Overview

Personality

Marin Kitagawa (喜多川海夢) is extravagant, messy, and while quite mature, she's also clumsy. As a cosplayer and huge otaku, Marin is a big of fan of magical girl anime and adult video games. She strongly desires to cosplay as certain characters, seeing the notion of dressing up and becoming said characters as the ultimate form of love for them.

Marin's love for the characters she likes extends to the point where she won't cosplay as them if she feels as though she can't fit their appearance, not wanting to spoil their image.

She is notably very kind, friendly, cheerful, and outgoing. It is shown that Marin greatly dislikes overly-critical people that judge others for their interests, causing her to reject the advances of a boy at the start of the series, who poked fun at her liking anime. Marin's non-judgmental outlook and friendly nature causes her to greatly admire Wakana, not caring that the boy is seen as awkward and quiet by others. She saw no reason to keep their newfound friendship and a secret, openly greeting him in the school hallways and later treating him at a ramen restaurant.

Marin holds her own values and can be quite earnest when it comes to it, despite her cheery and carefree attitude. For example, she easily saw how Wakana was being taken advantage of by his classmates and told him that he shouldn't put up with that.

While possessing a mature side, Marin can be something of a scatterbrain on occasion. She poorly knitted a prototype of her first cosplay outfit (Shizuku), despite a guidebook she possessed having step-by-step instructions. She is also a procrastinator, often opting to watch anime over doing work and completely losing track of time as a result. Despite this, she can be surprisingly proactive when it matters to her, such as finding out where Wakana lived so they could start their first cosplay project right away rather than waiting over the weekend. Marin claims that when she gets an idea, she doesn't waste time and gets straight to it, revealing her more rash and impulsive side.

Marin is shown to be very bold, as she had no problem with allowing Wakana to take her measurements for her first cosplay outfit, and doing so while wearing a bathing suit despite still being early on in their friendship. She is shown to have a more teasing side, sometimes making jokes at Wakana's expense and laughing at whenever he gets embarrassed and flustered. These moments can be embarrassing for Marin as well however, particularly when she begins to realize her own feelings for him.

Despite being carefree, Marin isn't thoughtless of others, far from it. After seeing that Wakana had worn himself out to get her Shizuku-tan outfit finished and fully sewn; a result of her not being clear with when she needed the outfit to be done. She broke down in remorse and tearfully apologized to him after realizing he had worked himself down to the bone for her sake, all the while juggling his own responsibilities, such as studying for midterm exams, as well as manning his grandfather's Hina doll shop and visiting him when the latter had hurt his back.

She has a habit of being embarrassed by seemingly insignificant things, while being woefully unaware or uncaring of clearly more humiliating factors. During the cosplay event as Shizuku, when a photographer Suzuka snapped a picture of her as the wind blew up her skirt and showed her boxers, Marin was more concerned that she wasn't looking at the camera rather than the raunchy photo of her, even when Suzuka apologized and said she'd delete it. When Marin hastily greeted Wakana at her apartment, she was startled and embarrassed to find out that she wasn't wearing her pink color contacts, rather than the fact she was still in her nightwear and had most of her top half exposed.

Marin also loves eating but still manages to maintain her slender figure, until later on in chapter 64. She's not a very good cook either, as her meals are often greasy and contain large quantities of meat and rice.

Marin's mother died when she was very young, leaving her under the care of her father. Though he loves her, Marin's father is often called to work abroad, leaving her to live alone most days. Prior to the start of the series, Marin secured a part-time job as an amateur model.

One day, Marin falls and hits her head on Wakana Gojo's table and apologizes, marking the first yet brief conversation between the two. The next day, Wakana and Marin are both assigned to afterschool cleaning, though things still remain awkward between the two. One day, Wakana was planning to use the school's sewing machine to work on a doll but coincidentally, Marin comes in and spots him. After admiring Wakana's doll and praising his work, Marin asks if Wakana could help her create cosplays, which Wakana accepts. Thus, a friendship blossoms between the two and the series begins.

Related Illustrations

Relationships

Wakana Gojo

At the beginning of the series, it is shown that Wakana and Marin are classmates but have rarely ever talked. With Marin being popular and outgoing, Wakana describes her as being in a whole different world than him and always at the center of attention. The two briefly talk after Marin accidentally bumps into Wakana's desk, but Wakana shuts this down after becoming too nervous. The two later are put on afterschool cleaning activities, but things remain awkward and silent. One day, after catching Wakana using the school's sewing machine and learning that he was a hina dollmaker, she asks him to make her cosplay clothes and reveals she has a deep passion for cosplaying. Wakana promises he'll help her out and receives commission fees for his work. She is very vocal about complimenting his costumes and always supports him in anything he does. At the end of Volume 2, Marin realizes she is in love with Wakana, and throughout the series, continually does whatever she can to invite him to places and spend time with him. In chapter 36, they went to a love hotel during a shoot, leaving Marin flustered and her heart beating frantically. After her father demanded that she do her summer homework, she frequently went to Wakana's house for him to help her homework and eat with him. Marin tends to get flushed around Wakana if he says anything to compliment her, and admires his passion to do what he loves. She can also get frustrated with Wakana when he outright denies any rumor that the two are dating, given that Wakana thinks that she would never date someone like him (unknowing to her), leaving her upset. It's clear that just being around him makes her happy, and she's never once denied a rumor or disliked the idea that they're together, while also being happy upon hearing that Wakana is single and always has been, clearly hinting that she wants more in their friendship.

Nowa Sugaya

Among her group of friends, Marin is often seen hanging out with Nowa outside of her work with Wakana. They are shown to get along well, as they've both gone to have their hair done and have eaten together.

Sajuna Inui aka 'Juju': Marin is a major fan of Juju's cosplays, finding her immensely adorable. Upon meeting her in the flesh at Wakana's house, Marin freaks out and fangirls over her to the point of making Sajuna uncomfortable. The two have a stable friendship, and Marin was overjoyed to have cosplayed with her. While Sajuna refused to do a collaboration cosplay with her at first, Marin convinced her by saying that she'd split the studio rent. It is clear that they both enjoyed their time afterwards.

Shinju Inui

Marin was eager to meet Sajuna's younger sister in wanting to learn about Juju's photography. At first she pictured Shinju as a smaller and cuter version of her older sister, but was quite surprised to find out that Shinju was both taller and older-looking than Sajuna. Regardless, the two become good friends quickly. Marin was also in awe over her Soma cosplay, finding her male appearance with a girl's face to be amazingly cute. When Wakana revealed that him and Shinju kept the latter's cosplay a secret and that the two worked together on it, Marin showed some signs of jealousy that Wakana worked with another girl on cosplaying alone, but she soon shrugged it off.

Akira

In the first moment, Akira seemed to not like Kitagawa, and try to avoid her as much as possible. On chapter 85, is revealed that actually she avoids Kitagawa because, after seeing her in a cosplay, Akira developed feelings for her, and that was the main reason of her broke up with Chitose Amano.

Unnamed Father

They are on friendly terms, although he wishes that she'd be more hard-working because her laziness is taking after him.

Unnamed Mother

She died when Marin was a kid from an illness.