Smile Down the Runway
Summary. The story follows two teenagers, Ikuto Tsumura and Chiyuki Fujito, who both have dreams of making it in the fashion world despite their circumstances. Chiyuki dreams of becoming a model and participating in the Paris Fashion Week. However, people make fun of her dreams because she is too short, despite having a thin and voluptuous figure. Ikuto wants to become a fashion designer thanks to his sewing skills. However, his family is poor. An opportunity arises when Hazime Yanagida notices Ikuto's skill at sewing, offering him a part-time job at his fashion studio . Ikuto accepts this offer so he can support his family. Meanwhile, Chiyuki's father asks Ikuto to become her partner since they are both classmates and he wants Chiyuki to follow her dreams despite her height. They are joined by the famous but shy model Kokoro Hasegawa, who has a height complex, and prodigy fashion designer Toh Ayano, who considers Ikuto to be his rival. Chiyuki and Ikuto must work together in order to make their dreams come true. Media. Manga. "Smile Down the Runway", written and illustrated by Kotoba Inoya, was serialized in Kodansha's "Weekly Shōnen Magazine" from  May 31, 2017 to July 14, 2021. Kodansha has collected its chapters into individual "tankōbon" volumes. Twenty-two volumes were released from September 15, 2017 to August 17, 2021. Anime. An anime television series adaptation was announced on September 16, 2019. The series was animated by Ezo'la and directed by Nobuyoshi Nagayama, with Touko Machida handling series composition, and Misaki Kaneko designing the characters. Shuji Katayama and Akinari Suzuki composed the music. It aired from January 11 to March 28, 2020 on the Animeism programming block on MBS, TBS, and BS-TBS. Ami Sakaguchi performed the series' opening theme song  LION, while J-JUN performed the series' ending theme song "Ray of Light". Funimation has licensed the series for a SimulDub. In Southeast Asia and South Asia, Muse Communication licensed the series and streamed it on its Muse Asia YouTube channel. Novel. "Smile Down the Runway" received a novelization by Yūki Arisawa, titled , which covers the events of the first two volumes of the series. It was released on April 15, 2020.