Runway de Waratte
Short Synopsis: A short high school girl who wants to be a supermodel teams up with her aspiring model design classmate.
Lenlo’s review:
This is a weird one for me. You see, I am typically not the “cute girl anime” sort of person, I often rail against them. Most of the time that’s because they lack any real story or are just fan-service bait. Yet Runway interests me, because for once the girls being absurdly cute is relevant to the story. You can’t be a fashion model without being good looking after all, and it’s a nice excuse to get them in a bunch of different outfits. Meanwhile its also another “Follow your dreams, fuck people who say otherwise” sort of story, and I like those. If I had to say what my major complaint with it all was, it would have to be that it’s moving too fast though. In 1 episode we see Chiyuki go from “It’s impossible I’m too short” to “I’m now a professional and fully contracted model”, with a similar route for her friend. It’s like we setup and blazed past this first hurdle, when I was expecting it to take all season. Going through amateur fashion shows, with the boy making her clothing all the while. Figuring out their style and what works best on her, etc. Instead success is sorta just handed to them on a silver platter 5 minutes from the end and its like… Great, we just skipped an entire seasons worth of possible content to get straight to what could have been a season finale payoff. It feels like a lot of wasted potential. So while I enjoyed it, and I like the concept and the art, though the OST is pretty basic, the writing leaves me worried. All that said, I do want to watch more. So I have to give it a solid score.
Potential: 60%
Mario’s review:
Runway lost me in the first few minutes when it tries too hard to address Chiyuki’s height issues, but thankfully it picks up after that. The main strength is the main girl right now with her outspoken attitude that I find rather refreshing, especially in regards to her situation. The way she dodges the question regarding her dress is gold to me. Wannabe designer-kun personality is not as bold, but he serves well as a foil to Chiyuki, and I’m quite surprised to see the show’s focus on his siblings this early in the game, whom I reckon that we will see more from later on. Also I suspect parts of make Runway so appealing is that it has a clear goal to clear, and clear obstacles for our duo to overcome. Speaking of their chemistry, they handle it in a believable way, and outline their trust for each other. There isn’t a lot of time spent on the actual progress though. After all, I still don’t see why he’s inspired to make that dress for her, or even see him actually making it. Runway seems to head into the right direction, though, so I am fully on board with it.
Potential: 50%
Rikei ga Koi ni Ochita no de Shoumei shitemita
Short Synopsis: Two scientists prove love through formulas and science.
Amun’s review:
Rikei ga Koi ni Ochia no de Shoumei shitemita is Dr.Stone meets Kaguya-sama: Love is War. Which is pretty funny if you find statistics amusing and not terrifying/triggering PTSD. If higher maths and logical proofs give you a headache, this is not for you. The character setup so far is the same as Kaguya: two idiots, one straight-man/woman. I think the obvious pitfall for this show is focusing too much on the experiments/proofs and not enough on the character relationships – literally the main plot point. For the first episode, I definitely chuckled, but I could see how it might get tedious after a while – pretty much how most discussions of statistics go, actually.
Potential: 50%
Lenlo’s review:
Amun was much more generous in their description of this show than I would have been, but they aren’t entirely wrong. It’s basically just another romcom, but instead of ecchi jokes its science/social ineptitude jokes. If nothing else, that puts it above most romcoms of the last few years. The jokes were novel for the most part and the core conceit something I hadn’t seen before. Still not my style of show, but it looks like a good time for those that enjoy the genre. At the very least I plan to check out the other 2 that were released at the same time to see if it holds up across multiple episodes.
Potential: 40%
Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga
Short Synopsis: Oda Nobunaga and other historical figures are pet dogs.
Amun’s review:
Thief Amun, sneaking into another blurb he didn’t sign up for! I don’t really understand Japanese (anime in particular, but also live-action television) obsession with Oda Nobunaga. I guess it’s a pretty good story, but it’s been retold more times than the U.S.’s Little Women. So if you’re a historical buff, you’ll have your own opinions, but I’ll judge Cinnamon aside from that. Having taken care of Shiba Inu’s myself, I definitely chuckled at this episode. This really isn’t a full anime, but a collection of shorts – but I think that medium fits these simple skits. Light hearted, not terribly complicated, and plenty for dog-lovers (normal ones NOT furries, like the other THREE, that’s not an exaggeration, THREE shows this season) – Oda Cinnamon Nobunaga is good fun. Will it get tiresome or keep me interested for the whole season? Who knows! Arf!
Potential: 30%
Lenlo’s review:
I can’t… I don’t know… what? Why? I don’t understand why this exists. Who thought this was a good idea, was something that needed to be animated? It’s just so absurd it took me a good 10 minutes to wrap my head around the fact that this was real. Then after that another 10 minutes to realize the implications of whatever this show could do with its characters. Now on paper, having Oda Nobunaga lead a dog based uprising against the humans could lead to a lot of comedy throughout. Especially as more historical figures are added. On the other hand, its just so fucking stupid and the comedy so out there and one note that I just… I can’t see this going anywhere or doing anything novel for more than like 2 episodes, tops.
Potential: 10%
