This new season of anime is giving us very interesting premieres, many of which can be seen in simulcast shortly after the original broadcast. One of the most curious novelties has been ‘My Dress-Up Darling’ (‘Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru’), a romantic comedy that is already a best seller in Japan and is eating up heavyweights like ‘Attack the titans‘ (‘Shingeki no Kyojin‘).
Tradition, cosplay and teen romance
‘My Dress-Up Darling’ is a “slice of life” anime with some good touches of romantic comedy that revolves around the good chemistry of its protagonists.
Wakana Gojo is a very introverted high school student, with no friends or other hobbies than making traditional dolls for Hinamatsuri, although his life changes completely when Marin Kitagawa, a popular and explosive girl, discovers that she knows how to sew and convinces him to help her cosplay her favorite characters. Marin is the complete opposite of him and little by little she takes him out of her comfort zone, with which Wakana enters fully into the world of cosplayers while the relationship between the two becomes closer and closer.
East romantic anime explore the world of cosplayers and also that of sewing with great care, explaining all the intense and laborious work that is to prepare these costumes and accessories beyond simply dressing up as a character that we like.
One of the strengths of the anime series is precisely this, how it explores this world and how important every little detail is when making cosplays. Choosing the right fabric, styling the wig, or even deciding on the right angle for photos are extremely important and ‘My Dress-Up Darling’ It shows us the keys to making a brilliant cosplay from the point of view of some very eager newbies.
In addition, and as we said above, the key to this anime is the chemistry between its characters, with the right tension between them. Wakana and Marin are polar opposites and follow the tradition and tone of other romantic comedies like ‘Lovely Complex’ or ‘Toradora!’, so if you liked these animes, ‘My Dress-Up Darling’ might be a good bet.
Success on the back of fanservice
Mind you, although ‘My Dress-Up Darling’ is a fun and charming anime with a very light-hearted tone overall… unfortunately, a lot is spent with the fanservice. It is true that on many occasions the situations are designed like this to make Wakana nervous and bring out how shy and inexperienced she is in life, but there are times when the shots sexualize the female characters (especially Marin). they become very uncomfortable, especially considering that all these characters are minors.
The series makes up for it with the punches of humor and the fact that Marin has a contagious personality and cheerfulness, but ## the number of times she appears sexualized and the animation dwells on it is a bit tiresome. Because the animation is quite well taken care of, especially considering that it is a television series, but it is very noticeable that the key moments are precisely those of “eyecandy”.
It is very possible that precisely for this reason it is becoming one of the revelation anime of the season, and even ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’ came to eat in popularity in Anime Trending web polls. This did not sit very well with fans of Eren Jaeger and company, who cursed the romantic anime by calling it “trash for simps”.
This success has not remained only in the anime, and it is that **Shin’ichi Fukuda’s manga on which the series is based is already sweeping Japan and volumes are constantly being reprinted. For now the manga only has 8 volumes, but as a result of the animation series it has become one of the best sellers in the country.
It is also likely that the print runs of each volume were originally very small compared to other more popular series, so thanks to the anime the publisher has found a demand that it had not seen coming nowhere.
In any case, it looks like we’re going to have a ‘My Dress-Up Doll’ story for a while. CloverWorks is in charge of this first season of 12 episodes, which can already be seen on Crunchyroll in simulcast, and with the bombshell that it has caused, it is very possible that the announcement of a second season will not take long to wait.