My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 10, “So We’re Gonna Do It All Right Now?” sees Gojo (Shoya Ishige, Solo Leveling) and Marin (Hina Suguta, Unicorn Overlord) return to Marin’s for the night. But while Marin prepares for a momentous event that is not coming, Gojo discovers just how immersive video games can be.
The front half of the episode focuses exclusively on Marin’s ongoing existential crisis. Her every moment feels torn between terror and anticipation as she wonders what will happen next. She gets so worked up and hyper-focused on what she thinks is about to happen that her view of everything quickly becomes distorted. Every act taken or word spoken by Gojo is misinterpreted. The animation leans into Marin’s anxiety so well that as the sequence plays out, you feel her energy reach a breaking point.
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Gojo and Marin’s relationship in My Dress Up Darling Season 2 tackles awkwardness well.
However, while her growing fears are front and center, My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 10 makes it a point to clarify that Marin isn’t afraid of Gojo, nor is she opposed to what she believes will happen. Moments showing her selecting a particular pair of underwear to impress her “lover” show that her terror comes from facing a big moment that is likely to be important to you for years to come. Not from any concern for her well-being or how Gojo may behave.
This clarification is important, as it allows the sequence to just be funny. If there was any indication that Marin was going along with her perception of the moment out of genuine fear, it would lose its humorous nature, as pressure should never be a driving force behind the kind of moment Marin is anticipating.
With so much anxiety and energy coursing through her veins, Marin ends up crashing early. Nervous energy drains her, and she is soon tucked away in bed while Gojo continues to play the game that the upcoming cosplay group is inspired by. Despite the humorous charm that saturates the opening portion of the episode, Gojo’s revelations concerning horror games develop into a comedic goldmine.
Given his limited experience with video games, up until Marin his whole world was Hina dolls, Gojo is unprepared for the psychological toll an engrossing horror game can take on a player. His empathetic nature works against him, as his connection to the characters delivers shocks to him as murders begin to take place. And once again, CloverWorks does a tremendous job of bringing the humor to life.
Once the night has passed and the duo moves on, My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 10 brings a more grounded and emotional tone to Marin’s struggles. She was so excited the night before that, now that it hasn’t happened, she can’t get the situation out of her mind. Having borne feelings for Gojo for a while now, she can’t ignore them any longer. But what will happen if Gojo doesn’t return her interest?
Marin’s dread and the hypothetical situations it conjures in her mind are as absurd as they are realistic. Gojo says “I love you” through his actions so many times every episode that it’s impossible to imagine a world where he would kick her out of his life if he didn’t reciprocate her feelings. But when you are standing on that precipice of exposing your most vulnerable self, anything and everything feels possible.
My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 10 may be frustrating, but it all feels necessary to the story.
The final straw that shores up Marin’s resolve comes when she goes to Gojo’s for dinner. When she arrives, she learns that he made her a special dish because of an offhand comment she’d spoken the night before. Furthermore, Gojo is prepared to undo the whole dinner when he finds out that she shouldn’t eat it due to her diet. His awareness of her desires and concern for her goals are the final galvanizing moments that make Marin’s decision stick. She will, eventually, ask Gojo out.
While the last-minute stall on Marin’s part as My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 10 comes to a close is frustrating, it needs to exist. Momentous decisions and intimidating challenges need to take time and effort to overcome; otherwise, they become diminished. For now, it is enough to see Marin’s determination cement itself.
My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 10 is predictable in a lot of ways, but that does nothing to hold it back. It’s a fantastic exploration of Marin’s emotions that manages to keep her personality grounded and relatable, even as it delivers lots of humorous visuals through her. Reinforcing the relatability and hilarity of this incredible series.
My Dress-Up Darling Season 2 Episode 10 is streaming now on Crunchyroll.
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