Living with his grandfather who makes beautiful Hina Dolls, Wakana Gojo has loved them since he was a child. He aspires to one day make Hina Dolls as good as his grandfather, but his dedication has made him a bit of a loner in school after a girl in his childhood said that boys shouldn’t like dolls. After a run in with the beautiful and popular Marin Kitagawa, he discovers that she wants to cosplay a character from an eroge game. However, her sewing skills leave something to be desired, and after seeing her passion, Gojo agrees to help her make her costume.
CloverWorks, look at you continuing to flex your animation skills on a series that was already pretty cute. If you came for the cosplay and stayed for the cute and admittedly sexy characters, then let us help you find some more anime recommendations like My Dress-Up Darling.
Anime Like My Dress-Up Darling
For Fans of Clothing and Fashion
Smile Down The Runway
Fujito Chiyuki has dreamed of being the star model for her father’s modeling agency since she was a girl. Unfortunately, she stopped growing and is considered too short to be a good model. Regardless, she kept pursuing her dream. Only did her resolve start to waiver in her last year of high school. However, after meeting Tsumura Ikuto, a classmate with a passion for designing clothes, does she join him on a seemingly impossible journey to achieve their dreams.
Both series are, most obviously, about people with a passion for fashion. They are series about guys who make clothes and girls who want to wear them, and follow the stigmatized struggles about that. However, Smile Down The Runway is more drama-focused and doesn’t have the same romantic element.
Paradise Kiss
Third year high school student Yukari is only into studying so she can get into any college outside of her boring town. One day, she meets a suspicious stranger with bleached hair and piercings. She tries to politely leave him, but ends up meeting his friends who are fashion design students for an art school. They want her to model, but she is afraid it will interfere with her studies. Still, she ends up agreeing and it leads her into another less boring world.
If you enjoy anime about fashion, your choices are pretty limited. While Paradise Kiss also fits the bill, it is older and embraces that older style of anime drama where its is almost too over the top sometimes. Still, if you like fashion and romance, it has that as well.
Princess Jellyfish
Kurashita Tsukimi loves jellyfish, to the point of obsession. One day, when she sees a jellyfish being mistreated in a pet store, she tries to stick up for it, but her social awkwardness gets in the way. Thankfully, a sparklingly beautiful woman steps in and sparks the beginning of an unlikely friendship. While Tsukimi’s new friend charms her and her roommates, what they don’t know is that this princess is also a man.
What both series have in common is that they approach gender norms and lightly dip the toe in the opinion that it is okay to just like what you like. Furthermore, they also have an element of unlikely romance as it explores its more drama-oriented plot.
For Fans of Opposites Attract Romance
Horimiya
Although lauded for being likable and intelligent, Kyouko Hori hides the fact that she has to take care of her brother and the housework because her parents are always working. Izumi Miyamura, on the other hand, is seen as a brooding, bespectacled otaku. Outside of school, he sports tattoos and nine piercings. By happenstance, the two outside school personalities of these two classmates meet and they get to know a side of each other they don’t show their peers.
While Horimiya is a dedicated school romance series without any other hooks, both series are about people from two seemingly different worlds bonding and falling in love after getting to know each other and essentially spending a ton of time together.
Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki-kun
Fumiya Tomozaki is the top player in Japan at a fighting game called TackFam. Despite holding such a title, he is a failure at everything else, blaming it on the unfair rules and mechanics of life. One day, the second best TackFam player asks to meet up. Tomozaki discovers that they are actually Aoi, one of the most popular girls at school. She, however, is disappointed that someone she respected is a failure at life. Now, she aims to teach him how to succeed at the glorious game of life.
Both series feature a loner who has his life utterly invaded by a popular, beautiful, and well-liked girl. However, in Tomozaki-kun, she is helping him rather than the reverse that was in My Dress-Up Darling. While Tomozaki-kun is about learning people skills, both shows see the male main’s world expand thanks to one girls’ influence.
3D Girlfriend
Tsusui Hikari is an otaku that mostly avoids social life. He only really has one friend at school and is otherwise mocked by his classmates. One day, he ends up having to clean the pool with Igarashi Iroha. She is blunt, truant, and a troublemaker, but she stands up for Hikari when people make fun of him. While he is harsh with her, she never dismisses him. Could real 3D love be in the air?
My Dress-Up Darling and 3D Girlfriend are about loner men who have a clandestine meeting with a popular girl that they get to know and love. It’s just that 3D Girlfriend is exclusively focused on romance and the male main character is, well, he’s less likable than Gojo.
For Fans of Unusual Passions
Arte
16th century Florence is awash with cultural and creative contributions during the Renaissance. Arte is a young lady from an aristocratic family who wants to contribute to this unique time. However, after her father’s death, she is expected to marry rather than become an artist. While she defies her family and looks for a mentor, she faces many obstacles in her path, one being that she is a woman.
While art isn’t exactly a strange passion compared to a man making doll clothes, a woman pursuing art in the time period of Arte is presented as equally as odd. As such, both series tell stories about people who are pursuing their passions even when others say that it is not the correct route for their gender.
Welcome to the Ballroom
Tatara is rescued one day by a professional dancer and teacher named Sengoku. Ending up back at his dance studio, he meets a school mate that he had secretly come to idolize. From this moment, Tatara is thrust into the world of dance, aiming to improve as a dancer in order to be acknowledged by his peers and rivals while Sengoku nurtures his natural talent.
There is perhaps no more series akin to My Dress-Up Darling as Welcome to the Ballroom. It focuses on a man who has fallen in love with an activity that is perhaps not the most masculine. While he is pursuing that, a romantic element forms as well. However, Welcome to the Ballroom is presented in more of the sports anime style where there are competitive moments and training moments rather than just slice of life moments.
Stop This Sound
After the senior members graduated, Takezou is now the sole member of his Japanese string instrument club. Facing termination, he now begins his search for new members when suddenly a wily one bursts right into his club room. Chika has a strong reputation as a violent thug, but due to his grandfather being a renowned koto artisan before his death, he has a passion for the koto that will help Takezou revive his dying club.
Both anime series are about art, just in different forms. On top of that, they also feature a blonde and popular person that likes something that people may not expect them to like. Having that normal person and popular person dynamic makes the character relationships in both just that much more interesting.
Do you have more anime series like My Dress-Up Darling? Let fans know in the comments section below.
