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 pseudo courtship) commences.
At your standard twelve-episode length, season 1 saw Gojo develop confidence with his skills and honing his craft, and Marin developed a steadily growing infatuation with the boy hand crafting a wide of cosplays that clearly were making him uncomfortable because he is in fact a fifteen-year-old boy in close physical proximity of a girl he finds attractive.
And I understand that all of this sounds completely wild, but the thing is in between the scenes you wouldn’t want to watch with your family, there is a sweet story about two individuals with different levels of confidence navigate a niche world. It is a show about craft, and there is a lot of effort into showing the effort required to do said craft. In fact, a lot of the information about cosplay is directly transferable to real life. From the tips of sewing, make up, hair styling, photography, My Dress Up Darling manages to be a pretty comprehensive tutorial about how to start cosplay while also being an incredible sweet story about sharing your passions with other people.
And in the second half of 2025, I find myself still very much enamored with My Dress-Up Darling as it continues to showcase a fascinating character study of an insecure boy and girl, the intricacies of cosplay, and a very progressive stance of normalization of people having the choice to present themselves in the ways that they want.
CloverWorks second season keeps all of the charm of the previous run while finding even more ways to be play with their animation and continuing to bring the seinen to life. And yes, there is a lot of fan service, but to its credit, the fan service at least makes sense within the context of the show and is used as a way to actively forward the plot in meaningful ways (yes, I am looking at you Fire Force).
So while I didn’t put my critic hat on back in 2022 to extol this series, I am putting it on now just in time for the premiere on July 5th. There is nothing more that I love than a series about passionate people learning to be passionate about a thing they love, and My Dress-Up Darling fits that bill on two ends: the art of cosplay and the act of loving oneself.
Love anime? So do we! See what else we have to offer on the site via anime here!
Want to get Black Nerd Problems updates sent directly to you? Sign up here! Follow us on BlueSky, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Twitch, and Instagram!
Show Comments