My Dress-Up Darling embraces eroge the way fans actually do
polygon.comMy Dress-Up Darling is one of the most beloved anime in 2022 so far. It offered a wholesome look at cosplay and how it connects people. Fans fell for the awkward and adorable romance between series leads Marin, a bubbly cosplayer and popular girl at school, and Gojo, the shy and talented classmate who makes her outfits. It’s through cosplay that the series spreads the message that it’s OK to love what you love, regardless of the stigma attached. But there is one element that struck me about Marin: her love of Saint ♡ Slippery’s Academy for Girls — The Young Ladies of the Humiliation Club: Debauched Miracle Life 2, a fictional eroge (a Japanese portmanteau of “erotic” and “game”) with an 18+ rating.
My Dress-Up Darling manages to talk about Marin and her Slippery Girls fandom in a way that isn’t creepy but instead feels validating. While there are tons of pop culture portrayals of teenage boys and men consuming mature content, there are shockingly few examples for teen girls and women exploring their sexuality and their fandom with adult titles. There are tamer examples of fandom, a la “friend fiction”-writing queen Tina in Bob’s Burgers. But seeing Marin contextualize her love of eroge characters beyond their appearance, and beyond sex, reminded me of why I gravitate to mature content, and honestly, always have.
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Throughout My Dress-Up Darling, Marin explains how her favorite character’s personality is not only something she admires, but also an example of how she would like to be. She’s enamored with Slippery Girls’ Shizuku Kuroe thanks to the character’s timid nature and her ability to connect to others. For Marin, cosplaying Shizuku Kuroe is how she shows her love for the character. And as the series
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