Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru

High school student Wakana Gojou spends his days perfecting the art of making hina dolls, hoping to eventually reach his grandfather's level of expertise. While his fellow teenagers busy themselves with pop culture, Gojou finds bliss in sewing clothes for his dolls. Nonetheless, he goes to great lengths to keep his unique hobby a secret, as he believes that he would be ridiculed were it revealed.

Enter Marin Kitagawa, an extraordinarily pretty girl whose confidence and poise are in stark contrast to Gojou's meekness. It would defy common sense for the friendless Gojou to mix with the likes of Kitagawa, who is always surrounded by her peers. However, the unimaginable happens when Kitagawa discovers Gojou's prowess with a sewing machine and brightly confesses to him about her own hobby: cosplay. Because her sewing skills are pitiable, she decides to enlist his help.

As Gojou and Kitagawa work together on one cosplay outfit after another, they cannot help but grow close—even though their lives are worlds apart.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Kitagawa, Marin Main

Suguta, Hina Japanese

Gojou, Wakana Main

Ishige, Shouya Japanese

Inui, Sajuna Supporting

Tanezaki, Atsumi Japanese

Inui, Shinju Supporting

Youmiya, Hina Japanese

Sugaya, Nowa Supporting

Takeda, Larissa Tago Japanese

Gojou, Kaoru Supporting

Ono, Atsushi Japanese

Liz Supporting

Kuno, Misaki Japanese

Tengeji, Mirai Supporting

Tange, Sakura Japanese

Rune Supporting

Sekine, Akira Japanese

Kaname Supporting

Shirai, Yuusuke Japanese

Umehara, Shouta Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki Producer

Nakayama, Nobuhiro Producer

Komatsu, Shouta Producer

Reviews

Jul 22, 2024

Caeruleus_CCXVI

Recommended

7/10 I hate that I enjoyed this

Im not usually one for Romcoms, especially when it comes to anime. I would prefer a full blown drama like Nana or something. Despite that as someone with a sewing background and have had a parallel lifestyle to the hole cosplay thing. So it was all to relatable for me. Marin was certainly written and animated to be 'Best girl', and I normally HATE characters like Gojo however he was not an audience’s insert which I deeply enjoyed. Inserts for audience are my all time least favorite character's. This kid has hopes and dreams and enjoys life... it ... was all refreshing to see.


Gojo is NOT an audience’s insert. I was of this sentiment when the show first started airing. I genuinely believed that this anime was nothing more than “Loner, introverted, average-looking dude with no friends meets cute, popular and outgoing girl that everyone will simp for”. Well, thankfully I was proven wrong. Gojo is a realistic character, he has a passion for making hina dolls, and i think this is where My Dress-up Darling shines the most. It captures what having a passion looks like really well in both Marin and Gojo. Gojo's attention to detail to the level of near-obsession and his perfectionist yet intimate standards of "beauty" is something I can personally relate to, and I'm sure literally anyone that is fervent about a hobby can also see themselves to varying extents in Gojo. He is still flawed in his work, he can't draw faces well, largely due to his lack of social interaction, because no one is perfect at anything, there will always be room for improvement.

I think the two leads bounce off each other really well. The saying “opposites attract” fits really well here. Gojo is introverted, and Marin helps him break out of his shell. Marin can’t make cosplay outfits, despite wanting to cosplay characters, and Gojo helps realize that passion for her. Marin is eccentric and somewhat impulsive, whereas Gojo is more grounded, which does help them in a lot of situations. It makes for an enjoyable dynamic as they complement each other really well, and they cover for the other’s flaws.

A largely overlooked reason that it is so beloved is because many people, myself included, agree with the themes and the overall message of the narrative. It is not subtle at all with its intent of preaching the message “Don’t be ashamed of liking whatever you want”. It’s something that surely everyone can agree with. Back in the days when anime was not as popular as it is today, and it even still happens today, it’s not uncommon for anime fans to be ostracized by others on the sole basis for liking anime, and I think this show speaks to them on a personal level. It’s refreshing, and it’s always uplifting to have one’s hobbies validated, no matter how weird it may be perceived to be.

Now, clearly from the score, I also have some criticism to lobby here, and now I'll explain why some people may not like this show, and the gripes that I personally have.

The characters. Wait, wasn’t I just gushing about how good the characters were? Well, let’s start with Marin, while parts of her personality are relatable, she’s an unrealistic character. No sane person, no matter how whimsical or capricious, would stalk a dude that they have just met and barge into his house, uninvited. No sane person, no matter how whimsical or capricious, would accidentally rent a love hotel and mistake it for a photography studio. Her outright stupidity at times is used as a plot device to get them into the situation that the author wants when there is no other seamless way to do it. It makes some of the funny moments feel really convenient. As for Gojo, he comes off as a typical, generic nice guy romcom protagonist in the first few episodes, it was only later on when i started to really like him, not to mention, his “sad” backstory in order to get the audience to sympathize with him and justify his introverted Ness comes out of nowhere, when we barely know the guy. It can seem manipulative, and I really didn't buy this introductory episode. I unfortunately could not empathies with him as an introverted loner, and I ended up liking Gojo for other reasons.

The fanservice. I hate to be that guy who comes off as “the fanservice hater”, because I do not hate fanservice in general. However, I do dislike the fanservice in My Dress-up Darling. In ep 2, for example, Gojo was clearly uncomfortable with Marin when she stripped to get him to “take her measurements”. The scene was clearly contrived for fanservice, and when it's at the expense of someone’s dignity, it does not sit well with me. The love hotel in ep 11 once again was contrived to provide the usual romcom hijinks. Once again, Gojo, the voice of reason, was against the idea of them, being minors, spending time in a love hotel. However, Marin replied with “yeah, if you’re normies”, and then pulled out the sunk cost fallacy argument, which is just really helpful in assuaging these kinds of concerns. This “fanservice” that the show has does not add much enjoyment to it for me. On the contrary, it can be annoying at times and I really think this show could have done without the fanservice.

Overall, I think My Dress-up Darling was a really enjoyable ride. However, it’s far from perfect, and there were parts of it that hampered an otherwise amazing show. While I'm willing to overlook most of the flaws and i think the show is good for the most part, I would ABSOLUTELY NEVER feel safe recommending this to the average person, for obvious reasons."

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 17, 2024

Eliserss

Mixed Feelings

Dress-up Darling sets itself apart from the typical romance manga - it's not just mindless lovey-dovey things happening and misunderstandings leading to comedic situations. When I went into this I expected it to just be generic hot cosplayer waifu bait and... well, I wasn't entirely wrong, but the cosplay aspect of this is what carries it to a 6 for me.

Cosplay is a different experience for everyone and the anime explores that pretty well. From the people caring about replicating a character 1:1 to the people just wanting to dress up as their favorite regardless of how their body matches. It also explores some ... other themes adjacent to the main cosplay theme. The strongest of these was the exploration of how we put others up on a pedestal when it comes to beauty. Everyone has insecurities, as obvious a statement as that is - and it's so obvious that we never really truly think about it. Dress-up Darling forces a realistic example of it in front of you and executes it very well to truly make you realize it.

However, the elephant in the room... The constant sexualization of minor characters. It made this uncomfortable at times despite the cosplay theme being explored pretty well (and as a cosplayer myself it's why I gave this a generous 6). Still, if you can try your best to look past it and see it more as a 'young love in silly moments' rather than 'wow, the author is a total creep' then you can probably be less disturbed by it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Feb 2, 2024

DarkSpaceVRP

Not Recommended

Funny

For some time now, I've wanted to write a review about this anime. I think it's good to express my opinion on this work since in addition to practicing my writing a little, I can also express some points about this anime. From now on, this review will be extremely negative so feel free to disagree with my opinion.
I was at the beginning of 2022 (my god how fast time passes) and I came across a new anime from CloverWorks, a producer that despite some disasters like The Promissed Neverland and Darling In The Fraxx, knows how to make good anime like Spy x Family, ... Horimiya and Wonder Egg Priority. Since at that time I didn't have anything better to do other than go to school and sleep, I watched any anime that came out during the season and Dress-Up Darling was no exception. I had very high expectations about this anime but in the end I ended up being disappointed.
The anime's proposal isn't interesting at all, but it can still captivate those niche otakus, simply a hot girl and a doll maker in a silly relationship etc etc... It can't be that bad, can it?
Yes! It's horrible!
The execution is a disaster, the anime fails to convey any message in a subtle way or convey any feeling to the viewer, the anime fails in all aspects of the script. When they tried to convey a message in the first few episodes to viewers like, "Don't give up! Try hard!" They simply passed in the most ridiculous way possible, making the protagonist sleepless because of a promise he made to a girl he had just met. What kind of message do you want to send to the viewer? (Deprive yourself of sleep for women you disgusting otaku) or something like that. So far so good, it's still an anime despite being scripturally weak and people have a lot of hype, it should be good. I think that continuing to watch this anime was one of the worst decisions I could have made, this anime is a degradation for the anime industry, it uses such cheap humor and just focuses the production on Ecchi scenes, which embarrasses anyone with the minimal sense. The backstory is completely uninteresting and the protagonists' relationships are completely superficial. And it can even get worse! To get some drama or anything even remotely interesting, they put a second girl in the anime, at this point the script borders on insanity, bringing one of the worst scenes I've ever seen in my life. What's the fun in making jokes about a girl the protagonist doesn't even know naked in front of him?
Maybe I'm getting old or my sense of humor is completely outdated, but even if I tried, I couldn't entertain myself watching this anime. It has nothing good except the Ecchi scenes, and if the anime were to focus on Ecchi they would have had to make a Hentai that would have been much more logical. In fact, if this anime were a Hentai it would be much better, it would reach the target audience more easily and no one would be able to complain about how bad its backstory is, being able to spend money without worrying on degenerate scenes, made only to make otakus excited.
For me, nothing will ever explain how high this average score is. Even the song by The Smiths called Still Ill manages to convey a better message about the feelings of romance in 3 minutes of music, than this anime that depends on 12 episodes with 24 minutes each to fail to deliver anything to the viewer. And to finish, I'm going to write an excerpt from the song that expresses my opinion about current romance animes: "It just wasn't like, the old days anymore, no it wasn't like those days... am I still ill?".

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 3 4 5 ... Last Page ) Stark700 - Jan 8, 2022	396 replies	by satyrelfheim »» Jul 22, 9:06 AM
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My Dress-Up Darling: An Interview with the Director, Part 1

*My Dress-Up Darling* has sold over 8million copies, with a hit anime in Winter 2022 and a sequel in the way. It's about cosplay-loving Marin and Wakana, an aspiring doll craftsman. Fans were captivated by the slow-burning love and the realistic cosplay. We got the details from the director.

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