Forum - View topicEP. REVIEW: My Dress-Up Darling
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TheWayEyeRoll
Posts: 4 |
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Thank you to the reviewer, whose reviews of the first three episodes convinced me to give this show a try. Despite some issues, it's become one of my favorite shows of the past few years. The writing, the comedy, the animation, the subtitles were all top notch. I hadn't felt like this since Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken - that I was watching something special and rare.
I realized my two favorite scenes in the series are both wordless with Gojo and Marin looking at each other: the love hotel scene and then this week's fireworks scene. Even if they aren't a couple, they are both happy spending time together and the fireworks scene was just a really sweet moment, brought to a laugh-out-loud funny conclusion. Random thought about last week's ending (since I watched the episode three times) - perhaps I don't know enough about Japanese culture, but it amuses me that Gojo seems to have no problem imagining being intimate with Marin, but even in that moment he still refers to her as Kitagawa-san |
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MFrontier
Posts: 11990 |
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It was nice to see the finale just be a casual, relaxing, normal episode of Gojo and Marin together. It was oddly sweet and realistic that way. Like, Juju and Shinju aren't even in it, but all the same it was nice to just focus on the main pairing.
I don't know a lot about Mr. Kitagawa, but the fact that he barely has time to spend with Marin but is worried enough about her education to cancel a daddy daughter festival date so she could do her Summer homework instead of procrastinating and having to send literal pictures proving she was doing it probably says a lot. I find it kind of funny that we never see Marin wear a swimsuit when she's actually near water. Well, other than that picture of her and Nowa. Also, wet Marin! Marin looked amazing in that yukata. The style! The color! The hair! The nape! And the moment she realizes Gojo has a neck fetish, she maximizes it for all its worth. Those fireworks were beautiful...but not as beautiful as Gojo turning his attention to Marin when he realizes he was only able to see them because of her, and she's even more beautiful. Of course Marin ruined the mood, but still. Not surprising that Marin's geta sandals hurt, but perfect excuse for a piggyback ride! Marin confessing over the phone to a sleeping Gojo was sweet. I would've been disappointed if she hadn't taken that opportunity to say it. Obviously it was the "safest" way of confessing, but it feels like she's building up to tell him to his face. I feel like as popular and successful as this series has become, a season 2 is probably a lock, although I guess it's a matter of when at this point. But congratulations to Cloverworks and the cast and staff for delivering such a stellar adaption of a great manga. And just like Marin said to Gojo, "see you soon!" |
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primalmaximus
Posts: 106 |
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Based on how much of the manga this season covered, it's probably going to be a while before we get a 2nd season. |
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11451 |
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I don't think he's as dense as people take him for. It's just that he doesn't want to believe it could be true only to be wrong and mess up everything if he acts on it, and he doesn't have the experience to feel any confidence that he's reading her signals correctly. If I lose my head and start believing a dorky guy like me could ever interest a popular beauty like Marin, well, how humiliating would that be to even think so for a minute because of course I couldn't... Self-image is a bitch to overcome no matter what's going on outside your head. And he's smart enough to realize that even the love hotel moment could've just been both of them getting carried away by their positions and the setting, and only be a fleeting physical thing that's embarrassing in hindsight but no more meaningful than that. Also, for the most part, her behavior hasn't been all that much different from how she was acting before she fell for him, in terms of showing skin or letting him touch her or her touching him. She's teased him both deliberately and accidentally, and laughed at his reactions (though not in a mean or ridiculing way) from the start. Viewers know her motivations have changed, because we have access that Gojo doesn't. But their cosplay activities are by necessity rather more intimate than they would be otherwise, so it would be easy for even a romantically experienced person to misread some things. He's going to need to be absolutely sure before risking their friendship on the possibility of more. |
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jdnation
Posts: 2031 |
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Great show! I loved the last episode, but also feel I wanted a last episode with more oomph or pizzazz or something... so it was certainly different for a finale... I was expecting this to end with a cosplay event... but I like these little slice stories too. I guess it's good enough until Season 2 comes around.
Frustrating as it is to see, yeah, guys like Gojo really do exist. Or I should say their sensitivities at least... They don't want to get their hopes up out of fear of rejection or moving too fast or even presuming anything in the first place. It's not like they've spent that much time together timeline wise... It's that fear that comes from liking a girl, but knowing the possibility that attempting a romantic relationship could cost you the friendship you already have with her and make things awkward, so maybe it's better to just leave things be and enjoy the time you have together. You can't go back to what you had before once you cross that line. I like that the show is taking its time too. Let it run its slow course. And as someone who has no interest in ever participating in the cosplay scene outside of some Halloween attempts and school plays, I've seen some stunning costumes out there, so I do like to see and learn about all the effort that goes into it. |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2363 |
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Gina -- hm, yeah; I think that's a reasonable interpretation. It has been some time since we've gotten much of a look into Gojo's internal monologue; it would be nice if we got some kind of explicit confirmation that he's at least suspicious their relationship is moving in a romantic direction, even if he also dismisses the idea out've insecurity etc each time it occurs to him.
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Gina Szanboti
Posts: 11451 |
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It seems to me that she's pretty much trained him not to suspect that she could be interested in him. Every time he's noticed her as a girl and not a dress-up doll, if she's broken through her own obliviousness about his reactions to her, she's laughed and told him not to take things so seriously.
I'm particularly thinking of when she flashed him in the clothing store. When someone keeps doing stuff like that and laughing it off as a joke or teasing, how are you supposed to sort out which, if any, of their actions are actual signals of interest while still trying to protect yourself from being the butt of that joke? It's safest to just assume it's always just kidding around. |
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Zeino
Posts: 1098 |
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And so it's finally over. This show has been an absolute joy from start to finish. Kitagawa's enthusiasm for everything has been infectious and was a bright light for me in a world that's not so great right now. And Gojo has been prime husband material despite totally undervaluing everything he brings to the table.
If there's any down side to this, it's that this is now my new high bar for judging heterosexual romance in anime. |
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Folcwine P. Pywackett
 Posts: 99 |
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Unless the teasing is part of a mean pattern of bullying, in general when a girl teases a boy she is saying "I like you! Let's play." A girl does not tease a boy she does not like or is not interested in. Marin does not have to hide her interest in Gojō Wakana because, never having had a friend or a girlfriend, he has no experience and no clue to any sort of social signal. There is a whole anime dedicated to this one topic, "Teasing Master Takagi-san". Takagi-san endlessly teases Nishikata-kun who thinks they are playing a win-lose game and that they are in competition, but Takagi-san is actually playing a win-win game! Marin would never waste her time teasing a boy she did not like and respect! She also is playing a win-win game. |
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Picky33
Posts: 267 |
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All in all, I really enjoyed this show. I enjoyed it more because I can see other people in this show because I go to cons a lot and I know a bunch of cosplayers, plus it was educational.
I give it a 8.5 out of 10, my only gripe was how few outfits they did. The OP and ED were good, catchy. I recommend watching the official music video for the OP, as the artist cosplays some of the cosplay's from the show. I'm glad I waited till it was almost over to watch so it didn't spoil it. This show for weeks was battling for top spot and I could see why. Honestly I'm surprised how addicted I got to this show, some things I watch I feel like I'm in this deep, might as well go all the way. I also rate this as a good gateway follow up show to friends who are just getting into anime or are casual fans. lots of references to both western and eastern culture. |
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NeverConvex
Subscriber Posts: 2363 |
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I think I see this as more reason for him to doubt his suspicions, but not for them to go away entirely. People often behave in contradictory ways, and I think for a reasonably observant person that becomes apparent early in life. You've definitely convinced me it's reasonable for his self-doubt to win -- even for him to objectively weigh the evidence and decide that, no, at most she's just flirtatiously messing with him -- and for him to decide that she's probably not really interested romantically, especially given his inexperience. But I still think he should have those suspicions (or hopes -- both, I suppose) in the first place, and they should be recurrent. I'll be curious to see how his inner monologue is described whenever we get our next window into it. That's actually something I wish I had paid more careful attention to; I think Dress-Up Darling has switched between "inner worlds" (and a sort of entirely third-person-camera observer) a fair bit, and each time that happens it changes how the story is framed for us pretty dramatically. Prolly should've been looking out for that more. |
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Morning Blue
Posts: 62 |
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I overall really liked My Dress-Up Darling, but yes I'm inclined to agree that the fanservice with Sajuna made me uncomfortable, especially when it resorts to unfunny female-on-male slapstick and a threat of calling the police on Gojo if he doesn't make her a costume. One of the worst first impressions to a character I've seen in an anime in years. In a lesser show I would've dropped the series right then and there.
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