Feb 12, 2022
"This manga is totes adorbs" - Marin, probably.
This might as well be called "Manic Pixie Dream Girl: The Manga", because this is what it essentially boils down to. A quiet unpopular guy with an unusual, somewhat feminine and old fashioned hobby is discovered by popular, attractive and permanently cheerful girl who helps him accept himself. He already had a crush on her, while she falls in love with him pretty early on in the manga.
Saying that, there is no way you can avoid ALL tropes. What then to do? There are 2 approaches to this which work best IMO. Either try to give the
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tropes a unique spin, or fully embrace them and why they are so popular in the first place. This manga firmly falls into the later category. This works mainly because of one reason: Marin.
She is every otakus wet dream. Hot, a model, popular, supporting, cheerful, confident, likes otaku stuff be it lewd or wholesome, including, of course, cosplay. She isn't really a deep character, but that can work to her advantage. Her charm is apparent from the get go. A simple and charming character for a simple and charming story. Seeing her be so happy about things she really cares about, by the way disregarding the opinions of others, is really satisfying. A thing worth noting is her way of speaking. She speaks very "internet" or the way a stereotypical teenager would text, with lots of abbreviations. Think of lol, XD, adorbs, etc. Might just be the translation which I read, but she does sometimes says things I find a bit cringy. But given the description above I'm surprised I don't hate it more, maybe because I know this isn't real life. I cringed IRL when a friend of mine said XD out loud several years ago. It's actually kinda endearing in the manga. It adds to her character.
She is also the main source of fan service. Honestly, there was less than I expected. As a person who doesn't really like that kind of stuff in his manga, I rarely felt it get gratuitous. Not really sure, but it felt like there was less of it as the story progressed. Maybe you could think the cosplays themselves are fan service, but I never regarded them that way. They were tastefully done IMO.
Next we have the other half of our future couple-to-be: Gojo. He is definitely the weaker character of the two, which might seem weird since he appears to have more going for him and gets more character development as the story goes on. But as I said, simplicity can be a virtue. The messages conveyed via Gojo often feel heavy handed and quickly strewn together, making them lack emotional punch. A problem related to this is his reliance on the supporting characters to help him learn his lesson, which aren't the most interesting themselves (I'm mostly talking about the rest of their class, the other cosplayers are much more interesting.). Lastly, Gojo brings with himself some of my least favorite manga and anime tropes, namely overreactions. I too would be shocked about some of the situations Gojo found himself in, but to scream out loudly even if you are in public is uncalled for. Granted, he usually gains his composure fairly quickly. This is accentuated by Marin not doing the same in similar situations.
The romance progression is next to non-existent. He always had a crush, while she falls for him after he calls her pretty once. To be fair, it is explained that Gojo only says "pretty" if he TRUELY means it, making it a special moment. But she goes from 0 to 100 in an instant after that, which is normal for romance manga, but still unrealistic, given that she expressed no prior attraction. Still cute tho. After that there is really no moment which gave me a feeling of progression.
Also worth mentioning that this is the type of manga that likes to go in depth about it's main topic, here cosplaying. This can range from interesting to pretty boring and obvious. Changing the angle of a photo gives it a different feel, who knew? But, as far as I'm concerned, this is one of the better ones.
All in all, if you don't really expect much in terms of progression, get satisfaction out of watching other people be happy and find the character of Marin appealing, you have my full recommendation.
Reviewer’s Rating: 8
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