Reviews

Ever since I was young I was interested in the fashion industry, especially Japan’s, so I was excited for Runway de Waratte yet didn’t hold my breath, and I’m glad I didn’t. This show has an inescapable essence of mediocrity. The cinematography is lacking and overtly boring. This doesn’t make the show itself fundamentally bad, because it’s not, but it doesn’t have any distinguishing factors to make it ‘good’. It kept my attention for the most part, and it was still enjoyable enough of a viewing experience, but it’s frustrating that it couldn’t go just that tiny bit further. The purpose of the show is to make you root for these character’s dreams, but I just wish they had given more of a reason to rather than ‘she’s short’ and ‘he’s poor’. A lot of the time the intended hard-hitting moments don’t hit at all because we don’t have enough knowledge of the characters to care. Something that doesn’t help with this is the constant ubsubstainted crying. It’s almost laughable how easily a character will fall to their knees like the worlds over so in term the moments that are meant to hit home, don’t. Chiyuki the female protagonist is pretty decently written, she’s incredibly hard working even when she fails constantly but she isn’t pinned as perfect, at one stage she’s quite jealous of another model. This is a good thing, a flaw! However Ikuto has no flaws to the point it’s genuinely irritating to go along with. The character writing certainly isn’t the worst I’ve seen, but like many things in this show it could use a bit more oomph. The most redeeming part of the series for me was seeing the inner workings of the industry, even if not overly deep commentary on it, it was interesting enough. You get a little look of life on both the modelling and designing side and that if anything is what will keep you watching. The last few episodes are disappointing, especially considering it was meant to be a pay off of sorts, but the rest surely sufficed. Despite being a mediocre show, there really isn’t much out there that covers the same environment, at least to my knowledge. So for that reason I’d still recommend Runway de Waratte if you have any interest at all in the world of fashion, just don’t expect too much.