My Dress-Up Darling

My Dress-Up Darling is CloverWorks' anime adaptation of Shinichi Fukuda's cosplay romantic comedy manga, which ran in Square Enix's Young Gangan from 2018 to 2025; the first season aired in 2022. It makes the shy one the expert. Wakana Gojo, raised by his grandfather, a hina doll craftsman, wants to become a kashira-shi, the artisan who makes the dolls' heads, and hides it because he expects ridicule. Marin Kitagawa, the outgoing classmate he assumes lives in another world, finds him at the school sewing machine and, instead of laughing, asks him to make the game-character costume she has failed to sew herself. He has never sewn for a living person.

Each arc is a costume with a deadline, and director Keisuke Shinohara gives the work real screen time: measurements, fabric shopping, a stubborn corset, a host's suit for a gender-swapped culture festival pageant, props for a group shoot of nuns from a horror game called Coffin. Of all the My Dress-Up Darling characters, Marin makes it work: her story runs on enthusiasm for a hobby, not on her looks.

On the Ecchi tag: both seasons have genuine fan service, and IGN's otherwise glowing 9/10 review of season one still cautioned that a few scenes could put viewers off. The romance is also a deliberate slow burn; 24 episodes in, the anime stops well short of a resolution, and its anime-original final scene divided fans.

As of October 2026 the anime is two 12-episode seasons. The first (January to March 2022) covers the manga's first five volumes. The second (July to September 2025) adds the crossplayer Amane Himeno, gives more room to Gojo's insecurities, and placed ninth on both Anime News Network's and the AV Club's 2025 lists. It ends on the Coffin shoot, around the end of volume 11, where readers should pick up the finished 15-volume manga. No third season or film has been announced as of October 2026; in January 2026, Shota Umehara of the season two production team called a third season a blank slate he would still like to make.

Our verdict: it suits anyone who enjoys hobby anime or a romance built on respect rather than misunderstandings, and season two is the stronger half. See where it lands in our best romance anime ranking, and the sequel's place in our best anime of 2025 list.