English Dub Review: My Dress-Up Darling: “A Lot Happened After I Saw That Photo”

Overview: Gojo (Paul Dateh) helps Shinju (Jad Saxton) craft a surprise that neither Juju (Risa Mei) or Marin (Amanda Lee) were expecting. 

Our Take: Gojo continues to show his immense talent and budding skills as a cosplay designer, he still has a learning curve showing he is not perfect making minor mistakes. While Juju is head over heels in love with her outfit, he is still constantly improving and learning how to make her dress frilly and flow more towards the bottom of it. In awe of Juju’s vast knowledge and expertise pertaining to cosplay, Marin tries her darndest to make intellectual observations about her outfit, in her own laid back, charmingly simple way. 

When the gang goes to the abandoned hospital to do their cosplay photoshoot, they unexpectedly must deal with the rain. Although the weather may be a downer for their morale, it will also make for some great shots. Besides the sudden downpour, another huge surprise was for that of Marin and Juju in there being a third addition to their photoshoot in that of Shinju. Not resting on its laurels when it first teased Shinju had a desire to do cosplay, the show immediately builds off of that with Gojo having a conversation with her in private about how she truly feels about cosplay. 

While Shinju’s reservations about cosplay aren’t especially inventive as they fall under the insecure little sister living up to her big sister category, it’s a sweet heart-to-heart nonetheless with Gojo encouraging her to embrace her desire to cosplay and that her sister would undoubtedly be unbothered by it. 

What transpires is a fun backstory of Gojo such as disguising their body type, in this case, Shinju’s huge melons. It’s very interesting learning about the finer aspects of how cosplayers distinguish themselves in subtle ways and the trial-and-error process involved in figuring out a solution. However, as previously stated, just as engaging is watching Gojo learn the ins and outs of the cosplay craft with various ingenious ideas that are clever and in ways that are unexpected such as Shinju’s undershirt to conceal her chest being inexpensive to implement. 

Gojo transforms Shinju into her favorite character from Flower Princess Blaze!!, Soma, a character that makes for a good cosplay thematically in how much he takes after Juju making it compelling in how he would resonate with her. Juju and Marin’s over the moon reaction to Shinju’s cosplay makes for a sweetly enthusiastic moment that is a gratifying display for the shy younger sister. With Gojo now in her good graces, their photo hectic spirited ends their romp spectacularly.