Runway de Waratte – 6 [Superiority and Inferiority]

Apologies for the wait everyone, but between cons and going rock climbing over the weekend, this got pushed back. Sadly though, I have to be honest, right out the gate, I wasn’t a fan of this weeks Runway de Waratte. As this week we have an idiotic fashion school competition, Itsuko being perfect and Chiyuki being the best part of the show. So without further ado, let’s just get into it.

Right off the bat, I want to talk about what I believe Runway’s biggest problem is, and that’s Itsuko. Supposedly, based on the OP and how the show opens, Chiyuki is our lead. Yet the focus is largely on Itsuko and his “struggles”, and it’s just not good. I don’t believe his struggles, his trials, I don’t believe that he overcomes them or that its difficult for him. We see time and again characters reference his living situation and how hard it is for him to do what he wants. But Runway never shows us this, we never see his challenge. He worries about money, but we never see him have to make tough choices with money. We hear about how difficult it is to design a dress, yet he got over it between episodes. The hardest Runway has ever been was the fashion show, and mostly for the assistant!

Take this episode as an example, where he has to present his dress for the competition. Disregarding how stupid the competition was, and we will get to that, I just don’t buy it. We keep getting told how its cut throat and people are working against each other, meanwhile Itsuko is Mr.Perfect. Joyfully speaking nice about anyone and everyone but never suffering for it in their environment. This sort of fish-out-of-water trope only works if the fish actually can’t breathe on land, IE struggles. Yet here Itsuko is presenting a pair of Pajamas to a fashion panel, getting rightfully ripped apart by them, and yet he lands third place out of 18. Only to then be disappointed he got 3rd, skipping him to the final round and dodging the rest of the competition. How is it an underdog story when he gets third seed? Simple answer, it’s not.

Now to be fair, yes I understand the idea behind it. How Runway wanted to show that Designers need to be able to stand by their vision in the face of critics and such, its all subjective. On a meta level, that’s fine. But the way it is presented, Itsuko being perfect, Pajamas? It just doesn’t work. Instead it gets swallowed up and associated with Itsuko’s bland journey. For instance we have Toh saying Itsuko came a long way after struggling with the “Bias cut”, yet we never see this. There was no buildup, no showing us how hard it is or really explaining it to us. Instead we are just told “This used to be hard, he has grown” and it sucks. I don’t care about Itsuko, his story, his fake struggles or how Runway tries to tear him down for being to perfect. It. Doesn’t. Work.

Meanwhile we have the real main character Chiyuki, with actual struggles and actual trials and actual conflict. In the second half of this episode we see Chiyuki actually have to go out on her own to get things done. Paying for headshots to build her portfolio, out of her own pocket, and searching for work. Getting shut down again and again for other models, constantly trying to sell herself and make use of things like her environment for her photo’s. Taking comfort in Itsuko’s dress, the first dress made specifically for her, with a clear goal in mind. Her story is far more interesting than Itsuko’s and is filled with legitimate challenges and trials that she can’t just overcome with hard work. Chiyuki can’t just get taller like Itsuko can get better, she has to find her own way, and its actually good.

The sad part is that Chiyuki is clearly being setup to sacrifice/support Itsuko’s dream instead of the opposite. As we see a flash during her segment of her checkbook and her balance. Guess who needs money, as informed by Toh, for the final round to buy fabric? Guess who has that money? At the same time she is competing with Itsuko’s co-worker and whom he is trying to help get through the design competition, no doubt eventually leading to conflict. The long and short of it is that Chiyuki is the more compelling character, yet is inseparably tied to Itsuko. The weak and uninteresting lead who is clearly bringing down the entire show with his sub-par narrative. I can only hope that as we move forward with this break between competition rounds that we get more of her and less of Itsuko.

Finally, lets talk about that competition, because boy was it terribly run. Like I said, I understand the point of it, sticking with your designs and all. But that was a terrible test. Letting fellow classmates judge? Giving them time to fix it up before final judging, only to fail those who decided to fix it up? Then letting the top 3 skip the 2nd round? The whole thing feels arbitrarily engineered specifically for Itsuko and his “arc”, though I use the term loosely. At no point did it feel like a legitimate exam/competition that would actually take place at a school. The only positive thing I can say about it is that I liked how it addressed the idea of subjectivity. How one persons “stylish” may be another person’s trash, and vice versa. Now if only it handled it with any actual grace.

So all in all, how was Runway this week? Well to put it simply, it was a disappointment. We saw both the best and the worst of the series, and its clear which side it leans towards. Whatever merit Runway has is drowned out in the limp noodle that is Itsuko’s character. Meanwhile Chiyuki continues to sit on the sidelines as the best character the series has, existing almost entirely to support the male lead. All the while we actually learn very little about the ins and outs of the Fashion industry. Instead trying for a sort of Shounen tournament arc, only without any of the hype tournament arcs are meant to have. Suffice to say, were I not writing these posts I would not be continuing to watch Runway. Yet I do what I must so you, dear readers, can live free. Remember me!