Runway de Waratte – 8 [The Designer’s Capacity]

Another week, another dash of Runway de Waratte. However this week wasn’t actually that bad, as Ikuto is finally challenged, even if the pacing is a goddamn mess. So without further ado, lets jump into Runway!

Starting off, I want to talk about story structure for abit, because Runway failed miserably at it this week. You see, normally in a story you want to introduce a problem that challenges your character. One that forces them to grow, change and improve so as to tackle that problem. If you have an outside force, someone completely different, solve that problem then your lead character learns nothing. They don’t grow, they don’t change, they just exist and problems are solved for them. It leads to a terribly uncompelling narrative. Especially when you introduce said problem and then solve it in the same episode. No buildup, no challenge, no progression or rise and fall. Just “Here is a problem” and “Here is an easy solution”. Basically what I am trying to say diplomatically here is that Runway’s pacing this week was shit, and everyone knows it.

It’s a shame to, because there were some actual good things in this episode. For instance, I quite enjoyed the monetary challenges Ikuto had to face this week. We could have done it without the hospital fee melodrama, but hey, i’ll take what I can get. Having Ayano use this opportunity to finally challenge Ikuto was great. Basically telling him to give up on his dream in exchange for a secured future for his family. All hospital bills paid, no more financial troubles, just give up and work for him. This was the easy way out and directly challenged one of the few established aspects of Ikuto’s character. I wish we had more time with it of course, really let it sink in. But the fact that we got it at all was surprising, especially when we look at Hasegawa’s manager.

If Ayano was attacking Ikuto’s dreams and pride, the Manager was attacking Ikuto’s morals. Effectively offering him the same thing as Ayano, except instead of giving up his dream he would be giving up his integrity. Basically “falling” to the same level as the rest of the fashion industry. Taking part in their dirty politics and scheming just to get ahead, or in this case to break even. Once again, this was great, we are finally challenging Ikuto’s character. I wish we had more than 5 minutes between the two offers of course, stretch this arc out a bit and let Ikuto actually face the challenge more. But once again this is more than I was ever expecting from the series at this point. Naturally as Mr.Perfect, Ikuto accepts neither of these offers, and that’s fine… assuming Ikuto actually has to overcome the challenge himself… which he doesn’t.

No no no, Runway had to go and ruin itself at the very end by handing Ikuto a way out. He isn’t allowed to work his way out of a hole. Ikuto can’t grow as a character nor improve his skill set or be legitimately challenged in any way. Instead we have to pay him a ludicrous sum of money and skip him several rungs up the Career ladder. All right when he needs it most just to undercut what was going to be the best character arc he was liable to get. I don’t care that the dress is from the first episode, or that it makes sense he got the money. The problem is that narratively it just shits all over any investment the audience had in this arc and its stakes. Introducing a problem and easily solving it in the same episode, destroying any tension there was.

It’s as if Runway is afraid to just let its characters sit and stew for awhile. To actually have to work their way through problems rather than have them given to them. The only exception to all of this is Chiyuki, who isn’t even our lead. For one episode we actually saw her actively attacking her problems and going out of her way to try and break into the industry. Yet this week Runway once again relegates her to the back, skipping over her entire time in Paris. She was gone for 1 episode, returning just in time for Mr.Perfect Ikuto to pop in and ask her to be his model. Giving her purpose in life once more, disregarding the entire week of challenges and development she faced. Suffice to say, Runway’s pacing is fucked, and everyone knows it at this point.

So, all in all, how was this weeks episode of Runway? To be honest, I might actually dislike this one more than last weeks. Because while last weeks was bad, this one was insulting. It gave me what I wanted, it had the inkling of a good character arc… and then it just throws it all away for the sake of a cheep melodramatic thrill. Every time Runway is about to do something cool or interesting, its as if it decides to fast forward over the whole thing, skipping it. I have heard from numerous manga reader friends of mine that the anime is liberally skipping over material. So much so that I plan on reading it for my final review of the series. If this is the case, it makes a lot more sense. But either way, it just makes Runway a shit show.