My Dress-Up Darling

その着せ替え人形は恋をする

8.13(814K votes)

Ranked #560Popularity #116

episodes

Type

Status

Finished Airing

Aired

Jan 9, 2022 to Mar 27, 2022

Studios:CloverWorks

Romance

Synopsis

High school student Wakana Gojou spends his days perfecting the art of making hina dolls, hoping to eventually reach his grandfather's level of expertise. While his fellow teenagers busy themselves with pop culture, Gojou finds bliss in sewing clothes for his dolls. Nonetheless, he goes to great lengths to keep his unique hobby a secret, as he believes that he would be ridiculed were it revealed. Enter Marin Kitagawa, an extraordinarily pretty girl whose confidence and poise are in stark contrast to Gojou's meekness. It would defy common sense for the friendless Gojou to mix with the likes of Kitagawa, who is always surrounded by her peers. However, the unimaginable happens when Kitagawa discovers Gojou's prowess with a sewing machine and brightly confesses to him about her own hobby: cosplay. Because her sewing skills are pitiable, she decides to enlist his help. As Gojou and Kitagawa work together on one cosplay outfit after another, they cannot help but grow close—even though their lives are worlds apart. [Written by MAL Rewrite]

1,329,714 Members

Worth Watching? — Global Verdict

5.5/10

Average Review Score

25%

Recommend It

Reviews Worldwide

International Reviews

Space_Boyfriend

Not Recommended

I cannot emphasize this enough, but My Dress-Up Darling is an ECCHI rom-com. Forget the synopsis about the interesting life of a cosplayer and doll-maker respectively, this is a terrible high school slice of life with some of the worst ecchi sequences I have ever seen. I would like to preface at the beginning of this review that My Dress-Up Darling has become one of my most hated anime. Admittedly, that doesn’t excuse me from just trashing the show entirely, so I will still try to be as objective as I can, since this review is meant for potential viewers. I’ve seen many shows and moviesthat focus on high-schoolers. This time, the series mainly focuses on the relationship of a tailor and a cosplayer with the shy introverted boy Gojou Wakana and manic pixie dream girl Marin Kitagawa as our leads. Wakana is a quiet kid without many friends. He is reserved and afraid of expressing himself or discussing his hobbies due to a ‘trauma’ he experienced. That ‘trauma’ was when a little girl Wakana met as a kid said something like “Ewww, your dolls are ugly” and ran away. This 1-minute backstory is supposedly the only explanation for Wakana’s social awkwardness and is never touched upon in the rest of the TV series. Marin on the other hand is a quirky girl who somehow went flying head first into Wakana’s desk; this leads to the contrived beginning of two kids who ‘happen’ to learn about each other’s unique hobbies and each other. You’d think that based on the synopsis of the story, there would eventually be a shift in primary focus from cosplaying to romance-drama, but you would only be half-correct. Occasionally, there are detailed explanations for the requisites of certain cosplay in order for someone to create and dress up in their attire; these moments actually illustrate what exactly it takes to become a cosplayer, as the show had advertised in its PV. Undeniably, when the series decides to offer insight on Wakana’s character, his struggles, and his dreams, it is able to do so very well. Marin, when she’s bearable, can act as a strong supporting character by establishing a fairly interesting contrast between her vibrant personality and Wakana’s insecurity and awkwardness by offering herself as a confident and quirky friend and eventual love interest. Even at its peak, the romance will be very cheesy, but at the very least, it’s a passable experience at that very scene. “Wow, that sounds like a good show compared to the show you just said in the beginning! How are they the same?” Unfortunately, the aforementioned show is only something I wish Dress-Up Darling stays true to. Not only are all the aforementioned good aspects kept to a minimum, a lot of its potential is wasted since the writer had ‘different’ ideas on their agenda. I’m going to start with the ecchi, probably the most controversial aspect of the series. If you’ve never seen a clip of Dress-Up Darling, just know that the number of explicit and uncomfortable shots of Marin, an underage high-schooler, are lengthy and many. Marin is a high-schooler who has kinks such as ‘wanting to be a sex slave like her favorite anime character’ and legitimately strips down in front of a guy she just met since he knows how to use a loom. Particularly in episode 2, a lot of these explicit shots of Marin are also sexual innuendos that are meant to be funny and relatable as Wakana blushes uncontrollably, afraid he’s going to do something wrong. This kind of situation would never believably happen because there’s no girl in existence that acts exactly like Marin does around a guy she just met. If anyone thought that was bad, this is just the tip of the iceberg. Sometime in the middle of the series, we are introduced to Inui Sajuna, a loli tsundere character who also happens to be interested in cosplaying. I wish that when the audience met Sajuna, it was going to be a normal meet-and-greet where Marin and Sajuna had a fun conversation about how passionate they were about cosplaying and how Wakana could help both of them out together. Instead, we are delivered one of the most god awful scenes in the show in which Wakana opens the bathroom door and sees a slipping Sajuna fall onto the bathroom floor and reveal…everything. This sequence leads Sajuna to threaten Wakana with blackmail for sexual harassment which eventually becomes ‘consensual blackmail’ when Marin enters the picture, because everyone is friends now! Whoopee, how convenient and forced can you get?! Sajuna’s secondary purpose in this series is as a cosplayer with some of her own unique dreams and experiences, but her main purpose is to act as a second love interest for Wakana while wearing kinky outfits for the audience to see. She’s arguably the worst character in the series and one I hated seeing on-screen. The less screen-time she had, the better off the series was. I know that nitpicking details and cherry picking aspects of any piece of media rather than analyzing everything as a whole is generally looked down upon, but someone needs to warn potential viewers that these awful fanservice portions exist because the jarring shift in scene transitions and tone are just overwhelmingly appalling, even by ecchi standards. The main problem I am highlighting here is that all of these concerning scenes are supposed to be ‘hot’ and ‘funny’. Regardless of context, these types of scenarios utterly fail to provide the appropriate atmosphere for actual cosplayers and instead offer a tarnation hentai plot for a target audience that isn’t likely to give many damns about cosplaying. If anyone thought this portrayal of cosplayers was horrendous as is, the list goes on. There’s an entire episode in which skin darkening, a very racist and unnecessary behavior in the show, is present and even an episode where Marin and Wakana go into a love hotel and lay on top of each other for ‘cosplaying’. It’s so contrived and so frustrating to see because the ecchi is not appealing at all to an adult who doesn’t want to see high schoolers in their birthday suits. I know there is an argument that: ‘Because the show is from the perspective of Wakana, that means his sexual inexperience near girls can appear as what is seen in the show, specifically towards Marin.’ Supposedly, this can be compared to Bakemonogatari which is self-aware of its fanservice hijinks. However, to that argument, I would like to point out that this makes no sense in multiple occasions where a camera shows physically everything about Marin, from head to toe, not in Wakana’s first-person perspective. For example, in the skin darkening episode, the camera is completely in the third-person perspective in which Wakana cannot see, since Marin is in a locked bathroom. In other words, this argument is very inconsistent and in my opinion, not valid. I swear it’s as if every single of these inane situations are an extremely bad excuse for a hentai plot without sex rather than being a character study of cosplayers. On a semi-related point of the writer’s agenda, allow me to discuss Wakana, Marin, and their relationship to one another. There is a fundamental flaw in the creation of these characters. When Wakana or Marin are alone, actually focusing on their passions, their personalities shine. We see the depth of their personas as they express fears of not being good enough and how to showcase their love for their craft and hobbies. However, in an ironic twist of author’s intent, the reason both of these characters are irredeemable is because of the other. It’s because of the romance. Wakana’s personality can devolve from ‘nice thoughtful guy’ to ‘horny teenager’ in a matter of seconds because Marin does something abnormal and hypersexualized. It gets to the point where Wakana can become the aforementioned first person POV for the audience members as they see Marin do whatever the hell she’s doing. It’s not even that this happens for the whole episode; it’s just that this kind of ‘slice-of-life romance’ happens long enough to the point it becomes unbearable every time. On the other hand, we have Marin, in my opinion, the second worst character in the series. I really cannot fathom why people like her for anything except her character design. She is possibly the most idealized waifu animated in 2022. Always ‘attractive’, always optimistic, always thinking of her crush Wakana, always working hard, always so lovable regardless of whatever she does. If speaking objectively, her flaw is that she is quite literally a stalker who found Wakana’s address and trespassed into his home uninvited, even visiting his house at night once when Wakana didn’t respond to her texts. But Dress-Up Darling doesn’t seem to think of that as a problem, because it romanticizes stalking as well as everything about Marin. When Marin is all uWu over Wakana, the writer has no holds barred as they make her pander to everything a lover could want: sexual teasing, sweet-talking, objectification, anything and everything! At this point, you may call me Captain_Obvious, but Marin is NOT a realistic nor believable person, but a caricature of a ‘real woman’. I want to note that Dress-Up Darling is also supposedly a seinen, which means that the target audience is supposed to be young adult males. I want to ask the writer: Why? Can we please have the characters be adults so we don’t have to look at HS kids this way? Even if these characters were young adults, it would still be just as bad because of the fact that Marin is a stalker, that there are numerous contrived scenarios involving nudity, and even blackmail portrayed in a ‘good’ or ‘funny’ part of the show. It’s a fact that none of these awful parts of the show had to happen if the writer didn’t want to cater to a male’s ideal wet dream. I’m not even going to lie, I have seen MORE wholesome and enjoyable H series than Dress-Up Darling. It’s probably one of the biggest disappointments I’ve seen in my life. I hadn’t even hoped that Dress-Up Darling was going to be good until I saw the show peak in episode 4 and 5. But after it peaked, the bar kept dropping one episode after another, until the anime had reached the depths of despair, because Dress-Up Darling doesn’t care about quality. It just cares about its shitty ecchi. I’m not going to deny that the technical qualities of this show are on-par for some of the best of the season. Admittedly, there are occasional still frames. However, if a potential viewer is able to bear with the story, the detailed character designs and overall fluid animation are able to enhance certain elements of the story, character, and as most likely intended by the director, the ecchi. As much as I genuinely hate CloverWorks and most of their works, I reluctantly have to admit this is visually one of their best works. As for sound, the voice acting is certainly serviceable but nothing impressive. The OST is fairly forgettable and not worth mentioning in my opinion. I’m sure there is a lot more to talk about, but I really cannot force myself to analyze more of this piece of shlock that I wish no one the burden of watching through. I’m sorry to fans or anyone else I offended, but for potential viewers, this is not your anime of the season, nor an anime you should watch unless you unconditionally love ecchi rom-coms. My Dress-Up Darling does have some decent moments every once in a while but searching for those scenes are like finding a needle in a haystack. If you want genuinely good, funny ecchi, go watch Ishuzoku Reviewers or Imouto Sae Ireba Ii. At least those characters are definitively adults.

Community Discussion

Kyline

Not Recommended

*SOME SPOILERS AHEAD* During these past few anime seasons, I've noticed one thing; that's there's ALWAYS that one romance anime where it has one goal in mind - to bait weebs with such a "high-quality waifu" that would boost the anime's popularity. I call this the "waifu bait anime." It usually has the main girl characterized as an "amazing waifu" with colored hair and eyes, and of course a good body that would basically generate more simps to her, and of course a dull, basic, lame looking MC who just hit the jackpot because they have the main girl by his sides because *ahem* p lo t. We've had several "waifu-bait" anime like Nagatoro-san on Spring 2021, Komi-san on Fall 2021, and the upcoming Shikimori-san (and again, Komi-san S2) on Spring 2022. But let's get these anime out of the way, since I'm going to talk about the latest addition to the seasonal waifu-bait anime, My Dress-Up Darling, or simply, Bisque Doll. Oh boy, this show had a wonderful premise but there's something that is ruining it (definitely *not* because it's produced by CloverWorks, no hate on the studio though. They're pretty well known for ruining some well known anime. *cough Wonder Egg Priority.*) Bisque Doll's main objective here is for you to explore the wonderful world of cosplaying and its people who admires cosplaying some of their favorite characters, which is characterized for them of showing love to the character. Sounds like a nice adventure, right? As I said before, Bisque Doll is ruined by something... also known as these shameless fanservice you see on the episodes. Funnily enough, even after ALL of that fanservice, it's not even labeled as ecchi. Yes, I know it's seinen and is aimed for older men, but just imagine all of those boob shots, jiggle physics, (ToT)c u n n y(ToT), there's even poking nipples, then there's that love hotel bullshit, and the absurd amount of horniness of this show, doesn't that kind of made you think that this show really is ecchi? "But that's how the manga goes, Kylinity." Oh uh... what? Uhhh... Okay then... lemme just... put this away for a second... Anyways, it's safe for me to say that FanserBisque Doll is the ecchiest "non-ecchi" anime I have ever seen in my life. I'm trying my best to take the anime seriously but goddamn, these shameless fanservice and generic and cliche ecchi tropes just hinder my enjoyment to this show so much. You might call me uncultured, but oh well, I can thank you for that. How did Bisque Doll start? Well let's go from the beginning. You know, our boy Gojo is a hina doll maker, and he's trying to make his hobby a secret so that he won't get called out for being weird again after that one time where he was mocked by his classmates because they think Gojo making hina dolls is very weird. Then first encounter with Marin was literally her flying on the classroom from one side to another and then hit her head on Gojo's desk. First of all, is Marin okay what the fuck. There's no anime character that can just fly off like that unless she was a part of some secret battle shounen manga and got kicked in the stomach real real hard (okay that was brutal). One time, while Gojo was sewing on one of the rooms, Marin found him and she immediately asked for help to make her a costume so that she can cosplay as one of her all time favorite character (aka Shizuku-tan). As time goes on, their cosplaying talks have become a normal routine, and that's basically how Marin and Gojo met together. Overall, decent start and that's basically letting the viewers know what Bisque Doll is about. Let's talk about Bisque Doll's art. As expected from CloverWorks, it's visually appealing. See, this is the type of stuff CloverWorks is really good at, to produce anime that appeal to the viewer's eye. However though... (ah shit, here we go again.) I have a big problem with fanservice. I've talked to one of my forum threads before, I don't mind fanservice, as long as it doesn't upset me and also to the viewers. This is a bit too much fanservice for a "nOn-eCcHI" anime. I don't need to list them all again, but if this had less horniness and less fanservice, I would accept it. Now to the characterssss~ Gojo - Our boy, our MC, and one of the 2 good characters in the show... *remembers something* Okay. I take that back. Gojo is the most unbased, cringeworthy loser who doesn't even know the greatness of the almighty genre known as Slice of Life aka the peak genre that surpasses overdramatic melodramas and generic battle shounen- haha I'm just kidding of course. I mean, atleast he finally knows about the greatness of SoL now. And that my boys, is why Gojo is a good character- I'm just kidding. I feel like he's fun to be with, but uh yeah, he's slowly getting corrupted by Marin because of the cosplay talks with horny sources. Marin - the main girl, the main waifu material of Winter 2022, a contender for Waifu of the Year. She's meh. I think she's a bit boyish judging from how she talks to our boy Gojo , and for enjoying a harem eroge anime. I mean, she's literally the embodiment of h o r n y, but as a female. She's a big dumdum as well, especially that part where she somehow fucking reserved a room for a LOVE HOTEL thinking it was a studio, like how the hell does someone make a mistake like this? She's nuts man... PLUS sometimes her smiles are creepy as hell. Sajuna - UOOOHHHH (ToT) Our little cunny, the loli high schooler, Marin's idol, Juju-sama. Undoubtedly the best girl of the show, since even our boy Gojo even (ToT)(ToT)(ToT) because of her cunniness (ToT)(ToT)(ToT). And that my friends, I can conclude that Gojo is a lolicon, because he sobbed due to Juju-sama. Okay I'm just kidding, this is turning to a joke review now. Juju-sama is a good brat, since she's a buddy for Marin to like, get better at cosplaying. Shinju - Ah shit, here we go again, another big booba middle schooler. Middle schoolers shouldn't have this big of a booba, but that's anime character designs for you. She's very mid though, since there's really nothing special to note about her. Although she has a passion on cosplaying too, but never did it since you know, *she's basically the cameraman of Juju-sama's cosplay pictures* Not gonna lie, Bisque Doll gave me a few laughs, and I thoroughly enjoyed some parts of it. By the way, I never said anything about this show's sound right? Alright alright.... Let me make this very quick. OP is good, but is kinda irritating as you listen to it more since jesus christ, those vocals are very hiiiiiiigh. ED though is way better, since it's chill and cozy. There you go. That's it for sound... ... ... What? What about voice acting? Eeh, I never paid attention to that aspect. I just think "wow they're good" or "wow the voices fit the characters" on literally 99% of all the shows I've watched. That's how unresponsible I am when it comes to the sound aspect. Yeah... this is no longer a quality review, or maybe, it never was a quality review in the first place. Alright back to enjoyment. Yes, it did give me laughs, I'm not gonna lie, but... that doesn't mean it's always enjoyable. Ah shit, I have to bring this up for the 4th time, but whatever. Fanservice ruined my enjoyment. Just imagine, while you're out there casually watching FanserBisque Doll, then suddenly, boom. boob shot. Fanservice made me dislike the anime more and more as I watch more episodes of it. This show is like a 6/10 right up my alley. -3 for the pointless fanservice. +1 for Juju-sama. Total of 4/10. If you want to know more about cosplaying, Bisque Doll is, at the same time, for you and not for you. If you can somehow fight off the fanservice (or either if you're a costume designer), then good for you, you might somehow learn things within the cosplay world and would provide you some inspiration. But, on the other hand, if you wanna watch this with *some* seriousness, then... goodluck with the fanservice. It will ruin your enjoyment.

976 found helpfulMar 26, 2022

MonadProxyy

Not Recommended

My Dress Up Darling is fun and all but sadly nothing but waifu bait. The story is set up in the way all romcoms are, its the that same formula used here. Its about cosplaying which is unique enough to the whole anime romance genre, but the thing is everything else in MDD is seen somewhere else. Girl and Boy accidentally meet Girl and boy get together every time in some way Both develop feelings for each other This is exactly how MDD is set up and how it works, yep, the same way you have seen in every romcom. Its very predictable because of that but trust me, theshow doesn't stop being enjoyable. You know how most romcoms try to make you smile? Yep, fanservice. That's how MDD does it too, it shows tons of fanservice and horny kids start going wild about it, its enjoyable but some times, the fanservice makes you feel uncomfortable the misunderstandings and all that same way most romcoms do stuff is present here too. I do not enjoy the fanservice as much as others do, but that fanservice is the only reason as to why this show is as popular as it is, right now. Everyone is making thumbnails of those perverted shots and gaining tons of popularity and even boosting this show itself. Sometimes I am low-key disgusted by how it heavily relies on that. Remove Fanservice and this show won't be half as popular as it is right now. The art and animation are pretty solid for a romcom, it is not only a great adaptation of the manga, its a miles better experience too, because CW decided to give this show one perfect adaptation. The animation is smooth, and the art is great too, its very bright and colorful which makes the tone of the show much better and even suits it. The character designs however are very generic and look like the ones most romcoms have, they aren't bad but they aren't new to the show or anything. The music is fitting, and is good to hear. I love it and I wouldn't be afraid to admit it, but the voice acting for many characters aside from Gojo is many times annoying, I don't like them, but its nothing too bad. Its very subjective but since I am telling my honest thoughts on it, I will also include such details. The characters are bland as hell, they have the same personalities like you have seen in every teen romance show, the usual gets easily shy, or isn't afraid to show her body, or something like that. Or maybe supporting their low interest or trying to act cute but doing cheesy stuff which somehow comes off as funny, apparently. The amount of enjoyment varies, just ask yourself your age and how horny you are. If you are 14 and very horny, this is the perfect show for you. I do enjoy it but this show can give off a bad feeling to you or just be annoying. Overall I do recommend this show if you don't mind the issues mentioned above much, MDD is waifu bait, and one, which will be very memorable because of doing so everything with fanservice, honestly its one of those bad but enjoyable shows, I won't say more, just try it for yourself. This is your typical romcom, but this time it was marketed very well, plus the fact Marin is on so many peoples profile as their profile picture just helped sell it more. It falls badly on having substance thus the score it got by me.

839 found helpfulMar 26, 2022

HellLyter

Mixed Feelings

I welcome you to the latest installment of...WAIFU WARS!!! A recent phenomenon where current popular anime are often completely spearheaded by one girl. Nothing else, such as an insightful plot or having a non generic protagonist, matters in the face of this one girl. Creators think, "How can I sell my work and get it recognized by the public?" And the answer they arrive at is really quite simple. People. Want. Waifus. There are multiple varieties of anime that could potentially fit this mold, so I'll give you some of the bigger names that I believe really exemplify the Waifu Wars mentality. The prequels to My DressUp Darling if you will. We have... Takagi-San, The Forehead Menace Uzaki-Chan, Attack of the Big Ol' Boobies Nagatoro-San, Revenge of the Tanned Bully But now another contender has entered the ring. And her name is Marin, A New Waifu. So I don't really know what just came over me there, but, uhh...let's get into the review! I'm going to keep it brief since as I alluded to, anime of this nature are very basic at their core. My Dress Up Darling remains consistently stalwart in its lighthearted themes and direction throughout, and me going over the specifics and delving deep into them honestly seems unnecessary...and will save you the pain of reading a boring essay from me. You're welcome. This show is very comfy in nature, and from my perspective, whether or not you enjoy it entirely boils down to two things: Your affinity for Slice of Life styled shows and your enjoyment of the characters...particularly Marin the waifu, the selling point of the entire series. As you've probably guessed from seeing my score, My Dress Up Darling, while I find to be fine, simply didn't pass this criteria for me. Slice of Life really isn't a preferred genre of mine, though that's not to say that I'm always automatically dismissive of such shows. Like this anime, Nagatoro-San also primarily focuses on the regular lives and laid-back antics of some students, yet the presentation and delivery just captivated me more. I respect My Dress Up Darling's author for taking a more original approach in terms of the interests of the two protagonists and how they come together because of them. Gojo being a Hina Doll maker and enthusiast and Marin being an avid cosplayer and...gasp...'NERD', was neat. Though it felt like after that was established, not really much else was done in developing both them and the scenarios they engaged in. It was cute how Marin went from completely cool around Gojo to a little blushy-blush after starting to fall for him, but that was honestly it. I mean the entire first half of the anime alone was focused solely on Gojo making an outfit for Marin. Yes, multiple things were shown throughout this episodic process such as how hardworking Gojo is and the extraordinary detail that the animators put into showing Marin's boob physics, butt checks, sweaty body, and more (I'm sure they worked very hard to try and get the viewers hard). Yet by the end of it, I couldn't help but think "that was it?" Yes, it's a simple and easygoing anime by design, but I personally wanted more out of it. Now on to the characters themselves. There really isn't much to say about our hero Gojo. I do like how he's portrayed as a sort of yes man due to his lack of social interaction, but not much else is done with him besides frequently describing his passion for Hina Dolls. He just really embodies the "nice guy" trope. The side cast is incredibly limited, but they do elevate the show. I liked Sajuna Inui and honestly thought she was the most entertaining character in the show despite her limited screen time. Let's hope the author gives her more exposure down the line instead of completely removing her from the story in the foreseeable future! But now, we finally get to core of My Dress Up Darling. Marin. So I'll get straight to the point. She's too perfect. She's a colorful, captivating person. She has a perfect body despite her terrible eating habits. She's into things that most people watching this anime probably like. She's perfectly fine with showing off her body. And most importantly, she's ALWAYS kind and understanding. Does anyone else see how this is a problem? I feel like this anime can be considered a RomCom, and the key element of this genre is showing how flawed characters come together to grow, yet I'm not feeling that at all with this. Marin is such an ideal girl that it's boring. Let me give a comparison to my favorite RomCom, Toradora. The heroine Taiga is a small girl with scruffy, brown hair. While cute, she's definitely no ideal beauty. She has serious communication problems and violent tendencies due to parental neglect and social awkwardness. There are other components to her, but she really isn't painted in that great of a light at the beginning of the anime. And I adore her so much more in every way than Marin, who was practically written for the sole purpose of being adored by the audience immediately upon her introduction. That's because my enjoyment of Taiga was EARNED through her excellent growth as a person in addition to her evolving relationships throughout the show. I didn't really have an idea what a Tsundere was before watching Toradora, yet it became one of my favorite character tropes primarily thanks to Taiga. Meanwhile, Marin just doesn't have anything like this. She's a fun girl, sure. And she doesn't necessarily need to be more flawed, I just wish she was given more to work with. ANYTHING to work with. I'll quickly go over some technical aspects. You can tell that the majority of the animation budget went into Marin's body (the animators are most definitely men/women of culture) but CloverWorks still did a decent job overall, especially with the usage of some different animation styles and the sheer expressiveness of the cast. I'll probably get some flack for this, but while I found Marin's voice actress to be good, the voice itself just didn't fit with the character for me. Also, several insert tracks stood out to me for the wrong reasons due to not personally being a fan of the compositions, such as the one that plays sometimes when Marin is being "silly". Well, My Dress Up Darling really isn't for me. It's mildly entertaining and I did smile here and there, but I wanted a lot more out of it. If you like Marin's character and just enjoy more relaxing anime in general, than you'll definitely like this more than me. That's all I got. I'll see you later for the next installment of Waifu Wars!

469 found helpfulMar 26, 2022

Natsuki_SanJuan

Not Recommended

***THIS IS MY SECOND REVIEW FOR THIS SHOW BECAUSE MY FIRST REVIEW WAS POSTED IN WRONG USUAL TIME. IT CONTAINS SPOILERS AND IS CO-WRITTEN BY MY ROMANCE ENTHUSIAST FRIENDS AND MY OLDER SISTER*** WARNING: IF YOU DON’T LIKE CRITICISMS, YOU MIGHT WANT TO STOP VIEWING THIS REVIEW. BUT IF YOU CALM DOWN YOUR BALLS AND ARE OPEN TO SOME OPINIONS, FEEL FREE TO READ. Hey! Hey, you Yeah you... In a nutshell (Powerpuff Girls Intro): A self-inserting MC (3D Kanojo Girl), good animation (Horimiya), and a cheeky FML (Nagatoro-san). These were the ingredients chosen to create the “perfect” manga.But Shin'ichi Fukuda accidentally added an extra ingredient to the concoction-- The Chemical F(anservice) Thus, Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi or Suru were born. Another in a nutshell: 60% Fanservice 36% Animation 2% Relatable Characters 2% Plot and Romance Good riddance… If I can segregate a show, like I segregate the trash in my household, I will put Sono Bisque into the non-biodegradable trash bin. It’s somewhat trash, but not meant to be rotten either. I remember the day when my female friend and my male underclassman told me about this show. After the massive disappointment of the trying-hard anime Komi-san Can’t Communicate, I browse this show if it’s good. The premise impressed me and my two friends genuinely recommended me this show. They said the story is good, so are the characters. The romance level would surpass my expectations. I mean look at the genres, “Romance, School, Slice of Life”. So, I thought this would be a refreshing romance to start a great year, alongside Takagi-san 3. But, when I watched some episodes, I asked them why they like Marin so much. Here are their answers; The answer of my female friend was, “it’s because I like her behavior.” “What behavior exactly?” “Her behavior when she likes to do pervert things to other people.” The answer of my male underclassman was this, “it’s because she’s cute, beautiful, cheerful, sexy, and mostly, big boobs.” I even asked my other female classmate what her thoughts were about the show. She said the sound of its title sounded like horny garbage to her. I browsed the manga and reached this conclusion, my male underclassman is a virgin simp, and my female friend likes to act like a b*tch. No offense to them because I was just being honest, and they agreed. Even it’s their thing, I respected them. So this review contains our genuinely mixed reactions, criticisms, and statements from me, from my friends, and from my older sister, who loves romance animes. This is co-written by them also. I’ll state some points on behalf of them. Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi o Suru or My Dress-up Darling is the first “romance” that aired at the start of the year. This show is like the songs of the BTS KPop group, where the fans hyped it and claimed to be the best new romance anime of the season. I heard from the fans that this will even surpass the third season of Takagi-san and they overhyped it to the highest level. My biggest regret was I rode the hype train with these stans and I reached another facepalm moment. Sono Bisque is a clear example of a “Clickbait”. This show started to pop out on the internet, especially the pictures of their favorite new waifu, Marin Kitagawa. Innocent audiences, who had no idea about this show asked if this show is good, and in the end, it might be just another disappointment, or just plain, or just a waifu bait anime. This anime had many different titles from audiences because of its content; My Dress-up Virgin, My Dress-up Horny, My Dress-up Pussy, Sono FANSERBisque Doll, Sono VIRGIN Doll, Sono BITCHque Doll even the title I came up with, My Dress-up DOGSHIT. I know you will ask, “Is it worth watching?” “Why are you saying things like that on your review?” “It’s a wholesome anime so why you didn’t just enjoy it?” Now before I answer those questions, I’ll try not to be sound like a hater, or an elitist. I will express our statements as romance enthusiasts. I will use an acronym I came up with before I state my arguments. GOOD PREMISE, WEAK, TERRIBLE AND CHEAP PLOT When I read about the premise, it seemed interesting and refreshing. A love story with a cosplay theme. The story is in a high school setting, which is one of my favorite settings in romance stories. It never gets old when I encounter this kind of setting. When I watched the first episode, I thought it was good as it said on the premise. I just saw the MC, whose self-confidence was torn down because some random girl in his childhood just made a horrible judgment about his hobby making dolls. After that, he became depressed and lost his self-confidence for having friends. Isolated himself from society. That’s… eh. I mean, just because a random stupid girl made fun of his hobbies, and then he became solely depressed just like that? He’s like Tsutsun in 3D Kanojo Girl but he had a valid reason why he cut ties from his classmates and became an otaku lord in the series. Tsutsun was born to believe that life in 2D is better than 3D but in Wakana’s case, that’s a shallow reason and an excuse to make his character “more relatable”. I don’t know if the author just forced his character to be like that for the sake of the “good plot”. The author should’ve put a good reason or backstory on why he became like that. The story might be good if they added some background to Wakana’s storyline. I didn’t understand what’s the whole point of this show. The story was decent. But I couldn’t help myself being annoyed at the same time. This was a facepalm moment. I think it’s just a school SOL anime, full of fanservice and ass-pulls. The romance was plain, pretty not developed, and felt forced. I mean, they just inserted Marin was being in love with Wakana just like that? Seriously? How the heck did that happen? Just like The Anime Man said to his review about Fireworks anime movie. “How it is supposed to be a romance if the characters and the story don’t portray the romance?” The story might be good if they focus and develop well on the romance, their relationship, and add some depth to it. The cosplay should use it as a theme, not a major plot device. Even in the manga, which I’m currently reading, the story didn’t progress or change at all. It’s still the same in the beginning. The author should follow this example in Your Lie in April, they used the music as a theme and they focused more on the romance. In 3-gatsu no Lion, they used the shogi thing as its theme. In Maid-sama, they used the maid and love and hate theme. Those romance animes I’ve mentioned had the romance well developed and bloomed in some unique ways. One of the main premises of the story is that Marin wants to be a famous cosplayer, right? So why didn’t she think on join a cosplaying competition instead than posting her pictures on the internet? The story might be interesting and it can help their development as the model and the designer. Instead, the show focused more on fanservice and cracked some repetitive and corny dialogues that broke the whole concept of romance. Even the plot of the story was shallow, I still found it interesting. However, the show was not expressive to its message. AWFUL AND BLAND CHARACTERS We just talked about our MC on how he was being a self-inserting wimp protagonist, now let’s check out the waifu that everybody loves, Marin Kitagawa. They said Marin symbolizes that you should be confident in yourself. Yeah, I got that. Even it might break our dignity and morality. Yeah, I got that. Our wimp MC and our waifu Marin were just… eh. I don’t know the reason why this show had some poorly written characters but they also defy the nature of logic and morality. Aside from that, there were some uninteresting characters forcedly joined, for the sake of “character development”. In the end, both two girls were just loli baits FFS. Wakana Gojou is another version of Kazuya from another multiverse, but he had very little good behavior. Marin. Marin, I almost forgot about you. You’re the main landmark of this show on why many male audiences eagerly loved it. There was a time when someone said to me that Marin’s symbolism is amazing. I appreciate that. But how heavy her make-up she was wearing, so are her flaws. If I were to choose between Marin, Nagatoro, Igarashi from 3D Kanojo Girl, and Komi as a good female lead, I will choose the last 3 I’ve mentioned, and not Marin. Marin seemed to be what every boy’s, wet dream. She was personalized as a “perfect waifu” material. The problem with her was she lacked depth and properly good characterization. The only thing that stood out from her is her horny and somewhat perverted mindset, which fulfills every boys’ mind. She looked somewhat similar to the blond girls from hentai that I’ve watched, obviously from her reactions. Yes, there’s nothing wrong in living life to the fullest but does she know her limits and boundaries as a human person, especially she’s a girl? Does she ever think about that? It’s not bad to live that way but it’s not good either. Especially she’s still a minor. And then a series of ridonkeylous moments I saw that tore the concept of realism. Like wearing earrings, colorful nail polish, and not wearing her uniform properly inside the school is “allowed”? I’ve never thought of that thing when there’s no policy about that inside their school. Numerous times she confidently stripping naked and using her body as a form of her teasing to Wakana is one of the absurd things I’ve seen in a show. To the point, they can almost do IT. If this is one of the reasons for the hardening of dicks, for me it’s so completely annoying. “Get on top of me, Kitagawa-san.” - Wakana said from Episode 11 with a horny face Seriously this kind of thing needs to lessen. There are many ways for him to take a photo shot of Marin in that kind of position. Do you remember in episode 2 when Wakana stared at her from the lower part of her body? That should be the angle that Wakana used instead of asking Marin to hop on him. They had no concept of limits and boundaries. Because in the end, Wakana. Is. Still. A. Boy. And. Marin. Is. Still. A. Girl. The lady heard Wakana and Marin’s conversation is true. They are dangerous teenagers. Yup the fanservice won again. But the only good thing I saw in her was her initial goal to be a pro cosplay or doing a cosplay. The only thing I’ve seen in Wakana is his hard work in sewing. I know this is a common troupe from many animes but still liked it. However, both characters were one-dimensional, bland, and one-sided. All of the characters were weak and not poignant in the story. If the author writes a story about them joining in a competitive cosplaying event, that would be awesome as fck. EXCESSIVE USE OF FANSERVICE RUINED THE PLOT In the first place, I was introduced by many of my friends and the anime news pages that this is a romcom seinen anime. That’s the first I’ve believed in. But damn, they should advertise this anime as an ecchi rom-com. A lot of people had been fooled because of this. Because the media advertised this anime as a romcom, not knowing this is a purely ecchi show. This fact made me feel rage when I watched the show and it wasn’t my fault. I searched it on many anime pages on Facebook, in Wikipedia, and even on MAL. I just noticed on Anilist and Anime-planet (I don’t use Anime-planet really) but it’s already too late. It's their fault for not stating the correct tags and genre on this anime. There’s no ecchi tag there so, in the end, we were just scammed by the media. That’s why this is an example of clickbait. I was baited. Even if you’re saying this is publishing on a Seinen magazine, it’s just a magazine. Yes, they said Seinen is for adult male audiences but can you explain why Shuumatsu no Harem and Interspecies Reviews were published in Shounen magazine? After the second rewatch, some fanservice from this anime is decent. But one of the main problems is excessive fanservice. Yes, fanservice is one of the common troupes, and the signature of Japanese comedy style can make you laugh but when I watched this show, I was like watching soft-core hentai. Don’t get me wrong, I still found ecchi romcoms entertaining but this needs to lessen. Yet, I still found the ecchi scenes were illogical absurdities. I remember what happened in Episode 1 when she suddenly tried to strip in front of him when there was a comfort room inside their school. The measurement in episode 2 is when she has stripped naked again for measurements when a clothing store exists. This bounds the realism we lived in. The show used her as the “major purpose of entertainment”. The excessive fanservice ruined the whole plot that was intended to be. Is this still an ecchi romance? Or soft-core hentai? This can be so annoying. The point is, it shouldn’t rely on the fanservice for the sake of “entertainment”. It made the whole show nonsensical in some ways, like “this anime should be for cultured weebs than the romance it was supposed to be.” It caused the show to look like every boys’ wet dream to have a horny cute girlfriend. It sounds like this, if Mushoku Tensei didn’t have ecchi scenes, it would be a masterpiece of isekai. Imagine this, if My Dress-up Darling lessen its fanservice and focused more on the pinnacle of its romance, it would be one of the best seinen romance animes. “But the animation and the production quality are good, right?” Yes but no thanks. The animation of this show was only the saving grace from all those awful scenes. The animation is good but for me, it’s just average. Probably because Cloverworks did it and I had no expectations about that. Maybe for some guys who are new to anime that’s why they always like animation over the story. The animation is the only factor I gave a pretty fair high score. Heck, only the animation stood out in the series. The music was just plain… It reminds me how Horimiya wasn’t that special. The OP was the only thing I’d like but the ED was just average and I didn’t understand why they were hyping about it. Sorry, not sorry. The animation can’t always save this. The story, characters, and its development are more important than production quality. Now we all took our loads about this show out of our chest, now we can finally say Sono Bisque is a decent romance but with lackluster characters, a clickbait, a scam, nonsensical excessive fanservice, and somewhat a waste of time. It had many cringe and facepalm moments, and the fanservice was incredibly disgusted. Because of this show, we just started a new year full of disappointments. We might be considered it to be good if was labeled as an ecchi anime. I mean, if you will look at my list, most of them are a variety of romance. Even other ecchi romcoms I found good and enjoyable. But, I can list many ecchi romcom animes that are better than this. Jitsu wa Watashi wa, Eromanga-sensei, Love Hina, Nyan Koi, Mayoi Chiki, Rosario to Vampire, and many more. And I can guarantee they are more enjoyable than this. This is the first time I’ve been disappointed and felt rage in my favorite genre of a certain story. This anime is not worthy of the word “wholesome”. It’s not a masterpiece or heavily romantic. Yet you can still enjoy it if you’re the type of audience to like a good animation. If you’re the type of audience who can turn off your brain from its flaws, and casually enjoy this kind of absurd act, this anime is for you. However, if you’re a die-hard romance fan, who seeking a solid and groundbreaking romance story, sadly to say this anime is not deserved for you. It might you just feel annoyed and cringe because of the content and its characters. As we end this review, we like to state some advice, as a lesson we’ve experienced from watching this show. It can be so useful when watching an anime. “Expect disappointment and you will never get disappointed.” My initial score is 3.5/10 but if I compute our all scores the score will be a glorious 6.9/10. I think you know the reason why we scored it like that. "SOL heals your soul." But not in this kind of show. That’s all and thank you for reading. See you at my next review!!

350 found helpfulMar 27, 2022