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.

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
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.

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

... Last updated on October 8th, 2011, 5:34am

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

... Last updated on February 16th, 2011, 8:21pm

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:

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. ;_;

... Last updated on December 19th, 2010, 8:02pm

Personally, I find this to be the strangest manga I've ever read..!
It's so cliche..the mangaka pulls out EVERY plotlines that any shoujo mangas ever have. Stupid girl, a Tsundere husband, surrounded by Crazy evil manipulative bastards that want to bring them down and...the melodrama ensues. Despite the sheer stupidity of this manga, I feel like there's a 'force' that makes me want to continue reading this!

It's not a good manga, but it can be considered a good 'SHOUJO MANGA', it is an epiphany of a good shoujo. *sigh* I can't really explain why I havent drop this manga. There must be a good reason for that, neh? ^^;

My pride is telling me to hate this, but it's so good.
Sumi, the lead female, epitomizes everything wrong about shoujo manga. She's the vulnerable damsel in destress who can't do anything and frequently falls into the clutches of evil. But she always puts on a happy face. The male lead, Soichiro, is an uber tsundere. Nozomu, the main villain, is absolutely sick. I'm surprised that such a fluffy series has such a disturbed villain. It's a really cliche set of main characters, but that's to be expected. The supporting characters are fine. The plot is really cliche. The art is cute. The setting is nice (I'm in love with the Meiji era). The dialogue can range from cute to overly sweet to down-right disturbing. The character interactions are actually pretty good. Add these all together and you have a cookie cutter shoujo manga. But for whatever reason, Hadashi de Bara wo Fume is much much more addictive than regular shoujo.
Overall, I wouldn't go into this expecting great art. Just turn off the intelligent part of your brain and enjoy the ride. Hadashi de Bara wo Fume will easily become your guilty pleasure if you let it. Just try to ignore Sumi's overbearingly sweet personality.

... Last updated on October 10th, 2010, 1:35pm

The characters are cliche'd. And stupid. And one is creeepy and sinister as hell. It's passionate, sometimes over passionate. "I'll hire you" type plot with constantly increacing rivals for the main character's affection. A tsundere guy. Love love love everywhere. But I am hooked on this sickly sweet wrap up of insanity. I remember thinking, "GOD THIS MANGA IS HORRIBLE" and grinning as I continued onto chapter after chapter, it was dirty good fun. (Not dirty like sexy-dirty. But it does have some of those elements of force that are commonly cliche'd.) It pushes cliches to such a limit that it is totally original.

A good manga if you want to just loose yourself to angry, adoring, crying, absolute girliness, it reminded me of when I read my first real shoujo manga, and can bring veteran shoujo romance manga readers back to those feelings as well.

Not really recommended for a first time reader, for you'll just keep on looking for the same insane passion as you go on reading different mangas, but fail to find it. A good dirty-secret manga. Intense. I could read it over again and just go crazy over the insanity of it all. Oh and, historical feel is a plus.