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This Week in Anime
Why Marin is Everyone's Dress-Up Darling

by Steve Jones & Jean-Karlo Lemus,

The sexy romcom focuses on the craftmanship behind cosplay and its Marin's infectious enthusiasm that has her winning otaku hearts around the globe.

This series is streaming on Crunchyroll and Funimation

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.


@Lossthief @mouse_inhouse @NickyEnchilada @vestenet

Steve
Happy (belated, by the time this is published) Valentine's Day, Jean-Karlo! Here, I got you a good anime we can talk about.
Jean-Karlo
I, like many people, was very heartbroken to hear some of the bad news involving Please Tell Me! Galko-Chan!. So, to fill the empty void where there would be kind, supporting gyaru who encourage people to pursue their passions and also maybe remind the world that boobs can get real sweaty in those fancy bras, we have... a kind, supporting gyaru who encourages people to pursue their passions and maybe remind the world that boobs can get real sweaty in those fancy bras!
It's certainly been a very pleasant and welcome surprise! A high-profile romcom about cosplay probably isn't what we usually think of when we consider “blockbuster anime,” but for my money, My Dress-Up Darling has been this season's runaway hit in terms of creating likable characters, carving out a distinct identity for itself, and cinching those aspects together with incredibly charismatic animation. Plus, yes, it's always a good time for gals to get their due.
It's a shame this series is only known for "The Bedroom Scene With A Bikini," because there's so much charm and character packed into this show and I was so excited to cover it for this column. Not just because gyaru are great, but also because any show that deals with people and their anime fandom always turn out to be really interesting. From Fujoshi Rumi to Recovery of an MMO Junkie, it's great to find a show that really captures the spirit of what it's like to love a show.
Yeah I honestly think that's the show's secret weapon—or one of them, at least—and it's not something you can get out of a quick synopsis. Like, on its face, this is a story about an outgoing girl getting together with a quiet friendless guy through happenstance. I can name several dozen other anime that fit that description, and most of them are pretty bad.
That really makes discussing My Dress-Up Darling hard. The well is poisoned from all the "blank self-insert gets adopted by an annoying ComiKet-bait waifu who flirts with him for vague reasons" shows that we've gotten for such a long time, to say nothing of the people who insist the shows are so totally deep. A show with an artistic male lead isn't good if he doesn't even have a name, you know that right?
We've all had to cover our fill of that ilk on this column, that's for damn sure. But, silver-lining, it makes moments like this all the sweeter. Because you can make a good romcom, you just gotta make your leads into lovable weirdos and not empty facsimiles.
So this is how it goes: Wakana Gojo lives with his grandfather, an esteemed hina doll craftsman. He dreams of being a kashirashi (the term for a master craftsman). As a child, however, a classmate/friend turns him away because "boys playing with dolls is gross". So Gojo retreats within himself and keeps to his grandfather, with nothing but part of a hina doll for companionship.

And honestly this is already a pretty good foundation! Gender politics aren't at the forefront of My Dress-Up Darling, but it's there in the background. Things like dollmaking, sewing, dressmaking, makeup, etc. are traditionally feminine crafts often regarded as "lesser." So you have Gojo who has grown up with this shame from liking something "girly," and a big part of the show involves deprogramming those assumptions by showing the audience how much thought, work, and effort goes into these crafts.

And we get a lot of good hand porn out of it, which is always welcome.
Again, your male lead needs to be an actual character for your show to be good. Gojo's passion for dollcrafting isn't just a setup, but a huge part of the show and his development. He agonizes long and hard about whether he has what it takes to even pursue it as a career. As he tragically laments, just because you love something doesn't mean you're good at it.

It's super important! Gojo being a full-fledged person with his own personality, dreams, and flaws is one half of the equation that stitches this series' romantic cloth together. He's old-fashioned, on top of all that, and it makes him a far cry from the usual self-insert blank-slate otaku-adjacent protagonist. He's also very cute, which might be most important of all. You can absolutely envision a girl like Marin falling for him.

There's nothing hotter than a guy taking diligent notes on a piece of wacky pornography. Trust me, I know from firsthand experience.
Very important! The fantasy isn't just that a bombshell like Marin decides to be a recluse's friend, it's also that Marin—a gyaru with a boundless passion for a character from the erotic visual novel Saint♥Slippery's Academy for Girls - The Young Ladies of the Humiliation Club: Debauched Miracle Life 2 and dreams of cosplaying said character out of love—meets a person who can help her sew her costume and isn't a jerk. He's actually quite handsome in his own way, is supportive and understanding of her hobbies, equally passionate and dedicated to his own pursuits, and doesn't judge her by either her hobbies or her appearance as a gyaru. A lot of people tend to think gals are promiscuous, after all. The show takes time to illustrate how she doesn't tolerate people making fun of others' interests. She loves what she loves and she appreciates people who pursue their passions.

I've been lucky enough to meet a lot of cosplayers or women interested in traditionally "nerdy" subjects and this all tracks. Turns out, people like people with good personalities and don't like hanging around jerks.
It's hilarious that one of the first things we see Marin do is commandeer a chalkboard to explain the subtle intricacies of the relationship web in a magical girl series. Unlike Gojo, she has zero shame about her hobbies.
She also has the social graces to just shrug it off if someone tries to make fun of her. Gojo panics at having people within spitting distance of him—people like Marin, who (as mentioned earlier) is very happy to learn Gojo can sew. Her own efforts at making Shizuku-tan's outfit are less than stellar. But also, she loves that hentai character with all her heart and just really wants to become Shizuku-tan. Me and my Tomomi Harukawa dakimakura salute you, Marin.
Get you a girl who loves her favorite trashy eroge so much she tattoos its name on her irises.

Her impassioned explanation of Shizuku-tan to a frankly frightened Gojo is My Dress-Up Darling's first all-timer scene. It's just a beautiful encapsulation of the kind of pure passion a person can develop for the filthiest shit—especially in the anime and anime-adjacent scene—tempered with a healthy tongue-in-cheek acknowledgement of its ridiculousness. But this is who we are. Everything here is so real. Marin is valid as hell.

I've met women who've forgotten more about MMOs than I'll ever learn, this is so true to life it hurts and it's amazing to see this kind of thing from the perspective of someone who doesn't really "get" the fandom. And through it all, Marin is painfully sincere about the whole thing. Like, yeah, maybe she does enjoy having dates with Rosie Palms while she's playing Saint♥Slippery 2. But it's something she loves, and Gojo appreciates being around someone who loves something as much as he loves hina dolls.
Yeah, not to strawman too hard here, but given that I've seen people throw the "manic pixie dream girl" accusation in My Dress-Up Darling's direction, I just gotta say: if you hang around in nerd circles, you will absolutely run into at least one if not several Marins. They are out there. They walk among us.
If you've never met a Marin even in passing, that says more about you than it does about the kinds of people in fandom. Just sayin'.
Plus, like you said, although romance is an increasingly big part of the story, at its core, its about the conjunction of mutually fulfilling nonromantic passions between two huge nerds. That's the glue that holds Gojo and Marin together, and that's what gets you invested enough to enjoy seeing their chemistry gradually blossom. Although maybe I shouldn't use the word "gradually" when this is in the second episode.
Also like I said earlier, it bums me out that this darn scene is the only thing people bring up about My Dress-Up Darling because it doesn't help the whole "this is actually a show about a mutual friendship" argument.
To be fair, though, the show is deeply horny at points. For better and/or worse.
There's a lot of Gojo having to be a lot closer to a woman than he's ever been since the day he was born, but the show also takes a moment to imply that maybe Marin was also taking a big leap by letting Goro get that close. Hey, plenty of gyaru are innocent (eroge-playing habits notwithstanding); Marin's probably never even kissed a guy before.
It's a scene that goes on way longer than it needs to, and doles out the Gainax bounces a little too generously, but overall it's amusing for the disconnect between Marin and Gojo. She's so proud of her swimsuit compromise, while Gojo's struggling not to disintegrate on spot. They're both coming from perfectly reasonable positions! It's not either of their faults that teen hormones are a hell of a drug.
I read the scene as Marin knowing that Gojo is nervous as heck and trying (too hard) to make the mood light and not make things weird, because she has to know that any guy would have a bit of a panic attack when their cute classmate asks him to measure her boobs within the day of meeting her.

Speaking of, I'm very amused by Marin's obsession with Shizuku's "boob bag." Again: a very true-to-life detail about real-life people like Marin. You know what they say, the couple that appreciates bosoms together stays together...
It is very literally the centerpiece of the outfit, so you gotta show it love. And I think that's fair assessment. The scene, at its core, is still about the communication problems that arise because they hardly know each other. Marin has some experience with modeling (this is some deeper manga lore), so it's just not as big a deal to her as it is to Gojo. But I do like that she gets flustered in the end too! It humanizes both of them. And that fingers-through-the-hair animation technology is unreal. Others might fixate on the feet and boob shots (no judgment), but that for me is the crown jewel of an episode stuffed with incredible character animation.
Marin's hair is cute, I like that they made it look nice and fluffy in that scene. Also, I love her pink highlights! Gotta have pink highlights.
Hell, the amount of character and tone infused into some of the more static shots still demonstrates an incredibly adept command of anime as an art form. This is a downright gorgeous series at times, and a very loving adaption of the source material.

And I should say: the manga is also quite excellent and just as raunchy.
Of course, it's not all measurements and boob bags: gotta make the boob bag once you know how big it's gotta be, after all. And here's where Gojo hits a stumbling block: a miscommunication between him and Marin makes him think the next chance she has to cosplay as Shizuku is for the event in two weeks. Plus, his grandfather hurts his back, leaving Gojo alone. Also-also: midterms are coming. Poor Gojo gets stretched to his breaking point.
What I especially love about this part is how mature the resolution is. Miscommunications are romcoms' bread and butter, but rather than stretch it out for maximum melodrama, My Dress-Up Darling lets its leads hash things out and own up to both of their mistakes. Most adults can't even do this, so good on them for figuring it out in high school!

I also appreciate that it doesn't sugarcoat the physical and emotional toll it takes on Gojo, while still extolling how powerful passion can be. Like, people push themselves to their limits for all sorts of reasons, some good and many bad. But doing it because it's something you love, for people you care about, is definitely one of the better motivations imho.
I mentioned Gojo despairing about his ability earlier in the column, but sure enough, it's his grandfather's words (and Marin's smiling face) that get Gojo back into his seat and working on the costume. He might not believe in himself, but Marin does—and he doesn't wanna let her down.

And people wonder why women like Gojo.

I, for one, deeply sympathize with Marin here, only suddenly coming to terms with her budding crush on Gojo once he looks like worn-out dead-inside garbage. People are hotter when they're exhausted. I don't know what to tell you, it's just science.

His beauty mark is also such a smart touch. The mangaka absolutely knew what they were doing when they designed him. What a good lad.
Look, I'm a simple guy with really twisted, messed-up priorities... what gets me is the "beautiful" scene. Marin learns early that Gojo is very particular about using the word "beautiful." He's an artist, he sees a lot of really pretty things on a daily basis, so for something to be "beautiful" it really has to wow him. Marin in her Shizuku cosplay, even though she was sweating up a storm and pooling sweat in her boob bag like crazy, qualified for that moniker for him. So when Marin hears him call her "beautiful," she catches feelings but hard. So hard.

It's a callback with the explosive strength of an ICBM, and it hits Marin square in her ventricles. It's another great development for the series, too, because lovesick Marin is a hilariously visceral encapsulation of what a crush feels like in high school. All butterflies and ineffably rose-tinted goggles. She is cringe, but she is free.

Speaking of ventricles, I guess: Marin (before the "beautiful" bit) is so thrilled when she finally gets her Shizuku-tan cosplay and, true to her social butterfly self, makes a ton of friends at her first cosplay event. Gojo settles into his future role as the cosplayer's boyfriend, holding her stuff while people photograph her but otherwise proud of the work he's done. Because there's just no beating how happy Marin looks.

We interrupt this charming moment to bring you bad news: breasts sweat, and big breasts get big sweaty.

Also, don't wear two nude-bras, your outfit will never survive it.
Only the finest drawn boob and thigh sweat for the distinguished anime consumers here.
Again, I've known my fair share of cosplayers: this is all true to life.
My favorite bit here is when Marin can't stop from corpsing when Gojo first tries to take pictures of her. She's that happy! And the infectiousness of her energy, combined with how genuine it is, makes this day-of viewing for me. It's been a while since I've done that for an anime I haven't been reviewing.
And then Marin meets Juju, a cosplayer she had a ton of admiration for. Juju admired the kind of work Gojo puts into Marin's cosplay and wants to commission him for a new costume, and Marin approves (support your partner, people!)
Juju is good but her introduction is very much less so. And very difficult to screencap around lol.
We didn't need to know Juju's personal hygiene, but I give the show props for at least finding a creative flashback to handle it with? And hey, I know plenty of full-grown women who still get carded so Juju's got plenty of company I guess?
Oh there's no doubt about that. And I dare not begrudge My Dress-Up Darling for its horniness, lest I be cast into the circle of hell reserved for hypocrites, but maybe we could have used a tad fewer nude shots and a bit less time spent on the pubic humor. Especially when none of that factors into the rest of Juju's story, which is actually about how '90s magical girl series kick insane amounts of ass.

I am so happy that this show went so far as to try and recreate that sort of dusty coloring used in 90s anime, even if the end result still looks more like Heartcatch PreCure instead of Cyberteam in Akihabara. Also, Juju, have a heart and let Marin cosplay Neon with you, you'd be so cute together
I love that they not only went with the 4:3 aspect ratio, they also recruited one of the Doremi series voice actors for Shion. And this relationship web is basically just Cardcaptor Sakura, down to the highly sus part about the teacher. This show knows what it's talking about.
I said it earlier, but I don't blame people for looking askew at My Dress-Up Darling because the well has been poisoned. But Marin's basically become the waifu of the season for good reason, and the bedroom scene isn't one of them. This is a charming, heartwarming show about two people coming together thanks to a serendipitous overlap in their hobbies, and becoming better people for it. And this is the kind of magic that happens in fandom all the time. Goodness knows, if we have to fantasize about something, be it the ability to bond with people who validate our (positive) hobbies.
It's funny—my personal arc between hearing about My Dress-Up Darling and watching it mirrored Juju's presumptions about Marin being dashed by actually meeting her. This is a series with a lot of heart and knowhow about what it means to be an active part of our particular subculture. Beneath all the romance and horniness and comedy, this is a story about the inalienable joy of being able to pursue a passion, just for the sake of itself, and for the sake of being yourself. Give it a chance!

And if that doesn't sell you, maybe this will: Marin has even more powerful dad fashion in store for us in the near future. You definitely don't want to miss that.
The real power-move from gals: dressing however the FUCK they want and pulling it off. I can't with this woman. Gojo, come get ya girl...
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