Runway de Waratte
Reading more Runway de Waratte. It’s not that great, but has quite many small interesting things which nicely get my attention. Like how it explores the topic of “having connections” in an industry. There’s one section (“line”) leader who is incompetent and knows it, but got the job because the CEO owed a favor to her father. So she just slacks all day and her team isn’t much more motivated either, but she doesn’t try to hide it. And then she got Yanagi in the company because she likes him, and now Yanagi has overworked himself because he wants to prove he would have had the talent to get the team lead position without connections. I’ve read a lot of manga in the genre of “work/passion”, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of angle. All the other manga blindly espouse the virtue of hard work. Even the bad guys are or turn into hard workers by the end. Shirobako might have had a slacker among the huge cast but I doubt it. Hibike Euphonium had one interesting girl who was depressed, and nothing much improved for her — I liked that.
Not sure I’ve even seen this strong case of a “decoy protagonist” — the original MC hardly even shows up anymore. This manga is kind of difficult to follow, I don’t like it that much.
The (current) MC is in dire need of money after the mother goes through expensive surgery. Rather than ask for a raise, he abruptly quits his dream job to go search for some menial work that pays more. It’s seems like the familiar story that person feels like he has to put family before everything else and in the end he accepts the family’s desire for him to pursure his dreams. Everything will work out somehow. A slight twist here is that the MC is being offered lots of money from two different parties to do immoral things. Of course he will decline, but I think it would be interesting to see a story where the MC makes that kind of decision and it kind of works out but comes back to haunt him. I guess villains often get that kind of treatment, for underestimating the hero.
Ah, this arc about the school fashion festival ended with all the characters making peace, and finally, I’m thinking, what about Yanagi-san, the rude guy who used to employ the MC and who hasn’t spoken to him since MC abruptly quit? That moment MC finds a mail from him: “Next Monday work. Come.” I love this kind of thing. The emotional setup is done so well in advance that it can be delivered by surprise in a single panel.
Ahaha, and what now: The MC couple suddenly start playing Shogi without any explanation, and the principal joins in some kind of Hikaru no Go parody as Sai. I lol’d.