Here's a reminder:

Art is subjective and other's opinions shouldn't dictate your personal enjoyment and affection of it. --- If Runway de Waratte/Smile Down the Runway was a good, or even great read for you, that's amazing! Am happy for you, truly. It's just not for me. My main problem with the story is I simply couldn't get invested in the characters. At first, I did. I was introduced to this girl who dream of walking on the runway during Paris Fashion Week but held back due to her height -- even the adults who previously supported her seemed to turned their backs and fired her from their agency. Then she met this boy with so little presence even his classmates forgot that he existed, but he's got a knack for making clothes and he once dreamt of becoming a fashion designer, but he dropped it because of his life circumstances.

Shallow characterisation.

Unfortunately, within the first couple of chapters, I was revealed pretty much everything there is to know about these two kids. Chiyuki is headstrong and she doesn't know what the meaning of the phrase "giving up." Those traits eventually rubbed off onto Ikuto who, after deciding that he will pursue his dream again, forgo pretty much any shame and restraint beneath his meek appearance. Then, that was it. I could hardly call the hardships and struggles they (moreso Ikuto, whom the story is mostly focused on) face as 'hardships' and 'struggles'. The story is linear in sense even the setbacks and dips in the graph don't have much impacts. The leads bounce back almost immediately, whether by their own resolve or -- more often -- by the support and extended hands of people around them.

The conflicts are minor incovenience cosplaying as high-stakes problem at best.

The stakes, when they even present themselves, aren't thrilling enough to be engaged with because there's always something to offset it. Mostly, the knowledge that was established pretty much from the get-go: Ikuto's level of skills is higher than almost everyone around him, and about on par with pros and prodigies who'd been under professional's training their entire lives. We also know that his skills, rather than be perceived as threats, are acknowledged as assets by his seniors. So regardless of the outcome, Ikuto wins all the same. Even if he lost, or got fired, or whatever else, there's plenty of job opportunities for him. His families are all supportive and don't present much obstacles to his dreams. There's never any sense of danger that "if he fails this one, he'll have to stop chasing his dreams." It's boring.

It's a story that floats!

My other problem with the story is how it feels so untethered to reality. Not this reality I live in; their own reality. It's hard to gauge the passage of time, whether from text, dialogue, or character's appearance and other context clues. We know the leads were in high school at the beginning of the story, then somewhere along the lines they graduated. When? Apparently Ikuto participated in numerous other fashion competitions after his first one (that was the only one presented as its own arc). When? How much time passed since one point until the other? The story follows a linear timeline, yet it's still hard to follow despite the lack of flashbacks or flashforwards that might mess up with the flow of time. That's quite the feat. Unfortunately, not in a good way. Another reason why I feel the story is so untethered to its own reality is the lack of worldbuilding. It's a story about the fashion industry, yet there's so little appearances of other fictive (or even real) fashion brands or modelling agencies that can present as point of comparison to grasp how important/unimportant or influential/uninfluential the agencies and brands the characters are involved with. The story makes several nods to street fashion, fast fashion, and ready to wear -- all three are aspects of fashion that're immediately accessible to the public and not as isolated as high fashion or haute couture, but they're barely featured in the story aside from being mentioned. Even after Ikuto is transferred to the branch in this brand he now works for that focuses on commercial fashion pieces, we learn very little about what's trending at that moment. There's discussion about bags and accessories during meetings for the next collection, but it's incredibly vague and doesn't say anything about the current fad -- such as what inspired them, who or what popularised it, how long has it been trending, etc -- or the people engaged with that trend. Another disappointment (though not as major as everything else I've talked about thus far) was that I went into the story expecting a dual lead going through different paths in the fashion industry: Ikuto, from the designing and producing path; and Chiyuki, from the modelling path. But Chiyuki was more of a supporting character than a lead, with her story and journey happening in the background whilst we focus more on Ikuto. I'd say Chiyuki wasn't even that important to the story aside from her nudge in the beginning that inspired Ikuto to pursue fashion designing again. Supposedly she was Ikuto's muse, but later on the lad learns to design and pull inspirations from other things that weren't related to her and not struggle as much. The romance aspect wasn't even enough for me to justify calling Chiyuki a second lead.

Some positives.

All right, let's try to balance the review by mentioning some things that I like from the story. Because it's not all bad, even if in the end I can't even push myself to finish it out of sense of obligation. The art is pleasing to look at. The high contrast between the lights and the darks, and the weights of the lines are two things I particularly like about the artist's style. It's very clean and seamless, and easy to follow even in the busiest panels. Chiyuki is an interesting character when she's allowed to react in her nonchalant, almost threatening way. That's probably why I liked the earlier chapters so much; aside from the story being more interesting in those parts, we also get a lot more indifferent Chiyuki. The dresses. It's a story about fashion so it should be a given, but the dresses. Yes. Absolutely. Love them. The designs and the concepts given behind them. Mhm. Yep. Beautiful. Adding to that last point, it was rather brief in the story, but I liked how they explained how designers get their inspirations. It's not particularly unique to Runway de Waratte nor is it unique to fashion designers, but I always like whenever stories relating to art make the note to acknowledge that inspirations are sought and gathered from multiple sources instead of something to be expected to come on its own.

Conclusion.

Runway de Waratte is a lackluster fashion story that is mostly boring with characters that only seemed interesting for a moment. It has some good moments and other good qualities about it, but not enough to keep me committed reading it through. It might be interesting and insightful to those previously ignorant to what goes on behind the curtains and how clothes are made, especially at large scale, but for me, it's just ... meh.

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