My Dress-Up Darling

About

My Dress-Up Darling (Japanese: Sono Bisuku Dōru wa Koi o Suru) is a 2018 seinen ecchi (vaguely sexual content revolved around a young man) manga written by Shinichi Fukuda that later was adapted into an anime series produced by Cloverworks in 2021. The series follows the budding friendship and romance between cosplayer Marin and reclusive dollmaker Gojo. The series proved a surprise hit among critics and fans, with reviewers noting the series transcends its tropes to deliver a surprisingly affecting romance. The show generated a passionate fanbase, as well as a significant amount of fan art online throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s.

History

My Dress-Up Darling is written by Shinichi Fukuda, and the manga began serialization in Young Gangan on January 9th, 2018.^[1] Square Enix picked up the series and has published eight volumes of the manga as of October 2021 (volume 1 shown below).^[2]

On April 6th, 2021, Young Gangan announced that the series had been picked up for an anime adaptation, produced by Cloverworks.^[3] The first episode premiered on January 9th, 2022 (trailer shown below).

Plot

The series centers on protagonists Wakana Gojo, a reclusive high schooler with a passion for hina dolls (a talisman doll given to young women of age, especially pregnant women to protect mother and child), and Marin Kitagawa, an outgoing popular girl in his class with a passion for cosplay, particularly desiring to cosplay as characters from her favorite erotic video games. Marin notices Gojo's skill at sewing and asks him to make a costume for her, beginning their friendship and potential romance.

Reception

The series was extremely well-received upon release. As of February 2022, the anime has a score of 8.3/10 on MyAnimeList^[4] and the same score on IMDb.^[5] YouTube channel Mother's Basement gave the series a glowing review, praising how the show delivers a deeply affecting romance story even though it initially appears to be a typical, fan-service-driven anime, gaining over 358,000 views in one week (shown below, left). Chibi Reviews claimed that after episode one, he was confident the series would be his "anime of the season," gaining over 33,000 views (shown below, right).

Online Presence

The series has generated a significant fandom online. In addition to the tens of thousands of reviews on My Anime List,^[4] the series subreddit,^[6] created on October 13th, 2018, has over 21,000 subscribers. The series has also generated a significant amount of fan art. One of the more SFW trends in fan art is depicting Marin cosplaying as characters from real-life video games. For example, on February 11th, 2022, Twitter user @YellowGua^[7] drew art of Marin cosplaying as Mythra from Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (shown below, left). On February 14th, user @HS_Egg^[8] drew her poorly cosplaying as Cardboard Box Gundam (shown below, right).

Search Interest

External References