he do before he inherited ?? And there's no bloody way the sumi would want to even see nozomu who actually tried to kill her after having kidnapped her... But she goes to take a shower at his home. and hse poses for his painting. Soooo annoying
The girl is plain stupid, no problem about that. The main male is also becoming more and more dumb. The rival is really creepy and I totally hate him.
So why the 5 ? because the romance is kinda cute nonetheless and I like the art. But if you expect a great drama, pass your way.
So I dropped this series a few month ago cause it got stupid and I felt like slapping her in the face.... now I pick it up again and she's still stupid if not worse
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
Like how can she be so naive as to trust everyone?!?!??!!??!?! And she KNOW that the blond guy still likes her AND SHE STILL WENT TO HIS PLACE TO SHOWER?!?!??! And in Chapter 31 it looked as if she want him to touch her O_O Seriously you stupid women stop trying to be sympathetic to every guy you see!!! UGH!!
Oh yeah, I also hate how everyone is going psycho, like
i love this series so much. I cant wait to see what happens next ...SPOILER(?) personally i think that sumi and nozumo are brother and sisters (there are many hints in the book that gave it off), i wish that they are so that he would stop stalking her, but at the same time it would be a little weird.
I really love this manga a lot. The art is beautiful with great characters and an amazing plot. I think that the rest of the manga will end up like this.
Spoiler (highlight to view)
I think that Nozomu and Sumi are siblings. Sumi must have been either abandoned or was somehow lost in the rose garden. Also near the beginning of the manga on one of the relationship web things it said the Nozumu and Sumi were siblings. That's why they look amazingly alike. Nozumu's father also dreamed of his wife (Nozumu's mother) with a little baby. I presume that the baby is Sumi and that she might be thought of as dead. That's why it's more predictable that she was somehow lost rather than abandoned as a child. Her parents just didn't find her before her current brother found her who in fact isn't really her brother. Well that's all I think.
Nozomu is a bit scary. With all those stalker-ish way of his, it came across as creepy and sick. It's weird too that Sumi and him has nearly the same color of hair and eyes. I wonder if they would be portrayed as siblings? And then that would add to all the drama and tragedy. Hmmm...
Although true enough it's quite cliche...but also true enough it's not predictable and I do find myself surprised at times. However...characters do go to such unbelievable lengths sometimes and I feel like everyone just wants to make the main pair miserable. And argh, I love Sumi, she's cute, pretty even...she had me liking her more when she had her first Shougi match with that old man. But...most of the time she's just like the typical-annoying-weak heroine...so I'm always wondering "when will she EVER learn?" And not just that...can't she just be true to herself and decide who she really loves? I've become restless over the fact that
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
she seems to already love Souichirou but won't admit because of their contract. /facepalm. And she still won't not think about Nozomu when he've done ALL these unbelievable STALKER-ish things to her... If I were her, I'd have slapped him every time he tried to get close. Lmao. Srsly, that guy, I thought he was gonna be fair when he wanted to take away Sumi from Souichirou so I was fine when he first came out as a rival in the story. But now, he just SCARES me. It's FREAKY! Orz
It's quite exhausting to see the two main characters go to so much misery every other chapter or two. I wish Souichirou would soon honestly say out his feelings...even if just in a monologue - while trying to smex Sumi up or something along the lines... /cough. JK. lmao
But all in all...even as I can sit here and would find more of the series' faults and complain about it...I still really like the story. I think the art's a plus aside from the setting. Although the relationships and reactions are rather a bit complicated...I do hope Rinko-sensei do something about it. I understand she's trying something out with this work but I do hope she tries something a lot more exciting and would make the readers relieved for the main protags for once.
Spoiler (mouse over to view)
And I hope Koumai-san's just playing with Souchirou and Sumi and he didn't really mean to abandon Souchirou...after being there for so long serving him. And the things he said to Sumi...after he said so much before how he was glad she was there for Souchirou.
It's getting confusing now so I hope Rinko-sensei's just having him ACT... Deceiving his friends first before deceiving the enemies...like that!? ^ ^;
Anyways...Will only rate this when the manga's finished :'o
While there are some people who think that the plot is a bit cliche, the mangaka has stated in the beginning that she wrote this series as a formulaic story, which means that the characters are predictable. Surprisingly, the plot itself is not that predictable and it moves at a fast-paced, so there's no endless drag. Personally, I find this series amazing because the mangaka actually develop in-depth characters such as Nozomu and Soichiro. As you read on, you will discover that people whom you thought were good may not be as good as you think. The art itself is gorgeous, and you can really see the improvement from volume 1 to the current chapter. Since I love this series, of course I'm biased; however, I truly recommend this series to those who have yet to read the arrange marriage genre and those who want to read a story that will make you wonder what happen next and make you re-read it over and over again. And of course, those who just like Shoujo manga in general.
well, the previous reviews made me hesitant to read this manga at first, but the plot encouraged me a bit ...then i didn't regret reading it at all, it's just awesome , the characters are really good, Nozomu is a complicated character ,you can't tell if he is actually good or bad person, the heroine is so kind thus people may called her naive , Ashida is hot but he is a bit annoying for not knowing his feeling clearly towards Sumi...i fully recommend it to you guys
IDK if this is a spoiler but [spoiler] in the 6th chapter on page 7 they show a picture and Sumi is like "who's That?" and Nozomu wants to answer but his mom stops him. If you look closely it almost looks like Sumi (the curly hair and eyes) so what if they were really siblings!!!!! [spoiler] that would make everything so much weirder!!!!
It was alright. Although I do disagree with Joziess on that point:
Spoiler (highlight to view)
It was kind of naive and shallow of her, but it seems like the author's point was that it was a sort of slap in the face for him. I can't say I've been in that position myself, but I've been in positions where I was stressing out and over-thinking a situation, when in retrospect what I needed was to sort of take a look at the big picture a bit and relax. It seems consistent with Nozumo's character that that was his problem.
She caught lucky though. I can't say it would have worked for most non-Nozumo people.
Personally, I don't actually mind the female lead all that much. I quite liked the story in general, even, and read through till the end. The female lead was a bit naive, and man, she can't save herself, but I liked her alright. At least she tried.
But her husband. I could have killed him. Frankly, he doesn't deserve to be the leader of his company. He had the potential to be an unbelievably cool character, but he's unbelievably immature; he yells, throws tantrums, slams doors. He takes out his emotions on his co-workers and doesn't attempt to hide it. He's underhanded, and the whole mess with Nozumo was his fault in the first place. Really, he's just a weird tsundere mix of occasional professionalism and a lot of childishness, yet he complains that everyone sees him only as a figurehead. I'm almost sorry that he inherited.
So it was okay. A bit cliche, but I can live with that. It was good enough to hold my attention, but toward the end, I was starting to sort of shy away from it, with all the bad omen foreboding. ;_;
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