Runway De Waratte

[MFauli]

Runway de Waratte starts with the story of Fujito Chiyuki, an aspiring fashion model and daughter of a fledgling Modeling Agency, Mille Neige. Ever since she was little, Chiyuki's dream was to be the star model of her dad's agency and perform at Paris Fashion Week. With great looks and a gifted environment, it seemed like she was on the right track to fulfill her dream, but she soon found herself faced with a seemingly insurmountable wall when her height stopped growing at 158 cm; too short to be a professional model.

Although Chiyuki still kept on believing in herself for years despite everyone telling her it's impossible, Chiyuki's resolve starts to crumble as she enters her last year of high school. This is when she meets Tsumura Ikuto, a lame classmate with a surprising talent for designing clothes, who is also considering giving up his dream due to unfortunate circumstances. Together, they begin the journey of doing the impossible in order to realize their dreams.

Episode 1:

That was good. I was a bit surprised that Chiyuki *got* the model job in this episode already, thought she'd create her own fashion label with Ikuto.

Ikuto is the real star of this anime anyway. I like how he's caring for 3 sisters and humbly doing his work. Will be interesting to see how his designs fare in the long run.

[Kraco]

Yeah, I'm also surprised by how fast and smooth it all went.

Ikuto might face some troubles due to his lacking foundation, though he might also avoid some traps more educated young designers might fall into. He should be able to think outside the box, free of influences and preconceptions, but he also might lack the vision and skills to pull off some designs.

[Ryllharu]

Chiyuki got hired finally because her talent was never the problem. She went out to another firm and got an offer immediately.

She doesn't want to be a Japanese model, she wants to be a Paris runway model. And furthermore, she doesn't want to be any Paris runway model, she wants to represent her father's company, and she's its namesake.

I think part of her father's rejection is stupid. Height seemed like the only problem, and that's what Chiyuki thought. But her motivations were wrong. She never showed off the clothes until she also took pride in wanting Ikuto's talent to be recognized. They should have been more obvious about what her issue was, since they clearly told her at least once that she wasn't really showing off the clothes, but maybe they wanted her to figure it out herself.

Chiyuki basically got a complete character arc in a single episode.

[David75]

I was a bit annoyed Chiyuki has the usual shounen handicap to overcome in an already extremely hard and competitive environnement.
She's still only 14/15 so she might have a growth spurt, eventhough it's more of a male trait usually.

Other than that, it feels like a decent watch, will probably keep watching.

[Ryllharu]

I'm waiting for the shitstorm of trouble she gets into from her father. It worked out because Ikuto needs a job and was willing to sell the rights to the design.

But Chiyuki should be in serious trouble.

[Kraco]

She's still only 14/15 so she might have a growth spurt, eventhough it's more of a male trait usually.


She's not going to have a second growth spurt. She was taller than average when younger, but stopped growing since. Her growth spurt was thus in the past.

[David75]

She's not going to have a second growth spurt. She was taller than average when younger, but stopped growing since. Her growth spurt was thus in the past.
Well, since she feels like a shounen MC, she might eventually be the exception to the rules again... But since Ikuto might be the real MC, it might not be necessary.

[Kraco]

Well, since she feels like a shounen MC, she might eventually be the exception to the rules again... But since Ikuto might be the real MC, it might not be necessary.

I'd rather say that the idea of the whole story is fighting to become a super model despite being shorter than one ideally ought to be in that profession. Isn't that, overcoming an insurmountable looking challenge, one of the primary tenets of the shounen category? In seinen or josei the point could be coming to terms with the impossibility and finding something else to do, depressingly realistically. In shoujo it would obviously be to find the knight riding a white horse to solve all of your problems for you.

[David75]

I forgot to write: in a far away future, per manga releases of course.
But I like your reply too :cool:

[Ryllharu]

It's published in the same magazine as Hajime no Ippo, Nanatsu no Taizai, Seitokai Yakuindomo, Kanojo Okarishimasu, and Ace of Diamond. Shūkan Shōnen.

[David75]

Hence the strong shonen vibes. Thanks for the intel ;)

[MFauli]

Episode 2:

*not* the show I expected to have people dying xD

If only kappa-kun acted less whimpy, sigh.

Still, it's exciting to watch, although I have that constant feeling that Everything happens by chance and would never work like that irl.

[Ryllharu]

This wasn't a great episode compared to the first. A lot of stuff didn't quite make sense. The first half was pretty clearly rushed.

Where it fell apart was at the show. The dressmaker having the better sewing skills was fine, but a fashion designer that can't sew at all, but was criticizing his new intern on his stitching techniques? Whatshisface should know how to fucking sew, at least enough to fix problems exactly like this coming up.

He was right that her father seems like he sent Chiyuki to fuck with him. It's Tokyo Fashion Week, fine, the good ones are going to be booked already, but you can definitely find a replacement model with appropriate height, if you really need to. Grab a gyaru off the street. But Chiyuki's height is definitely a problem because the clothes aren't made for a model her height.

Which is kind of a problem with Chiyuki's height issue to begin with in the premise. If the clothes are made to fit her frame, then it's totally fine. It's getting her to super/hyper model status where designers would make clothes solely for her to model that's the problem.

"The audience are expecting exactly 40 dresses or it is a failure." Yeah...okaaaaaaay. Wear the dress yourself asshole. Unless he heavily advertised that he'd have that exact number, I seriously doubt one missing piece ruins the show. Shit happens. I think it is less likely that rearranging all the models to show the collection faster using fewer models is acceptable.
The rest of the "forced" drama works and makes sense. His dressmaker was super overworked. Models don't show up. Last minute alterations have to get made. All fine.
But the criticality with the number in the collection seems like fabricated bullshit.

[shinta|hikari]

Media coverage might be the reason.

[Kraco]

Maybe Japan is the reason. If you say it's 40, it might be that having 39 would be losing face in Japan.

I thought this episode was pretty good. Nothing in it bothered me. It's not like I'd expect 100% realism. You need to have some suspence and drama just for the sake of entertainment and cliffhangers.

[David75]

No doubt now this is a pure shounen anime. First ep probably was the best, it's going downhill now...

[Kraco]

Episode 3


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I had no problems with this episode. Even if it was made as dramatic as defusing a bomb. But at the end of the day, entertainment needs to be entertainment, nothing less. I felt like the tension and success here were just fine and emotional enough. The trick with the dress was naturally an element all fiction, but that's fine as well if you ask me. I'd say the story of a perfectly ordinary designer and an ordinary model doing ordinary work would be quite boring even if it was realistic.

It's particularly nice how the FMC and MMC drive and help each other forward.

[Kraco]

Episode 4



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One more high ego, not so average personality added to the cast. You can tell this is fiction by how the MC keeps bumping into extraordinary people one after another. I don't mind, though. This is more entertaining than the kind of silent grinding designers likely go through in reality.

[MFauli]

The model/designer confused me, though. She acted as if she didn't remember Ikuto, but there's no way way she could have forgotten. Weird. Maybe she has a twin?

[Kraco]

The model/designer confused me, though. She acted as if she didn't remember Ikuto, but there's no way way she could have forgotten. Weird. Maybe she has a twin?

Yeah, I was also wondering about it. Somehow she was still happy to talk with Ikuto, though. Her personality seemed kind of different, so maybe she has a really strong second mode for the modelling work, making her appear almost like a different person. Nevertheless, it can't be a coincidence she joined the project right then and there.

[Kraco]

Episode 5


- -- - - -



There's no way he's going to win, but perhaps he will clear the first stage. It was really smart to ask for help. Probably his worst rivals in the competition already knew a bunch about Sara, so if he had went forward without knowing anything, he would have received the worst score. He certainly already was on his way to ruination trying to save every yen instead of doing what needs to be done.

[David75]

Little bit of RL trivia: from mid January to last week we've had Men's fashion week(s) in Paris. The big event, the supermodels fashion week starts february 24.

[Kraco]

Little bit of RL trivia: from mid January to last week we've had Men's fashion week(s) in Paris. The big event, the supermodels fashion week starts february 24.

I guess even the Japanese can't made a fashion show without mentioning Paris regularly. That's just how it is. Not a bad thing, of course.

[Kraco]

Episode 8


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That Ayano dude is pretty poisonous. He must be related to Wormtongue. Though that being said it makes sense people in such a position could be egoistic, maybe even suffering from sociopathy like narcissism. At the end of the day, like this show tries to underline, you must believe in yourself and try to get your foot in everywhere relentlessly if you want to succeed when the world is jam-packed with competition.

That being said, making a high schooler, a child that is, responsible for shouldering the hospital bills of his mother, and look after the whole family of even younger children, makes Japan seem like a third world country. Servant X Service somehow made me think Japan would offer help in situations like this. Generally speaking it's things like this that would sabotage Shinzo Abe's desire to make the Japanese breed more. In any case the MC sure needs to fight a harsh battle to chase his dreams. I guess it's fitting for a drama.

[Kraco]

Episode 9


- - -



Quite a peculiar plot twist to separate Chiyuki and Ikuto right after he saved her from her momentary depression by having chosen her with such a solid reason. It wasn't clearly just because they are friends, let alone because he would feel pity for her, as he doesn't. Yet he lost her, and his new theme came out of nowhere with no foundation. It turning out to be the same as Ayano's feels more scripted than a genuine coincidence.

However, even though I said it's peculiar, maybe it's also not so rare. It's kind of like Chihaya and Arata finding it almost impossible to face each other in karuta in Chihayafuru.