In the space of just a few weeks, My Dress-Up Darling's Marin Kitagawa
has rapidly risen from relative obscurity to prominence
as one of the premier waifus, not just of the winter season,
not just of 2022, but of all anime across all time.
A best girl to end all best girls widely considered worthy
of sitting in the pantheon alongside the likes of Rem,
Lum, Asuka, Holo, and Mai Sakurajima.
And as I said in the winter Ones to Watch, it's not hard to see why.
She's one of the prettiest, most popularest girls in her entire school.
And not just popular because she's pretty.
Marins also outgoing, friendly and kind to all her classmates,
including that one quiet kid in the corner no one talks to.
Most importantly, she is deeply passionate about her interests,
which is obviously something any otaku can relate to,
and those interests just happen to be erotic video games and cosplaying
as her favorite characters from erotic video games,
which is something that's obviously relevant to every straight
male otaku's interests, also a certain subset of Lady Otaku.
Especially since animation director Kazumasa Ishida has clearly directed
his team at Clover Works to animate every frame of her wearing
and getting measurements done for that cosplay with the same specificity
and fluidity that most anime apply to big fights and explosions.
Now, instead of showing you any of that, I have chosen to highlight her
equally detailed and appealing facial animations in this video
because YouTube just age restricted the shit out of my Arifureta roast
and I got that cult copyright strike to deal with on top of that.
But you know what I'm talking about.
And if you somehow haven't been on Reddit or Twitter or anywhere they share anime
clips in the last few weeks and actually don't let's just say that
the biggest challenge for hentai artists trying to cash in on Marin's
popularity is going to be outdoing the official animators.
Dem bones, Dem bones, Dem Vagina Bones.
As an openly avid scholar of the art of anime tiddy,
it should surprise no one that this character and the show she's
from have both become instant favorites of mine.
But my love for them actually runs a lot deeper than you might expect, in part
because I also see a lot of Yazy, the real life cosplayer
I really love in real life,
in Marin's character, and I see a lot of the specific struggles
she's gone through as a cosplayer and a lot of emotional truth
as to what relationships are like in the specifics of the show's story,
which somehow manages to be even stronger than its already impressive "plot."
No, seriously, even if you're someone who normally avoids
ecchi, don't discount this anime despite how the whole premise of a hot
gyaru cosplayer enlisting the help of a shy doll making boy who happens to know
how to sew seems like nothing more than a flimsy excuse for fanservice.
And despite the exemplary artistry behind all that fan service,
there is a rare depth and subtlety to how both of Dress-Up Darlings
romantic leads are written, which lends an even rarer
feeling of authenticity to their romantic chemistry.
Also, the sheer amount of research that manga author Shinichi
Fukuda has clearly done into the ins and outs of both cosplay
and what kind of Gojo's passion of hina dollmaking is just staggering.
Before he even began writing the manga, Fukuda spent extensive time
interviewing and shadowing Suzuki Doll's Keisho Suzuki to see
exactly what his workshop looks like and how it runs.
And Suzuki has in turn turned around and said that he feels this
manga, quote, beautifully depicts his craft,
which may be even higher praise than it sounds at first,
if Gojo's particular relationship with the word beautiful
was also modeled after Suzuki's personality.
Now I can't find the name of whatever cosplayer
Marin was based on, but it is clear that one was interviewed
because I have been on shopping trips for cosplay supplies
before, not as the person in the partnership with sewing skills.
To be clear, that's all Yazy, and I've had these exact conversations
about hunting for fabric that matches both the look and feel of whatever
an artist unconstrained by real materials and physics has drawn out.
Picking wigs that aren't 100% color accurate to the original art,
but rather tinted to better capture the feel of the character.
About the unique challenges of building the perfect blue bag.
I've also borne firsthand witness to the nigh superhuman, sleepless scramble
that sometimes happens to finish weeks of work
in a single night for an upcoming cosplay event deadline.
I know all too well that immensely satisfying feeling of
finding the one wall in your bedroom that kind of works as a photo backdrop,
and I can attest that every time I've accompanied Yazy to a cosplay event,
my whole job has been to stand off to the side, holding
all of the things that don't fit in the zero pockets on your typical costume
while she takes photos.
And also making sure she doesn't die of heatstroke.
Like any artform, there are many hardships and complicated technical
considerations that go into crafting and performing cosplay
which end up being totally invisible to most people in its target audience.
And thus far, My Dress-Up Darling has nailed every single
one of those details, even as it uses them as flimsy excuses
to let its camera linger on certain impressively rendered details
in its art and animation, such as that wall of fabric.
That's all I'm talking about here. YouTube.
I'm just admiring the background art and the detailing on the costumes.
Just stop jiggling for a second, Marin, and you are not helping my case.
The show also uses
that exhaustive research as a foundation for much of its storytelling.
The first big conflict of the series, Gojo rushing to finish his first costume
because Marin has no realistic idea of how long that actually takes,
is born directly from the gap between what your typical cosplay
fan thinks and what every experienced cosplayer knows.
And on top of that, the minutia of both Gojo and Marin's respective crafts
is frequently used to symbolically
enhance our understanding of their characters.
Some of it's pretty obvious,
Marin is the sort of person who wears her passions on her sleeve.
And what is cosplay if not wearing your passion on your sleeve?
But she's also the sort of person
who takes a deep interest in people and characters she cares about.
She loves to learn what makes them tick, which is reflected in her natural talent
for capturing the mannerisms of her favorite characters
through her poses and expressions.
And on the flip side of that, as someone who rarely sweats the small stuff,
it makes perfect sense that sewing just doesn't come that easy to her.
Gojo, on the other hand, isn't good with people at all.
As the story begins, he has literally no friends and spends
every weekend with his head buried in doll making.
And as much as that's driven by his passion
for the craft itself, escaping into his work
is also something that clearly helps him deal with his severe social anxiety
and this fixation on objects at the expense of real social interaction
manifests itself in his specific dollmaking skill set.
Gojo is great at sewing
those little costumes, but he can never quite get the faces right
which only makes sense for someone who never looks anyone else in the eye.
Each of these characters has something the other needs on
both a practical level and an emotional one.
That dynamic is the core of every great fictional couple.
And the way My Dress-Up Darling is written, iIt arises naturally
from the very same things
that make these characters interesting and likable as individuals.
This is extremely efficient romance writing.
Their quirks as characters
also allow them to connect in some delightful and surprising ways.
Marin, being a popular girl is used to hanging out
with other extroverts, which definitely has its perks,
but also means that all of them have their own things going on all the time.
And very little interest in her weird porn games.
Gojo, though, is the sort of person who spends more time with art
than with people.
And thus, not only is he a lot more willing to give her hobby
a chance, he's also able to appreciate the little things about it
on a much deeper level than most of her more sociable classmates would.
He sees what she sees the real nuance and depth
that makes Slippery Girls 2 such a fine work of literature.
His investigation into the game and their ensuing conversations about it
pulls some very amusing reactions from the adults around these two.
Whether they're hunkered down, taking notes in their rooms, or happily
chatting away about very serious sex crimes
on a busy public street, these are good jokes.
I like all the jokes in this show.
Quality comedy all around right here.
But also that whole chain of interactions allows Marin to voice
a very specific emotional truth that pretty much any otaku can relate to.
Even if we rarely talk about it.
The anime and games we like aren't just things we like.
When you're truly passionate about a hobby, it becomes part of who you are.
So when your friends or family refuse to take interest in your interests,
it can feel like they're rejecting that part of you out of hand.
And conversely, when someone eagerly takes you up on a recommendation
that can be a powerful and affirming experience.
Is an addiction to that feeling the whole reason I do this?
No comment.
Of course, My Dress-Up Darling is far from the first otaku involved love story
to explore these sorts of feelings, but it succeeds
only rare to see the female lead be the one to voice them,
which speaks to what I think makes Marin such an irresistibly appealing character.
Even once the initial appeal of, you know, all the other stuff wears off.
The show doesn't simply rely on our attraction to her to make us like her.
It strives to make Marin a fully fleshed out
protagonist in her own right, who we can both relate to and cheer on
as she pursues her own dreams of cosplay excellence
just as much as we do for Gojo in his efforts to improve his craft
and overcome the social stigma of a guy caring about making dolls.
It's all very reminiscent of how Smile Down the Runway handles
both of its romantically entangled deuteragonists.
So if you haven't seen that show already and you can't get enough
of My Dress-Up Darling, you know what to do.
What it surprisingly doesn't remind me of at all
are all the other romance anime about nerdy, unsociable dudes being dragged
kicking and screaming out of their shells by bald, beautiful, confident ladies.
And Uzaki-Chan.
A big part of that is, of course, the fact that all of the geek interests
that you typically see in the male leads of such dweeb rehabilitation
rom coms have been given to Marin instead, whereas Gojo's close knit attachment
to his family and passion for traditional, specifically girly Japanese art forms
puts some distance between him and your typical otaku reader or viewer.
Dress-Up Darling is clearly aiming for far more than just basic wish fulfillment.
But more importantly, Marin isn't framed as some flawless
force of unambiguous good in Gojo's life who always knows
what's best for him and can break through his defenses with surprising ease.
Which, yes, even describes Nagatoro,
at least after she learns Senpai's limits in the first episode.
If you think the show is presenting her in a seriously negative
light at any point, you're just not into the right stuff.
Everything Nagatoro does either gives Senpai
some kind of jollies or helps him grow, and that's not bad.
It's cute and fun, but it's hard to build a truly
great love story purely out of cute and fun.
As I mentioned earlier, the first major conflict in My Dress-Up Darling,
which actually forces Gojo to retreat further into his shell
as his schedule is overwhelmed, arises from Marin making the mistakes
of both severely underestimating what it takes to put a costume together
and not clearly communicating what she actually needs from Gojo to him.
Of course, he shares some of the blame as well.
He could have told her at any time that he was feeling overwhelmed
by the two week deadline and they would have been able to work something else out.
But he knows how excited she is for this event,
and the last thing that he wants to do is let down his first ever friend.
So it's perfectly understandable why he doesn't.
At the end of the day, no one's really at fault for the problem.
It simply arises from areas where the both of them need to grow.
And the phrase both of them need to grow is not one
I often find myself using when discussing this sort of show.
Few anime romcoms in any subgenre do this good a job of balancing
the depth of both of their leads and the ones that do like Horimiya
and Fruits Basket tends to be counted among the greatest of all time.
Am I saying that My Dress-Up Darling
deserves a place within that vaunted pantheon as well?
Quite possibly, yes.
I haven't read ahead in the manga yet, so it's too early to say for sure.
But I can say for sure that the climax of that first conflict
where the pressure of expectations
and obligations and a million little niggling self-doubts
pushes Gojo to the brink of total burnout only for him to push past it
and do what seemed impossible in a single night
that spoke to something deep and primal within my artist's soul.
I'm not embarrassed to admit it straight up made me cry.
And so did Marin's elated reaction to the product of all that
grueling labor for completely different reasons.
So many of the emotional beats in this show just hit
way harder than I ever expected them to.
And those moments frequently come right off the back of
some of the most impeccably crafted, ecchi scenes
I've ever laid thirsty, cartoon wolf telescope eyes on.
Somehow without either side of the production blunting the other's impact.
Wholesome and horny in perfect balance.
The very, very, not platonic anime romance ideal.
That is why the anime community has fallen in love with My Dress-Up Darling.
I'm Geoff Thew, Professional Cosplay Caddy signing out from the benches near
that one really nice flower box around back at the convention center.
You know the one.