Winter 2022 First Impressions – My Dress-Up Darling

Streaming: Funimation and Crunchyroll

Episodes: 12

Source: Manga

Episode Summary: Wakana Gojo lives with his grandfather, a craftsman who creates the Hina dolls used to celebrate the Hinamatsuri holiday. Ever since he was a child, Gojo harbored a deep love for the craft and the beauty of the dolls, a passion that resulted in the loss of a childhood friendship. Since then he’s spent all of his energy focused on honing his craft rather than trying to make friends, because he’s become sensitive about revealing his love for creating Hina dolls.

One day, after his grandfather’s antique sewing machine breaks, Gojo brings some of his doll costumes to school to work on them in the home economics classroom. As he’s enjoying the luxury of a modern sewing machine, the door swings open and in walks Marin, Gojo’s very beautiful and popular classmate. When she sees him using the sewing machine, she’s nearly ecstatic and asks to show him something. What she reveals is an in-progress cosplay she’s been working on that could definitely use some… finesse. Gojo critiques its shortcomings, but also admires Marin’s commitment to her goals. When she asks him to help her realize her dreams of embodying a favorite character, Gojo feels inspired to help her, and happy that he may have found someone to share his skills with who won’t make fun of them.

Impressions: If you’ve been wondering who that cute blonde anime girl is that all of your cosplaying friends have been gushing about over the past few weeks, then look no further. Marin is the type of character who represents some of the broadest, most universal feelings I’ve come to appreciate about the cosplay community – that of the love for a character, no matter the source, and the desire to show that love through becoming that character. Sometimes the source of this desire can be difficult to fully grasp, especially if it’s something you’ve never experienced firsthand. Many years ago, the first time I met a friend of mine at a convention, they were dressed as a character from a hardcore hentai series. I couldn’t comprehend what appealed to them about the series and the character to the point that they’d want to advertise that appeal in a fairly public place. Hentai was something dirty that you watched in secret, right?

Years later and with some experience in a similarly weird J-fashion community under my belt, I think I now understand it a bit better, and it’s pretty simple to comprehend. Cosplay and J-fashion (or any alternative fashion) is a way to express parts of oneself that aren’t always easy to explain in words. My own desire to look like a frilly princess sometimes is partly an “F-you” response to years of listening to people treat femininity as a second-class state of existence. Oh, so feminine beauty is a frivolous exercise in vanity, you say? Well I’m just going to be aggressively feminine and in your face, then, because that opinion is ridiculous. Similarly, dressing as a character one enjoys from an eroge is far from the exercise in public debasement that my more naïve self may have erroneously believed back then.

I can tell from Marin’s look that she’s kind of a gyaru type – outspoken, contrarian in how she wears her school uniform, her ears bedighted with piercings and her face glowing with makeup. Because of the way she presents herself, people make assumptions about the person she is on the inside. One of the major points of this episode is that Gojo believes his world and hers are completely different spaces, fated never to intersect until the time that they simply do. The obvious message to be taken away is not to judge a book by its cover, but the less obvious message, I believe, is that geekery is something that comes in various forms, and loving something niche is a more universal trait than those of us in the formal “geek community” may like to admit to ourselves.

I liked this premiere episode – the characters are charming and I’m discovering that there’s a lot of interesting thoughts to chew on woven into its early narrative. It’s also reminding me about the few furtive steps I’ve made into the cosplay sphere, as well as the much more confident ones I’ve since made into the kawaii fashion realm. I think, in essence, there’s a lot of joy to be found in watching someone else enjoy the things that they enjoy, and that seems to be a primary element that this series is aiming to tap into.

Pros: It’s hard to talk about this episode without touching on its gorgeous animation. Once again, I have… feelings related to the crunch that Cloverworks is likely to be going through because of their two quite beautiful-looking series this season. On the other hand, I feel compelled to give credit to the animators where credit is due, because this episode contains some truly exhilarating character acting animation. The story contains the sort of material that doesn’t really provide opportunities for action animation in the traditional “Anime™” sense, but its focus on people interacting with one-another and expressing their emotions manifests similar if less fantastical chances to animate the absolute shit out of scenes.

While I haven’t decided my feelings on Gojo quite yet, I already love Marin. She reminds me of many friends, past and present. In addition to that familiarity, I also appreciate her bluntness regarding speaking up on one’s own behalf. I suspect there’s more bubbling under the surface in regards to her feelings on that point.

Finally, as someone who watches a lot of historical sewing content on YouTube, I have to really appreciate the treadle sewing machine that Gojo and his grandfather own. I hope they don’t actually get rid of it – they’re fixable and they’re beautiful antiques!

Cons: I have mixed feelings about some of the more fanservice-y and or lewd content in this episode. On the one hand, I suspect this story is probably meant to serve as a sort of sexual awakening for Gojo, in addition to the fact that anyone who helps a cosplayer get ready is going to see some undies and other sundry nudity. On the other hand, it’s all about framing and it’s pretty obvious what the framing is meant to portray the couple of times we catch glimpses of Marin’s undercarriage. Personally, and I’ll probably go into this in some more detail at another time, I’m finding that my personal objections are more academic than they are emotional (in short, I recognize the content as being somewhat problematic but I don’t care that much), but it may be different for other viewers.

Content Warnings: Mild nudity (underwear)/fanservice.

Would I Watch More? – I’ve been interested in this series since before the season began; I’d heard some interesting things about the manga, and if you know me you know that if an anime adaptation exists I’m going to be more drawn to that version. I think the animation is beautiful and I like the portrayal of the emotional facets of cosplaying. So yes, I definitely think I’ll be watching more.