Everyone, we are now 1/3rd of the way through Runway De Waratte and I have to say… It ain’t great. There might be a few issues, just a few I promise. Such as the family drama that starts and ends within 5 minutes. Or the genius rival, or maybe just everyone standing around like stiff cardboard. All that side though, it’s great! So let’s dive in.
Starting off, and I know it can get annoying with how often we talk about it, Runway’s Production. Now, sometimes, it can look alright. The fashion show last week made decent use of lighting and direction to focus in Chiyuki. Much like an actual fashion show would, with everything around her dimmed. Most of the time though, such as this week, everyone just looks…flat. Lifeless. Like stiff cardboard, stuck in the same positions across scenes. There is no life to them, they all stand straight backed and immovable. It reminds me of Irregular at Magic Highschool, except without the excuse of complex character designs. Where the only thing ever moving in many scenes are the mouths, which are disturbingly small. Simply put, Runway is not interesting or engaging to watch, visually, at all. There is no aesthetic draw to the series, and the narrative doesn’t help much either.
Speaking of narrative, Runway started and ended some classic family melodrama almost instantly. Really, it was actually pretty annoying. I think there was some real potential here. Having Tsumura work his dream job for little to no pay, an internship, conflicting with his family. Instead it gets started and stopped in the same episode, artificially so. By doing it this way Runway makes it effectively meaningless, like there is no sense of stakes or anything with it. Really just making Honoka come off as a bitch and shutting her down immediately with “I was wrong”. It’s not like her arguments were without merit either, their family is struggling financially. Meanwhile her brother works himself to the bone so she and her sisters can grow up and go to college. It’s just resolved so easily it doesn’t feel like a real problem, and that’s disappointing.
It’s as if Runway is afraid of letting Tsumura make mistakes that mean something. By that I mean, we have seen him make mistakes before. He screwed up the blind stitch and was unable to perfectly replicate a designer dress the first time he tries. Shocking. But neither of those mistakes really mean anything, Tsumura is unable to fail where it really matters. He isn’t allowed to make lasting mistakes that actually hurt or impact his decisions or aspirations. Hence why I called the family stuff “Melodrama”, because it is drama without substance or any really impact. Show us their struggles, show us the hard choices! Make him pick between what he buys and show us them being frugal with money! We, the viewer, can’t buy in to this struggle if you just tell us about it, we have to see it! Hopefully Runway realizes that.
Meanwhile we do see some progress on the designer side, though I wouldn’t necessarily call it good. As Hazime manages to sell some dresses and thus needs some help. Now why in god’s name it would introduce Moriyama, the assistant who worked herself to the bone, and remove her instantly I don’t know. I was actually interested in her and her work ethic, why she works as hard as she does. But that’s apparently not interesting for Runway. Instead we get a new girl to fawn of Tsumura, gorgeously tall though, and a genius rival. Now one of these can be interesting, as we get a model who has to interact with Tsumura on a daily basis unlike Chiyuki. One who also doesn’t even want to be a model, but has everything Chiyuki actually needs. I look forward to them meeting each other. Toh the genius though…
Well, lets just say I don’t care for this guy. I could buy that he was good at sewing, designing and just had a head for it sure. But Runway is starting to dive into very traditional Shounen elements in a show I don’t think they fit. As he is able to tell people’s 3 sizes just by looking at them, and he mentions that Tsumura has the “Eyes” that took him years to develop. Only joining the studio to try and poach Tsumura to his own brand. Simply put, Runway is turning more into a Shounen than I wanted or expected. Instead of focusing in on the industry and the hard work it takes to succeed, we get a genius MC and his rival. Instead of Moriyama and the effects of overwork, we get a new, admittedly cute, designer girl. It’s like Runway is making all the wrong choices.
So, all in all, how was Runway this week? Ultimately, I found it pretty disappointing. As I said, its focusing on all the wrong things, and really drawing me out of the experience. Maybe its my fault for going into the show expecting something it was not. But I would have vastly prefer a more serious setting/story set within the fashion industry. Really dialing into the things that make such a world tick, and exploring its eccentricities. Early on we got this, such as the blase attitude about showing skin at a show, or how serious deadlines and overwork is. The limitations of models based entirely on things they can’t control, like height or looks. But as the story focuses more and more on Tsumura, it’s using more and more generic Shounen tropes, except without the mindless and fun battles that usually go with them. It’s disappointing.
