(Cross-posted on Goodreads for Volume 1)
“My Dress-Up Darling” offers a cute setup, but the blatant fanservice undercuts most of Volume 1. Wakana Gojou, an awkward but determined wannabe doll-artisan, begins to make cosplays for classmate, popular Marin Kitagawa. The two of them are adorable, with Marin, confident and with no filter, dragging Gojou out of his shell and Gojou’s earnestness finally being appreciated by Marin. Some of the lewder jokes hit, like the reveal Marin’s cosplay is from a highly explicit adult game and the manga balances Gojou’s attraction to Marin with their growing friendship. But so much of the fanservice is just Marin, in her underwear through some stray breeze or plot contrivance. If you can roll with it or are charmed enough by their relationship, it might be for you. But every time I really started to enjoy it, there was another excruciatingly long moment of Marin unknowingly flashing the audience. You can’t help but wish the manga dropped the adult content and just focused on cosplay.