My Dress-Up Darling is a popular new anime series in the Winter 2022 anime season that stars the shy but talented hina doll maker Gojo Wakana, who studied this craft with his beloved grandfather Kaoru. He is yet another example of an "artist protagonist," calling to mind Yaguchi Yatora of Blue Period fame.
Many parallels can be drawn between Gojo and his counterpart Yatora, including their "underdog artist" theme and their determination to make up for lost time with their respective crafts, especially Yatora with his sketching/painting career. However, in a few key ways, Gojo has the advantage as a budding artist, and these advantages make him a stronger artist lead overall without making him any less sympathetic.
Gojo Wakana's Head Start Over Yaguchi Yatora
Gojo is frustrated that he cannot yet make an entire hina doll on his own, as he is still struggling to correctly paint doll faces. However, he's an expert at making doll clothing, and he deeply understands tailoring and fabrics. Most importantly, he has years of experience with this despite being a high schooler, having been passionate about hina dolls since his boyhood. Gojo is absolutely confident in his tailoring skills, to the point where he thoroughly assessed and critiqued Kitagawa Marin's shoddy cosplay outfit in My Dress-Up Darling's first episode.
By contrast, Yatora was in no position to act as a seasoned art critic early in Blue Period, instead praising other artists' work and trying to learn from what he saw. He was the apprentice, and everyone else was the master, even if they were his age or younger.
However, Gojo's head start involves more than experience. His advanced skills also make him confident in his craft, meaning he has more drive and enthusiasm for what he's doing than Yatora. Gojo knows he's bad at painting doll faces, but aside from that, he's comfortable with his skills, and that helped draw Marin to him. Yatora suffered all kinds of insecurities about his art, as did his friends, and he nearly gave up more than once, making him miserable. Gojo, when he sticks to his formidable strengths, takes the lead with cosplay and can show Marin exactly how it's done.
Of course, it helps that Gojo had his kind grandfather to teach him and support him, giving Gojo yet another advantage over Yatora. By contrast, Yatora had only himself to rely on, and even his mother doubted his Tokyo University plans until he really had something to show for it. That situation was made even worse with Yatora's inexperience, having to teach himself all these art techniques on the fly.
Gojo Wakana's Muse Friend, Kitagawa Marin
Gojo has the edge over Yatora with his years of practice and his grandfather's support, but even then, he felt insecure about his hobby of doll-making, and that held him back somewhat. Yatora also had to contend with self-doubt, but while he gained a rival of sorts in Yotasuke, Gojo was greeted with his new business partner and personal muse, the cheerful gyaru Kitagawa Marin. They met in Episode 1 in a classic case of opposites attracting, and they've been inseparable ever since. Yatora wishes he had a muse and cheerleader half as effective as Marin.
Every artist or entrepreneur needs someone to support and inspire them, and with Marin in the picture, Gojo now has two of them, while Yatora, at most, took a few cues from his enthusiastic teachers such as Mrs. Saeki. Those teachers helped prod Yatora along, but they didn't truly light a fire in his heart the way Marin did for Gojo Wakana. Marin loves cosplay more than anything, and her passion and knowledge in the field helped Gojo put his skills to use in an entirely new way.
He's already competent with doll clothes, so making cosplay for Marin is a fresh and exciting challenge for him -- one that he clearly enjoys. He and Marin went on a shopping trip together to get everything ready, and with their pooled knowledge, they quickly bought everything they needed for a contest-worthy cosplay of Slippery Girls game characters.
Their business partnership and charming new friendship are already inspiring Gojo to reach new heights in just a few episodes, covering much more ground than Yatora did in the same time frame, and with less stress too. Gojo did struggle with a tight deadline to finish Marin's cosplay, but to him, it was worth it, and Marin thought so too once she tried on the costume. Gojo's artist career is taking off, with far more gain and less pain compared to Yatora's own. At this rate, he'll be the anime artist of the year.
