Manga Review: My Dress-Up Darling 1 by Shinichi Fukuda
Marin Kitagawa is a fashionable, outgoing girl who enjoys eroge (naughty video games) and would like to cosplay as her favorite character, Shizuku. The problem is that she’s never learned to sew, and even with an instruction manual, her costume is disastrously bad. She comes to the school’s sewing practice room (hardly ever used since home ec classes were defunded and there’s no handicrafts club) to try to fix it, only to find that her very quiet classmate Wakana Gojo is there using one of the sewing machines. He, it turns out, is very good at sewing.
Wakana, as it happens, is the grandson of a dollmaker, who specializes in hina dolls used in Girls’ Day celebrations. He wants to go into the family business, so has trained in how to make the elaborate costumes for the dolls. But due to a disastrous experience trying to share his enthusiasm when at a sensitive age, he believes people will find his hobby weird and off-putting, so has hidden it at school. Marin is the first of his classmates to find out what he does in his spare time. When she shows him her attempt at a costume, Wakana reflexively points out all the things that make it fail, which he realizes too late is rude, but Marin is mostly impressed by how much he knows.
Marin pushes Wakana to help her out in creating a good Shizuku cosplay with his superior skills, and by osmosis starts introducing him to the concept of having a social life.
This shounen romance series recently got an animated adaptation which was quite popular, so I thought it was a good time to check out the manga.
Naturally, after Wakana’s been talked into the idea, there needs to be a measuring session, and then shopping for cloth and accessories to make the costume. In between, Wakana learns how easy it is to make friends if you don’t overthink it.
Good: Marin’s a lively, fun main character. She does tease Wakana a bit, but this is not one of those “teasing” manga and their relationship is more equal than that. While Wakana has a “plain” design in comparison, he’s valued for his skills rather than (as so often in shounen) just happening to the first boy who was nice to Marin. It’s clear that romance is in the air, but they’re starting from friendship.
The outfits are nice, and we learn useful costuming and sewing tips. I am hoping that future volumes also show Marin learning more about Wakana’s interest in dollmaking.
It should be noted that this series is heavy on the male-oriented fanservice. There are a lot of pictures of Marin in her underwear or swimsuit. She’s not shy about her body, and it takes a lot to get her flustered. (As opposed to Wakana, who’s very shy, inexperienced in human let alone female contact, and only now noticing bodies.) The feel is pretty horny, so although the manga’s aimed at high schoolers, it’s been slapped with a “mature readers” label for America. Honestly, I think most high-schoolers will be fine, but parents might be shocked.
There is a certain amount of “manic pixie dream girl” to Marin’s relationship with Wakana, which I know doesn’t sit well with some readers. The Japanese title translates to something like “The Bisque Doll that Fell in Love.” It remains to be seen if she gets character development in later volumes.
This is a pleasant manga, at least in the first volume, and I recommend it to shounen romance fans who are ready for the fanservice.
