The third and fourth episodes of the second season of My Dress-Up Darling (aka. Ep. 15-16) continues and builds upon the plot of the previous episode in a big way. Namely, in how cosplay can clash heavily with gender roles in a highly conservative society. Fortunately, this story is about how the power of cosplay love wins over all.

My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 15-16: Details in Brief

My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 NA key art
Both of them are for the fight against gender norms.

My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 15-16 (titled Ep. 15 “I Wuuuuv Slice-of-Life Scenes! ♡♡♡” and Ep. 16 “Has All My Measurements Memorized”) is the third episode (you can read my review of Ep. 1-2 here) of the second season of this romantic comedy and slice of cosplay life anime series. Said anime is the anime adaptation of the 14-volume long 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

Even the Pocky is all for that fight.

Alas, My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 is still ongoing as of this writing. In fact, My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 16 “Has All My Measurements Memorized” only just premiered on Crunchyroll on July 26, 2025. Thus, to avoid spoilers for those of you who haven’t watched the new season yet, here’s the synopses for Ep. 15:

“Amane tells Marin and Wakana about his past and how he got into cosplay.”

And Ep. 16:

“Marin represents her class enters the school beauty pageant and finds out she gets to cosplay.”

And lastly the synopsis for My Dress-Up Darling as a whole:

“Wakana Gojo is a high school boy who wants to become a kashirashi–a master craftsman who makes traditional Japanese Hina dolls. Though he’s gung-ho about the craft, he knows nothing about the latest trends, and has a hard time fitting in with his class. The popular kids–especially one girl, Marin Kitagawa–seem like they live in a completely different world.

That all changes one day, when she shares an unexpected secret with him, and their completely different worlds collide.”

My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 15-16: The Good

My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 15 screenshot
Nice that they addressed the issue though.

As you can guess by now, it’s the story of My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 15-16 that makes them so highly fascinating to watch. In particular, because of how these two episodes discuss and play around with the topic of gender roles in cosplay. See, one episode deals with a man cosplaying a female character, and then the next switches it up to a female character cosplaying as a male character. In both cases, we have characters defying their gender roles in order to cosplay as their favorite characters, and doing it in style to boot. Not only that, but they’re doing it in Japan as well, which is one of the more conservative societies out there. The setting alone makes their actions even more impressive than they appear to be.

It’s not just the gender role defiance either. It’s the way the story treats it. In both cases, the characters doing the cosplaying emphasize just how important it is to them. And even if they have to fight some tough societal challenges along the way (ex: Amano’s highly conservative ex-girlfriend trying to get him to quit cosplaying in a fit of conservative outrage), the power of cosplay will always shine through, and they’ll find acceptance with fellows of like mind.

On top of that, the animation of both episodes is still pretty good on top of that. CloverWorks and their animation team have put quite a bit of work into making the anime look good, with smooth animations and highly detailed people and environments. As long as there isn’t any food, that is, but fortunately, there is no food in here to disturb the otherwise amazing animation.

My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 15-16: The Bad

My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 16 screenshot
This could’ve easily gone badly, but it didn’t because of them.

Funnily enough, my one issue with My Dress-Up Darling Ep. 15-16 doesn’t have anything to do with what the episodes say. But rather, what they don’t say. The episodes makes a side observation that it’s socially acceptable for women to dress in male clothes, but not for men to dress in women’s clothes. However, it simply makes that observation and doesn’t really go into any detail about why that is. Nothing about why society is like that or anything at all.

Fortunately, it does go pretty far into calling out discriminating against people for that, so it does mollify me to a great deal. It may also also say something about how Marin’s classmates and friends are pretty open-minded in general. After all, one of her male friends did dress in women’s clothes for a Halloween party. Even if it was ultimately for a joke on his part, it still says something good about Marin’s inner circle, and those she chooses to associate with.

Outside of that, if you’re looking for an action-packed anime, this ain’t it. It’s a romantic comedy and cosplay-focused anime only. If you want shonen-style action and bloody gore, 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, Apocalypse Hotel, and/or Nyaight of the Living Cat. If you want more calm anime like this one though, then check out Senpai is an Otokonoko and Spice and Wolf: Merchant Meets the Wise Wolf.