(Spoiler-free)

Premise

A shut-in with no friends helps a girl he just met to cosplay characters from the hent@i games she plays... Hear me out.

#

Real-life has no plot, so the Slice of Life genre doesn't need a plot. This show has less of a plot and is more of a series of events that follows characters that the audience is invested in.

About the Characters!

• Gojo, the male lead, has a unique hobby: making traditional Japanese dolls. He was made fun of for it in the past, so he keeps to himself and doesn't have friends.
• Marin, the female lead, is an attractive, popular, perverted girl. She wants to cosplay characters from the hent@i games she plays but is really bad at making costumes for the hobby.

Is Marin a believable character?

Yes... But it's complicated.

Marin is super outgoing and gets in situations where she shows a lot of skin. But she is oblivious and doesn't realize the situations she puts Gojo in since she's so excited about making cosplay.

Is that realistic?

Storytime. A classmate of mine drew a fantasy character with a massive crystal sticking out from their groin and only realized how it looked after she presented it to the whole class. She was nineteen; arguably far too old to make such a (hilarious) mistake. Because I have known people like that, I can believe that someone like Marin exists. Some people are just that oblivious.

Is Gojo just a self-insert?

Again, it's complicated.

The self-insert aspect is real, but Gojo is a believable character too. He has a hobby that was made fun of, so he keeps to himself and doesn't have friends. Yes, he is the perfect character to use for a self-insert fantasy, but that is not all he is. He has interests and a personality. He is not your average pool of poorly cobbled together stereotypes who is just bland enough that any 2D girl will throw themselves at him.

And the fanservice?

There, but not forced.

Normally, the ecchi tag is a great way to tell if a show isn't worth watching. As of March 2022, only 23 shows with the ecchi tag had a rating of 75% or higher. A full 10 of those 23 came from Monogatari and Food Wars. I think the reason for the bad ratings has a lot to do with how fanservice is handled. It is injected because the audience wants it, but based on the numbers, it often comes at the cost of the show being good. Blushes and intimacy get replaced with jiggles and panty flashes. It's degrading.

My Dress-Up Darling actually does a really great job of not making this mistake. The times that fanservice comes up, it narratively makes sense and in those moments, the characters never deviate from who they are.

Conclusion

My Dressup Darling takes plausible characters in an unlikely situation and runs with it. What makes Gojo such a good character is that he is relatable to a lot of people. What makes Marin so amazing is that she is nice, genuine, attractive, and accepts Gojo's most embarrassing things.

Whether or not you would enjoy the show will vary from person to person. The amount of skin shown is definitely a red flag for some. The fact that the main character is a shut-in will turn others away. A lot of people find Marin to be unrealistic - which is why I addressed it. But many others enjoy the heartwarming relationship that forms and the genuine likability of the characters.

Thanks for reading.