Netflix recently added My Dress-up Darling in two batches, it’s an anime that had been recommended to me a lot, and I gotta say, I had a blast with it.
The main character is Wakana Gojo, a first-year student who’s family have been making porcelain dolls for generations, and he’s passionate about them but when he showed one to his best friend as a young boy, she recoiled, calling him weird and unnatural because girls like dolls and boys don’t, so he’s been quiet and insular in school ever since, hiding his passion and family business. but one day his sewing machine at home is broken and he brings the doll costume he’s working on to school to work on it in the home ec room after class… only for Marin Kitagawa, the vivacious, beautiful gyaru, one of the most popular girls in class walks in on him. As he panics she produces an outfit from her bag – it turns out she’s a wannabe cosplayer but is terrible at sewing and she asks him for help. When he agrees she gets so excited because she’s finally going to be able to be her favourite character from Saint Slippery’s Academy for Girls – The Young Ladies of the Humiliation Club: Debauched Miracle Life 2!
“Excuse me?”
Marin’s a big fan of erotic games, eroge in Japanese fan parlance as it happens plus any tie-in manga and anime, and she’s so happy to have someone who’s at least open to sharing her passion with, because her friends just dismiss it as nerd shit even as they’re all still good friends, and the pair begin to explore the world of cosplay together. Wakana is inquisitive and really gets into the stories and characters while delving into the technical side of cosplay, the things you need to do to recreate outfits, styling wigs and all that stuff, while Marin gets a lot of attention form photographers and fans thanks to Wakana’s meticulous work. They make friends in the cosplay community, Wakana starts to become part of Marin’s broader social circle and both elements help him come out of his shell a bit.
This is a variation on one of the standard teen romantic comedy templates in manga and anime-the insular and set-upon boy who’s a total catch and doesn’t realise it falls into the circle of a beautiful, vivacious girl and they have fun adventures while they slowly realise that they love each other. In this case Wakana is pretty standard in that his shyness prevents him from talking to Marin about how he feels, while Marin refreshingly realises very early on that she’s into him in a big way and proudly talks with her friends about how she’s hanging out with this super-hot boy, but she’s got basically no romantic experience so she doesn’t really know how to take their relationship to the next level. It feels natural and genuine and the development over the story works really well.
For example, I’m not often a fan of cringe misunderstanding jokes, but there’s a well-executed one where Wakana is staying over in Marin’s place, and he somehow internalises that if he stays awake all night, it won’t count as a sleepover and he won’t have gone too far in their relationship. He’s heard about energy drinks and so when they pair visit a convenience store, he grabs a couple of cans of Monster to use to stay awake. But they’re right beside the weirdo aphrodisiac drinks that are common in Japan’s supplement culture and Marin becomes convinced he’s planning to sleep with her that night, but they haven’t even kissed yet! Of course, that doesn’t happen and Wakana somehow misses all of Marin’s hints about sex, and it all made me laugh.
The show is also pretty fanservicey, which may be good or bad depending on your tastes. Most of it fits into the story at least, in an early episode Marin shows up at Wakana’s to get him to take her measurements, and she’s worn a bikini under her clothes so he won’t see her in her underwear, and the animators are perfectly happy to have the camera linger on her curves and a lot of bare skin, and there’s quite a bit of that with various characters depending on their costumes or other circumstances. I’ve seen far worse and far more gratuitous in my time. All that said, the show is quite frank about male sexuality and I really appreciate that. There’s an early sequence where Wakana has a wet dream about Marin and it’s not explicitly talked about but it’s clear what’s going on. Or later when they’ve inadvertently booked a Love Hotel to do a photo shoot and Marin is straddling Wakana so he can get a food photo from below, while in a very revealing outfit he gets an erection but the tension is broken by a phone call. It’s not played for laughs, it’s portrayed as natural, if awkward and part of the progression of their relationship (Marin is already openly crushing on Wakana to her friend by this point so it’s not exactly an unwelcome development)
So yeah, strong recommend. It can be quite anime tropey at points but the core relationships are very sweet, believable and make me smile. The animation is gorgeous, leaving aside any racy content, and it’s a lot of fun overall.
