• It gave me Horimiya vibes (though the fanservice kept it from being as wholesome, but it has it's own appeal I guess).
  • The cosplay design premise was way more interesting than I'd thought it would be, executed very well imo. Was also pretty informative for someone like me who's never really looked at the behind the scenes of cosplay.
  • Premise also serves as a very good explanation for why pretty and popular female love interest is hanging out with loner mc. A trope you'll see all the time, and usually it happens "just coz". While I like these two shows more; The Dangers in My Heart and Horimiya don't have nearly as good explanations for it.
  • The animation was actually amazing, definitely wasn't expecting that level of quality.
  • Marin has some interesting characterization, but wasn't so fleshed out. (none of the characters are really, aside from Gojo, and with the cast being so small it does hurt a bit.)
  • Gojo is far more fleshed out than Marin but they milk those two scenes from his childhood way too much. Like if you're going to keep relating back to those scenes, you should've elaborated on them more in the first place; I don't need Shoya Ishida levels of backstory but this was quite frustrating.
  • Gojo does have some nice linear development though, so I can't complain too much, it's just a slight irk.
  • I very much enjoyed Gojo and Marins relationship though. Interestingly, we find out Marin develops romantic feelings for Gojo quite early on, stating repetitively that she loves him, and it shows in her behaviour towards him aswell as the series goes on. But we don't actually see Gojo reciprocating that, at all really. He appreciates her friendship, and how she's made his life more fun, encouraged him with his goals, and so on. And he does show sexual interest in her, (can be seen in many scenes, but most explicitly at the love hotel, but it's the same as it was from the start). But he never once states or thinks to himself that he loves her. Maybe it's because he hasn't developed those feelings for her yet, or maybe he doesn't understand them or know how to express them (which would also make sense and strengthen his characterization given the scene explaining what beauty means to him). Nonetheless It's a very good subversion of expectations, and definitely came as a surprise to me.
  • Pretty cliche themes about not being ashamed of liking whatever you want, but it's executed fairly well so I suppose there's no problem with that.
  • Would've preferred some drama here and there, but that's just a personal preference, maybe there'll be some if there's a season two with more focus on the romance aspect (which I'm assuming there will be, given how it ended off.)

Overall though, pretty good, solid 7 in my book. Future seasons have alot of potential, it's hard to explain but the whole season just felt like an introduction for what's to come lol.