My Dress-Up Darling (その着せ替え人形は恋をする, Sono Bisuku Dōru wa Koi o Suru) is a 2022 television anime series based on Shinichi Fukuda’s manga series of the same name. The series was produced by studio CloverWorks, and the staff credits include director Keisuke Shinohara, screenplay writer Yoriko Tomita, character designer Kazumasa Ishida and music composer Takeshi Nakatsuka. The series first aired in Japan in January 2022.
Note: This post also contains images from the box art and booklet that are not suitable for work.
Background:
“Afraid of judgment, Wakana Gojo hides his love of crafting hina dolls. Marin Kitagawa is the opposite, boldly loving her obsessions. Their worlds collide when she shares her secret. Now, they’re learning about cosplay and falling in love! It’s totes adorbs.”
Plot Synopsis via Crunchyroll, November 2023.
Every now and then you have a romance type series gathering attention even before the anime adaptation airs, and My Dress-Up Darling was one of those that I specifically remember being beloved from the start with its premise and female lead. The manga, which was published in English by Square Enix, kept selling out and as soon as the anime started airing, the popularity boomed and was among everyone’s favourites for the year.
I also watched the series when it first aired and was surprised by how they took the characters and the direction. CloverWorks generally does get flack for their adaptations but they handled My Dress-Up Darling pretty well in the same way they treated the Rascal Does Not Dream series. Not long after the anime finished airing, a continuation for the anime adaptation was greenlit but there’s no word when it will begin airing next (CloverWorks does have their schedule packed for the next while to be fair).
Now My Dress-Up Darling in Japan is handled by Aniplex, and generally in the west it would have been part of the Aniplex of America catalogue, but in recent years they allowed distributors to pickup their newer titles which is what Crunchyroll & Funimation had done as of late. Therefore, Crunchyroll was able to license the streaming and home video rights for the series. Since the series is popular, Crunchyroll UK did include the anime for their home video schedule however in a bizarre move the limited edition release is only available in the US and Australian regions.
Limited Edition Contents:
My Dress-Up Darling is a very popular anime and manga for the past few years, so it would be foolish for Crunchyroll to not provide the series with a limited edition.
The limited edition box set features a rigid box that houses an Amaray case as well as an 104-page booklet and a spare cardboard box that includes 9 art cards, a sticker sheet and a 16-month calendar with cosplay notes. The limited edition has exclusive artwork that differs from the standard edition for the main Amaray case. The booklet offers character designs, costume designs, cosplay information from experts, and interviews with the Japanese voice cast.
The rigid box artwork is free of any information and the info sheet covers the information and specification like previous Crunchyroll limited edition releases. The SRP for the limited-edition set was $89.98 and there’s no exact unit count.
I ordered the limited edition from Amazon UK, via their AmazonGlobal service (which uses Amazon US) because of timing. At the time of this write-up, the limited edition has sold out on Crunchyroll’s store. A standard edition Blu-ray release was also released on the same day as this edition.
Physical Contents:
- Rigid Box with Amaray packaging and clean artwork
- Info sheet for specification
- 104-page Booklet
- 9 Art Cards
- Sticker Sheet
- 16-Month Calendar
On-Disc Contents:
Distributor: Crunchyroll
Released: 7th November 2023
The limited edition release for My Dress-Up Darling Season 1 contains all 12 episodes across two Blu-ray discs and two DVD discs. All the discs were encoded and authored by Crunchyroll.
Audio options include Japanese audio with English subtitles and the Crunchyroll English dub. The white subtitles are unlockable during playback and the regions are compatible with Blu-ray players set to A & B and DVD players set to 1, 2 & 4.
Blu-ray Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Japanese Dolby TrueHD 2.0 |
| Video | 1080p High Definition Native format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | A B |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 BD-50s |
DVD Specs:
| Languages | English, Japanese |
| Audio | English Dolby Digital 5.1 Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 |
| Video | Standard Definition in NTSC format 16:9 aspect ratio |
| Region | 1 2 4 |
| Subtitles | English |
| Locked Subtitles | No |
| Discs | 2 |
Blu-ray On-Disc Extra Features:
Disc 2:
- My Dress-Up Darling: Dub Cast and Crew Q&A
- Promo Videos
- Textless Opening Song “Sansan Days”
- Textless Closing Song “Koi no Yukue”
DVD On-Disc Extra Features:
No extras across all discs
Unboxing Photos:
Final Notes:
My Dress-Up Darling Season 1 is available to purchase on Blu-ray by Crunchyroll in the US & Canada territories. The limited edition Blu-ray & DVD release looks to be selling out but listings are available to order on Amazon UK (via AmazonGlobal), Amazon US and Crunchyroll’s store.
(Disclaimer: Amazon links are also included when available. They are affiliated so if you decide to order them, I’ll earn a small percentage if they ship which will help me with any hauls or small bills. Rightstuf has merged with Crunchyroll’s store & United Publications have retired so they won’t be listed here)
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