It's very good, but massively misleading at the start. Even the title's a big fat lie (although the Japanese title is both dirty and clean, depending on whether you read its kanji or furigana). The first few episodes stink of trash. It starts out like sleazy harem otaku-bait, even using the fanscum fuck off and basically racist word "waifu" that I hate in the subtitles. Urgh.

However, the show grows up and focuses on its female characters, with the male protagonist figure getting relegated to a supporting role. This is a cosplay series, but he's not a cosplayer. Instead, he provides support, helps with organisation, accompanies the girls to conventions and takes photos. This becomes quite interesting when apparently romantic beats no longer have the harem angle you'd expect, since the show's explicitly dissecting his psychological issues and the problems it creates to take your romantic inspiration from manga. His otaku quirks aren't audience affirmation, but instead something the show takes apart with a scalpel.

AT THE BEGINNING = Masamune Okumura is a porn-collecting nerd who doesn't like girls. Not real ones, anyway. He's sworn off 3D ones and is focused on his 2D "love", i.e. a manga character. He's also a massive dick who's full of prejudice and makes assumptions about women... until Lilysa Amano walks into the manga club's schoolroom. She loves sleazy manga as much as he does and wants to do sexy cosplay! Is this a ridiculous otaku fantasy? You betcha!

HOWEVER, IT TURNS OUT THAT = Lilysa Amano isn't an otaku wank figure. This series is exploring cosplay and otaku culture, with Lilysa at the forefront in both categories. She's as big a dysfunctional idiot as Masamune, but she's sincere in her cosplay love and far more dynamic than him. She attracts other club members. She's at the show's heart, with Masamune often getting sidelined. She dips a toe into the cosplay convention world and connects with the cosplay sisterhood. There are certainly bitchy, competitive cosplayers (plus professionals who see it as work and couldn't care less about the actual characters), but most of the girls couldn't be more supportive and keen to lend equipment, advice and praise. It's lovely.

There's otaku comedy. The show understands its loser heroes, especially when a normal girl joins the core cast for comparison. (She's a bright, cheerful gyaru and she raises the comedy level.) The show's also not hiding the dysfunctional side of hardcore otaku, e.g. that self-hating mangaka. That was harsh. There are also people who gave up something they loved because it looked bad professionally. "Why did I spend so much time on something too embarrassing to talk about in public?"

Then there's a girl so socially inept that she can't speak. Literally. Masamune wrings conversation from her by sitting silently for ten minutes and waiting for her to find the courage to produce sound. (She improves later.)

I really like this show. It's a good companion piece with My Dress-Up Darling, although they're very different. That's an adorable romance. This show is spikier, darker and subverting the harem ecchi angle it had appeared to be embracing. A second season has been announced and of course I'll watch it.