My Dress-Up Darling (2021)

[その 着せ替え人形 （ ビスク・ドール ） は恋をする]

Volume 7

Author/Artist: Shinichi Fukuda
Publisher: Young Gangan Comics

Synopsis:
Gojou is embarrassed when he gets asked if he's dating Kitagawa in front of her friends.

Story/Characters:
Nowa's question to Gojou is met with vehement denials. He unwittingly hurts Kitagawa's feelings, but that sad part is that because his self-confidence is so low, he doesn't even see himself as having any chance with her, so he doesn't view her romantically, though we the audience know she's head over heels for him. At least it's made clear that his denial isn't because he doesn't care about her as he rushes to her rescue when she looks like she's being harassed by some guy. Now, a hot-blooded shounen protagonist might have punched the guy, and the frame composition almost makes you think that at first, but Gojou makes the surprise move of offering himself up as an alternative. As we soon learn that the man in question is Kitagawa's stylist and he was berating her for not taking better care of hair and risking a cold because of her outfit, the misunderstanding is resolved. (Though, given how the stylist swings, Gojou very well might have been at risk of that offer of his being accepted. ^o^ ) Kitagawa rewards him with a little kiss on the cheek (though he's wearing a giant rabbit costume at the time) and because Kitagawa can't win for nothin', he mistakes her "chu" (kissing sound) for a "chi" (clicking the tongue in annoyance). Oh, and the stylist was right about her catching a cold, but this gives us the tried-and-true nursing the sick chapter. Gojou is prime husbando material and Kitagawa knows it. We follow with a chapter of Gojou accompanying Kitagawa on one of her modeling gigs, where he gets to see a different side of her, and her manager tries to get Gojou to help her convince Kitagawa to take on more gigs.

Next, we have the culture festival coming up and while 1-5 is going to be doing Russian roulette takoyaki, the real focus is the beauty pageant they're going to be holding. Unsurprisingly, the whole class wants Kitagawa, the professional model, to enter, but there's a gimmick involved. The beauty pageant requires cross-dressing. Kitagawa is actually really hyped because she sees the opportunity to play a cross-dressing character from a popular shoujo manga that's been made into a live-action drama. This hypes up the class even more, as even quite a few of the guys enjoy the series. The series in question is a reverse harem about a girl who becomes the object of interest of several hosts, only one of them is in fact her school's student council president, who cross-dresses to work at the host bar (the "Rei-sama" Kitagawa intends to portray). Once Gojou reads through the series, he and Kitagawa discuss the logistics of the costume, drawing on previous experience with cross-players. However, with Gojou being assigned to work on the decorations for the classroom, it looks like he can't help her, so she decides to take on the challenge herself. This being Kitagawa, it's a bit of a dodgy prospect. (Scratch that. An incredibly dodgy prospect.) When Gojou returns to the classroom, we have a moment that parallels the one at the Halloween party. The guy leading the decoration team asks why Gojou's there and says they don't need him. Immediately, Gojou takes it the worst possible way, that he's unwanted, that he has no place in the group, but that gets subverted when the truth of the matter is that they recognize where Gojou's talents actually lie and that he's best helping the class by putting together Kitagawa's costume (as the class' goal is to win both the class event and the pageant). This gives Gojou a much needed boost and he meets up with Kitagawa to get the materials for the costume.

That evening, Kitagawa is at Gojou's place for supper and he and his grandpa are talking shop, which provides an opportunity for both Kitagawa and readers who aren't in the know to learn more about the hina dollmaking business. I love this moment where Gojou mentions the daily quota (doing the makeup of 200-300 dolls per day) and when Kitagawa thinks that even getting ten done would be her limit, they just laugh that orders would never get filled that way. (Just seeing Gojou and his grandpa entirely on the same wavelength is cute.) Kitagawa wants to be helpful, so she decides to make lunch for Gojou. Gojou is reasonably concerned given her culinary sensibilities, but she actually delivers something reasonable for a change. At first, I didn't quite get the joke that follows. Coming from a family of cattle ranchers, I saw nothing odd about all the meals featuring meat, but it was only when Kitagawa noted that they were always having fish for supper that I realized that Gojou, being such a traditional Japanese fellow, rarely eats meat and so Kitagawa's well-meaning efforts were a bit tough on him.

We close with Kitagawa and the girls brainstorming the appeal segment of the pageant with her getting into character to amusing effect. We also see her continuing her clumsy efforts to help Gojou, but even when it comes to sewing on buttons, she's got about as much sense for the craft as I do.

Art:
Gojou's cavalry moment at the karaoke place really packs a punch (though thankfully no actual punches were involved). We see quite a difference with Kitagawa at work, which makes for a nice contrast with her usual self and when she's cosplaying. The SeiHos segment shows a real solid grasp on shoujo manga stylings. The two-page spread of Gojou taking the class' calls to go help Kitagawa is nice, as is Kitagawa's reaction when her Spam onigiri lunch goes over well. And then there's just all of Nowa in Chapter 55. (Seriously, I could go for a Nowa spinoff. Consider it, Fukuda-sensei.)

Other:
As we don't have a new costume this volume, the color illustration has Kitagawa in some uncomfortable-looking lingerie. The afterword illustration has a magical girl that was supposed to be the original idea behind the first cosplay project before Shizuku-tan was developed. We have a four-page comic about Fukuda's research trip to a high school that has a specialization track for work in the fashion industry and he gets some heavy expectations placed on him by the principal (as a previous mangaka who visited the school got a two-season anime and a live-action adaptation). The stinger is that a mere four months later, plans went forward to give this series an anime. Must be a lucky school and maybe because of that, it gets first credit in the thanks page.

Conclusion:
While we're still a long ways from any overt romance in this series, this volume is packed with a lot of sweet moments with our main couple. Their dedication to each other is really something special. Culture festivals are always a big deal in school stories and the whole pageant thing is shaping up to be a banger. I shouldn't have to say it, but this belongs in your collection.

Rating:
Own It