I've strayed from this line of thinking but to be fair, it was far from unjustified
Bisque Doll S1 fanservice was extra extra, being exceptionally confident in displaying elongated scenes of litteraly just jiggling chest like its a ZZZ menu animation or a whole episode of lascivious angles and shots of Marin's body. The sexual aspects were so overemphasized that the other ones fell short in comparison and felt superficial or unauthentic. A common counter argument made by the fans was that, sexuality is normal and that embracing it actually made the story more believable and genuine, especially from a teen Gojo perspective (gomen... Amanai).
But this falls short when you see the actual 'sexuality' in question. Labeling this series as anything similar to psychosexual is a diabolical stretch. Some fanservice scenes are not only voyeuristic and self insertish but they also lack proper build up, relying solely on clumsy and unnatural accidents which defeats the whole purpose of an intentional sexual subject.
In theory, I agree, a romance dealing with sexuality can be interesting but in practice it was treated like in any other horny romance anime for a male audience -> to titilate, not as a proper theme.
Which leads us to the first leverage that made me reconsider my opinion of the anime: the overwhelming female fanbase.
Cosplaying is a stigmatized hobby as irl internet female cosplayers are often called pick me's and are objectified by their male audience that are very vocal about masturbating to them and fetishizing their bodies. You can easily find hundreds of online forum about grown men asking how they're supposed to 'control themselves' in anime conventions with all the sexy cosplays talm bout sum 'why would women wear these if not for the male gaze' lmaoo. I'll answer this question with the very basic notion that cosplay is a form of self expression. All self expression is tied to how others perceive you but that doesn't mean your own self perception doesnt largely come into play as well.
Similarly, Marin cosplays not for others but for herself. This isn't a symbolical thing either, it's concretely shown repeatedly in the story. She admires the characters she dresses up as and cosplaying allows her to show her enthusiasm and love for her interests. She always has agency over her body and even her revealing cosplays are framed in a way that highlights her confidence and vollition. In fact, the whole story is about her dreams and wishes.
It reminds me of Lum from Urusei Yatsura whose fanbase I assumed was male but is actually largely appreciated by women. Her sense of fashion & chara design, her loudness yet kindess and the fact she's the one actively pursuing Ataru instead of being chased all contributed to her being liked by both target audiences. The gaze shifts depending on if the character's own body is a disservice to herself or something she truly owns.
Which leads me to my accusations to Cloverworks. Your honor, I'm confident most of the voyeuristic atmosphere I sensed from this story mainly came from the anime. I havent read the manga but I'm pretty confident there is no equivalent of the 10 seconds jiggly scene in it.
Spoiler, click to viewclick to hide
putting ts in spoilers because otherwise it was messing up with the visual flow of the review ngl lmaoIn addition, many things I hated were more linked to the direction of S1 than anything. Super expressive sequences like ths genuinely piss me off, by wanting to be over the top and express a feeling in the most extra way possible it actually makes it look so fake and cheap. This isn't a genuine transcription of her emotions either it's just supposed to make her look attractive. (also a gooner guy on a discord serv had this as his pfp for 1 years so this might have disturbed my interpretation of the gif 💔)
The manga is a seinen so the target audience has always been men but Cloverworks boosted that factor times ten. I don't want to push the agenda of the small manga being eaten up and devoided of its substance by the big company though because I haven't read it so it's probably untrue.
S2 in contrast, leaned more into portraying Kitagawa as fashionable & cute as well as playing into a girly atmosphere, best example of this being the Kawaii Kawai ed
Most of this has been true ever since season 1 though so it's not the reason my mind changed about the anime. Rather, I attribute it to the the consistency of the story in many aspects
My Dress Up Darling has a very clear and obvious 'be yourself' theme. My parasocial interpretation of the author is that she probably was ostracized or at least felt ashamed of one of her interests. Hence why her story is built on empathy and mutual understanding. I expected the classmates to fullfill pseudo antagonists roles and I'm glad it's not the case. I dislike when the 'popular kids' are always depicted as heartless assholes that solely exist to bully the weak. I think it's a dull and bad stereotype that's also pretty hypocrital considering this type of stories usually depict a hero bulied precisely because of stereotyoping
The be yourself message goes both ways, for both groups of people. The author doesn't punish the popular kids for being popular, she gives them a voice and allow them to be partially revelant in the story. They aren't just foil. By example, you have the red haired guy that helps Marin acts masculine for her cosplay, an area where Gojo is clearly useless
A scene from episode 3 I particularly liked was when Amano retails what happened when his ex found out about his crossdressing hobby. I had thought the scene was ruined when Marin started crying which would havbe derailled our attention to her even though we could easily guess her stance on the subject already. This would have genuinely pissed me off because, the 'be yourself' theme would quite hypocritcal if we only ever cared about Marin's perspective on others' lives and not give them a proper voice and unique point of view. Marin interrupting the scene to throw a tantrum would've made me ragequit. That's why I was extremely pleasantly surprised when she said 'When she saw all the costumes you own, she should've understood how precious this passion is to you. How could she ask you to throw it all away? I would've never forgive them'
This is actually the perfect answer naratively speaking because this doesn't put the focus on Marin specifically, it circled the subject back to Amano. We immediately see a shot of him, with his eyes hidden. Instead of caring about what Marin thinks, you wonder if he ever truly forgave his ex and how he feels about living his passion alone, supported by no one (allegedly, maybe his family or sum are cool with it, idk). This puts in perspective the message because cosplay is always shown as this dreamy ideal hobby that frees you from societal's pressure. Not only was it shown there as something that ostracizes you, it also implies his passion could be fueled by hidden anger or rage too. Like cospalying a sort of vengeance or a powerful act of taking back what's yours from society: your identity. All of this wihtout mischaracterizing Marin because she would have obviously reacted there but her reaction isn't the main focus and it expands the theming instead of limiting it to herself.
Another interpretation I have is that though the author confirmed she based Marin off herself, I think she actually wrote herself in Gojo, the latter sharing her doubts and insecurities about art and the former being her ideal self, freed of all this neuroticism
I think Gojo is a well written protagonist and he’s the reason I see genuineness in My Dress Up Darling. I didn't like him at first because he was bland and fits the perfect patient and nurtruting love interest archetype a little too religiously. But I have to admit it's impressive how persistently the story portrays him as feminine and shy no matter what. In many stories I’ve read, when the male lead is vulnerable or weak, it’s immediately superficially contrasted by a masculine feature (cough cough some other ongoing romance anime). We still want the character to be attractive to the fanbase so he’s only ever as flawed as he’s attractive
Even the most introverted, shy character will stand up and act like a stereotypical chad when his love interest is in danger. One of the most common trop in shoujo (Doll is a seinen, but again it shares many tropes and similarities to josei or a very horny shoujo so I'll compare it them) is some guys bothering the female lead, causing the male lead to dramatically react in an exaggerated fashion, no matter how out of character it is. In this season, Marin was seemingly in danger when approached by guys. While it’d would be the occasion to mischaracterize the nerdy dude in any other series, Gojo pled and cried so that the guys would leave Marin alone.
It’s a comedic scene but to me it proves that Gojo isn’t solely written to fit the perfect love interest archetype at the cost of his character. His sensibility is a legitimate character trait that doesn’t magically turn on and off to appeal to the audience. This seems like bare minimum but I’ve genuinely seen the contrary happen countless times
You could see the theming since S1 and the passion of the author since the begining but the fanservice felt so forced that it convinced me all these other aspects were superficial too. It wasn’t a drastic scene that change my mind on this series, it was consistency. The story really is driven by the pasion of the author for cosplay and it’s very informative in this regard as well.
She reportedly cried when she saw the op and ed of S1 and she’s shown her enthusiasm for people cosplaying Marin many times online. To me, she’s fascinated by cosplayers because of their beauty, dedication and boldness which are all traits she admires. This is why she wrote the manga, to share her passion and give a fresh perspective from the cosplayer point of view and though I'm not a fan I can’t ignore a proof of good faith and I don’t think Sono Bisque Doll is just goonbait at all anymore
In conclusion, both truths can coexist at the same time. It's marketed for guys because the mc is a shut in who magically meets an extraverted popular girl that's into his nerdy stuff. But it's also appealing to a female audience because Gojo respects Marin, always listens to her, tries to make her happy Marin, though sexualised always have control and agency over her body. I think sticking to only one intepretation is close minded and that this anime really isn't as offensive and shocking as people make it out to be. I understand the critics but, because of all the aforementioned arguments, only seeing fanservice is bad faith in my opinion.
Judging by the popularity among the cosplayer community, I think the aim of the author was achieved through the anime, though it played into distasteful fanservice as well. I still wouldn't call the story well written per say, I've mentionned red hair dude being given a voice but most of the help he's done was off screen. I've mentioned how I liked Amano's arc but his flashback still remains very basic and his internal conflicts are never really explored at all. My opinion hasn't changed to the point I'd call this a masterpiece but it's definitely a passionated project that one would be a fool to deny