Category Archives: stepping on roses

Stepping on Roses Volume 3

By Rinko Ueda. Released in Japan as “Hadashi De Bara Wo Fume” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Viz.

I have to hand it to Rinko Ueda, she’s done what Miki Aihara and Kanoko Sakurakoji were unable to do: get me addicted to a complete and total soap opera of a book. This SHOULD have been the point at which I dropped this series – I even predicted this when I fist bought it – and yet something about this story compels me to keep reading.

We pick up right where we left off, with Sumi having run away with Nozomu. She pretty much begins to have second thoughts IMMEDIATELY, worrying what Soichiro will think, and she also begins to notice that her special guy is perhaps not the sanest of men. Which is only confirmed when he ties her to a post and puts his best crazy face on. (Ueda-san, btw, really knows how to draw a good crazy face. It’s not over the top in the way Higurashi popularized, but the eyes and smile are just wide enough so that you know this person is disturbed.)

Soichiro is bound to come to the rescue, of course, and he does. One other thing that I noticed might help my reading of this manga is that it was in Margaret rather than Betsuma, and so its page count is not as high per chapter (there’s 6 in this book, as opposed to the usual shoujo chapter count of 4 from the Betsu titles). This actually helps to keep things pacey – everything at the start moves at a breakneck speed, and even when things calm down in the 2nd half there are no pauses or lulls. It’s as if the artist knows the moment things slow down, people might start thinking about how ridiculous this all is.

Soichiro in this book has pretty much completed his switch from complete jerk to a mere male tsundere. His frustration with Sumi for just being sweet and loving and so gosh-darned-sexy is amusing, but not half as amusing as when he finds out that Sumi, due to her brother’s hideous past gambling, is a shogi master! Not only is this terrific characterization for Sumi, showing how much of her so-called ‘dumb’ is a result of her environment and lack of resources, but hey, smart girls are that much sexier. Look at his face when she clobbers the shogi expert at the end. It’s a wonder he waited till they were in the hall before he kissed her.

I was asking on Twitter for suggestions as to why I like this story, and someone mentioned the art. It really is well-done, showing that Ueda-san is not just another newbie artist. The guys are handsome, the girls are pretty, the action scenes don’t look hideously unrealistic… the art attracts you to the story, as opposed to simply being the vehicle by which it is told. Speaking of the art, I laughed seeing one of the sidebars where Ueda shows us a rough draft of a cover page, featuring Sumi completely naked (with hair covering appropriately, of course) bound by rose vines (I note the sketch is ridiculously sexy, despite the bondage theme). She notes she suspected Margaret’s editors would balk. Ya think? You want Sho-Comi, honey, it’s next door.

So yes, that might be the reason why I find Stepping on Roses to be addicting rather than off-putting. The art, the pacing, the heroine’s characterization… all of them are just that much better than the other examples of this form that I’ve read. Put it together, and it’s the difference between a manga that’s just good, and one that’s very good.

Stepping on Roses Volume 2

By Rinko Ueda. Released in Japan as “Hadashi De Bara Wo Fume” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Viz.

In my review of the first volume of this series, I noted that it had an absolute ass as the hero, and wondered if the writer might be doing a parody of those sorts of stories, where it turns out that the right guy for the heroine actually *is* the nice guy after all, and that the jerk is just a jerk. I imagine those readers who have read further on in this series were pointing at me and laughing. Of course, it’s nothing like that.

No, Volume 2 arrives and we get exactly what I should have expected. The jerk turns out to have a softer side that he’s hiding from the heroine, and is trying to avoid getting close to her so that he can keep using her to further his own ends. This is made difficult by the heroine’s pure shininess. Meanwhile, the nice guy I mentioned in Volume 1 is giving every sign that he’ll turn out to be utterly psychotic, possibly as early as Volume 3.

No, much as I’d like it to be otherwise, this manga is a shameless potboiler. Every scene is designed to make you wince, realizing what Sumi is about to go through next. And Soichiro has settled into his own little cliched box: he is the guy who is being cruel against his own heart, and will end up being the best guy in the manga for her simply as everyone else will turn out to be much, much worse.

Having said all this, I did still find this enjoyable. Unlike other series of this nature (coughBlackBirdcouch), I get the feeling that the artist knows she’s creating a horrid Barbara Cartland scenario, and sometimes the manga reads like she dials it up to 11 for her own amusement. I just can’t take it as seriously as I should. And that’s good, as when it’s not taken all that seriously this is a fun, fast read, filled with twists and turns and people shouting emotionally at each other about love and commitment.

I said in Volume 1’s review I’d read it till it became the cliche. Well, it is now. But I think I’ll keep reading anyway, as there’s a certain style to this romance manga that keeps me wanting more. And that shot of Nozomu’s hands gripping the rose bouquet? That was first rate. You can tell that Rinko Ueda is no newbie artist. She knows just how to drag us through this morass she has created.

Stepping On Roses Volume 1

By Rinko Ueda. Released in Japan as “Hadashi De Bara Wo Fume” by Shueisha, serialization ongoing in the magazine Margaret. Released in North America by Viz.

I actually finished this manga and was fairly intrigued by it. I want to read more. I’m not entirely certain, however, that it’s for the reason the author would LIKE me to have.

The basic premise is one perhaps a tad familiar to shoujo fans. Girl meets jerk, jerk forces girl into relationship, girl stresses out. It does get off to a good start by being set in 1892, which helps to set it apart from other high school mangas along the same lines. But the girl is still a likeable but gullible drip, her brother is still a sleazy player, and her new man is a conniving trickster. So it’s not set apart that much.

I can’t promise I’ll keep reading, as Sumi really does grate on my nerves. I’ve notes before how I prefer my shoujo heroines to be tomboyish and perky to nervous and twitchy, and that comes into play here. I did like the way that she began to make an effort to better herself and learn reading and writing, though admittedly it’s so that she can get a guy to notice her. But hey, she actually does pretty well considering.

Where the manga does intrigue me is its portrayal of Soichiro. He’s an absolute ass. And unlike most absolute asses in shoujo manga, he doesn’t even get that one ‘throwing the girl a bone’ art shot that lets the heroine think she possibly misunderstood him and maybe they can really love each other if she tries hard to see his good side. Everything in this volume is designed to make us dislike him, and like Nozomu, the guy that Sumi seems to have a total crush on.

Now, clearly things will not stay that way. We’ll find the reasons for Soichiro’s cold persona, desire for Sumi to “not” love him, and his secret nobleness. But I have to admit, I’d love it if he simply turned out to be an ass, and the manga was about her trying to escape her hideous circumstances. I’ll read it until I’m proved wrong, which will likely be the next book. Other than that, it’s an average shoujo manga, with pretty art and some amusing gags. Its strength is that it makes good use of the period, with gorgeous fashions and some good historical characterization (when’s the last Shojo Beat heroine you saw who couldn’t read?). I can see why Viz picked it up, and will keep an eye out for Vol. 2.