Runway de Waratte
Smile Down the Runway

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I'm rating this highly because it actually made me interested in fashion and modeling, something that I used to look down upon/didn't care about. I even ended up watching some tutorials on YT about making and designing clothes, as well as some recordings from Paris fashion week. It's pretty rare for a manga to capture my attention as much as this one did, to the point where it makes me want to learn more about the topic at hand.

The characters are a big strength in this manga, everyone is unique and I never forgot anyone's quirks. Some play nice, some play dirty, but you kind ... of end up liking everyone anyway. Our male lead is one of the nicest people I've seen in all of manga, and I usually dislike the typical Japanese nice guy main characters, however Ikuto didn't rub me the wrong way at all, even when he acted nice towards people who deserved to be punched in the face. It's weird, but it suits his character and the concept of his clothing brand very well. His positive outlook ended up infecting me and I ended up liking the characters that were supposed to be the antagonists, and then when I went back and thought about the actions of said antagonists, I noticed that they were actually trying to be nice in their weird convoluted ways, however they were just too awkward to show their care and concern properly.

That being said, I found the ending to be mediocre at best. There was too much focus on romance for my liking, and I would've preferred if the mangaka focused on the technicalities of the outfits, the concept, and the images the models portray while wearing the clothes instead. It also felt rushed, there should've been at least 20 more chapters to wrap things up nicely and everything would've been perfect, but that didn't happen. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with where the characters ended up, I just don't appreciate the fact that we skipped the process right at the end and instead of having a couple dozen ending chapters they just gave us one chapter where they pretty much said "This happened, and they lived happily ever after".

Despite the weak ending, the journey was way too enjoyable. We see Ikuto and Chiyuki go through various stages of character development, learning, and becoming great at their jobs. You can enjoy this story without bothering to try to understand the technical jargon that appears a lot throughout the chapters, and the side-characters are unique and interesting. There's little focus on the dark side of the industry (but it's not non-existent), making this manga a pretty light-hearted read that will make you grin from ear to ear and root for our leads. And finally, the art is absolutely breathtaking at times, especially the eyes, and it fits the theme of the manga to a T.

If you're into fashion, this is for you. If you're into solid character growth, this is for you. If you're into working/skill/real world profession based and/or slice of life stuff this is for you. If you're into stereotypical shojo high school romance stuff look elsewhere.

I loved the anime, bought the manga and have really enjoyed reading it through. I've got no love for the fashion industry, but i thoroughly enjoyed the characters progression and the overall story. I even found myself becoming fascinated by the industry.

If you enjoyed the anime give this a shot, it really is worth the time in my opinion.

everybody has their own taste in manga and this is definitely not mine. every single chapter up to 64 is full of drama and the struggle of the main character, it's seem good to some extent but this on is just pure drama. the story is quite complex and hard to predict, at least to me with little interest in fashion. the build up is good, and so is the pacing. we can tell the background story of each character and what is their problem. it's all started with really good story and introduction, but as i read further it become a problem. this manga ... is pure drama, it really has no 'seasoning' like comedy or romance or school life story. it just drama, drama, and drama about their sruggle in their life and how to overcome that to reach their dream. it might be good if i know fashion, but sadly i have no interest in it.

the art is looking good, it look clean too. but really, i just don't understand fashion, every character seem to have their own fashion in this one. also sometime there's full page about clothes but i don't understand what is going on, like is this clothes good or not, it look same to me. sometime there's some drawn effect that highlight some clothes or models, that want to emphasize this is looking good, but i just don't see it. also there's nothing to remember for background as this is fashion centered manga. the characters looks normal, nothing unique or different with other modern manga.

for the characters, this is the worst. i though there's 2 mc, but mostly for me it just around the male mc. which i don't mind, but how can i enjoy the story when i don't know whats going on with the other one. the male mc is portrayed as weak, indecisive, crybaby. while the women is more strong, blunt, and have never give up mentality. of course as the story progress their personality also grow, the male starting to become more confidence, while the female also start to showing some weakness. the support character however almost everyone has this one trait, negativity. almost all of them seem to be negative about the mc or life in general. which is adding more to the issue with the pure drama storyline. while other people might found this good, it just depressing for me.

score:
story : 3/10
art : 5/10
character : 4/10
enjoyent : 2/10

overall, i don't like this manga as it has pure drama story with character that don't really suit for my taste. not to mention the lack of comedy, romance or even youth event/school life make it no appeal for me, even more so when i have no interest in fashion. for you who want to see good design, process of making clothes and the struggle to sell their product with character development, maybe this is for you. and for you who don't like drama with no 'seasoning', better read other manga.