Marin Kitagawa: the ultimate lovable character

I imagine all of you are either fans of My Dress-Up Darling’s Marin Kitagawa, or at the very least you’ve heard of her — it’s pretty hard to ignore the show when it’s anime Twitter’s current favourite thing, and with good reason. Every few seasons it seems we have an anime that pops out and takes the world by storm — usually by introducing people to a truly exceptional leading lady. 

This has been the anime cycle for a long time now; some other recent examples include Nagatoro and Uzaki-chan.

Nagatoro was almost entirely her own breed of tsundere, which I have coined “Ijirinai-dere”. I know I’m a genius (You certainly do – Ed.), and while some people adored Nagatoro, others hated her. Regardless of what you thought of her, though, she was the only character on everyone’s timelines for a decent period.

The same can be said for Uzaki-chan, although this one I understand less as the character is honestly pretty annoying and her mother was at least 10 times better. (As I recall, Uzaki-chan’s popularity primarily originated because of some prude complaining about her tits and promptly getting ratioed to fuck – Ed.)

Forgive me, I nearly went on a MILF-supremacy tangent there. Today I want to talk about what it is exactly that has made Marin Kitagawa quite possibly one of the most wonderful, adorable, and all-around lovable characters in the history of anime. Let’s dive in!

Marin Kitagawa’s personality

Going for the cliché card straight off the bat: I’ll say that Marin’s personality is a humongous contributor to her overall popularity in the anime community, but there are a few things in the show that also help to bolster and enforce this wonderful part of her.

Marin might initially appear to be your typical “gyaru” or “gal” type character — bleached hair, long nails, pretty face; you’ve no doubt seen characters like her before. But alongside her typical gal traits are her positivity, her confidence, and her unyielding love for the things she is passionate about. 

Despite having the look perfected, Marin isn’t your stereotypical gal-type character at all; shortly after being introduced to her, we see her reject a pretty boy, and she lets us know that she can’t stand people like that. So immediately she has subverted our expectations and cast doubt on our own prejudices that we might have had before getting to know her better. 

Next up is how she interacts with the main male lead Gojo. Gojo is your typically quiet, nervous, shy archetype; he’s a bit of a pushover, and a fairly typical self-insert kind of character. While cleaning the classroom on a day when someone else should be doing it, Marin comes into the classroom after forgetting something and decides to give Gojo a hand. She lets him know that he can’t just let people push him around otherwise they’re going to take advantage of him. Not only does this have an effect on Gojo, but on us as the viewers as well. 

Then there’s their first proper interaction that leads to their wonderful friendship and budding romance — the scene in the sewing club room. While doing some work there, Gojo encounters Marin again; this time, however, she has come to do some work on her cosplay outfit.

After Gojo displays some interest in and knowledge for sewing, we see Marin’s eyes light up as she begins speaking passionately about the incredible world of cosplay, and what it means to dress up as a character you love so much. Again, Marin takes us all by surprise as she unexpectedly begins to pour out her inner feelings over things that we, as anime fans, have more than likely all felt at some point in our weeb lives. (I’m dressed as Sailor Mars right now – Ed.)

The Romance with Gojo

Of course, this is why most of us are here watching this show in the first place: we all want to reap the rewards when Gojo and Marin finally confess their feelings to one another and we, as a fanbase, can all collectively fangirl/boy and pull a really goofy smile as we express our happiness for these 2D characters. 

I know that a lot of people probably see a character like Gojo and just think “yeah, he’s your typical romance male lead” but I really think the character has a lot of fantastic traits to him that make Marin’s feelings feel totally believable.

For one, we already know that Marin isn’t into the whole pretty-boy thing; she cares much more about someone who is passionate about the things they love. As long as the feelings are there, it’s something she can relate to and understand. 

Gojo’s love for something as unique as making traditional Japanese Hinamatsuri dolls is a part of him that I believe she adores. Yes, she saw him as something of a saviour when he helped create her first cosplay outfit for her, but it’s Gojo openly expressing his love for something that starts to make her grow feelings towards him.

The care and love he gives to his Hina dolls is something Marin sees first-hand when he applies the same attention to her cosplay outfits. Gojo is simply a boy in love with a girl, trying his hardest to make her as happy as possible— how could you not love something like that?!

Finally, one of the most lovable things about Marin is the way her internal thoughts and feelings for Gojo are shown to us. You have to think about it from her perspective; she’s head over heels for the boy and no matter what he does, wears, or says, he’s irresistibly attractive to her. I’ve lost count of all the times I smiled at the internal Marin monologue where she talks about just how much she ‘wuvs him’. Marin really is a masterclass in making a character that everyone loves.

You can stream My Dress-Up Darling on Crunchyroll. The manga series is available on Amazon.

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