Aww over already!
It’s been such a long time since I binged a manga series haha. It felt really short because Manga Plus dropped a bunch of back catalogue chapters at once so it has only been…*checks*…2 and a bit (not quite 2.5 lol) years since I first started reading it.
This was absolutely a true Shonen Jump non-battle manga, with cosplay as the ‘battleground’. I loved how Lilysa befriended all her ‘rivals’ and that at the end of the day, it was kinda more a Lilysa harem manga than an Okumura one 🤣
I also really loved the self-acceptance theme (cosplay manga seem to be really good at this *looks at My Dress Up Darling*). It covered not just physical hang-ups but mental and social ones too. It also had super otaku referencing, but because it was predominantly Shonen Jump related, I actually got most of them haha. And video game ones too, the Splatoon ones were pretty funny, I’ll always remember Mikari imagining her wedding cake with a Big Bubbler decoration LOL. And Lilysa being traumatised by Sloshing Machine Booyah Bomb hahahaha.
I liked how the cast spanned not just high schoolers, but adults too. I do think the series was a bit unrealistic in terms of how understanding a lot of the adults were about cosplay (like Sensei’s home-ec sensei and the university arts lecturer) but hey, this is Jump series, it’s allowed to be overly positive 🤣 And I didn’t foresee the reveal about Lilysa’s parents, so that was fun.
I also really liked Lilysa’s approach to cosplay. I feel like it was similar to mine. I never wanted to rely on tape or safety pins, I wanted my cosplays to be constructed like ‘real clothes’. Lilysa took it a step further with materials, but if I had the budget (and access to the supplies Japan has) I would have liked to do the same thing too.
The only thing I feel like was missing was delving into Okumura’s family circumstances. So many other characters had their relationships with their parents addressed. And Okumura’s trauma from his mum leaving was a major building block for the premise of this series… Although it would have been nice to see his relationships with his sister and dad regardless.
I also found the reveal that Okumura and Mikarin still hadn’t had sex in the epilogue kinda funny given the ridiculous things Mikarin did as a high schooler. Like the whole chocolate over her naked body stuff? I feel like that was just done so Tsubaki could make a quip about Jump Plus allowing sex hahahah.
So a super fun series that I’m already buying the tankobons of because it’s Seven Seas and it is totally going to go out of print. Looking forward to rereading it a little bit after the anime finishes adapting the whole story.
Categories: Manga Plus Simulpub Review
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