INTERVIEW: My Dress-up Darling Series Director Keisuke Shinohara Discusses What He’s Learned About Cosplay
Proper from the very first episode of My Dress-Up Darling, Marin Kitagawa is immediately likable. She’s cheerful, truthful and sincere about her pursuits. Anybody can develop hooked up to her mission to tug off one of the best cosplay doable. For collection director Keisuke Shinohara, it isn’t simply an attribute of the present, nevertheless it’s one of many issues that makes it particular. As he advised us in an interview with Crunchyroll information, “As a personality, she is fascinating. Marin Kitagawa is the kind of character we’ve by no means seen earlier than.”
CloverWorks devoted itself to bringing all the optimistic qualities of Shinichi Fukuda’s manga to life and My Gown-Up Darling rapidly turned a success of the Winter 2022 Lineup. With a major focus being on “not disappointing” Fukuda, Shinohara rapidly discovered that extra parts might be minimal for anime adaptation, as Fukuda’s authentic work was excellent. It had all the things from Wakana Gojo’s warm-hearted character to the fact of these cosplay backgrounds. Shinohara was grateful that Fukuda trusted him to make crucial changes for the anime adaptation, which made it a clean course of.
Gojo’s function in My Gown-Up Darling, as somebody who’s earnest and devotes himself to his doll-making however is gradual with the tendencies of children his age and never fairly becoming within the class, was an attention-grabbing reversal to Shinohara. “Primarily in these sorts of love comedian books,” Shinohara defined, “the emotion is often described from the male function’s viewpoint, however on this work, it had a brand new construction the place the heroine falls in love with the protagonist first.”
As such, this meant that Marin could be the driving power of the story. The collection’ authentic story arc begins along with her need to cosplay and it’s her emotions for Gojo that turn out to be obvious first. Shinohara attributes the large feminine fan base of the collection to this, saying that “(By way of the character’s viewpoint), this collection was straightforward to learn and relate for feminine readers.”
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Shinohara discovered Marin's enchantment to be that “she has respect to herself, in addition to to others, which makes her likable. Marin’s not afraid to talk her thoughts, but in the case of romance, she might be shy, and that’s relatable for anybody who’s been in love. The hole between how she seems to be on the skin and what’s occurring in her interior self makes her lovely. Mixed with how she will be able to turn out to be so dedicated to one thing when she places her thoughts to it, she has splendid qualities we search for in an individual.” Marin and Gojo’s relationship being pushed by admiration and belief is a superb instance of this.
The character setting on this work displays the cosplay methods and tradition in actual life, and they’re drawn with such particulars. Whereas Fukuda had already laid a lot of it out within the authentic work, it was one thing that Shinohara needed to immerse himself in. “I truly went to shops like Yuzawa-ya and Swallowtail to interview them, in addition to visiting them as a buyer. I even purchased a wig so I might see the way it was packaged,” Shinohara recalled. “…with this being in the course of the pandemic, the dimensions of the cosplay occasions weren’t as large, however I did go to them to interview, and visited locations that seem within the manga to take photographs for reference.”
Fortunately, Shinohara had a superb workers to carry the anime to life. “We received to maintain [Costume Designer Erika] Nishihara’s design, and I’m grateful for the animators’ arduous work, drawing all of these small, teeny-tiny particulars that Ms. Nishihara created.”
A present about cosplay could be inherently colourful and Shinohara took nice pleasure in seeing it burst into life. “Everybody from the colour coordinator, filming director, and myself included labored collectively, and I used to be very glad with the coloring on the precise display,” Shinohara mentioned. “Having a hand within the course of, particularly once I requested one thing from them they usually listened and revered my want, that’s what I’m most grateful about. I might simply do what I appreciated to do.”
However to Shinohara, it’s extra about what cosplay represents that has made My Gown-Up Darling so highly effective to its followers. “We use cosplay as a theme, nevertheless it’s not restricted to that,” Shinohara elaborated. “…as Marin says, the main focus is on with the ability to say ‘I like this.’ This collection pays respect to that type of mindset.”
As such, cosplay is extra than simply turning into a fictional character that you simply wish to gown up as, however is a mirrored image of interior spirit and self, a declaration to the world of your dedication to the creation of the world of the character. “…what’s on the base of this work is the mindset to talk out what you’re keen on, and switch unfavorable into optimistic even when others tease you about it. I hope that message is conveyed by the anime.”