My Dress-Up Darling is all set to continue the romcom hijinks between Wakana Gojo and Marin Kitagawa in this upcoming second season. Oh, and don’t forget the cosplay hijinks as well, which these first two episodes of that season 2 has in spades. It’s once more a fascinating dive into the world of cosplay, as well as a chance to see Gojo and Marin grow ever closer to each other.

My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Ep. 1-2: Details in Brief

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The many faces of Marin vs. the one embarrassed face of Gojo.

My Dress-Up Darling season 2 Ep. 1-2 are the first two episodes of this romantic comedy and slice of cosplay life anime series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the manga of the same name by Shinichi Fukuda.

CloverWorks (The Promised Neverland, Horimiya, Spy x Family) will be returning to production this second season, just as they did with the first season. In fact, longtime readers of THS will recall that we did a review of that first season here. Crunchyroll once more is licensing this anime for its global release. Keisuke Shinohara returns as the director, with Yoriko Tomita also returning as the writer.

Synopsis

As you can see, Marin is definitely the proactive one in this relationship.

Alas, this second season of My Dress-Up Darling hasn’t aired yet. In fact, that airing and simultaneous streaming (aka. simulcast) will take place on July 5, 2025 exclusively on Crunchyroll. Thus, you will all be getting a teaser from Crunchyroll in the form of their official synopsis for this upcoming new season, which you can read below:

“When Marin Kitagawa and Wakana Gojo met, they grew close over their love for cosplay. Through interacting with classmates and making new cosplay friends, Marin and Wakana’s world keeps growing. New developments arise as Marin’s love for Wakana continues to be filled with endless excitement. In their ever-expanding world, Marin and Wakana’s story of cosplay and thrills continues!”

My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Ep. 1-2: The Good

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The cosplay is amazingly good as always.

If you’re coming here as a fan of the first season of My Dress-Up Darling, then you too will be here for the story. Fortunately, that story filled with cosplay and romcom is still the best part of the first two episodes of this second season. And honestly, the cosplay is probably one of the most notable aspects of that story due to just how deeply it dives into the world of cosplay. I mean it. They once more go into the intricacies of how to make clothing from an anime actually fit onto a person in real life, and just how difficult it can be. And not just clothing either, but makeup and other things necessary for a successful cosplay. It really makes you think deeply about how much time and effort cosplayers put into their outfits, and makes you appreciate them even more.

However, it’s not just the cosplay that’s great here. It’s also the romcom that further fleshes out the budding relationship between Wakana Gojo (Shōya Ishige and Paul Dateh in English dub) and Marin Kitagawa (voiced by Hina Suguta and AmaLee in English dub). It also fleshes out the characters themselves. We see even more that Wakana is pretty traumatized by a certain event that happened in his past. One in which he basically ran into the hardened wall of gender roles even as a grade-schooler, even just over something as innocent as wanting to make pretty clothes for hina dolls. Fortunately, Marin is there to help him get over that wall, while still navigating her own feelings towards him herself. It’s this interplay of romance and shattering of gender norms that really what makes this particular romcom so interesting.

And of course, it’s all with some pretty good work from CloverWorks and their animation team. In particular, the characters’ movements gets a kudos from me for their complex yet smooth animation. Seriously, when you see Marin’s fingers dart across her smartphone with a fluidity that almost makes you think you’re watching someone do it in real life, you know that they put a lot of their animation budget into that.

My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Ep. 1-2: The Bad

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You know they’ve got a tough time with a particular costume when they’re both sighing like this.

Alas, while the animation of My Dress-Up Darling is overall good, there is still one aspect of it I criticize. That would be the food animation. Yes, I know this isn’t a food-centric anime, thus I shouldn’t expect much from the food. In fact, I wouldn’t give it much attention at all…if only the anime didn’t do closeups of the food and devote so much attention to them as if showing off the animation quality.

Except, it’s not quality animation, and it becomes very apparent when you see Wakana cooking. The ingredients and finished product alike all just look like multi-colored blobs of Play-Dough. They lack any texture whatsoever, and you can barely even tell what they are with some scrutiny. Look, I get it. This isn’t a food-centric anime, but if you’re going to do these closeups of the food, at least try to put some effort into them? Maybe? Or just don’t do those closeups and focus on the person making the food? Just a thought here.

Aside from that, if you’re looking for action, then you might want to look elsewhere. Seriously, My Dress-Up Darling is a slice of life romcom. This ain’t your typical shonen action anime. If you want that, then you might want to check out Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba, Kaiju No. 8, DDDD, DAN DA DAN, Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online II, Zenshu, Blue Box, Solo Leveling, Black Butler, and even a few wild episodes of Apocalypse Hotel. Those anime should have enough action to satisfy you before you come back to the peaceful romcom life of Wakana and Marin.

What do you all think? Are you excited to watch this upcoming second season of My Dress-Up Darling? Tell us what you think in the comments section below.