English Dub Review: Smile Down the Runway; “Superiority and Inferiority”

 

 

 

Overview (Spoilers Below)

With Ikuto’s design being critiqued in the contest, and Chiyuki’s portfolio being thoroughly scrutinized, both teens are starting to come up against hard walls set up by others. 

Our Take

The first round of the contest at Geika enters the judging phase, and in addition to the faculty judges, students are called up to critique their classmates’ works as well. The first student up to be judged is Kaoru, and when Ikuto is announced to be among her judges, she immediately pipes up and states that somebody with unproven skills shouldn’t be judging her work. Right after she makes her claim, Toh enters the room, which silences and seems to please her. 

The title of this episode is almost decidedly a direct reference to Kaoru. She sees the fashion world, or at least Geika, as a strict hierarchy, wherein those with superior skills can rule over those less skilled than them. To her, Ikuto is an undefined interloper, a snot-nosed high-schooler who barged his way into the fashion world and got in her way. And when the designers she sees as above her praise her, she’s far more jubilant than you’d think she be capable of. 

To be fair, she’s not alone in her interpretation of the strict, dog-eat-dog world of fashion. When the other students take their turns at the judge’s table, they take the opportunity to point out all of the possible flaws in their peers’ works to get a leg up over them. Geika seems to have no shortage of students who will do anything to get ahead. 

But whereas the other students that are doing this are aware they’re partaking in light defamation to gain an advantage, Kaoru is approaching everything objectively; or at least her version of objectivity. While she’s relatively fair in comparison to the other students in her scathing critique, she still goes out of her way to try and knock Ikuto down a peg.  

Once again, in stark contrast to the others, Ikuto is completely honest and generous with his feedback. Toh is also honest, though not afraid to deploy his knowledge against others in his critique. 

Ikuto’s design is vibrantly different: a set of big, loose, rainbow-striped pajamas. His rationale that Sara would want to look good even when she’s lounging around the house is inspired and conscientious. Everyone in the room is, to no great surprise, very skeptical and critical of it, though. 

There was a fair bit of anticipation about what Sara herself would think of these designs though, given that they’re all ostensibly for her. Unfortunately, we never get to see what would come of that, as this entire first round turns out to be the equivalent of a trick question. After the judging, the students are given the choice of either making revisions to their design or submitting it as is. When Ikuto, despite all of the criticism he received, decides to go with his design as is, it’s an uplifting moment where you feel kind of proud for him and you hope his design goes over well, even if it doesn’t win. 

However, the decision to stick with your guns and not modify your design was the true test, and everyone who decided to go with their original plan automatically passes, regardless of how well their design actually went over. This feels a little cheap; valuing confidence is one thing, but self-doubt is also an important part of iterating in creative work, as we see plenty of examples of in this episode. This is something you’d expect out of a shonen battle manga; though I guess one could make a slightly exacerbated case that this might be a shonen battle manga. Either way, the fact that Sara ended up playing no concrete part in this is still disappointing. 

There are still rankings though, which is some consolation. The top 3 get to bypass the rest of the contest and go straight to the final round, which is perhaps a bit too strong of an advantage. And piling onto the narrative convenience, Ikuto makes it into the top 3.

Ikuto doesn’t end the day completely unscathed, though. Toh approaches him afterward to ask him if he was truly satisfied with the results, which then launches into Toh lambasting him for flubbing the use of his budget. Ikuto starts a counter-argument where he tries to justify his actions by explaining how his budget came from his sisters and he didn’t want to squander it. Ikuto relents before he can finish it though, and submits to Toh’s reasoning. 

This exchange exhibits and expounds upon the prominent tension between the two that had been slowly growing up until now. There is an air of ambiguity over the matter of who is right. Is Toh delivering some necessary tough love to Ikuto as he enters the fashion industry? Or does Ikuto deserve some sympathy considering his family’s situation? The results do seem to favor Toh, with Ikuto relenting. This scene proves even more intriguing when juxtaposed with the scene that opened the episode, wherein Chiyuki praised Ikuto for balancing his personal and professional lives. Both scenes are motivational for Ikuto but are executed through opposite methods. 

Speaking of Chiyuki, she finally gets a segment of an episode dedicated to her after all of this time. She is finding little success in sending out applications, where the mention of her height, unaccompanied by her rhetoric, limits her opportunities. She is also given a junior member to act as a mentor towards: Haruka, a fangirl of her work during her younger days. Haruka’s introduction is, right now at least, less the introduction of a new character and more a device to have Chiyuki educate the audience on what it takes to get work as a model. 

After compiling a worthy portfolio, Chiyuki starts making cold calls to potential clients. One of the people who answers is Fumiyo, the timid young journalist we saw during Tokyo Fashion Week. Just when she sets up the appointment and things start to go her way, Fumiyo is unavailable and a sub is called in to see her. While this is kind of an unfortunate cliche, it does offer Chiyuki a good chance to try to sell herself in spite of her height.

Chiyuki’s pitch goes rather well but is interrupted when an apparently notable manager from an agency pops up and cuts the appointment short. As it just so happens, this manager is Kokoro’s grumpy-ass manager. She sees Chiyuki and spots some potential in her; probably desperate to recruit anyone who has any promise to join her supposedly failing agency. Despite that, it does mark the occasion where Kokoro and Chiyuki cross paths, which further expands and connects the web of characters. 

After so many episodes spent internally motivating our characters, they’re finally put to the test through tense external conflicts. Ikuto and Chiyuki are finding some limits to their previous work ethics and have started to question themselves and improve. It’s nice to see some more concentrated growth and development taking place as a result.