English Dub Review: Smile Down The Runway; “Smile Down the Runway”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

With precious few minutes before the show begins, Ikuto must successfully alter Chiyuki’s dress to fit her while retaining the original design. 

Our Take

Ikuto pleads to Hajime to allow him a chance to fix Chiyuki’s dress despite the very little time that remains. I think realistically, Hajime could’ve just called off this one dress and let it go. I don’t think missing one dress is going to tank your show, whereas banking on one dress that you’re half-trusting a newbie to salvage might actually lead to problems. They could’ve avoided a lot of problems in this high-stress situation. 

But, at the same time, we need a high-pressure situation for our protagonists to grow within, so the decision to trust Ikuto and Chiyuki on this is understandably inevitable. 

As he is deconstructing the dress in his head, we can see the entirety of Ikuto’s nerves manifest in full force. He pores over every detail of every material and tool at his hands, his thoughts punctuated by prominent drops of sweat. It only gets worse, for as soon as he presents an option to himself, he immediately finds every fault within it and shoots himself down. He convinces himself that he cannot salvage the dress and desperately resigns himself to attempting an entirely new piece. This is the first time we’ve seen Ikuto flounder like this, and so hard that the digs himself a very deep grave.  

Right here is where Chiyuki is appropriately deployed to, quite literally, smack some sense into him. It’s exactly the type of scene we’ve seen before in exactly the place we’d expect it to happen. Ikuto receives his much-needed motivation, which will invariably be paid back to Chiyuki later this episode. 

Having zero fashion experience, I cannot sufficiently evaluate the quality of Ikuto’s techniques, nor the results they produce. But I think I can intuit the intention of the dress. The dress in question was originally designed to be big and poofy and fit on a tall woman; to put on a physically large display in order to show confidence, or perhaps even assert dominance. While rendered smaller to fit the model, Ikuto’s modifications seem to still retain the original idea of the design. There’s even an extra feature where the dress expands from the back, which further accentuates the effort to physically display a lot of confidence, and is utilized to great dramatic effect. 

As soon as Chiyuki steps on stage, the audience immediately starts making a stink over the fact that she is short. I suppose this goes to show that height truly is expected of models at this level of the industry. And if being derided for her height wasn’t enough, the heels on her shoes break and she trips on the runway, a taboo in the industry. Fortunately, her stumbling triggers the convenient unfurling of Ikuto’s design, which makes up for the points lost from tripping. Chiyuki decides to make a concerted comeback from her fall in an attempt to score even more points, and stands up and poses with a smile, which is yet another taboo.

Chiyuki’s first foray down the runway serves to establish her as strongly as possible as a non-standard member of this fashion world. An atypically short model who is not easily perturbed or flustered by committing unspoken industry violations, backed by an unconventional newbie to boot. And though the immediate response is a positive standing ovation, not all of the effects of standing out like this are good. One of the fitters dresses them down afterward, and even Ikuto himself has criticisms for them. It’s a little too tense at the end, but I think the tension will benefit to spur our protagonists onward. 

Adjacent to the fashion show is the inner monologue of a fledgling fashion writer named Fumiyo. She is a very nervous and reticent person, feeling unqualified to be at the event, even before it started. As the models walk down the runway she throws a pity party for herself in her head, lamenting how she isn’t tall or pretty enough to be worthy of considering such clothes. Then as Chiyuki enters the stage, rather than being pleasantly surprised that a short model could’ve possibly made it, she instead dunks on Chiyuki harder than anyone else, questioning why she would even try. 

Her blatant hopelessness and negativity are grating to watch, not only in the active sense but also in the subtextual sense. She is another young woman in a somewhat similar situation who was put there to serve as a negative contrast to Chiyuki’s story. The sentiment comes from a good place, but the implementation makes it rote and uninspired. Just as quickly as she displays her negative attitude, it’s turned around by positive reception for Chiyuki. Hopefully, we’ll see a little more of her in the future; otherwise, her inclusion wasn’t very noteworthy. 

Ultimately, this episode a strong first step for Ikuto and Chiyuki; starting them on a thematically resonant foot while also keeping their future decidedly uncertain.