My Dress-Up Darling, Vol. 7 (2024)

The question of why the heck Gojo and Marin aren’t dating gets answered - it’s Gojo by the way - and then Marin gets brought low by the Dreaded Manga Cold (tm). Then it’s time to enter the world of crossplay and Gojo might finally get it through his head that the person most holding him back… is himself.

Whatever the opposite of death by a thousand cuts is, it is probably this volume of manga, which does not feature an especially mind-blowing ‘wow!’ moment (and shockingly little fanservice for the series), but rather builds to its perfection by artfully doing so much with what it has built up to.

The weakest bit is the wrap-up of the whole karaoke group visit where Gojo is put on the spot and vehemently denies, because Gojo, that he’s dating Marin. Of course, the problem isn’t the denial, it’s the vehemence, since it’s not because he doesn’t want to. No, Gojo’s brutally bad self-esteem thinks that he’s not on Marin’s level, even though they’re such perfect partners.

When combined with Marin’s misinterpretation of his words and her incredible (and atypical) bashfulness around her feelings, it’s not especially surprising that the two of them are glacial at acknowledging things between them. Even Marin’s later, uh, attempts at bento are merely closer to the mark than on it.

Of course, Gojo gets to save the day (sort of) and prove his devotion, if not his affection, so no worries about the ending, just enjoy the ride or something. The story does make the typical wait for people to get their act together far more fun than I usually find these scenarios. Probably because the character work has been so strong - these people are acting very true to themselves at all times.

In fact, I am going to put it to the reading audience: this may be the best ‘taking care of somebody with a cold’ story that I have ever read and I have read, charitably, a ton of these. My Dress-Up Darling has always had good art, but the way it draws poor Marin as this super-deformed waif during this chapter is both funny and adorable.

There are a surprising number of laughs in this section, from what Gojo discovers in her laundry (not what you think) to her ridiculous crying jag when Gojo is looking after her. Of course, Gojo just has to be awkward again about making sure people don’t misinterpret his relationship, but karma gets him for that one.

The back half involves a new series that feels like the yuri version of Ouran High School Host Club and the revelation that the upcoming school festival that will be featuring a male in female clothing and vice-versa pageant. It’s on point from the start: this new series-in-the-series is hilariously reflective of the current status of the actual manga and people not admitting feelings or just missing the vibes. It also features a whole new challenge for our duo.

What it really pays off, however, is showing Gojo that nobody thinks he’s a weirdo except for, well, him (and that one girl from his past who wrecked him for years after). The whole class learns that he’s the brains behind Marin’s costume and they are all supporting his ability.

It’s a ton of fun to involve the class more and the way they react when it turns out Marin’s trying to do the shopping is a riot. There’s an unbridled sense of joy in Gojo throughout that’s really nice to see. He’s come such a long way and it’s very evident here. He can just be himself and have worth, what a concept.

Everything here doesn’t wow, but it doesn’t have to. It all just works in these quiet moments and it keeps the story moving and being adorable. Gojo and Marin bond over this new series for the competition. Marin keeps showing up and eating supper with Gojo and his grandfather like they’re all family, which is super adorable (the panel of the two men laughing at something Marin said is just joyous). It just gets it right way more often than not.

5 stars - sometimes you can make a very good mountain from enough delightful molehills and that’s what this volume does. It’s not as flashy as Marin, but it’s as dependable as Gojo, so, much like the story, it works just as well.

Again, apologies, but this series rules.

Wakana's feverish insecurity over the plausibility that he and Marin might somehow be viable partners is growing more and more obvious to those outside of their little two-person bubble. So, when Nowa and the gang don't flinch at the supposition that Wakana and Marin are dating, the group of handsome and attractive teenagers merely shrug their shoulders, figuring the inevitable shall come to pass. MY DRESS-UP DARLING v7 may well succumb to the relational dynamics of all romantic-comedy manga. But when readers watch third parties like a textile shop worker or a fashion magazine editor muse on the wonders of youth and the apparently perfect compatibility of the doll-maker and the gyaru — when readers witness so many secondary characters cheering these kids on, one cannot help but realize it's going to take a while for these two to hitch their wagons the same star.

The current volume frames Wakana Gojo's inadequate social skills for the better. The boy lacks grace, stumbles over his words, and has trouble reading the social cues of others. Will things work out? When Wakana interrupts a duo of exquisitely handsome folks shouting at Marin while they're out for karaoke, will the humiliation over his wrongful interpretation of their relationship ruin his own dynamic with Marin? When Wakana struggles to balance the responsibilities that come with Class 1-5 preparing for the school's culture festival, will the young man's exhaustion wear him down before he bothers asking for help?

Elsewise, MY DRESS-UP DARLING v7 pivots the secondary cast into greater focus, with moderate success. On the one hand, Marin's group of friends, equal parts charitable loud-mouths and mysteriously silent beauties, are supportive and diverse. Regrettably, only one or two of them are named, and with Wakana as the comic's point-of-view character, readers never encounter them anywhere except where Marin is also already (prominently) in picture. One imagines it shouldn't have taken this long for the cast to grow this much, but the growth nevertheless opens the narrative to deeper and stronger dynamics.

The manga also goes hard on the otaku front, too. Marin's next cosplay is of a cross-dressing stoic from a series called, The Student Council President Is the No. 1 Host. This volume includes roughly 10 pages of meta-manga, further ensconcing readers in the valley of anime/manga as literary discourse. Of concern here, Wakana gets a crash course in how anime and manga serve as exquisitely proficient variables of emotional vulnerability for socially inadequate youths. The character relationships in Prez-Host are not about something as trite as unrequited affection; rather, they're about observing the flaws in oneself and daring to ask others to help fill in the gaps. Anime and manga can do that. And quite well, too.

As Wakana learns more about the intricacies of the stories Marin's cosplay seeks to tell, so, too, does he learn how he might navigate his own youthful insecurities.

After the crazy "Are you two going out?" question posed at the end of Volume 6, I knew this one would definitely begin with the aftermath of that. (Remember that Marin has already confessed to herself (and us readers) that she loves him)
Highlights:
- In response to the question, Wakana (also called Gojo-kun) denies going out with Marin (Kitigawa-san) to such a degree that she is slightly offended, thinking she might not have a chance... when really he doesn't think he has a chance with her.
- Marin gets very sick and Wakana comes over and helps her out. With his tenderness, he's able to get her much better, but hides on her porch when her friends come over as to not lead to more "going out" discussions
- After a model photoshoot, where Wakana gets mistaken as her boyfriend again, he and Marin throw a birthday party for Shizuku, even though she isn't there (LOL kind of a weird scene)
- The big story in this Volume (continued into Vol 8) is that there will be a cultural festival at school. One part is a gender-swapped cosplay competition. (They do say but glaze over that the judging will involve flirting with a member of the opposite sex.) The class unanimously votes that Marin should crossplay the male cosplay.
- She picks Rei-Sama, a host from a manga she loves and so does much of the class. There is a particularly romantic scene involving a bento box (this will come into play later on). Wakana is tasked with making her costume.
- As they work on obtaining supplies, Marin realizes that Wakana might not have time to be able to eat, so... just like the character in the manga, she makes him a bento box meal. (SO SWEET!.... but he doesn't react as she thought he would.)

As the Volume finishes up, I wonder if we are headed to possible cross play for Wakana as the female. The class never decided and it would definitely allow Marin to help like she seems to be wanting to. PLUS, it would be hilarious!!!

Really enjoying this mostly wholesome manga. Can't wait till the next Volume.
Recommend.

I'm really loving this series, I'm not sure what else I can say! I just look forward to each volume. Gojo and marin are great, and I love watching there relationship, I wonder if anything will happen soon between the two of them!

This is a wrapped manga rated R. And it has absolutely nothing even remotely explicit in it. Hardly any of the books in the series do and they’re all wrapped. Now don’t get me wrong I absolutely love this series, but it being wrapped is off-putting, makes it seem like it’s somthing that it’s not.

true rating 4.3 🌟

Some sweet moments in this one. Sometimes it's nice to read something where the stakes are getting a costume ready in time for a cultural festival

i’m so happy to be caught up with this series, i love it so much
it’s so damn wholesome
especially when wakana left school early to take care of marin while she was sick, i thought that was so cute

I love Marin’s excitement for life. I wish I had that kind of excitement for anything lol

Awesome as ever! Really surprise about the connections the author made on Ouran High School Host Club<\spoiler>, which we know is a famous Shōjō manga in the early 2000s! Goes to show how its influence lingers in today's generation of Shōjō manga! I love the developments in these chapters!

Edit: Apr 10, 2023 (Partial re-read of the volume) This is one of my favourite volume because the series doesn't just focus on the main two characters making costumes. We're in a beauty pageant of the school's cultrural festival and the other supporting casts of characters are shined on (like the classmates of Gojo and Marin). I'm interested to get to know even just a little bit of these supporting casts even if they appear once or twice in every volume. This volume also shows a lot of teamwork because a beauty pageant requires extra hands.

why did they need to add marin gaining weight as a story line? feels unnecessary. i know that happens in life but this is a manga

(English copy from my Instagram @agamundisr_escritor / @leyendoconalice)

Konnichiwa a todas, lectoras 🌸

Hoy os traigo la reseña del séptimo volumen del manga «Sexy Cosplay Doll» de Shinichi f*ckuda. Dicho esto, empezamos:

💖El volumen inicia con el desarrollo y la cúspide de la incómoda pregunta de Nowa. Desmentida la relación por parte de ambos, Marin termina en una situación en la que Gojô deja a entrever su interés por ella.

Sin embargo, los supuestos molestadores no eran más que sus compañeros de trabajo, reprendiéndola por llevar un traje con el que se podría resfriar. Este acontecimiento termina dándose e inspira que Gojô cuide de ella, aun bajo el riesgo de ser considerados pareja.

💖Pasando a un nuevo escenario, Marin se muestra especialmente entusiasmada durante una sesión de fotos, puesto que posteriormente descubriremos que simplemente quería festejar el natalicio de Shizuku, el primer personaje del que hizo cosplay.

Empero, el nuevo reto principal para los protagonistas llega con el festival escolar. Durante esta competencia entre clases, se dará un concurso de belleza en el que los representantes deberán lucir como el sexo opuesto, siendo Marin la elegida para lucir como un varón.

Una vez más, la dama pondrá sobre la mesa sus deseos de hacer interpretar a otro personaje, en este caso, un azafato. Como elemento clave, cabe destacar que Marin se ha decidido a hacer la ropa ella misma.

💖En los últimos capítulos del tomo vemos como los compañeros de clase de Gojô le derivan el trabajo de ayudar a Marin con el traje simplemente para ganar la competencia, refrescando patrones ya establecidos en la elaboración de los cosplays.

Paralelamente, conocemos los detalles del concurso de belleza, el cual debe tener una brevísima actuación musical y vemos como la protagonista sigue siendo un desastre en la sastrería.

🌸Conclusión: Este volumen se centra más en el romance que en la comedia, aunque sin renunciar a esta y demuestra una evolución proactiva en la personalidad de Marin.

Valoración: 5🌸

Arigato gozaimasu por vuestro tiempo 🌸

This volume picks up on Halloween after Wakana and Marin get interrogated about whether or not they are dating by Marin's friends. The two talk it out, and Marin even gives Wakana a kiss, but he has no idea she did it because he can't feel anything through his bunny mask. Marin is wearing her skimpy bunny girl costume and so she winds up with a cold, and that's when Wakana goes to her apartment to take care of her.

I don't know why, but I love it when a character in a manga gets a cold, and their boyfriend/girlfriend/crush goes over to their house unexpectedly and takes a bunch of groceries and medicine, and helps take care of the person who doesn't feel well. It's such a sweet and cozy gesture, and often the person who is sick lives alone, so they are pretty much helpless if no one shows up to take care of them. It happens a lot in manga, and I never get tired of it.

After Marin recovers she takes Wakana to one of her magazine shoots, and everyone thinks he is her boyfriend. The rest of the volume pretty much involves their high school's cultural festival, and everyone votes for Marin to represent the class in a crossplay competition. Marin instantly picks a super popular character, and of course Wakana will be making her costume and doing her makeup for the competition. Everyone in their class learns that Wakana is the one who has been making Marin's costumes, and they are really excited to see what he comes up with. But Wakana is so pure and sweet that he mistakenly thinks he has to help the boys for the festival, when he should be out buying the materials for the costume. Once the class finds out that he sent Marin out on her own to buy everything they send him to immediately intercept her, and the two of the buy everything they need together with no issues.

Now the class is super excited for the festival, and it's time for Wakana to do his thing and pull off an amazing look for Marin to win.

The cosplay manual continues with how to turn a shapely young woman into a stunning young man (or into a young woman pretending to be a young man).

The romance angle of this manga is tending to flow into the stereotypical 'misconceptions ruin everything' thing which romance manga/anime tend to follow in order to span out the run time. And yet... Somehow it seems more realistic in this one. The misconceptions are ones anyone might have instead of being the result of contrived circ*mstances. Insecurities surface, even in the eternally confident Marin. It's amusing to see that while her classmates see her as something very special, she's not a goddess like some of her fellow manga princesses. She has her flaws, and her friends know about them.

Also, it's delightful to see the class recognise Wakana's talents. He sees himself as an outcast because he likes making dolls. They see him as the quiet kid who just so happens to be the secret behind Marin's amazing cosplays. That's maybe a little fantastic; teenagers can be pretty self-centred (as can adults). Still, it's nice to see things play out that way, especially since it goes against Wakana's expectations.

All in all, a good episode. Can't wait to see it animated. Now to wait for the next issue to drop.

4/5🧵
Moolto bello questo volume! Voglio solo puntualizzare il fatto che Gojo si fa troppe pippe mentali, cioè anche meno… troppo insicuro e troppo spaventato da tutti e tutto. Poi sappiamo tutti che ti piace Marin, quanto ci vuole per aprirti anche solo un pochettino :)
Comunque sono mooolto curiosa di vedere come uscirà il cosplay di Marin nei panni maschili!
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4/5🧵
This volume is very cuuute! I just want to point out the fact that Gojo have too much mental problems... too insecure and too scared of everyone and everything. Then we all know that you like Marin, how long does it take to open up even just a little :) However, I'm very curious to see how Marin's cosplay as a man will come out!

Relajante, cero dramas. Marin y Gojo son super monos los dos y te puedes pasar horas leyendo lo que les pasa. En este tomo, cuando Gojo piensa que sus compañeros de clase se van a meter con él porque sabe coser, ocurre todo lo contrario: todos piensan en él cuando hay que hacer un traje para una actividad escolar. Este señor tiene el peor síndrome del impostor de la historia del manga, pero poco a poco se le irá quitando...

Esté tomo fue ✨lindooooou✨ me encantó como Gojo cuidó y se MEGA preocupó por Marin, siento que fue muy boyfriend energy and i'm here for it. ❤️❤️❤️
Oh y cuando tiene un ataque de celos y defiende a Kitawaga de...su estilista? That's My maaaaan, ugh SO cute. Diablos, necesito uno de esos, lol.
Y otra cosa que destaco de esté tomo fueron las veces en las que todos apoyaron a Gojo, con lo de hacer muñecas Hina y con el tema de la carga de trabajo, mi bebé merece ser tratado así, dignamente.

2.5 to 3

This was boring. It seems the anime covered the best parts of it. At least so far. The series has definitely dropped in quality. I hope it gets better though. The cosplay parts of it is boring for me now. I just don't care at all. All I want to know is where the romance goes. But it would probably get dragged until the end of the series so I guess if the manga doesn't improve I am gonna be bored and may have to drop this or something.

More of a 3.5 star rating;
I really like that the upcoming school drag pageant in this volume helps show Gojo that his fear of ridicule from his classmates wasn’t needed. Sure he has trauma from past, which absolutely makes his fear valid, but seeing how excited he got after the positive reaction from his classmates was very heartwarming to see. It was also cute seeing Gojo care for Marin while she’s sick and seeing Marin be unusually insecure about her ability to help Gojo.

Well here we are, every standard high-school anime's festival prep section.

Gojo has some conflicts with the amount of workload he is trying to take on, but has some level-headed classmates to set him straight. Marin grows ever stronger in her cosplay-ness. The true payoff for this volume, will come around in number 8 I expect.

If you've stuck through the first six volumes, I believe you owe yourself to continue on the path.

A bit of a weaker volume but overall still fun.

Basically they're going to dress up Marin in drag for a new school show. It makes her real excited and you learn a lot more about the process of doing that for cosplayers in terms of looks and styles. It's a fun volume for sure but it didn't have enough plot development for me and especially our two main leads. I wish they can get together and give us lovely dovey scenes on top of it all.

A 3 out of 5.

Questo volume è stato un po' meno interessante rispetto agli altri, dato che la storia non è andata avanti più di tanto, però si è potuto vedere meglio il rapporto tra Gojo e i suoi compagni di classe e quanto la sua mancanza di fiducia influisca su di lui, che invece ha grandi potenzialità. Non vedo l'ora di leggere i prossimi volumi!

A bit of a filler volume, where gojo, marin and their class get together for the cultural festival at their school. Of course, there’s the moments where Marin wants to explore the more than friends bit and gojo is as aloof as always :’) so sweet, I can’t wait to see how the pageant and festival go down in volume 8!!

This series continues to properly balance its comedy and romance perfectly. As Marin and Gojo work to try and figure out their feelings for one another, they soon find they need to do cosplay for a school project. It's still incredibly entertaining and it will make the reader long for the next season of the anime adaptation.

My Dress-Up Darling continues to met my guilty pleasure of romance comedy genre.
Subtle character growth accompanies heart-warming and funny moments. Marin, Wakana, and crew are all enjoyable characters. My only gripe remains the translation uses present day slang, which may or may not age well in a decade. Never the less, I enjoyed this volume and can't wait for the next.

Mi muchacho cada vez se está abriendo a más personas y está aprendiendo que no todos son iguales y que puede confíar en otros. Marin como siempre brilla con su personalidad, me encanta verlos trabajar juntos siempre se complementan. Solo espero que Gojo deje de sentirse inferior o indigno de salir con Marín.

เล่มนี้เน้นไปที่ความสัมพันธ์กับเหล่าเพื่อนๆในชั้นเรียนมากขึ้น เนื้อเรื่องหลักคืองานวัฒนธรรมในโรงเรียนที่เพื่อนร่วมชั้นโหวตให้มารินเข้าประกวดมิสคอน ชอบเคมีของวากานะกับมารินจริงๆ ว่าแต่เมื่อไหร่พวกยูจะคบกัน ได้แต่คิดแล้วก็สงสัย “บาทหลวงก็พร้อมแล้ว คู่บ่าวสาวจะแต่งงานกันได้แล้วหรือยัง!!?”

Non vedevo l'ora di rincontrare Marin e Gojo. Apprezzo soprattutto l'apertura seppur timida di Gojo con i compagni di classe per non parlare della sua impulsività quando si tratta di difendere Marin. È una storia che seppur nella sua semplicità e nei suoi cliché mi dona sempre gioia e serenità. ☺️

Il peggiore fin ora pubblicato, lo ho trovato parecchio noioso
Va leggermente avanti il rapporto tra marin e gojo, ma neanche così tanto come nei volumi precedenti
Niente cosplay = volume di bassa interesse