Gender expression
One of the first things that caught me off guard while reading My Dress Up Darling was a actual good representation of a cross-dresser, amano-kun. It's usually not unusual for anime to just put off those characters in a "humoristic" way, without really exploring those characters. The fact that they cross-dress is purely for fan-service, without exploring what they really feel about it, cross-dress is treated as a joke or something purely sexual.
But my Dress Up Darling is different, amano-kun is a high school student that was often looked down because of his appearance that was more feminine than the average man. That made him look less both for girls and boys and naturally, but his sister, one day, just had the idea of putting a wig and some make up on him.
Seeing that, amano-kun has happy with his look, he looked fabulous. And since then, he started trying out more and more things, with the support of his mom and sister, he started doing making cosplay of feminine characters.
Eventually he finds a girlfriend, but she freaks out the moment she sees all of those dresses and feminine clothing in his wardrobe. Then, discovering the truth she just says to him that such thing is "madness" and he should "trow away all of that."
The thing is, amano-kun instead of trowing off his clothing, he breaks up with her.
That is huge. Instead of conforming to society standards, instead of trying to "fit in" to be normal. My Dress Up Darling acknowledges the individuality of each character, they understand that society may frown up people that does things outside of binary of gender expression, but they give them depth, they give them voice. Amano-kun is not a character that exists to make fan-service or to be a joke, amano-kun is a person, with his own struggles, with his own development. In a era that gender expression is a topic that are just no talked enough, seeing a anime represent such struggle in a respectful way makes me hopeful for the future of anime and society in general.
There are also a lot of minor gender-related topics around Dress Up Darling, but i'm gonna adress those in the next topic.
Adulthood - What it means to be a adult after all?
After watching the entire second season i could say that is one the most important themes around My Dress Up Darling. While we watch the struggles of high school students it's rather safe to say that a lot of the topics and themes are around hobby's and how they shape or own identity, this come with a direct clash with adulthood. While not exactly a popular view, there is parent's and adults that think they need to fit in some box to be a 'decent' adult, and the only way to do this is to give up such "childish" hobby's.
Such a mindset, while maybe be absurd my majority of us, who consume anime, it's not a new idea. My Dress Up Darling challenges those notions, of what i should do? What i am? What i want to do?
Should you shy yourself into a shell of fear, afraid of what they might think of you? No. It's the clear answer that My Dress Up Darling says to us, that no matter the age, the gender or even what happened in the past, we should be able to pursue or own identity, or own happiness. May society not, in the start, understand us, but we can change it, make it for us, push the status quo to a place where diversity it's not to be blamed but something to be loved.
Conclusion
My Dress up Darling in the second season really was something i was not expecting, but made me really happy and resonated with me. Hobby's now, in this past, in the future will be always something i love and for me makes us have a soul. By correlating hobby's, gender issues and adulthood My Dress up Darling reaches out of your typical romance and tackles some real world problems with depth, making not just a fun anime to watch but a anime that can change the mindset of the people who watch and inspire them to be better version of themselves or even saying something that they could not hear from anyone.
Saying this, i love this anime to the core. 9.5 is my score.