Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru

High school student Wakana Gojou spends his days perfecting the art of making hina dolls, hoping to eventually reach his grandfather's level of expertise. While his fellow teenagers busy themselves with pop culture, Gojou finds bliss in sewing clothes for his dolls. Nonetheless, he goes to great lengths to keep his unique hobby a secret, as he believes that he would be ridiculed were it revealed.

Enter Marin Kitagawa, an extraordinarily pretty girl whose confidence and poise are in stark contrast to Gojou's meekness. It would defy common sense for the friendless Gojou to mix with the likes of Kitagawa, who is always surrounded by her peers. However, the unimaginable happens when Kitagawa discovers Gojou's prowess with a sewing machine and brightly confesses to him about her own hobby: cosplay. Because her sewing skills are pitiable, she decides to enlist his help.

As Gojou and Kitagawa work together on one cosplay outfit after another, they cannot help but grow close—even though their lives are worlds apart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kitagawa, Marin Main

Suguta, Hina Japanese

Gojou, Wakana Main

Ishige, Shouya Japanese

Inui, Sajuna Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Inui, Shinju Supporting

Youmiya, Hina Japanese

Sugaya, Nowa Supporting

Takeda, Larissa Tago Japanese

Gojou, Kaoru Supporting

Ono, Atsushi Japanese

Liz Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Tengeji, Mirai Supporting

Tange, Sakura Japanese

Rune Supporting

Sekine, Akira Japanese

Kaname Supporting

Shirai, Yuusuke Japanese

Umehara, Shouta Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Nakayama, Nobuhiro Producer

Kitazawa, Shiryuu Producer

Reviews

Mar 26, 2022

Stark700

Recommended

Humans really are fascinating animals, with the most potential of any species on this planet that we can Earth. If we look into a mirror, we see a reflection and may ask ourselves who or what we want to be. What if I told you that there's a beautiful girl named Marin who takes up cosplaying as a life hobby? When she looks into a mirror, she sees herself as a cosplayer, playing on her fashion style and character.

Translated as 'My Dress-Up Darling', the anime is based on the manga about a guy with a girlish hobby making friends with a very attractive girl, with ... a love of cosplaying. The first episode feels like fate connecting the two together at school. Yes, it's not a common hobby for a guy to enjoy crafting hina dolls and admiring its art form. That's why Wakana Gojo doesn't have many friends and turned into an introvert. On the other hand, Marin enters the show as a very attractive girl with an alluring figure, energetic personality, and just about everything that Gojo is not. The two are bonded by a partnership - Gojo would make costumes for her and Marin would in respect, cosplay in those made costumes.

To get the most obvious out of the way, this is essentially a romantic comedy. At the heart of story is the timid Gojo paired with the charismatic Marin. There will no doubt be some people who raises their eyebrows when watching the first few episodes. For instance, the amount of fan service (particularly episode 2) may catch viewers off guard. Plus, Marin seems like a different species compared to Gojo. When we see Gojo, some of us can see that he is the type of shy kid at school, where almost no one notices. Marin is portrayed as the most popular girl at school where everyone has their eyes on her. Everyone knows her name and she has tons of friends. Thanks to her energetic personality and easy going nature, she can also make friends easily with just about anyone. And of course, she has the looks that resembles a supermodel. However, there's one particular aspect some may not be aware of. She also loves the otaku culture and with a wide range of tastes. It's why she took on cosplaying as a hobby because what else allows her to express herself?

As we take a closer look at the Gojo/Marin pair, it's obvious that they do have character chemistry. From their first encounter, it's shown that Marin sees Gojo as a trustworthy friend, not someone with a weird hobby because of his gender. She treats everyone equally and even admires Gojo's talent. It's because of her friendly gesture that Gojo decided to help Marin make her first costume. Cosplaying as the gothic Shizuku-tan, Gojo also learns his own mistakes and realizes that his costume is far from perfect. Nonetheless, it's admiring that Gojo acknowledges his mistakes while Marin gets to experience the joy of cosplaying. Let's face it, whenever she cosplays, she turns into a fangirl of herself. This extends to her admiration for other popular cosplayers, as we later meet Sajuna Inui and her sister, Shinju.

The Inui sisters represents the more serious duo when compared to Gojo and Marin. For instance, Sajuna takes her cosplay very seriously as she loves the magical girl culture. Her sister Shinju gets along well with others although she seems to have an inferiority complex. Together, they were destined to meet Gojo and Marin. It's a world where cosplaying connects these characters together like fate. It doesn't take an genius to see that the Inui sisters also have a passion for cosplaying, particular Sajuna. At the same time, Marin sees them as companions rather than rivals. That's because Marin seems to love everyone, and isn't a type of girl with an ego. As shown through her character interactions with the Inui sisters, she respects their tastes.

An anime like Dress Up Darling isn't without much of its flaws because let's face it, this type of rom-com isn't entirely aimed for everyone. The biggest concern is how much we should like the four main characters, particularly Marin. Even though she is attractive and fun to watch throughout the series, there's limited character development. Surprisingly, the anime doesn't dive deep into her character past either and mostly shows exactly who she is. The love she expresses to cosplaying can sometime cross the line where she ignores all boundaries of common sense. This includes stripping near naked for measurements, making suggestive comments without batting an eye, or in one episode, she even goes to a love hotel with Gojo. So yes, she's not exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. This often sets up Gojo as an accidental pervert as he gets front row seat at Marin's alluring figure. Luckily, the anime does take some time for Gojo to develop out of his meek self. And with each episode, he seems to grow more confidence with himself and others. It's one of the perks of the show as Marin influenced Gojo to be himself.

With an anime about cosplaying, what could go right or wrong? Obviously, it's the animation quality and more importantly, character designs. Thankfully, CloverWorks showed their colors and I mean that in an effective way. Marin is decorated with a model look with pretty face, slim figure, and overall lavish style of dressing herself. When we see her cosplay, she shows a genuine passion in her outfits ranging from Shizuku Kuroe to Black Lobelia, or even the lewd Rizu-kyun. There's no doubt the animators wanted Marin to take the stage as the poster girl and someone to advertise as a cosplayer. Gojo on the other hand had his own dress up scenes but most of them are laughable, sometimes even meme worthy. Watching the two together really feels like they came from diferent planets sometimes. However, do be aware that the show isn't shy about fan service. While there's no ecchi on the MAL entry, there's definitely suggestive scenes in the show that will arouse attention.

My Dress Up Darling is a show that take two characters with an unlikely connection and bond them with a common cause. As a rom-com, it will definitely take some time to get used to the cast and warm up to their personalities. Cosplaying isn't a hobby that everyone can just take on with a whim. It takes passion, dedication, and a goal to succeed to make it work. Gojo knows the risks and realizes that nothing in life is easy. Marin also knows that when she looks into a mirror, she is portraying a character when she's cosplaying. It's what make her human to be who she wants.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Mar 26, 2022

HellLyter

Mixed Feelings

I welcome you to the latest installment of...WAIFU WARS!!!

A recent phenomenon where current popular anime are often completely spearheaded by one girl. Nothing else, such as an insightful plot or having a non generic protagonist, matters in the face of this one girl. Creators think, "How can I sell my work and get it recognized by the public?" And the answer they arrive at is really quite simple.

People. Want. Waifus.

There are multiple varieties of anime that could potentially fit this mold, so I'll give you some of the bigger names that I believe really exemplify the Waifu Wars mentality. The prequels to My Dress ... Up Darling if you will. We have...

Takagi-San, The Forehead Menace

Uzaki-Chan, Attack of the Big Ol' Boobies

Nagatoro-San, Revenge of the Tanned Bully

But now another contender has entered the ring. And her name is Marin, A New Waifu.

So I don't really know what just came over me there, but, uhh...let's get into the review! I'm going to keep it brief since as I alluded to, anime of this nature are very basic at their core. My Dress Up Darling remains consistently stalwart in its lighthearted themes and direction throughout, and me going over the specifics and delving deep into them honestly seems unnecessary...and will save you the pain of reading a boring essay from me. You're welcome. This show is very comfy in nature, and from my perspective, whether or not you enjoy it entirely boils down to two things: Your affinity for Slice of Life styled shows and your enjoyment of the characters...particularly Marin the waifu, the selling point of the entire series.

As you've probably guessed from seeing my score, My Dress Up Darling, while I find to be fine, simply didn't pass this criteria for me. Slice of Life really isn't a preferred genre of mine, though that's not to say that I'm always automatically dismissive of such shows. Like this anime, Nagatoro-San also primarily focuses on the regular lives and laid-back antics of some students, yet the presentation and delivery just captivated me more. I respect My Dress Up Darling's author for taking a more original approach in terms of the interests of the two protagonists and how they come together because of them. Gojo being a Hina Doll maker and enthusiast and Marin being an avid cosplayer and...gasp...'NERD', was neat. Though it felt like after that was established, not really much else was done in developing both them and the scenarios they engaged in. It was cute how Marin went from completely cool around Gojo to a little blushy-blush after starting to fall for him, but that was honestly it. I mean the entire first half of the anime alone was focused solely on Gojo making an outfit for Marin. Yes, multiple things were shown throughout this episodic process such as how hardworking Gojo is and the extraordinary detail that the animators put into showing Marin's boob physics, butt checks, sweaty body, and more (I'm sure they worked very hard to try and get the viewers hard). Yet by the end of it, I couldn't help but think "that was it?" Yes, it's a simple and easygoing anime by design, but I personally wanted more out of it.

Now on to the characters themselves. There really isn't much to say about our hero Gojo. I do like how he's portrayed as a sort of yes man due to his lack of social interaction, but not much else is done with him besides frequently describing his passion for Hina Dolls. He just really embodies the "nice guy" trope. The side cast is incredibly limited, but they do elevate the show. I liked Sajuna Inui and honestly thought she was the most entertaining character in the show despite her limited screen time. Let's hope the author gives her more exposure down the line instead of completely removing her from the story in the foreseeable future!

But now, we finally get to core of My Dress Up Darling. Marin. So I'll get straight to the point. She's too perfect. She's a colorful, captivating person. She has a perfect body despite her terrible eating habits. She's into things that most people watching this anime probably like. She's perfectly fine with showing off her body. And most importantly, she's ALWAYS kind and understanding. Does anyone else see how this is a problem? I feel like this anime can be considered a RomCom, and the key element of this genre is showing how flawed characters come together to grow, yet I'm not feeling that at all with this. Marin is such an ideal girl that it's boring. Let me give a comparison to my favorite RomCom, Toradora. The heroine Taiga is a small girl with scruffy, brown hair. While cute, she's definitely no ideal beauty. She has serious communication problems and violent tendencies due to parental neglect and social awkwardness. There are other components to her, but she really isn't painted in that great of a light at the beginning of the anime. And I adore her so much more in every way than Marin, who was practically written for the sole purpose of being adored by the audience immediately upon her introduction. That's because my enjoyment of Taiga was EARNED through her excellent growth as a person in addition to her evolving relationships throughout the show. I didn't really have an idea what a Tsundere was before watching Toradora, yet it became one of my favorite character tropes primarily thanks to Taiga.

Meanwhile, Marin just doesn't have anything like this. She's a fun girl, sure. And she doesn't necessarily need to be more flawed, I just wish she was given more to work with. ANYTHING to work with.

I'll quickly go over some technical aspects. You can tell that the majority of the animation budget went into Marin's body (the animators are most definitely men/women of culture) but CloverWorks still did a decent job overall, especially with the usage of some different animation styles and the sheer expressiveness of the cast. I'll probably get some flack for this, but while I found Marin's voice actress to be good, the voice itself just didn't fit with the character for me. Also, several insert tracks stood out to me for the wrong reasons due to not personally being a fan of the compositions, such as the one that plays sometimes when Marin is being "silly".

Well, My Dress Up Darling really isn't for me. It's mildly entertaining and I did smile here and there, but I wanted a lot more out of it. If you like Marin's character and just enjoy more relaxing anime in general, than you'll definitely like this more than me. That's all I got. I'll see you later for the next installment of Waifu Wars!

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Mar 26, 2022

Space_Boyfriend

Not Recommended

I cannot emphasize this enough, but My Dress-Up Darling is an ECCHI rom-com. Forget the synopsis about the interesting life of a cosplayer and doll-maker respectively, this is a terrible high school slice of life with some of the worst ecchi sequences I have ever seen. I would like to preface at the beginning of this review that My Dress-Up Darling has become one of my most hated anime. Admittedly, that doesn’t excuse me from just trashing the show entirely, so I will still try to be as objective as I can, since this review is meant for potential viewers.

I’ve seen many shows and movies ... that focus on high-schoolers. This time, the series mainly focuses on the relationship of a tailor and a cosplayer with the shy introverted boy Gojou Wakana and manic pixie dream girl Marin Kitagawa as our leads. Wakana is a quiet kid without many friends. He is reserved and afraid of expressing himself or discussing his hobbies due to a ‘trauma’ he experienced. That ‘trauma’ was when a little girl Wakana met as a kid said something like “Ewww, your dolls are ugly” and ran away. This 1-minute backstory is supposedly the only explanation for Wakana’s social awkwardness and is never touched upon in the rest of the TV series. Marin on the other hand is a quirky girl who somehow went flying head first into Wakana’s desk; this leads to the contrived beginning of two kids who ‘happen’ to learn about each other’s unique hobbies and each other.

You’d think that based on the synopsis of the story, there would eventually be a shift in primary focus from cosplaying to romance-drama, but you would only be half-correct. Occasionally, there are detailed explanations for the requisites of certain cosplay in order for someone to create and dress up in their attire; these moments actually illustrate what exactly it takes to become a cosplayer, as the show had advertised in its PV. Undeniably, when the series decides to offer insight on Wakana’s character, his struggles, and his dreams, it is able to do so very well. Marin, when she’s bearable, can act as a strong supporting character by establishing a fairly interesting contrast between her vibrant personality and Wakana’s insecurity and awkwardness by offering herself as a confident and quirky friend and eventual love interest. Even at its peak, the romance will be very cheesy, but at the very least, it’s a passable experience at that very scene.

“Wow, that sounds like a good show compared to the show you just said in the beginning! How are they the same?”

Unfortunately, the aforementioned show is only something I wish Dress-Up Darling stays true to. Not only are all the aforementioned good aspects kept to a minimum, a lot of its potential is wasted since the writer had ‘different’ ideas on their agenda. I’m going to start with the ecchi, probably the most controversial aspect of the series.

If you’ve never seen a clip of Dress-Up Darling, just know that the number of explicit and uncomfortable shots of Marin, an underage high-schooler, are lengthy and many. Marin is a high-schooler who has kinks such as ‘wanting to be a sex slave like her favorite anime character’ and legitimately strips down in front of a guy she just met since he knows how to use a loom. Particularly in episode 2, a lot of these explicit shots of Marin are also sexual innuendos that are meant to be funny and relatable as Wakana blushes uncontrollably, afraid he’s going to do something wrong. This kind of situation would never believably happen because there’s no girl in existence that acts exactly like Marin does around a guy she just met.

If anyone thought that was bad, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Sometime in the middle of the series, we are introduced to Inui Sajuna, a loli tsundere character who also happens to be interested in cosplaying. I wish that when the audience met Sajuna, it was going to be a normal meet-and-greet where Marin and Sajuna had a fun conversation about how passionate they were about cosplaying and how Wakana could help both of them out together. Instead, we are delivered one of the most god awful scenes in the show in which Wakana opens the bathroom door and sees a slipping Sajuna fall onto the bathroom floor and reveal…everything. This sequence leads Sajuna to threaten Wakana with blackmail for sexual harassment which eventually becomes ‘consensual blackmail’ when Marin enters the picture, because everyone is friends now! Whoopee, how convenient and forced can you get?! Sajuna’s secondary purpose in this series is as a cosplayer with some of her own unique dreams and experiences, but her main purpose is to act as a second love interest for Wakana while wearing kinky outfits for the audience to see. She’s arguably the worst character in the series and one I hated seeing on-screen. The less screen-time she had, the better off the series was.

I know that nitpicking details and cherry picking aspects of any piece of media rather than analyzing everything as a whole is generally looked down upon, but someone needs to warn potential viewers that these awful fanservice portions exist because the jarring shift in scene transitions and tone are just overwhelmingly appalling, even by ecchi standards. The main problem I am highlighting here is that all of these concerning scenes are supposed to be ‘hot’ and ‘funny’. Regardless of context, these types of scenarios utterly fail to provide the appropriate atmosphere for actual cosplayers and instead offer a tarnation hentai plot for a target audience that isn’t likely to give many damns about cosplaying. If anyone thought this portrayal of cosplayers was horrendous as is, the list goes on. There’s an entire episode in which skin darkening, a very racist and unnecessary behavior in the show, is present and even an episode where Marin and Wakana go into a love hotel and lay on top of each other for ‘cosplaying’. It’s so contrived and so frustrating to see because the ecchi is not appealing at all to an adult who doesn’t want to see high schoolers in their birthday suits.

I know there is an argument that:

‘Because the show is from the perspective of Wakana, that means his sexual inexperience near girls can appear as what is seen in the show, specifically towards Marin.’

Supposedly, this can be compared to Bakemonogatari which is self-aware of its fanservice hijinks. However, to that argument, I would like to point out that this makes no sense in multiple occasions where a camera shows physically everything about Marin, from head to toe, not in Wakana’s first-person perspective. For example, in the skin darkening episode, the camera is completely in the third-person perspective in which Wakana cannot see, since Marin is in a locked bathroom. In other words, this argument is very inconsistent and in my opinion, not valid. I swear it’s as if every single of these inane situations are an extremely bad excuse for a hentai plot without sex rather than being a character study of cosplayers.

On a semi-related point of the writer’s agenda, allow me to discuss Wakana, Marin, and their relationship to one another. There is a fundamental flaw in the creation of these characters. When Wakana or Marin are alone, actually focusing on their passions, their personalities shine. We see the depth of their personas as they express fears of not being good enough and how to showcase their love for their craft and hobbies. However, in an ironic twist of author’s intent, the reason both of these characters are irredeemable is because of the other. It’s because of the romance.

Wakana’s personality can devolve from ‘nice thoughtful guy’ to ‘horny teenager’ in a matter of seconds because Marin does something abnormal and hypersexualized. It gets to the point where Wakana can become the aforementioned first person POV for the audience members as they see Marin do whatever the hell she’s doing. It’s not even that this happens for the whole episode; it’s just that this kind of ‘slice-of-life romance’ happens long enough to the point it becomes unbearable every time. On the other hand, we have Marin, in my opinion, the second worst character in the series. I really cannot fathom why people like her for anything except her character design. She is possibly the most idealized waifu animated in 2022. Always ‘attractive’, always optimistic, always thinking of her crush Wakana, always working hard, always so lovable regardless of whatever she does. If speaking objectively, her flaw is that she is quite literally a stalker who found Wakana’s address and trespassed into his home uninvited, even visiting his house at night once when Wakana didn’t respond to her texts. But Dress-Up Darling doesn’t seem to think of that as a problem, because it romanticizes stalking as well as everything about Marin. When Marin is all uWu over Wakana, the writer has no holds barred as they make her pander to everything a lover could want: sexual teasing, sweet-talking, objectification, anything and everything! At this point, you may call me Captain_Obvious, but Marin is NOT a realistic nor believable person, but a caricature of a ‘real woman’.

I want to note that Dress-Up Darling is also supposedly a seinen, which means that the target audience is supposed to be young adult males. I want to ask the writer: Why? Can we please have the characters be adults so we don’t have to look at HS kids this way? Even if these characters were young adults, it would still be just as bad because of the fact that Marin is a stalker, that there are numerous contrived scenarios involving nudity, and even blackmail portrayed in a ‘good’ or ‘funny’ part of the show. It’s a fact that none of these awful parts of the show had to happen if the writer didn’t want to cater to a male’s ideal wet dream. I’m not even going to lie, I have seen MORE wholesome and enjoyable H series than Dress-Up Darling. It’s probably one of the biggest disappointments I’ve seen in my life. I hadn’t even hoped that Dress-Up Darling was going to be good until I saw the show peak in episode 4 and 5. But after it peaked, the bar kept dropping one episode after another, until the anime had reached the depths of despair, because Dress-Up Darling doesn’t care about quality. It just cares about its shitty ecchi.

I’m not going to deny that the technical qualities of this show are on-par for some of the best of the season. Admittedly, there are occasional still frames. However, if a potential viewer is able to bear with the story, the detailed character designs and overall fluid animation are able to enhance certain elements of the story, character, and as most likely intended by the director, the ecchi. As much as I genuinely hate CloverWorks and most of their works, I reluctantly have to admit this is visually one of their best works. As for sound, the voice acting is certainly serviceable but nothing impressive. The OST is fairly forgettable and not worth mentioning in my opinion.

I’m sure there is a lot more to talk about, but I really cannot force myself to analyze more of this piece of shlock that I wish no one the burden of watching through. I’m sorry to fans or anyone else I offended, but for potential viewers, this is not your anime of the season, nor an anime you should watch unless you unconditionally love ecchi rom-coms. My Dress-Up Darling does have some decent moments every once in a while but searching for those scenes are like finding a needle in a haystack. If you want genuinely good, funny ecchi, go watch Ishuzoku Reviewers or Imouto Sae Ireba Ii. At least those characters are definitively adults.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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