My Dress-Up Darling

My Dress-Up Darling

My Dress-Up Darling anime series cover art
My Dress-Up Darling

Series Overview

My Dress-Up Darling (Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru / その着せ替え人形は恋をする) was the hit romance anime of the winter 2022 season. It was also one of three anime to air during the winter season that was created by CloverWorks.

I think there are many reasons why My Dress-Up Darling is so universally loved. It has great art and animation, cute girls, just enough ecchi content, a good OP and ED, enjoyable character dynamics, and it’s about cosplay.

That last reason is more important than I think a lot of people realize. If you take away the cosplay aspect of the series, what makes it unique? At that point, it would just be a well-animated, very standard, rom-com anime. It would be the kind of anime most people forget about in a month.

For example, does anyone care about My Senpai is Annoying anymore? That just aired this past fall and I’m betting most of you forgot about it already. I never think about that series despite there being an emote from it in my Discord server. Most of these series just don’t have staying power.

Now, it’s only been a week since My Dress-Up Darling finished airing. Perhaps by the time the summer season begins, nobody will care. But, the fact that it’s about a niche hobby within the anime/gaming spheres means that there’s going to be prolonged interest in it compared to similar series.

And, as someone who has friends within the cosplay community, I have to say that I think this anime did a great job of capturing what cosplay is all about. It’s about being creative and showing your appreciation for characters you love. It doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner or someone who’s been cosplaying for years as long as you have fun doing it.

Main Characters

Marin Kitagawa is the main draw of the series. She loves cosplay despite the fact that she has absolutely no talent for creating outfits. And even though she’s one of the popular girls, she’s very open about her love for all things otaku, including eroge.

Of course, people also love Marin for her appearance. She’s hot cute and also the focus of the majority of the ecchi content, such as when she wears a bikini while Gojou takes her measurements. Oh, and she’s 15. Yeah, I thought she was supposed to be 17/18 at first, too.

Marin Kitagawa in her school uniform from the anime series My Dress-Up Darling
Marin Kitagawa in her school uniform

Wakana Gojou is the male lead of the series. He works (and lives) in a Hina doll studio with his grandfather. After Marin learns that Gojou is able to make clothing — for dolls, not humans — she turns him into her own personal cosplay sweatshop worker.

Unfortunately, Gojou is probably the single worst thing about the series, in my mind. He’s a good character when he’s just enjoying his time with Marin. But as soon as he realizes that he’s alone with a cute girl, he puts on a pathetic display of being afraid of the opposite sex.

Sajuna “Juju” Inui is a popular cosplay whom Marin admires. After seeing Marin’s cosplay pictures online, Juju is impressed by Gojou’s work and wants him to make a cosplay for her too. Despite her stature, Juju is actually older than Marin and Gojou.

Shinju Inui is Juju’s younger sister and photographer. She’s a very shy girl who’s self-conscious about her size. Despite being the youngest of these four characters she looks like she should be the oldest. Shinju loves sharing pictures of her sister in cosplay online because she wants everyone to see how cute she is.

Is It Overrated?

At the end of the winter season, My Dress-Up Darling was sitting in fourth place in terms of overall score on MyAnimeList. As of the writing of this review, it has an 8.46/10, making it the 131st highest-rated anime overall.

But, is it really that good? Well, it’s the anime I rated third-highest in this season. And, technically, it could be as high as 108th in my overall ranking because that’s where the anime I rated at the same score as it begin. However, I think 8.46 is definitely too high as a rating.

My Dress-Up Darling is good. Parts of it are very good. But, something I just keep coming back to is how insufferable Gojou is whenever he gets flustered. Every time that happens, it completely kills my enjoyment of the series. I really don’t get the appeal of male protagonists acting like that.

Marin cosplaying as Shizuku-tan from the anime series My Dress-Up Darling
Marin cosplaying as Shizuku-tan

I should point out that I like when Marin gets flustered. I’m sure you could argue I only feel that way because she’s a cute girl. But, I do think there’s a big difference between Marin internally freaking out and Gojou going full Kazuya and not being able to function in the presence of a girl.

And, building on that, I kind of feel that the series would have been better with less ecchi. I know that’s going to be an unpopular opinion; it’s not an opinion I generally have. But, I would have preferred if the anime focused more on the cosplay without sexualizing it. Leave that part to all the artists who create fan art of the series.

Remember, cosplay is not consent.

The final thing I want to say here is that expanding upon the supporting cast could have benefited the series. What about Marin’s friends? Nowa Sugaya had a cute character design and she only appeared for a few short scenes.

Conclusion

My Dress-Up Darling is a 7/10. It’s a good anime and I really hope that it gets a second season. It was also one of the most enjoyable anime of the season. But, I do think it’s currently overrated due, in part, to recency bias.

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