My Dress-Up Darling Season 2

Episode 17

This episode rejuvenated a significant part of my soul. I don't even know where to begin because there is just so much charm, love, and character development packed into this one impressive episode. It primarily covers two locations, and as far as the larger narrative goes, it serves as a setup for the school festival. I loved all the details scattered throughout. It genuinely felt like I was appreciating something different every minute.

The little back-and-forth between Marin and Gojo regarding the Bento box had me smiling like an idiot. I like that the show hasn't beaten Marin's cooking as a joke to death. It was funny that Gojo was rightfully concerned about whatever deep-fried and unhealthy food she was going to prepare for him, only for him to be elated that it turned out to be just a very simple rice ball. I like the irony that his appreciating that little thing just ended up increasing Marin's infatuation even more, since food is very clearly a love language for her, and she ended up doing exactly what he was worried she was going to do anyway. Just that one shot of him gently smiling at the dinner table, trying to eat healthy to counterbalance all of the stuff Marin was making for him, was probably the funniest joke in the entire episode.

This show really does respect the intelligence of the viewer, because there are so many little things that have so much emotional weight in context to how the characters interact with each other. I loved how the girls were thinking about what performance Marin was going to put on, and the camera kept cutting back to Gojo working on the suit. You can tell that he's listening to every single word that they are saying as he's working, and he's just enjoying the conversation until he's ready to participate in it. I also like the fact that even he was caught off guard by how much he was speaking up, because you get the sense that this guy probably doesn't talk much with anybody outside of his grandfather.

Of course, this culminates in the final couple of minutes where Gojo finally takes that next step. We got foreshadowing for this at the beginning, with his grandfather pointing out that it is impossible to run a doll business completely by yourself since you need teams of people working on different parts of the doll. If they didn't have multiple people doing all of those little details, they would never be able to reach their quotas, and they would go out of business. I just fell in love with the fact that CloverWork went out of their way to make puppets of the main characters to put on a quick one-minute puppet show explaining the process. They did not need to do that, but they did because the staff on the show are probably as extra as Marin is when it comes to presenting arguably really mundane information. This is a show that appreciates the little details, but also wants to make everything as exciting and involved as the characters feel in the moment.

Like Gojo, I listen to people's conversations passively while working. I get to sit with those moments of silence and embarrassment, like when Marin tried to sew the button herself because she was still looking for a new way to participate. The animation is bouncing off the wall like Marin does when she is going crazy about how much she loves Gojo. Everything has a purpose in this show. Gojo finally reaches out and asks for help because he recognizes that everybody wants the final product to be amazing. That final shot of Marin just looking at Gojo and smiling because she knows how his thought process works at this point felt great. I love this show so much that every week might turn into a massive gush session from yours truly.

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