Posted on January 30, 2022January 30, 2022 in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 4 – “Are These Your Girlfriend’s?”

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

“It’s because you want to make someone happy that you can keep going, even when it’s hard.”

Gojo has a problem. Well, it’s more like he has several problems. Near the start of “Are These Your Girlfriend’s?”, My Dress-Up Darling‘s fourth episode, Gojo’s grandfather takes a nasty fall. It’s not bad enough that he needs to spend weeks recovering in the hospital, but his adult children temporarily take him in to care for him while he heals up. This puts Gojo, already short on time to finish Marin’s costume, in a bind. Oh, and midterms are coming up. Someone visiting from France wants to visit his and his grandfather’s doll shop on super short notice. It’s all just quite a lot.

This is probably the most relatable Gojo has ever been, at least to me. Yeah buddy, I let stresses pile up on top of each other until I feel like I’m physically going to sink into the floor, too. I feel you.

These things stack on top of each other until Gojo is little more than a ball of anxiety. He works himself to the bone on all of this; the outfit, taking care of his grandfather, the exams, etc. Frankly he overworks himself, to the point where I wondered if Dress-Up Darling‘s sharp turn into the dramatic signaled some sort of permanent tonal shift for the anime.

It doesn’t, which is perhaps for the best. Gojo is able to pull through by remembering some words of wisdom his grandfather once offered about why he’s able to paint Hina Dolls every day. By the episode’s final act, Marin’s outfit is done.

The real irony is that he needn’t have rushed. The entire “deadline” has stemmed from a misunderstanding; Marin simply mentioned a cosplay event that was happening, not one she intended to participate in. But, despite the fact that the two swap phone numbers in this episode, Gojo never thinks to ask for clarity. He works himself ragged for, basically, no reason!

That might sound like a criticism of the episode, but it isn’t. It’s very easy to get wrapped up in things you think you have to do in this manner, especially for a teenager whose brain is probably boiling over with feelings he doesn’t fully understand at this point. So yes, when he collapses on his floor crying that he’s a failure because he can’t seem to get all this shit done on time? That’s the dash of realism something like My Dress-Up Darling needs to feel like it has real emotional stakes. The poor guy is pitiable, here. He’s arguably acting pretty stupidly, too, but he never feels like he’s doing something incomprehensible. It makes a perfect, sad sort of sense.

All of this, to Gojo, becomes worth it. Because in spite of the misunderstanding, Marin is genuinely very happy to have the outfit finished, and her happiness informs his. And hey, for what it’s worth, she does look pretty good in it.

^{-Listens to The Cure Once- Two weeks later:}

This is probably the most genuine connection they’ve yet had in the series, and I think this is the first time I’ve really bought them as having romantic chemistry as opposed to a simple friendship based on some shared interests. She’s angry at herself for the misunderstanding, a little mad at him for overworking himself so hard, but also truly, genuinely happy that she has this wonderful gift that Gojo’s made for her, now. There’s a real potpourri of emotion going on in just this single sequence and it’s to both the original mangaka’s credit (Shinichi Fukuda) and to Hina Sukuda’s performance that it all comes across so well.

All this is also the first time that My Dress-Up Darling‘s slowball pace has entirely made sense. Giving this whole episode its own…well, episode, makes it feel complete in a way it probably wouldn’t if it were splitting time with, say, another 15 minutes full of Marin in a bikini.

In the end, the payoff is Marin dressed in her Shizuku outfit and the two of them–a near-ecstatic Marin and a deeply exhausted but still enthused Gojo–geeking out about how great she looks. That’s a fun end to what is certainly Dress-Up Darling‘s most involved, and frankly, best episode so far. I would like the series to eventually dive into the roots of Gojo’s workaholic and perfectionist tendencies. Whether or not it ever will is another question, but there’s only one way to find out.

Until next week, anime fans.

Bonus Nowa Screencap:

Egregious Horny Score: This one’s a solid 1/5. It’s not like there’s no fanservice here, but it’s pretty tame compared to other episodes and it’s entirely restricted to the last couple minutes when the big emotional beats are firmly over.

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Posted on January 22, 2022January 22, 2022 in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 3 – Then Why Don’t We?

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

Key to understanding My Dress-Up Darling is that Gojo and Marin, our leads, are both incredibly awkward people. “Then Why Don’t We?” opens with Gojo having a, shall we say, rather involved dream starring his new bestie. Understandably he feels nervous and even a bit guilty about it. Less understandably, he tries to avoid Marin for most of the day because of it.

Dress-Up Darling has this issue wherein the leads’ awkwardness, especially Gojo’s, can be either endearing or incredibly annoying, and the line between the two is dental floss-thin. This entire segment is thankfully pretty brief, but for the first third or so of the episode, which it takes up, I wanted to strangle Gojo. I don’t believe in any silly gender essentialist nonsense like the man “having a responsibility” to confess or whatever, but he makes someone he already considers a friend feel pretty bad because of his own insecurity, and that just sucks.

On the plus side, hey, the girl with the two-tone hair puts in another appearance! She introduces herself as Nowa (Larissa Tago Takeda, who has a string of support roles like this under her belt and is also an illustrator, among other things.) and she and Marin’s other gal friends do little to help the situation.

^{She also refers to lollipops as “suckers,” but that’s fine. Character flaws are important.}

Things are better elsewhere in the episode, and the whole misunderstanding (if you can even call it that) resolves itself pretty quickly.

Much of “Then Why Don’t We?” is shopping montage, which sounds dull on paper but is spiced up here by Gojo and Marin’s common ground; their love of fashion. It can be easy to forget from moment to moment that Gojo is a near-prodigal designer, and Marin is duly impressed by the incredibly elaborate design drawing he’s made for her cosplay outfit. (The fact that the subtitlers went through the trouble of actually translating his notes deserves praise here. They clearly care a lot about the series.)

The two hit up a fabric shop and a wig store, and Gojo’s eye for detail helps bring the outfit to life, much to Marin’s delight. The joy is infectious, and My Dress-Up Darling remains at its best when it’s geeking out over cosplay minutiae.

^{This is the face of a woman about to drop $200 on a wig.}

They also make their way to a lingerie store, which results in predictable Gojo awkwardness. Less predictable is how they discuss the H-game character this outfit they’re making is based on. No one around them, of course, has the context for understanding the conversation, so people…get the wrong idea. It’s pretty amusing.

Later, Marin geeks out even more about cosplay stuff; flipping through her phone and showing off photos of cosplayers she likes. She gives us this bit of truth and wisdom.

^{Do not ever forget that Marin is a bi icon.}

Other than a brief flashback where Gojo explains that he has difficulty calling these pics of cosplayers truly beautiful–his standard for such things is his dolls, of course–there isn’t much more to the episode. Gojo finds out he has two weeks to finish this outfit which sure doesn’t seem like a lot of time to me, but what would I know?

“Then Why Don’t We?” is a very low-key episode of an already pretty low-key show. The production remains compelling; Marin gets a lot of great expressions here, and the music is frankly so bouncy that it skips into a Hallmark-y light music register that doesn’t quite match the episode’s tone. (It’s fun, regardless.) All told, this is a decidedly minor beat in the story of My Dress-Up Darling.

Even that in mind, it’s a worthwhile one, mostly for the mutual geeking out that Marin and Gojo get, which remains their strongest point of chemistry. I will say though, hopefully we actually get to see Marin’s finished cosplay next week. In terms of pace, there’s a fine distinction between easygoing and languid.

And as a bonus, the Egregious Horny Score, back by inexplicable popular demand: 2/5

Until next week, anime fans.

Posted on January 16, 2022January 16, 2022 in anime, Weekly Writing Roundups

The Frontline Report [1/16/22]

The Frontline Report is a weekly column where I summarize my journey through anime, manga, and the related spheres of popular culture over the past week. Expect spoilers for covered material.

Hello guys, gals, and nonbinary pals! I hope you’re all doing well out there. Premiere Season is basically over here at MPA, so I hope you’re enjoying my settling into a more relaxed seasonal groove.

I wanted to make a personal plea here before moving on to the (relatively short) FR writeup proper for this past week. Between the last Frontline Report and now, I have started HRT treatment, which, if you’re not familiar, is a crucial step of the transitioning process for most trans women. Why mention this on my anime blog? Two reasons; for one, I am hoping this treatment will lead to me being happier and healthier (I feel better about myself in general already, but that could be the placebo effect this early on.) For two, the more practical side of this is that I now have a medical bill–the cost of the HRT treatment–to pay every few months. It’s not a ton of money, averaging out to about $60 after the local clinic’s discount for low-income people, but it’s an added financial pressure.

On top of this, I’m hoping to get some other long-standing medical problems treated this calendar year (among them; I need new glasses and need a bad case of hearing loss in my right ear treated.) All of this to say that if you read my blog and can afford even occasional small donations, please please please consider donating to my Ko-Fi or becoming a Patreon patron. (I don’t currently offer any Patron bonuses because I frankly just don’t have enough of a subscription base. If I start to get more subscriptions over there, I will give it some thought.) I also offer review commissions; you can see my policies for review purchases, complete with a pricing chart, here.

I don’t really like to beat the “give me money” drum too hard. The primary reason I write anime criticism is because I enjoy it and find it personally important. But the monetary side of things really is what allows me to continue doing this, so thank you for bearing with me in this regard.

In any case, onto this week’s anime! The actual writing roundup is pretty short here, but I hope you’ll find these entries worthwhile.

Seasonal Anime

Ranking of Kings

As Ousama Ranking enters its second half, war clouds begin to blot out the sky. Recent episodes have made it clear that Miranjo’s machinations intend to drive the entire Kingdom of Bosse into ruin, not merely displace Bojji. We’ve explored everything from the depths of Daida’s own mind in the Twilight Zone-esque episode 11 to a small rogues’ gallery of evildoers in the more recent two episodes, which have kicked off the series’ second cour.

In the most recent episode, with said rogues’ gallery besieging the castle Bojji once called home, Queen Hilde’s retainer Dorshe ends up getting a lot of love. He puts up a hell of a fight, though the episode’s sinister ending makes it ambiguous as to whether or not he’s actually successfully protected his charge.

Equally emphasized here is the sinister and downright bizarre Ouken, the so-called “Sword King,” an effective force of sadistic nature who we know vanishingly little about. Save that Bojji musn’t be allowed to confront him directly, for some reason or another.

Ousama Ranking remains, really, almost too good for its own good. I can think of little better to tell you to do than to watch the series if you aren’t already, and to catch up if you’re a bit behind. It remains a wonderful thing to watch.

Tokyo 24th Ward

If you squint, you can see what Tokyo 24th Ward is trying to do with its second episode. The intent is two-fold; to show how our main group of protagonists came together as the “hero” unit they once were (and how they got the nickname “RGB” in the first place), and more abstractly, to demonstrate how past trauma can intrude on the present. Both ends are served by the episode frequently cutting to flashbacks, often in ways that don’t make it instantly obvious that they even are flashbacks. To Tokyo 24th‘s credit, this does give the episode a slightly hallucinatory quality. In all other respects though, this mostly renders the episode confusing, and serves to disguise the fact that very little is actually happening.

What the episode does have in spades is talking. There is a lot of exposition here; about our characters’ pasts and relationships to each other, about the history of the 24th Ward itself, about why certain characters act the way they do, about the upcoming “Gourmet Festival” in the Ward that may or may not become a major plot point, etc. etc. etc.

This is a classic example of the “show, don’t tell” maxim not being followed, and while there are no hard and fast rules in the arts, this is certainly an example of “tell” being done pretty badly. Add to this the fact that the episode’s production is overall lackluster (what happened to the pop-in technique the show used so liberally last week? It’s totally gone here!) and you have a recipe for an episode that is in all respects disappointing. Even the subtitles seem asleep at the wheel, which is hardly the series’ own fault, but it definitely doesn’t help. Winding, ramble-y phrasings abound, and there are a few straight-up errors too. (Although all this does produce a few funny lines.)

Mari, speaking of that image, also gets a little bit of character development here. Which is nice, even if it is buried in a pretty bad episode overall.

My hope is that this is a rough patch for Tokyo 24th and not the start of a full-on freefall, but I suppose time alone will tell.

Elsewhere on MPA

I have been busy recently! Here are some highlights from the past little while.

Way too many First Impressions articles to reasonably list all of them here. – I didn’t cover quite as much as I did last season, but I still wrote about 7 different broadcast anime and also an ONA, which I think is a pretty good spread. (Plus My Dress-Up Darling, which I didn’t technically write a “First Impressions” article on because I knew I was going to pick it up for weekly coverage, but is included in the list because, you know, reasons.) Some of these I quite liked, some I was mixed on, one I outright hated! Give the list a look if you’re wondering what to pick up this season.

(Review) The Magic of Artiswitch – I watched this fascinating little web series basically on a whim and reviewed it for much the same reason. It ended up becoming the 300th anime in any format I’ve logged on my Anilist profile, which I must say, I couldn’t be happier about. I don’t like calling things “hidden gems,” but I think the term applies here. Give this one a look.

Let’s Watch CUE! Episode 2 – “Their Respective Colors” – First of all; yes, I did change how I format the titles for the Let’s Watch posts. Secondly; is it weird that CUE! might be my favorite thing airing right now? It’s not some grandiose production monster, but it has heart in a way I really like. Oddly, it reminds me of The Idolmaster. Maybe I only think that because of the huge cast? Regardless, it’s an entertaining show, and I already love rooting for Haruna, the protagonist, in her quest to become a great voice actress. I really want more people to pick this up. Consider making room for it in your schedule!

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 2 – “Wanna Hurry Up, and Do It?” – Woof, that episode title. Pop culture critics like myself have in recent years picked up a habit of calling anything that remotely deals with anything adjacent to sex or sexuality “horny,” using it as a loosely-defined but vaguely positive adjective. I’m hesitant to apply the label to things, so when I say Dress-Up Darling is pretty horny, please know I’m not exaggerating for clicks. That said; I thought this week’s episode was pretty fun even if I can absolutely imagine all the cheesecake (remember that term?) putting someone off. I do agree with the general consensus in hoping the show moves in a direction a bit more narratively-focused soon. I’m not expecting this to turn into Evangelion or anything, but trading in some of the, ahem, “plot” for more actual plot would be nice.

(In spite of all this; Dress-Up Darling is not the horniest anime airing this season. That would be the hormonal anxiety nightmare that is World’s End Harem. I watched the first episode of that and, frankly, had no idea what to make of it. You’ll have to turn elsewhere if you want someone to cover that series I’m afraid.)

And that’ll about do it for this week’s content on the site. I’ll be seeing you all again pretty soon, have a good week, anime fans 🙂

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Posted on January 15, 2022 in anime, Let's Watch

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING Episode 2 – “Wanna Hurry Up, and Do It?”

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

I’m revealing my age here, but humor me for a moment. Are you, dear readers, familiar with classic party rock track “Centerfold” by The J. Geils Band? (If not, Stereogum’s Tom Breihan, a critic I admire very much, wrote a pretty great article about it as part of his pretty great-in-general column The Number Ones. You can consider this a recommendation.)

That song is a boiling soup of emotion. The song’s narrator finds out his high school crush poses in an adult magazine now and he’s hit by some admixture of guilt and desire. “Centerfold” doesn’t sound guilty, though, it sounds celebratory, from its production to the nagging “nah-nah nah nah nah nahs” in the chorus. Any actual negative feelings in the song are washed away by its presentation. It all sounds like a good time, and because pop media’s presentation informs its message, it is a good time.

I bring this up because, in a very roundabout way, that’s also, in a very broad sense, sort of what I think of My Dress-Up Darling. The situation presented in its second episode, “Wanna Hurry Up, and Do It?”, would be, in a series that were even slightly more connected to the real world, appalling. Marin completes her strong-arming of Gojo into becoming her cosplay outfitter. Along the way, she both rambles at him about eroge games and eventually shows up at his house unannounced to make him take her measurements. (That’s what the episode title is referring to. What did you think it meant?) But the presentation sells it as a good time, at least in a comedy anime sort of way. Dress-Up Darling‘s second episode is almost all comedic, and it leans heavily into the series’ ecchi side. (If I’m giving every episode an Egregiously Horny Score out of 5, we can call this a solid 4.) Which isn’t to say it’s devoid of more substantial character moments, as there are a few, but let’s just say this is an episode where I had to be judicious about what to take a screencap of.

But let’s talk about our actual characters for a moment here, because it’s Marin who launches this whole sequence of events to begin with. One of the things that makes Marin seem like a real character as opposed to a cardboard cut-out is that she’s extremely assertive. Honestly a little too assertive, to the point of obliviousness, which is where a lot of the comedy here comes from. The episode opens immediately after the closing scene of last week’s, and it’s in the very same room where the two have basically just met that Marin goes into a bit more detail about this character she’s trying to cosplay. For one, her name is Shizuku-tan. She’s the gothic type.

^{At one point Marin refers to the chest area of Shizuka’s outfit as a “boob bag,” which gives}^{My Dress-Up Darling}^{the dubious honor of being the first anime I’ve ever seen use the term in-fiction.}

For two, she’s from an erotic dating sim. Called…this.

(The title is immediately drawn attention to, of course.)

Gojo takes all this in with a disbelief that is pretty common among those who have just had their head dunked into the far side of otakudom. (I’m actually kinda with him here, I’ve never really understood the appeal of eroge either. Not out of any moral objection, I just can’t fathom being horny while gaming. They are mutually exclusive activities in my mind.)

Marin also repeatedly calls the series “epic,” which I’d say is only a bad pick because someone her age nowadays would probably say it’s “based” instead.

There’s also a pretty funny style cut where Gojo brings up that stuff like this tends to be 18+ and Marin, we’ll say, selectively declines to hear him.

It sounds–and is–simple, but a huge part of what makes this come across as funny instead of just weird is Gojo’s reactions. Over the course of the episode, they slowly ramp up from “in vague disbelief as to what he’s hearing” to “looks like he’s just survived a war.” I will cop to finding his increasing distress amusing.

That second reaction doesn’t come until the latter half of the episode. While Gojo does agree to help Marin with her outfits, he reasonably proposes that they should wait to do measurements until Monday, since by the time this episode starts it’s already quite late on a Friday evening.

Naturally, Marin shows up unannounced at his house the next day while his grandfather happens to be off running an errand. (She notes that she googled his last name and “doll shop” to find the address. That’s honestly kind of creepy! But hey, comedy anime.)

^{Sidenote: the fit is insane.}

She barges in and shows herself around. This alone makes Gojo nervous, but it is absolutely nothing compared to the fact that–as Marin correctly points out–measurements are generally taken while the measure-ee is undressed. Of course, Marin is very cognizant of the fact that she can’t well strip down to her underwear in the house of a boy she only met a few days ago. That would be nuts!

A bikini though. That’s fine. Obviously.

^{There is going to be a whole section here where there are very few pictures of Marin and a whole lot of pictures of Gojo’s absolutely devastated facial expressions. You may thank / curse me for my modesty in the comments.}

Maybe I’m a simpleton for still finding stuff like this funny over a decade into being an anime fan. I think I actually appreciate naked stupidity like this a bit more than I did when I was actually in the target audience for this series. But can you blame me, here? Look at Gojo, guy’s about to die.

^{Na na na na na na.}

This particular visual dynamic–Marin doing something teasing and sexy and then Gojo reacting like he’s been stabbed in the gut–makes up most of the rest of the episode. It’ll wear thin if this is what the whole rest of the show is going to be like (I want the cosplay dates alluded to in the OP sequence, damn it!), but as a single episode thing? It’s pretty fun.

In spite of his own raging hormones, Gojo does successfully take Marin’s measurements. Marin herself even gets flustered at one point, in an amusing but also genuine and human moment. This episode was fine–if one has a high tolerance for H comedy, that is–but those moments of real connection between our two leads are where I think Dress-Up Darling is at its strongest. I hope we get more of them as the series rolls on.

But if not, hey, the sight of Gojo studying Slippery Girls 2 like he’s prepping for exams so he can get outfit references is pretty goddamn funny.

^{Godspeed, Gojo.}

Posted on January 8, 2022 in anime, Let's Watch, Seasonal Impression Roundups

Let’s Watch MY DRESS-UP DARLING: Episode 1

Let’s Watch is a weekly recap column where I follow an anime for the course of its entire runtime. Expect spoilers!

You wanted it, you got it. When I put out the word for my first-ever community survey to help me pick a series to cover this season, My Dress-Up Darling was easily the most popular choice, with 47% of the vote. (The next-highest show was a full 15 points lower.) Admittedly, I was a little surprised by this! Romance anime tend to be divisive just in concept alone. But being only passingly familiar with the Dress-Up Darling series prior to the anime’s premiere, I figured there must be a good reason behind the enthusiasm. And having seen the first episode, I still think that, but I want to take things a bit non-linearly and get into what this column will actually be for My Dress-Up Darling. I’m out of my wheelhouse in more than one sense for this one, so bear with me.

What I mean is; I think it’s very easy to construct an uncharitable narrative around works like this. I myself am pretty romcom-skeptical most of the time. The exceptions are outliers like Kaguya-sama: Love is War! that also dip their toes into other genres and are just generally more ambitious than the norm. I like Dress-Up Darling, at least so far, but “ambitious” is not a word I’d apply. To wit, throughout this first episode, we hear only one internal monologue, that of our nerdy male lead Wakana Gojo. (Played by Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS veteran Shouya Ishige.) He seems to regard not just women but other people in general as enigmas. And he gives off a vaguely self-pitying vibe. To be honest, for a decent chunk of the episode I found him a bit annoying, only changing my mind when he started nerding out toward the end.

Then there’s Marin Kitagawa, (Hina Suguta, in her first major role) our female lead and Gojo’s love interest. Marin, being both a gyaru and a pretty huge nerd, is treated as an exotic anomaly. This character archetype–the “surprisingly nice gyaru who happens to share some of the male lead’s interests”–is a standard trope of its own by this point. That’s without getting into the fact that the camera nakedly leers at her from time to time (in shots that mostly seem like they’re from Gojo’s perspective.) How, in the final part of the episode, Gojo is rewarded for meticulously pointing out how bad Marin is at sewing (a traditionally feminine craft.) Etc. etc. You get the picture.

I want to be careful in how I phrase this, because I do genuinely think that others’ work is just as valuable as mine, and I can imagine people–especially other critics–having sharply divergent opinions on this series. I want to respect those opinions.

To put it bluntly, we are not really going to be grappling at length with that side of Dress-Up Darling. I think these issues (to the extent that they are issues, I think some are more serious than others) permeate the medium, and some of them are endemic to popular art in general. I could hold Dress-Up Darling accountable for not addressing them, but I think that would be an unrealistic burden to place on what is at its core an extremely simple series. Given the choice to be negative and rake a series over the coals for its faults or to praise it for what it does well, I will generally choose the latter. (And frankly, I have written more than enough negative material on this blog recently. It’s unfair, but it’s hard for me to hold much against a series airing in a season that also contains Police in a Pod.)

None of this is to say I am excusing these issues entirely, and if I think Dress-Up Darling has committed some particularly notable offense I will mention it, but it is not what I’m going to be focusing on. Because I think at what it sets out to do, Dress-Up Darling is pretty good so far. To be totally honest, I would just rather talk about that.

So, you may ask, now that I’ve spent six paragraphs running in circles, what does it set out to do? Oh, you know, boy meets girl. Simple stuff.

Fundamental to understanding Dress-Up Darling is understanding that Gojo is a turbonerd, but not just any kind of turbonerd. If we were dealing with a garden variety otaku, Dress-Up Darling would be a lot less interesting. No, Gojo makes outfits for traditional Japanese dolls. His grandfather, who he lives with, makes Japanese dolls. It’s kind of their whole thing.

Having a rather niche hobby that he devotes quite a lot of his spare time to, Gojo does not have any friends. And often when an anime says something like that, it’s an exaggeration. But as far as I can tell, no, Gojo literally has no friends. There’s even a mean/funny moment as he’s walking to high school mid-episode where another guy runs up to him and playfully smacks him on the back. Naturally, it turns out that this is a rando who thought he was someone else. Ouch.

Teenagers, being in general, assholes*, notice Gojo’s lack of friends, and generally both are hesitant to talk to him and take advantage of his timidity to dump classroom chores and such on him. Gojo is sad about all this, because he feels he’s being ostracized for having a niche interest. This being a romance anime, you can probably guess what jolts him into self-improvement.

Here’s a hint; this is one of the most hilariously on-the-nose meet-cute sequences I’ve ever seen. Marin trips and falls while entering the classroom, and somehow rockets over to Gojo’s seat, entering his life like a near-literal bolt from the blue. It is, in every sense of the word, incredible.

^{If this happens to you, you may be entitled to financial compensation.}

This is, even more remarkably, not actually the meeting that gets them talking. Between this and that, we do get some additional insight into Marin’s character, which has the benefit of making her not just a complete slate for geekboy projection. (Among other things, she turns down guys who make fun of her for being a nerd. That’s pretty smart! Although damn, it’s sad that she’s already had to learn to recognize negging despite being, like, what, fifteen? Sixteen?)

The real meeting comes later, when Gojo’s sewing machine at home breaks and he comes up with the brilliant idea to use the school’s apparently abandoned home ec. room’s as a substitute. Surprise! Marin has had this same idea.

^{The expressions in this show are pretty great.}

Not to work on doll costumes in her case, but cosplay outfits. They get to talking, and Marin surprises Gojo by being interested in his dollmaking hobby. She, in turn, shows him the cosplay outfit she’s been working on. (In what is probably the most unapologetically horny scene in the entire episode, given that she changes clothes in front of him with only his word that he won’t peek. Marin, honey, I’m glad that you like the guy but be a little more cautious!) The aforementioned Gojo-criticizing-Marin’s-sewing scene happens, and Marin, of course, counters that hey, if Gojo’s so good at sewing, why doesn’t he make her cosplay outfits? (When you think about it, aren’t cosplay outfits just doll clothes but person-sized? No, they aren’t, but that’s the premise this entire anime is built upon, so just roll with it.)

I’m going over all of this pretty briskly, but Marin’s genuine enthusiasm for Gojo’s dollmaking is, really, quite endearing.

^{The sub track has Marin refer to the doll as a “little hottie,” which is one of my favorite pieces of translation work of the season so far.}

It’s probably the single most important emotional beat for this episode to nail, and it does so admirably. And, yeah, even this early on the two are transparently pretty into each other. I’m not afraid to say it’s cute.

So that’s Dress-Up Darling. Or more accurately, its first episode, “Someone Who Lives in the Exact Opposite World as Me.” (A line from one of those vaguely annoying inner monologues I mentioned.) If I were grading this like a first impressions article, I’d probably give the show a B or so. It has some issues, but I like it overall. (I worry I’ve come across as perhaps rather sarcastic in this article. Some of that is on purpose, but I did genuinely enjoy this episode.)

This, of course, isn’t a first impressions article. Like I said, anime fans, you wanted it, and you got it. Dress-Up Darling will return to this column next week.

See you then.

Extremely important bonus screencap: Marin’s clique of friends goes unnamed here, but I wanted to give a shout out to this girl. I have no idea if she’ll ever be important to the plot of the series, but I love her two-tone black and red hair. That’s a look.

*If you are a teenager, and not an asshole, I apologize for the generalization, but I’m speaking from experience here.

The Magic Planet

Tag: My Dress-Up Darling

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