As soon as I discovered this anime, I had to watch it. I’m obsessed with design shows–Project Runway, Next in Fashion, all of them. I love seeing the creativity of the designers and the amazing things they come up with.
I thought, “Wow! Smile Down the Runway might just be an anime version of Project Runway!”.
I was sort of right.
Smile Down the Runway starts with Chiyuki Fujito, a rich, spoiled teenager whose greatest dream is to be a model in her father’s agency, Mille Neige. However, her father, who loved and spoiled Chiyuki as a child, has now changed his tune and continues to have members of his agency tell his own daughter that she has no talent and that she will never be a model because she is too short. “Industry standard” is at least 175 centimeters, or about 5’7″, and Chiyuki falls far short of that.
By chance, Chiyuki meets Ikuto Tsumura at school. Ikuto dreams of becoming a fashion designer, but an ailing mother, three younger sisters, and tight finances are forcing him to work after graduation instead of pursuing his dream. After meeting him, Chiyuki pushes her own desperation to reach a seemingly impossible dream onto Ikuto, and the two become an unlikely duo on a quest to join the fashion scene.
The approach the show takes to the real life problems of the fashion industry is complicated. It constantly enforces the idea of the ridiculous requirements that the model industry enforces. However, it says that models are only there to showcase the clothes. Odd then that there are such strict requirements. At one point in the show, Chiyuki is praised for how small her waist is, told that you don’t achieve that by eating twice a day. A teenage girl. Is praised for starving herself for a shallow industry. Don’t love that. At the same time, they show Chiyuki, a shorter model, as an icon of diversity in the industry. One short model does not equal diversity.
Although, based on what I’ve seen in other shows, this is a fairly accurate representation of the industry. Even when Project Runway and Next in Fashion bring in models that look anything like real, healthy people, they treat them as “others” or challenges for the contestants.
Midway through the anime, Ikuto starts to get more serious about design, and both he and Chiyuki might have hit lucky breaks. Chiyuki lands a gig as a magazine model, and Ikuto is in the highest rankings of a local design competition. However, both of them have difficult lessons to learn and realizations they must face. Ikuto especially faces competition and harsh lessons from more experienced designers. His recurring theme is choosing between his own dreams and caring for his family. Rivalries develop as Ikuto is given an opportunity to continue the competition despite the financial burden of his mother’s hospital bills. Chiyuki is rejected in Paris and returns to test her mettle as a model in the fashion show.
Let’s focus on characters now.
Our protagonist, Ikuto, is full of contradictions. He can’t choose between family and design, he can’t choose between having friends or rivals, he’s either kind or crying, begging for help or offering help. He waffles throughout the entire series, making decisions last minute and always putting others before himself. That makes his dream all the more difficult. I did really identify with him though, because characters like Toh Ayano tell him he is talentless and worthless and too poor to succeed, and he reacts like a human being. He doesn’t sacrifice his family or his dream, striving for balance instead. He also acknowledges that wealthy people don’t understand the hardships of being poor, and that they always want to tell you that you aren’t dedicated enough instead of acknowledging their own privilege.
Toh Ayano is a very rich, very prestigious design student, the grandson of one of the world’s top designers. He is arrogant, two-faced, and manipulative, at first being kind to Ikuto and then tearing him to shreds. Can you tell yet that I have very strong feelings about all of these characters?
The two other main characters are Chiyuki, whom I’ve mentioned, and Kokoro Hasegawa.
Chiyuki is headstrong and a little selfish, utterly determined to attain her goal of being a “hypermodel”. She is a good friend to Ikuto, but she tends to take over situations and twist them around to suit her own desires for rivalry. I was super relieved that they were friends and rivals, and that the writers didn’t force an unnecessary romance plot onto them. Kudos for that.
Kokoro is hardworking and dedicated, but very soft spoken and tends to break down easily. She is torn between a sure career as a model, with her abusive manager, and her dream of designing fashion.
The interactions between all of these people I found very interesting, and I’m not sure if it’s because of a limited understanding of Japanese society or added in for dramatic effect. All of these people, even Kokoro and Ikuto, who really needed to keep their jobs, were constantly challenging and arguing with their bosses. Which would be understandable if like, their bosses were treating them badly. But Kokoro tolerates treatment from her terrible manager, and balks at her coworkers or fellow design interns getting even a well-deserved rebuke. I spent half the show trying to figure out how any of these people kept jobs. If I went up to my boss and said, “I need to call someone on the clock and it’s not an emergency and also I need you to give me their number” I wouldn’t have a job much longer, especially not if I was new. Insanity.
You know what I loved about this anime though? The end.
Ikuto didn’t win the fashion show. He didn’t even rank in the top ten. But he got his happy ending, working for Toh Ayano, of all people.
Kokoro won the fashion show contest.
Chiyuki got hired as an exclusive model by an up and coming magazine, and Ayano stayed on working for his grandmother.
The end wasn’t anything like I expected, and I love that. I would say this anime is a pretty realistic look at the fashion industry, but it’s also a nice slice of life story about people putting in hard work to achieve their dreams and realizing them in unexpected ways. The plot and characters were laid out pretty well, so if I had to give a number rating for this anime, I would go like 3.5 out of 5 stars.
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