‘My Dress-Up Darling,’ My Anime “Hear Me Out” of 2022, is Back and Sweet as Ever for Season 2

Back in the heyday of Shokugeki no Soma, I repeatedly found myself constantly trying to explain to friends and casual acquaintance that despite quite literally being food porn in both definitions of the phrase, that the 2015-2020 anime was one of the best critique of classism in the culinary world (a stance shared by several other members of BNP). If you can get past the moaning and ecchi, you’d find yourself enthralled by a world of ridiculous cooking shenanigans that the world has only recently been catching up to with 24 in 24: Last Chef Standing and Culinary Class Wars. So perhaps this is a predicament of my own design, but I am once again here to expound that My Dress-Up Darling, a series which at first, second, and third glances appears to be thinly veiled ecchi is actually a brilliant romance anime that manages to weave together different aspects of cosplay into the main story (pun very much intended).

For the uninitiated, My Dress-Up Darling follows Wakana Gojo, your not exactly run of the mill 15-year-old school student with a passion for making hina dolls. His obsession with the craft manages to accidentally attract the attention of Marin Kitagawa, a super popular girl in his glass who also models and crucially cosplays. Marin convinces (accosts) Gojo into sewing outfits and making costumes, and Gojo enamored with Marin and the fact that someone doesn’t think his hobby is creepy, agrees and thus their friendship (and …