Marin Kitagawa is the female lead of Shinichi Fukuda's romcom ecchi manga My Dress-Up Darling.[a 1] She is a popular high school student who likes cosplaying various sexy anime characters. Marin takes interest in the reclusive doll maker Wakana Gojo when she sees him use a sewing machine, so she requests to make costumes for her, thereby becoming his eponymous "bisque doll". She eventually develops feelings for him because of his earnest nature and tailoring skills.
After the anime adaptation aired in Winter 2022, Bisque Doll experienced a breakout rise in popularity because of its high production qualities, well-executed tropes, and wholesome moments shared by the cast. The show also caused a spike in interest for hina dolls[1]. In Anitrendz's weekly charts, Bisque Doll dominated the season as the show spent the most weeks at #1 spot, eclipsing even popular sequels like Attack on Titan and Demon Slayer.[2] At the same time, Marin also staked her place in Anitrendz history when she became one of the very few characters to complete a "seasonal sweep" — place #1 in a character chart throughout the entire season.[3]
Like most romcoms, the show's primary appeal focuses on main waifu Marin, who has captured the hearts and dicks of watchers because of her outgoing personality and sexy appearance. Her nature as a cosplayer has also inspired plenty of fan arts and real-life cosplays since the anime's release, mostly in Pixiv[4] and Twitter[5]. Because of these initial receptions, Marin is seen as a potential championship contender in saimoe tournaments, in the same vein as Mai Sakurajima and Kaguya Shinomiya a few years before her.
Icons
r/anime[]
Kneel before your new goddess
Marin's reception in the r/anime subreddit was met with enthusiastic praise from the start, as seen in episode 1's discussion thread where several top-voted comments immediately lauded her as "best girl of 2022"[6]. A discussion thread was also posted early in the anime's airtime, which talks about her potential to become "the next big 'waifu' on the block" like Mai Sakurajima in terms of strong personalities, sex appeal, and vocal supporters,[7] some of the key traits possessed by previous Best Girl champions.
Marin's inevitable victory in the Winter 2022 seasonal set a new record for the most dominant r/anime seasonal run as all of her matches were won with over 80% vote shares. Her victory was so overwhelming that even if all of her opponents' votes were combined (746), she would still win in 5 out of 6 matches. This may be attributed to the lack of "quality" opposition since Bisque Doll was the only notable popular romcom from Winter 2022, which resulted in the other two main girls reaching the semi-finals as the #2 and #3 seed. Only Komichi Akebi, who was seen as a contender for 2nd place before the bracket, mounted the strongest challenge against her in the quarter-finals.
Kitagawa will attempt to continue her undefeated streak in the upcoming Best Girl of 2022, where she will face stiff competition from highly successful action manga series Spy x Family (Anya, Yor) and Chainsaw Man (Power, Makima).
Marin will be first eligible for Best Girl 10 in 2023, although some of her fans have been making noise as early as Best Girl 9 where she is touted by many users as a championship favorite.
Seasonal Salt
| Seasonal Salt 2022#Winter - seed 1 | |||
| Top 64 | (64) Yui Kamiki @ Tribe Nine | 528 - 40
|
0.9296 |
| Top 32 | (33) Touka Kuroitsu @ Kuroitsu-san | 828 - 81
|
0.9109 |
| Top 16 | (17) Pawoo Nekoyanagi @ Sabikui Bisco | 913 - 108
|
0.8942 |
| QF | (8) Komichi Akebi @ Akebi's Sailor Uniform | 1031 - 233
|
0.8157 |
| SF | (4) Daki @ Demon Slayer season 2 | 775 - 95
|
0.8908 |
| Final | (2) Sajuna Inui @ Bisque Doll | 1070 - 189
|
0.8499 |
Honours[]
Total Wins: 8
Wiki Articles (1)
Facebook (6)
- Mei Hazume Waifu War II 2022 Facebook
- Tu Mentira en Abril Torneo la besto waifu 2022 Facebook
- FB @Ruisu Enrike TdW 2022 Facebook
- FB @Le Cueva del Anime - TdW best rubia 2022 Facebook
- FB Communidade Night Raid - Torneio de Beleza 2022 [1]
- FB @Anime Hai TdbW Glotona 2022 [2][3]
Other (1)
- "1st LIHKG Best Animated Actress Award Ceremony" by user ACG第一專家 (Final bracket image link - Fandom, Final voting thread - LIHKG, ACG第一專家 Profile page - LIHKG)
Runner-ups[]
Facebook (1)
- El Migajas de Itsuki TdW 2021-22 FB Link
References[]
Notes
- ↑ JP: Sono Bisque Doll wa Koi wo Suru; short name: Kisekoi; literal translation: "That Bisque Doll who Fell in Love"
References
- ↑ "Hina Dolls See Popularity Spike After My Dress-Up Darling Anime" written by Kim Morrissy. Anime News Network (archived from original), sourced from Yorozu News (Japanese, archived from original).
- ↑ Anime Trending's Winter 2022 Top Anime weekly charts: week 3, week 4, week 6, week 8, week 9, week 10
- ↑ Post by AnimeTrending on Twitter (2022 March 30) - "Marin Kitagawa becomes the 3rd character in AT History to do a rare seasonal sweep. The other two are Shirayuki (Snow White with the Red Hair) and Souma Yukihira (Food Wars!) who actually did it twice (Summer 2016 and Fall 2017)"
- ↑ 喜多川海夢 tag on Pixiv (NSFW)
- ↑ #喜多川海夢 on Twitter (NSFW)
- ↑ Bisque Doll episode 1 discussion thread on r/anime (sorted by top)
- ↑ How popular can you see Marin Kitagawa (My Dress Up Darling) becoming? - posted by Feisty-Site-6261 on r/anime (sorted by top)
External links[]
Beware of spoilers, pop-ups, and ads
- Saimoe Wiki - Miraheze
- Bisque Doll Wiki - Fandom
- MyAnimeList
- Baike Baidu (Chinese)
- Moegirl (Chinese)
- Namuwiki (Korean)
| r/anime's Seasonal Salt Winners | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bold Underlined names indicate Best Girl of (the Year) winner. Girls who won best girl of the year but not its seasonal are listed separately. | ||||
| 2017 | (Summer & Fall only):  Yuki M. •  Moriko
| |||
| 2018 |  Zero Two •  Anzu •  Chisa •  Mai-san
| |||
| 2019 |  Kaguya •  Bocchi •  Shinobu K •  Ristarte
| |||
| 2020 |  Maple •  Iino •  Chizuru •  Nobara •  Tsukasa
| |||
| 2021 |  Hori •  Vivy •  Saki Saki •  Miko Y •  Lena
| |||
| 2022 |  Marin •  Yor • Summer • Fall
| |||
| 2023 | ||||