Like many, I learned about the existence of this show in conversations about Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru, that this one was an “spicier” or more ecchi version of it, and I thought that, just like the series it was being compared to, this would be a light trashy lecture to see hot girls, and I wouldn’t say I disagree with people who called it an even ecchier version, you are immediately bombarded with everything you were expecting, even if by now I disagree with the comparisons since both series are very different despite the cosplay theme as they go in pretty different directions. As the author of the series would put it, the real series started after it stopped being a series where a guy gets himself in lewd situations with a couple of girls and turned into a cosplay manga, it’s not like it stops being ecchi, but it definitely puts a stop to only being that to actually have a focus on the actual characters and storyline, focusing more on otaku culture and even being some kind of hot blooded sports manga but with very hot girls.

This show starts with our dear otaku Okumura in his manga club at school when suddenly one day this very cute and hot girl Ririsa enters the room, wants to join the club, starts undressing to change into her cosplay and as the MC’s waifu, and then you just know the kind of series you are getting into, it’s a fun ecchi series for the first couple of episodes. However, I think the series actually gets real by the time Mayuri appears, because that’s the point where the manga evolves, the scene where they have to submit a report to keep the club’s room but they don’t want to lie about it because it is not true to their ideals, that it would be admitting that they are embarrassed about what they enjoy, where we’re given the counterpoint about people thinking that something like cosplay is just for some girls to get attention on their social media, and that people won’t take seriously that kind of hobby even if you’re serious about it because it would still look “shameful”, as these people will see you liking anime and say that those are “merely cartoons” and you have no reason keep watching it past childhood age, Ririsa’s response to it is powerful, and it cements an important part of the theme of the series, that doing your hobbies is not something you should be ashamed of just because some other people may not approve of it. That’s pretty much the moment where the anime and series in general start taking a change into something that actually stands up for something, and that something is probably very relatable for anyone who has watching anime, reading manga or even reading comics or playing video games for being very real issues that fans face.

From there on you have actually genuine arcs that follows similar themes to that, and it was very easy to care about it as these characters are very endearing, because they very clearly have some attitudes that you have seen or experienced before, for example, I immediately loved Nagomi’s character because of the way that she talked to Ririsa as if Ririsa didn’t even know in which floor she is standing on since she was just a beginner, then proceeds to tell her all the criticism she has gotten and how she doesn’t care about that, to then say that she loves cosplay more than anyone else, and I know people will see her as mean for that, and well she was but I felt very endeared towards her from that point onwards as I have definitely said some similar things to people multiple times across the internet, of course, her character isn’t only being mean to new people but actually rediscovering her love for cosplay and how fun it is. Noa with her communication problems created one of the most annoying arcs of the series, but once you actually get to know her as a character, she clearly become much better as she can actually open her mouth and speak properly things one can easily understand, like complaining about extroverts just doing whatever she tried for so long in a couple of seconds when it comes to communication, or how she doesn’t want to be with people who compare things to the Avengers. Surprisingly, despite being cute, Mikari is probably the one that contributes the less towards the otaku feeling as she is one of the two people in the cast who isn’t an otaku, even if she is there for almost every group cosplay, she is the one that mainly moves the romance side of the things as she is clearly in love with Okumura, and because he don’t see 3DPDs that way, she gets very frustrated over the fact that she basically gets ignored in that aspect. Aria is the other normal person of the group who is barely getting started on cosplay to see her father again, her arc is actually one of the emotional highs of the series and has one of the best Okumura scenes. One line that has been lingering in my mind ever since I saw it was Mayuri saying that her watch list has been getting bigger and that she haven’t even catch up with previous seasonal anime, and I just know I’ll possibly end up like that one day.

The worst part of the adaptation is extremely obvious, that is, the censorship. Believe me when I tell you this is one of the worst cases of censorship I have seen in the last couple of years, to the point that thanks to it and another popular show like Ranma getting censored, people have gotten so paranoid about censorship that every single ecchi adaptation announced has been getting immediately jumped to the conclusion that it will be stupidly censored. Those people are exaggerating, of course, however, the censorship in this show isn’t normal at all, for example, say that they won’t add nipples, I have seen anime where the original manga showed nipples but the anime didn’t, not even in the blu-rays, and taking into account that JC Staff hasn’t made an anime with nipples in like 5 years then I was expecting the nipple censorship, but it doesn’t stop there, you just have to take a small look at how Liliel’s outfit looks in the manga, that was the first sign of this seen in the KV of the anime, as you can tell there’s far less underboob and the outfit is zipped, but the censorship level doesn’t stop at nipples, as it also includes pantyshots, underboob, boob grabs, ass shots, altered outfits to show less skin, and even entire scenes. The censorship in the cosplays is one of the worst offenders here, after all, this is a cosplay anime, censoring the cosplays is simply a ridiculous idea and I have no idea how it got into anyone’s head that they should do that, and it’s quite funny as there is an scene in episode 3 where Ririsa explains exactly that while trying to make a cosplay, showing how the outfit of the character in the manga always shows the nipples through the top and that the anime changes it to not do that so fans of the manga will notice the change and care about that part of the design, so it’s hilarious how the anime seems to lack this much self-awareness when that scene is exactly what is happening to the series saying it.

Of course, that is not the only problem with how the anime shows the girls, because in the manga, they have more distinguishable body types, there’s even a scene where Ririsa, Noa and Aria are changing and they start talking about how they look different, yet in the anime there is basically no difference between Ririsa and Aria’s bodies despite one saying she and the other is more muscular, when in the manga there is an obvious difference, as Ririsa actually looks soft while Aria looks more muscular and even Noa looks more slim to the point you can see her ribs, but this isn’t reflected in the anime at any point. This is the kind of little details that add to the erotic aesthetics of the show, which the manga is full of yet the anime very clearly lacks. I can’t get why they decided to take this manga and censor so much of it, I have heard people saying that it is for the gacha or to make it more accessible to other people which aren’t fond of ecchi, but at that point they are devaluating part of the message of the show about not being ashamed of your hobby even if others call it unfitting.

Of course, I love the show and the pretty poor job that JC Staff did won’t change that, it is very obviously a very inferior product compared to the manga, but it still is good enough to watch and enjoy, after all, the characters are as lovable as in the source material and there are many scenes that one could relate to in according to their experience with watching anime.

Thank you for reading.