First Impression: My Dress-Up Darling (Season 2)

The dynamic cosplay duo, Marin and Watana, are working on an outfit from the latest hot show, TsuCom, which features bunny girl heroines…because, according to the girl herself, EVERYONE loves bunny girls. At times, it seems like Bunny Girls are as prevalent in Japanese culture as Mardi Gras is in Louisiana culture. (Now that would be interesting—seeing Bunny Girls at a Mardi Gras parade. I think it could work in some weird way! But I digress.) Of course, Wakana takes up the task of making Marin a bunny girl, and as per usual, our doll maker apprentice finds a way to transform his living doll into the character of her dreams! However, our boy still has some lingering insecurities about himself and his talents, and when it comes out that he’s the one who does Marin’s makeup and costumes, Wakana freaks out. Will a Halloween Party be the catalyst he needs to break out of his shell and share his skills with others, or will this make our doll-making boy run away like Shinji from the robot? Cue the shenanigans!

We’re back again, my friends. It’s time to embrace the Cosplay Chaos once again with our favorite dork, Marin Kitagawa, and her prodigiously flustered costume creator crush, Wakana Gojo, in one of the most anticipated returns of the anime season! When I compare this second-season premiere episode with the return of Call of the Night, I feel that this show did a much better job of reintroducing us to its world and characters. Even if you’ve never seen the first season, you can pick up on Wakana’s insecurities about his prodigious hina doll-making abilities, and Marin’s love of cosplay, which is only surpassed by her love of Wakana. While it is easy to dismiss this show as merely an ecchi fanservice romp, there is much more to it as well. Yes, the cosplays are…a choice…and the moments when the creators feel the need to specifically zoom into specific spots of our female lead’s body make this feel very much like the kind of anime that could put you on a watch list, this show does find a way to be more than that. Each project these two work on functions to draw Wakana out of his shell and bring him and Marin closer together. Even in the last few minutes of this episode, when people compliment his work as a doll-maker and costume-maker, Wakana finally realizes, “Hey, there are loads of people who like my work and don’t think it’s weird that a teenage boy knows how to craft dolls and apply makeup.” Watching our boy go through this growth and development, in my opinion, outshines some of the more outlandish fanservice moments. Not all, mind you, as there were times when palm met forehead in exasperation, but SOME.

From a production standpoint, this second season of My Dress-Up Darling has adopted a more stylistic approach in certain scenes. There are numerous unique angles and transitions, and while it seems like a lot to some, it is somewhat distinctive, and I like it. CloverWorks has gone all out with this one, and it looks noticeably different than their other offerings this season, especially The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity. Placing the ending credits at the beginning of the episode was a very unique choice! I was confused when the episode ended with the “Next Episode” title card and no ending credits, and only when I went back to watch the episode a second time did I realize what was going on! Well done, show. You caught me off guard there! Also, I love how the creators didn’t just give us a picture of the character that Marin wants to cosplay, but they gave us a few minutes of the actual show itself! I love it when an anime goes that extra mile, and it reminds me of how Genshiken made several episodes of their in-show anime Kujibiki Unbalance…which ended up being its OWN anime! Man, I miss those days. But I digress again…

So, where does that leave us with My Dress-Up Darling Season 2? Well, much like the first season, you’re either going to love it or hate it. You’re either going to push through and enjoy the show’s more sweet and wholesome moments along with the character development of our main characters, or the overabundance of fanservice provided by Marin will be too much for you to bear. As for me? I’m going to stick around for this one! I think these characters have prodigious potential to be more than just the fanservice “best girl” and her cinnamon roll love interest…at least I hope they do.


My Dress-Up Darling is available for streaming on Crunchyroll!

Josh
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