All the ladies love Wakana.
To be sure, the young man's sewing skills are off the charts and his tendency to smooth over the thorniest of outbursts with a cool smile is unparalleled. Wakana Gojo, a loner and a high schooler without many hobbies, has suddenly found himself a necessity for a handful of cosplay goddesses who couldn't survive without him. MY DRESS-UP DARLING #4 wraps up the cosplay collab between the ever-ebullient Marin Kitagawa and the reluctant tsundere Sajuna Inui. Will this new team of unlikely friends find its way toward something more?
This volume views the comical streamlining of cosplay chaos largely through the eyes of Sajuna, a girl whose solitary gaze and firm sense of self feel exclusory even when it's not. Sajuna enjoys the sensory exploration that cosplay permits. She and her little sister, Shinju, together explore the interplay of real and imaginary with top-notch photography and knee-deep research into fantasy worlds hitherto uninvestigated. It's a detailed, invested, at times cerebral appreciation for the difficulty of the art.
Which is probably why Marin's emotional sincerity feels so alien to the girl. Which is why Wakana's kindness feels so out of place to the girl. Which is why, when these foreign elements clash and combine and invade her sacred space, Sajuna feels frazzled.
However, as readers are well aware by now, jealousy and uncertainty frequently yield to wonder and curiosity. MY DRESS-UP DARLING #4 maintains the manga's close affection for inheriting self-discovery as a byproduct of unfurling increasingly newer and complex relational dynamics. The more Wakana involves himself with Marin, Sajuna, and Shinju, the more clearly he discerns the importance of the courage required to be oneself under difficult or strenuous conditions.
The manga continues to serve as a solid introduction to the engagement and diversity at the heart of cosplay. Cross-dressing. Modifying off-the-rack clothes. Discussing eye shapes. Sculpting and contouring the face with contrast and shadow. Styling wigs for beginners. For readers addressing cosplay from every angle possible, this manga might serve as an enlightening addition to the home catalogue.
This volume focuses on successful cosplay more so than acquiescing to the ecchi subplots that run parallel to the greater narrative. There are some glorified panty shots and busty close-ups, but that's all. It's somewhat baffling for the publisher to have rated this comic book "M" (mature) when it hews so closely to traditional ecchi tropes (that is, no vulgar dialogue and no nudity, only the suggestion of possible impropriety, which never actually occurs). Whatever the case, the book's simmering romantic drama takes a backseat. Although Marin's sulky face in the book's final chapter, when she learns Wakana invited another girl to his home to chat about cosplay, totally makes up for it.