My Dress-Up Darling Season 2

Episode 19

The entire first half of this episode was just building up to one big punchline of Marin putting on weight. I feel like I would hate that setup in literally any other show, but damn, My Dress-Up Darling still brings the charm in both its writing and presentation. It's genuinely so cute and sweet that this whole episode starts with Marin just gushing about Gojo at her job. No wonder everyone thinks that he is her boyfriend, because she never stops talking about him. I hope there comes a time when Gojo understands how highly this woman thinks about him. Her treasure is everything that he gives her, and she even takes things that would upset her, like the group picture that he took with the guys, and spins it into something that she can celebrate. The fact that's the picture that she has on the back of her phone case is just adorable and shows that it almost seems impossible for her to look at Gojo negatively.

Maybe that's the theme of the episode? Marin putting on weight can potentially affect her job, and she does care about her figure, but the thing that makes her feel concerned is whether or not she'll be able to wear Gojo's cosplays anymore. The outfits that she keeps from Gojo, even the one from that one episode I don't want to talk about, matter the most to her. Even though it's perfectly natural for people to grow out of their clothing or to take them in to get resized, her being so devastated about that specifically shows just how much he values everything that he gives to her. However, that's sort of the problem. He does such a good job of looking after her that he ends up accidentally feeding into her hyperactive personality. The problem is that she is very quick to overindulge, as seen with the food and the camera, but the irony is that if Gojo hadn't gone that extra mile to take care of her, she wouldn't have gained weight in the first place.

There isn't a lot in terms of plot progression this episode outside of the payoff with Marin finally buying a camera. This was a plot point that was brought up a couple of times throughout the past ten episodes or so, as Marin even mentioned that she was working extra as a model to afford it. As someone who has done cosplay photography, I can tell you cameras can get damn expensive. Her job drew attention to the fact that she was gaining weight, and her job allowed her to buy the camera to have this photography date with Gojo in the first place.

I love the wonder in Gojo's eyes as he's experimenting with a new thing. You can tell that he's starting to come out of his shell and explore hobbies outside of just doll crafting. He's starting to take a bit more of an initiative with some of their activities, and it warmed my heart that he genuinely reached out to somebody else on his own to learn more about cosplay crafting. It looks like the next episode will cover another event, which means we might see some more outfits and cosplay knowledge on the horizon. I'm sure there are some people out there who are more here for those tips than the slice of life hijinks, but these hijinks are what I live for. You could argue that almost nothing happened in this episode, but I genuinely do not care. The show has accrued so much goodwill from me that even something as simple as just Marin walking in the park while Gojo takes pictures of her for ten minutes is enough to earn my perfect score.

P.S. It was hard to pick a screenshot from this episode, but can you blame me?

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