Marin’s class chooses her for the school’s beauty pageant with a twist. She must cross-dress to win!
Episode 16 — “Has All My Measurements Memorized”
My Dress-Up Darling Makes Me Go Hmm.
No man is an island. John Donne wrote that in 1624, and it’s still true, especially of cosplayers and their costumers. The events in this episode of My Dress-Up Darling reminded me of how Gojou exhausted himself building an outfit for Marin to make the deadline for a cosplay event. The poor lad thought it would happen again because he had two duties for his class’s cultural festival — 1) Dress Marin and 2) Build class decorations.
I smiled so hard at how supportive Marin and Gojou’s classmates are of their cosplay collaboration. No one in My Dress-Up Darling sees him as creepy for having the talent to apply makeup and fabricate costumes for women. Instead, his family background of creating hina dolls impresses them. Better yet, they recognized that a specialist should use their skills for special projects instead of general set building. The class is a team, and each member has a role to play. Gojou’s role is to turn Marin into a charming, pretty boy and win the beauty pageant!
Meh.
I felt that My Dress-Up Darling spent too much time presenting details of the anime that Marin had based her cosplay character on. Sure, it permitted the show to provide copious amounts of reverse-harem fanservice. But narratively, we only needed to see two things: how this manga belonged in the yuri/girls’ love genre (instead of shojo) and how the bento scene became a primary driver of the lead characters’ romantic development.
The My Dress-Up Darling producers could have cut much of the fluff around the edges. But I also saw one of the challenging aspects of adapting a manga’s weekly cliffhangers to an anime’s time slot. Did the producers pad the time to deliver Gojou’s dramatic chase to stop Marin from buying the wrong materials for her costume? That’s a tradeoff and compromise we often see in adaptations. I would have preferred to see more of Marin and Gojou or their class’s interactions. I didn’t sign on to My Dress-Up Darling to watch some other show.
My Dress-Up Darling Makes Me Go Heh.
Flash-forward. Why is Gojou running so hard? And we’re back in time. Gojou and Marin’s class voted on a Russian roulette takoyaki pop-up for the cultural festival. Two weeks until the event. Oh, so now it’s points. Classes used to rank themselves by the amount of money they brought in. Now it’s by customer count, but they get demerits for breaking the rules about curfews. Hahaha! The kids in My Dress-Up Darling have such a competitive streak. Oh? What’s this about a beauty pageant? Obviously, the Marin Kitagawa Global Supremacy must continue its march through the institutions. Uh oh. There’s a twist! It’s a cross-dressing beauty pageant! Marin is all-in! She can cosplay at school! But who? Rei-sama from PrezHost. All the girls know who that is, and some of the boys!
Ah. Let’s watch My Dress-Up Darling take entirely too long to explain Marin’s inspired choice of a character from a popular manga, anime, and live-action drama. Cross-dressing yuri disguised as reverse-harem shojo romance. Is this foreshadowing? Will Marin’s cosplay be so “god-tier” that she meets the actress who played “Rei-sama?” Marin wuvs the famous “bento scene.” The girls and boys bond over that scene! Oh. There’s another wrinkle to the beauty pageant: Marin will perform something to charm the opposite sex members of the student council. Can Marin charm girls while dressed as a cute boy? Gojou-kun, do your best. Huh?! Who else will make her costume? His secret is out!
What Was I Watching Again? My Dress-Up Darling?
Oh, again. Let’s watch the My Dress-Up Darling anime present the PrezHost anime. Rei-sama is the “prince” and student council president of Koyomi’s (transfer student and the self-insert role) all-girl school. TL;DR wall of text! The president of an all-girls high school works at her brother’s host club as a host, extracting money from rich, lonely women. And Rei is better at it than the other hosts. Plus, all her favorites know she’s a girl! Finally, Rei likes Koyomi’s simple bento boxes better than the fancy ones her fans give her because Koyomi makes lunch just like her late mother used to. And now Gojou-kun knows everything he should know to make the best costume for Marin. Tears like a waterfall, Gojou-kun!
Right! We were watching My Dress-Up Darling! One budget-conscious change to Rei’s costume is spray-painting a plastic rose instead of paying for an expensive rainbow rose. Marin’s curviness and slim waist will also affect how Gojou trims the host suit to give her broad shoulders. Her figure is too girly and sexy to make her look like a man! Straightforward compliment straight into Marin’s veins! And Gojou-kun has memorized all her measurements. Eek! She nervously combed her fingers through her hair, remembering how he took those measurements! Uh oh. Gojou says he doesn’t have enough time to work on her costume because he also must help the class move supplies and make decorations. We saw how Marin’s first attempt at making a cosplay outfit turned out. Should she assemble Rei’s suit herself? Doubtful, but Marin wants to try!
My Interior Decorator? No, No, No. My Dress-Up Darling!
What are you doing here, Gojou-kun? You should be making Marin’s costume. Huh? Huh! Aw. Nowa is the Gojou-kun whisperer. She suspected he thought he had to help the class because the teacher said the boys needed to lift heavy things. This scene warms my heart. The classmates all support the division of labor, so Gojou can worry about Marin’s outfit. Wait a minute. Is Marin out buying costume supplies? Run. Run! They’re cheering for him. What a nice feeling for Gojou.
And we’ve caught up to the first few seconds of the My Dress-Up Darling episode. Gojou and Marin can shop together.
Next time, 800 million. 800 million what? Not yen, I hope. Points? Very generous scale.
My Dress-Up Darling (Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru) streams on Crunchyroll in Japanese with multiple language subtitles.
Did you enjoy the subversive mashup of the shojo and BL manga genres? That’s so meta! But I’m most curious about how Gojou will flatten Marin’s boobs to fit into the host suit. Or how to straighten her curves? What did you like best about this episode? Let us know in the comments below!
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