My Dress Up Darling split its episode in two this week with the first half giving us the conclusion of the photoshoot and the second half focusing in on Marin and Gojo. Which meant the OP played weirdly about midway through the episode. Though bright side, I’d been so engaged with the antics of the characters as they took photos, had heart to hearts and had a wardrobe malfunction that I hadn’t actually noticed the OP hadn’t played so it caught me somewhat by surprise when it finally started.
My Dress Up Darling engages by being fun and somewhat relatable.
To no one’s surprise, Marin really struggled with the photoshoot. As much as she loved the character and wanted to do the photoshoot, staying in character proved to be a struggle as Marin’s trademark goofy grin kept threatening to explode from the sheer joy of getting to become the character and getting to work with Juju having a real photoshoot.
I loved that My Dress Up Darling didn’t turn this into a whole dramatic thing. As much as Juju has some thoughts about the matter, given she takes a far more serious approach to her cosplaying, ultimately they all just work through it and get some amazing photos.
My Dress Up Darling also took time to have Juju and Shinju actually talk about what they want and to really communicate. It was great to see but it kind of felt like the anime was shelving them at that point so it could turn its focus back to the main pair. When Juju was first introduced I’d have happily had her shelved but now I kind of want to see the group work together more so I’m on the fence as to whether I want these two to be in the next couple of episodes or whether I’d prefer the Marin/Gojo focus.
And the Marin/Gojo focus has a few things it needs to deal with.
Yes we have Marin’s crush which also manifests a little bit as jealousy as Gojo explains how he and Shinju worked together on her cosplay. But we also have Gojo making a costume for Marin and then having to tell her he can’t help her actually wear it or take photos because of how revealing it is. Given he’s already measured her in a swimsuit there’s clearly more going on then exposed skin that’s making him feel a bit uncomfortable.
Also, My Dress Up Darling took a large chunk of this episode to have Marin and Gojo interacting outside of a cosplay setting with Marin trying to get Gojo some different outfits. For once he was the dress-up darling and Marin was thrilled with her efforts even if Gojo ended up passing and wearing his usual working clothes.
Still, we learned from the beach episode just how much fun these two characters can be when they are just hanging out together and honestly it makes me want them to become a couple more than watching them work on the cosplay together. It is one thing to share a common goal and get along to achieve it and another to get along in the day to day. These two get along regardless.
As usual, My Dress Up Darling is sweet and fun and Marin is definitely getting more forward in her flirting with Gojo. All things considered, with two episodes to go, it doesn’t seem likely this anime will make a wrong turn at this point so I’m looking forward to the conclusion. Though I can’t really say if I want them to be an official couple by the end or not because honestly this back and forth flirting and blushing is kind of fun.
Last week I asked whether My Dress Up Darling could get any more adorable. Episode 9 answers with a definitive yes. I’ll admit, cute isn’t the be all and end all for me and if that is all an anime has then eventually it is going to run into the problem of holding your interest (platelets and little mummies are an exception to this rule). My Dress Up Darling is so cute and yet a lot of the cuteness comes because these characters are awesome.
However, leaving aside cute and adorable, there were just so many moments this week that made me smile. My Dress Up Darling has managed to build a decent working relationship between Juju and Marin that has enough chemistry even while Juju maintains her distance as a little more stand-offish. I loved it when Marin expressed that she seldom got comments on her photos on social media and Juju pointed out it was because mostly she took pictures of food (and then proceeded to diss Marin’s cooking though she didn’t know it).
Sure My Dress Up Darling is cute but it’s also grounded.
One of the things I really am liking about My Dress Up Darling is that all of these characters feel like real people. They have flaws and concerns and they make mistakes and they get excited over really little things and they are just great to watch.
I’m also loving that Marin and Gojo are both in a way acting as proxy’s for the audience as they are both new to actually cosplaying (while Marin new a bit about it she’d never tried it properly before meeting Gojo and he knew nothing about it). That means there’s plenty to learn about costumes, make-up and wigs and yet it feels organic and not like a massive info-dump.
If I was to have one complaint this week it would be around Shinju’s character. Now Shinju is a great addition and I loved her chemistry with Marin last week. This week, Gojo realises she actually wants to try cosplay to and decides to help her out which naturally leads to some fan-service and poor comedy moments revolving around the size of her bust given the character she wants to cosplay is actually a guy.
Much like Juju’s initial introduction, My Dress Up Darling seems to just push that little bit too far when first establishing this new character. Hopefully, as we saw with Juju, now that they’ve gotten that out of their system, they might start treating her a little less like a gimmick and just let her be who she is going forward. I mean, Marin still gets plenty of fan-service moments (like lifting her skirt to show off her bathing suit and even flashing her bra) but those moments feel more ingrained with the character and story rather than tacked on extras.
Certainly the smiling, happy photos of the three ready to start their first cosplay photo-session were a welcome close to the episode and honestly it was great seeing how excited they all were to get started. I hope we get to see the actual posed photos from the shoot because those costumes looked amazing.
Minor complaints about character introductions aside, My Dress Up Darling remains the feel-good show of the season and one that really appeals to me as an anime fan. Actually, I’m really hoping covid has settled to the point where my plans to cosplay as Sailor Jupiter might actually happen later this year. Though there’s a lot of maybes around that, watching this has definitely made me keen to go for it and honestly I’m now getting inspired to put a lot more effort into it then I originally intended. We’ll see how that goes.
In the meantime, I’m loving this anime and hopefully it continues to make me smile until the end.
Okay, Love of Kill you aren’t as predictable as I thought and yet I’m not actually sure that’s a good thing. In my episode 6 review I speculated that the stabbing of Chateau’s boss would set up “a really obvious scenario where Chateau will have to decide whether to trust Song or believe the worst about him” but it turns out that the boss didn’t die and both Song and the boss more or less told Chateau that Song didn’t do it.
So if we aren’t setting up a massive misunderstanding to pit our two leads against one another what is Love of Kill doing?
Well it turns out that after a perfectly good chance for an obvious misunderstanding was cast aside, we’re just going to have the bad-guy flat-out blackmail Chateau into attempting to neutralise Song and hand him over with her mother’s life in the balance. Same result but more convoluted path to get there really. Though it did at least leave Chateau with actual expressions on her face this week.
(Spoilers coming below.)
What is Love of Kill’s end game?
I’m more than a little confused at this point whether a romance between Song and Chateau is even the point despite Love of Kill being listed as a romance. Chateau makes a weird declaration this week that Song is always on her mind but otherwise they seem to be in the same holding pattern they’ve always been in. Worse if you factor in that she tries to kill herself before he chokes her unconscious this episode.
On that note, Chateau is still playing the damsel in distress and any illusion that she might be a strong female lead had fled the building. It’s the ‘I don’t know what to do’ and ‘I can’t solve this problem so I’ll throw myself off a cliff’, actually shoot herself in the head, complex and honestly I am really disappointed with her character as this series has gone on. While she was pretty flat in the earlier episodes there was so much potential in her to be an interesting female lead and she’s since either been perpetually kidnapped, outclassed, or just given up.
Even her attempt at suicide is underwhelming and I’m not entirely sure it would have solved the problem. Would they have actually not killed her mother if she killed herself? Would Song be able to avoid them even if she didn’t bring him in? It definitely seemed like running away and it most definitely seemed, given she knows how fast Song can move, like she wanted him to stop her or perhaps she would have acted faster and more decisively.
Wow, critiquing a suicide attempt… Not exactly what I had in mind when I picked up an action/romance for the season.
And honestly, that’s about all that happened. The Boss was evacuated but the ship didn’t pull into port and have police investigate the attempted murder of a guest. Everything just continued on. It isn’t until near the end of the episode that some of the bit players in Love of Kill speculate that things might be a bit weird on the cruise given a passenger nearly died and no one seems to care.
With five episodes left it is probably a little late to hope Chateau becomes a more interesting character. Even Song has been a lot less fun recently. And the young stab-happy villain this week wasn’t exactly a show-stealer (nor was his brother who seems to be trying to do an L from Death Note impersonation).
So instead lets just hope they at least tell us a bit about Chateau’s past and maybe Song ends up at least getting a kiss. That’s about as high as my hopes for Love of Kill go at this point.
Images from: Love of Kill. Dir. H Ooba. Platinum Vision. 2022
I thought Marin was the sweetest and nicest character ever and then we meet the more introverted by equally sweet Shinju and no surprise, the two get on amazingly well as they discuss the camera, different ways to take photos and explore an old hospital as a potential shoot location. My Dress Up Darling is spoiling us by giving us nice characters who are also interesting (a combination that is harder to come by then it seems).
Though it was great seeing Gojo getting a chance with the reaction faces this week. Normally Marin dominates in the facial expression range but I think episode 8 definitely had Gojo come out on top for sheer number of facial expressions pulled throughout the episode.
My Dress Up Darling is planning for a cosplay shoot and for Marin’s summer of dating Gojo.
Still, there was some pretty good chemistry between Gojo and Juju and Marin and Shinju hit it right off and were having a great time as they explored. The only thing that really confused me is they said they were going to a studio and that the hospital had been converted but it just kind of looked like an abandoned hospital. Not a big issue but it just made me wonder.
The second half of the episode focuses in solely on Marin and Gojo and after they finish their exams she proposes going to the beach. Innocent that he is, he assumes it is to scout locations for photos but turns out Marin just wanted to go to the beach. However unlike so many other anime, My Dress Up Darling doesn’t unleash another bikini scene on us or even an accidental drowning or similar beach scenario. Instead we just see two high schoolers letting off steam on the beach and having their food stolen by a bird.
It’s nice that even though My Dress Up Darling does lean into some anime tropes it knows when to subvert your expectations. Besides, we’ve already seen Marin in her bikini so a beach scene wasn’t going to show us anything new from that perspective. Rather, it used the scene to advance Marin’s feelings toward Gojo and she not so subtly invites him to hang out with her all summer.
I kind of hope she just tells him how she feels soon. I mean, they are super maxing out the cuteness as Marin experiences Gojo’s first time at the beach and the two of them share food, looks and the occasional blushing red face that the other one conveniently doesn’t see.
Really, My Dress Up Darling just continues to be the feel good show to watch this season. The fan-service was way down in this episode on prior episodes with far more focus on the character relationships. The saddest part though is there’s only four episodes left and honestly I just want more of these characters. It has been such a great anime to watch each week and I can’t help but smile while watching it.
That said, I am really looking forward to seeing the outfits Gojo is going to make for Juju and Marin. Hopefully we see that completed before the season ends.
Before the Winter 2022 season began, my thoughts on My Dress up Darling were pretty meh. It looked like it could be fun enough but I wasn’t exactly counting the minutes until it began airing. Now it is the highlight of my watch week and honestly I think I’d happily just watch a looped reel of Marin emoting.
That said, this week we got to watch part of the anime that Marin and Juju are going to do a combined cosplay of and I absolutely loved how My Dress Up Darling presented it in the older style format. Honestly, anyone who grew up on Sailor Moon and other magical girl stories would have fallen in love with what we saw of it and can I just ask if they’ll actually make it a real anime because I think it would be awesome.
My Dress Up Darling brings all the characters to the party.
One of the things that I had been a little concerned about so far was that Gojo seemed to be being dragged along by Marin. This week, we clearly see that Gojo is actually really enjoying the process of making cosplay and learning new things and his new connections and experiences are actually improving his core dream of making a better Hina doll.
While Juju was reluctant to cosplay with Marin at the end of last week’s episode, this week Marin found the winning phrase that would get her exactly what she wanted, she offered to share the cost of the photo studio. However, unprompted, Gojo (the guy who has been doing all this work for no pay) also offers to put some money towards it. It kind of shows he’s motivated even without Marin pulling him along and it was what My Dress Up Darling needed to address if we were ever going to get to a romance that made sense. Gojo needed to be involved by his own choice.
It’s just such a sweet moment between the two and most anime fans should be able to relate to the first time they’ve watched anime with a crush and where you end up spending more time watching them and their reaction than you do the anime. Also definitely understand the feeling of only eating pudding and then realising that real food is probably a good idea.
Basically, the whole sequence was sweet and relatable.
About my only real criticism of the sequence was that somehow they managed to watch an anime that apparently has 126 episodes through to some fairly climatic moments in a single sitting. While an 11 episode show I could understand binge watching in a single sitting. A 24 episode one I’d accept if they pulled an overnight. 126? Nope. Unless it is a short form anime with 4 minute episodes I’m not buying it.
However when I have to pull real world timing in order to find something to criticise its probably good evidence that My Dress Up Darling pretty much nailed its tone this week. While last week the fan-service plunged into the slightly uncomfortable, here the episode was fun and light and largely adorable and it was exactly what I needed this Sunday.
Love of Kill has gone from feeling a little lost in episode 5 to feeling very much like it is treading over tired ground in episode 6. Song’s unique courtship of Chateau is no longer enough to carry the story as it has become predictable background noise that barely registers so all this episode has left is a really shallow plot that sets up a really obvious scenario where Chateau will have to decide whether to trust Song or believe the worst about him.
Even the ‘victim’ at the centre of the conspiracy is obvious, telegraphed early in the episode where we see how stupidly happy Ritzland is with his wife on the cruise. Its kind of like in war movies where the young recruit shows his friend the picture of the gal he’s going to marry when he gets home and you just know he’s going to catch a bullet in the face in three, two, one…
Love of Kill needs to find some fun fast.
While the first episode Love of Kill was a little rough around the edges, it was kind of good fun. The action felt entertaining to watch and the interactions between Song and Chateau were enjoyable enough. But six episodes in they’ve made little progress and every conversation they have seems to go much the same way to the point where it doesn’t even feel like you need to tune in.
Song suggests something. Chateau scowls. Song continues to talk and suggests even more outrageous things and Chateau ends up doing whatever it was he first suggested.
Despite the lack of progress there, Love of Kill could have kept the enjoyment afloat if any of the other cast members had stepped up but Jim remains one of the single most annoying support cast members I’ve ever encountered and Ritzland has been all but a space filler. Even the episode where he finally makes some kind of move, speaking with Song directly on the phone and organising a meet, we really get no sense of who this guy is and so feel very little when the inevitable occurs.
Also, I mentioned that Love of Kill has been rough around the edges since the beginning but I can assure you at the mid-season we’ve definitely hit a new low with pretty much every other human on the cruise ship failing to move for the entire episode. Whether it is a ball room scene or watching Chateau and Song stroll past shops, every other character is stock-still. It creates an eerie and empty feeling to the whole scenery.
Now, other stories don’t bother to animate their background characters either. Soul Eater didn’t even bother to draw them properly. However that kind of story could kind of get away with it whereas Love of Kill’s plot and setting makes it seem like it needs to have a more grounded visual aesthetic and the absolute lack of animation in so many sequences, not just from background characters, made this episode feel really flat.
Though part of that might be that I still don’t know what any member of the cast actually wants. What is Song really trying to achieve by following Chateau around? What does Chateau actually want from her job and her life? What did Ritzland hope to achieve? And why did no-one suggest tossing Jim over-board?
For all that I was hoping Love of Kill might do after its first episode, I have to admit at the half-way mark, it probably isn’t going to get there. Instead, this will be another anime I remember for holding onto it and wanting it to be better even as it never quite manages to achieve it.
Images from: Love of Kill. Dir. H Ooba. Platinum Vision. 2022
My Dress up Darling did something I didn’t quite expect this week. Actually two somethings but one of them was much better than the other.
After the cosplay event, Marin returns to Gojo’s home and they begin the task of cleaning the wig and the costume before Gojo’s grandfather comes home and throughout this process Marin realises she actually likes Gojo and the reaction is pretty priceless. Anyone who is still in doubt that Marin is one of the most expressive anime characters of the Winter 2022 season needs to take another look. Her expressions are amazing.
My Dress Up Darling takes the plunge.
You have to appreciate an anime that doesn’t go for the heroine wandering about wondering if they have heart arrhythmia rather than a crush and My Dress Up Darling really just has it happen. Now we just need the other half of the equation, Gojo, to wake up to the fact that Marin isn’t just beautiful in cosplay, she’s a great person who is totally there for him and he should absolutely ask her out.
Anyway the other interesting thing that happens at the start of the episode is that Gojo’s grandfather returns home and finally finds out that Gojo has made a cosplay. Much like Gojo, he is strictly business and soon the two are happily discussing the outfit and how it might be improved.
The seriousness of the sequence is cut down though when Marin’s stomach lets out an earth shattering rumble, the likes of which only anime can produce and the three sit down for a meal. And here’s giving props to the grandfather: after learning Marin lives on her own and eats a lot of convenience store food he invites her to eat with them. Best matchmaking move ever though not really his intention I guess.
Though there is a reason I’ve spent so long on the first part of the episode and that’s largely because the second half, while it all works well enough, has a number of things in it that I’m not a fan of in anime. You know, introducing a new character and instantly having the story treating her like crap and thinking it can get away with it because she isn’t the main character.
Sure, Marin has been used for fan-service in My Dress Up Darling but with the exception of the wind blowing up her skirt last week she’s been the one in control of the situation and it has never felt like she’s been cheapened for the sake of hitting a type.
The same cannot be said for newly introduced Juju who looks younger than she is but in her introduction is naked in the shower and slips and falls into a compromising position that we see reflected in the protagonist’s eye.
Its an awful introduction to a new character and it certainly adds to the story that My Dress Up Darling is just about fan-service and undermines how much heart this story has had up until now. And it is also really unnecessary as this character could have been introduced literally any other way without having a noticeable impact on the story.
Throw in that as soon as Marin meets Juju, who it turns out is the cosplayer Marin was a huge fan of, she pretty much has her pinned up against a wall underneath her.
I kind of hope Juju gets a chance to be more than just the fan-service extra or even a rival and rather gets to become a character because otherwise her presence is going to definitely bring down the fun of My Dress Up Darling. I guess we’ll see what her character gets to do next week.
Love of Kill is starting to feel a little bit lost. I noted early on that with the amount of time spent each episode on recap kind of made me worry that Love of Kill didn’t have enough actual plot to fill a season and episode 5 is definitely not making me feel reassured that this story is on solid ground.
The throwaway one villain to find out they were working for someone else who sends another minion ploy is plot stretching at its worst and it makes it really hard to care about any of the interim steps because ultimately you know nothing fatal will happen to a key character until we’re further along the food chain.
Love Of Kill just feels a little bit empty.
Honestly, I really want to like this story and I’m still really liking Song’s character. But it is definitely the more the idea of the story than the story I’m enjoying at this point and if I step back and cast a critical eye over this episode I’d have to honestly say nothing of particular interest happened.
Sure Song takes out the mediocre threat (the guy who apparently can’t feel stun guns, incidentally they doubled down on the whole fried nerve idiocy from last week with Song making a really forced reference to it after the guy takes multiple bullets before finally being put down) and collects Chateau who had escaped the car before it exploded (as everyone had already suspected) but was now injured.
About the only unique development here is that Song also took an injury and Chateau finally gets to have a turn in taking him to safety.
Naturally Love of Kill decides this is the perfect time to get Jim, the guy from the office who has no mouth and a voice that just does not connect with anything else in the anime, more involved. Thanks, but I could have done without that. From character design to his voice there is nothing about this character that I wanted more of in this story and yet here he is and honestly there isn’t one minute he’s on screen that doesn’t kind of break me out of the story and world.
Maybe that’s being needlessly harsh or nit-picky to a decidedly minor point in the grand scheme of things. Still, it is how I feel about it and to be honest given both the boss and Jim board the boat with Chateau to start a new job at the end of the episode, I suspect both of these so far non-characters are suddenly going to play a larger role (which the OP certainly suggested they would).
But what I’d really like is more Song and Chateau.
I guess we don’t always get what we want. Though I suspect my enjoyment of Love of Kill is going to decline proportionally to the amount of screen time Jim gets.
Besides, who wouldn’t want more of the guy, who despite being stabbed in the side still has enough moxy to flirt with Chateau and isn’t even deterred after she pokes him in his wound.
As much as Love of Kill is offering a different take on romance, it just isn’t a solid enough anime in its own right and there’s too many missed opportunities or decisions that I wish had gone a different way to really say I’m loving this story. But I will persist in watching it because it isn’t a train wreck and those elements I do like are keeping me intrigued and hopeful that maybe Love of Kill can pull itself together for a solid final act.
Images from: Love of Kill. Dir. H Ooba. Platinum Vision. 2022
As much as I love a good horror anime, I will admit romance is a great binge worthy genre and is definitely appropriate when you are just in the mood to relax and be carried on a wave of emotions. However, with romance anime come anime confession scenes and a lot of these really stand out. Today I’m counting down my top 5 favourite anime confession scenes and I’d love to know what some of your favourites are.
By the way, there are definitely spoilers below particularly for numbers 4, 2 and 1. You’ve been warned.
Honourable Mentions:
Just the one honourable mention because I’m certain I will get plenty of others in the comments. I’m throwing Kokoro Connect in here mostly because of how grounded the characters were about the love triangle that actually resolved into an actual relationship with all of the characters properly acknowledging their feelings.
This one is representative of all those anime that shout their confessions aloud for the world to hear. It is a standard trope and yet Bunny Girl Senpai, in its usual fine form, managed to make this scene the climax of its first and strongest arc with Sakuta running outside the classroom and shouting his love for Mai at the top of his lungs at the building. I’m still left wondering why he didn’t end up in more trouble for that stunt disrupting all those classes but it certainly got the point across even if Mai didn’t actually accept the confession until nearly a month later.
Number 4: Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
What is more adorable than two dorks falling in love and fumbling their way through it? Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood gave us brilliant characters and action with a fairly epic scale plot but it was this scene at the train station right at the end, where Ed finally confesses to Winry (proposes actually), that really hit home for me and left me feeling like I’d just watched something incredibly special (okay, there were other moments in the show that did a similar thing but this has the advantage of being the point the show leaves us on). So happy this moment happened and so happy that Ed was true to Ed in how he did it.
This one if it happened in reality would probably be a little bit on the creepy side (okay, hold the little bit – it would just be creepy) but as a well delivered line in an anime this one near stopped my heart and I wasn’t even a big fan of Junta. However, when he stares right at Takato (and at the audience) and declares ‘I want you’ there is no doubt that this is a clear and straightforward declaration of love and one we don’t get very often in anime where so many characters blush and stumble their way through confessions. Seriously, this one can give you shivers.
Now if we just take away the lack of consent earlier and the possessive nature of this relationship we could have one of the most beautiful love confessions ever.
Again, what is more adorable than two dorks in love? You have to admit, this particular moment between Yuuta and Rikka, or rather the Dark Flame Master and the Keeper of the Tyrant’s Eye is spectacularly adorkable. hiding behind their personas, or in Rikka’s case for awhile her umbrella, this sequence under the bridge is one of those moments that just leaves you wanting to hug both the characters and never let them go. Sure, they’ve still got a long way to go, but seriously this moment was absolutely delightful.
This one is notable for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it doesn’t happen at either the beginning or the end of the series but is more of a mid-season moment. Secondly, it isn’t the main character confessions that stopped my heart cold, it was actually the support characters, and one in particular who prior to this had mostly been comic relief, who really stepped up and delivered a scene that can literally melt your heart. As Otonashi is trying to help Yui cross over, after a lot of mucking about she admits she wanted to fall in love but no one would have loved her because she was home-bound when she was alive.
Normally you would suspect the main character would reassure her that someone would love her but Otonashi freezes and in that moment Hinata steps up to the plate delivering one of the most unforgettable confession speeches of all time and over-ruling any objection she might have. He plans out how they would have met and how their relationship would have gone. He declares he would have stayed with her. He takes away all her fears and ultimately helps her find peace. It is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.
And there we have it, my top 5 favourite anime confessions. So now it is your turn. Confess.
Which anime confession made your heart go doki doki?
I will admit I’m not the biggest fan of the flower and heart themed Valentine’s Day. Not because I like to be bitter or rain on other people’s sunshine and sparkles but mostly because I kind of like my romance a little more spontaneous and a little less added as a scheduled reminder. That said, around February each year I start thinking about current romantic anime that I’ve watched or am watching and I like to think about their different takes on romance.
Now for those who have followed my blog for awhile you will know I usually have one or two anime with a bit of romance in my line-up even if isekai, horror and darker stories tend to steal a lot more of my focus. It is always nice to have a little bit of a lighter and brighter spot in my viewing each week and I did grow up on 1990’s rom-coms so I definitely have a sweet spot for a bit of cliched romance.
Winter 2022 has actually left me a little spoiled for choice with the current romantic anime being among the better anime I picked up this season. Admittedly, partly that is because I’m not up-to-date with the two big returning anime (Attack on Titan or Demon Slayer) which immediately ruled them out from the seasonal watch list. However even the bog standard isekai that are usually good for some light entertainment seem to be coming up a little wanting this season.
And so three romantic anime ended up on my watch list and while each has a different appeal and a different way of dealing with romance, all of them have so far been endearing in their own way. So if you are struggling to find your Valentine spirit, here are three current romantic anime that might get you ready to face the day.
Current Romantic Anime You Could Be Watching
My Dress Up Darling
Probably no surprise that the first romantic anime on my list is the anime that has taken over twitter each and every weekend (you know right before the episode of Attack on Titan drops and pictures of titans fill our feeds). My Dress Up Darling (or Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru) has so far been a rather charming affair carried mostly by the female lead, the adorable Marin.
Though right from episode one, I was kind of interested in how Gojo was going to develop in this series given the story seems largely to be following his perspective with Marin acting more like a hurricane blowing through his old views and ideas about himself and helping him open up to others again. And episode 4 kind of made some progress on that.
But what really sells this current romantic anime and makes it something so many people are talking about is it is an anime that really just celebrates the main characters enjoying their passions. While it is listed as a romance, and I’m sure they’ll get to that, really we have a cosplay fanatic with no ability to sew meeting the guy who is obsessed with the tradition of doll-making and so has learned to sew their clothes, coming together and both just respecting each other’s passion and helping each other out.
It’s one of those things where as an anime fan it is a joy to watch because here are two characters with slightly less common hobbies finding each other and just enjoying being who they are. And they are both great people. Not flawless or super genius’ or anything like that. Just normal people who have doubts and fears and don’t communicate well but get a genuine buzz out of seeing the other smile.
Admittedly, for those who don’t like it when female characters are objectified, the camera angles in episode one plus pretty much the entire measuring sequence of episode two (which is most of the episode) are probably not going to land great but for those that don’t have an issue with that kind of fan-service, particularly when it isn’t intruding on the narrative, My Dress Up Darling is an anime to dive into if you are looking for a current romantic anime to try.
I’ll be honest, of the three current romantic anime I’m watching, Love of Kill is the weakest by far in terms of character and story but it does have one thing that will keep me watching and has landed in a spot in this post: the characters aren’t in school.
Yes, romantic anime set in high school and middle school are more or less everywhere but finding adult anime characters in a romance is kind of difficult so when you get you Recovery of an MMO Junkie or similar style stories that have adult characters who are actually pretty capable humans, there’s definitely an appeal particularly for anime fans that are no longer in their teens (not saying you can’t enjoy high school romance but it is nice sometimes to see a different age bracket in the spot-light).
This current romantic anime isn’t one to watch if you are looking for the hearts and glitter version of romance. With the two main characters being a bounty hunter and a killer with one of them all but outright stalking the other and coercing her into a date, if you are looking for a romance that feels sweet and innocent or even just one that shouldn’t involve a restraining order, you might want to look elsewhere.
Despite that, I’m kind of hoping for the two main characters to end up together. Not because I believe in any way that this would be a healthy relationship in real life, but because I have genuinely enjoyed watching their interactions and as much as the male protagonist is not someone anyone should have to deal with in real life, as a character on screen he has some real charisma.
About the only real stumbling block for this one and the reason it isn’t my favourite current romantic anime is because Chateau, the female lead, is still pretty bland but much like Gojo from My Dress Up Darling, I’m hoping that through her interactions with her love interest she might open up a bit.
Sasaki to Miyano
The final of the three current romantic anime I’m watching is a boys love anime with two high school boys at the centre of the story (which kind of explains the name of the anime Sasaki to Miyano – its a little on the nose). Anyway, if you were after sparkles and flowers for your Valentine’s day mood setting viewing, then boy is Sasaki to Miyano for you. Practically every other scene has one boy or the other surrounded by pastel colours and dancing somethings.
The gimmick for this boys love story is that Miyano likes to read BL manga and after a chance meeting with senior student Sasaki, where Sasaki involved himself in a fight to save one of Miyano’s class mates, the two strike up a friendship including Sasaki borrowing various manga from Miyano.
Realistically, this one is the most standard romance of the lot despite being BL given you have the endless blushes, the wondering what this feeling is, sudden jealousy, and as I said the endless sparkly backgrounds. It is genuinely impossible to come out the other side of an episode of Sasaki to Miyano and not be in a more romantic mood and honestly if a guy gives you a Valentine’s gift and doesn’t look at you the way Sasaki looks at Miyano you might just be missing something.
But at least there are some adorable current romantic anime to take our minds off of other things and if none of these are working for you I’m sure you can dig up some older series that are worth a rewatch. In the meantime, I’d love to know your suggestions of anime to watch in the lead up to Valentine’s Day.
We use cookies to optimize our website and our service.
Functional cookies
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
