[Amiya cosplay] Arknights Amiya hoists giant candy at Firefly ACG Expo

What I brought to Day 1 of the 38th Firefly ACG Expo was Amiya cosplay from Arknights. The Rhodes Island logo on the jacket, the windbreaker texture in blue and black color-blocking, paired with a brown wig featuring highlights and iconic upright ears, made this outfit instantly recognizable at the convention. The top was layered over a simple white shirt, with a brown braided knot at the collar and a gemstone pendant recreating details from the design sheet. The lower half paired a blue-and-black plaid pleated mini-skirt with Black stockings, accentuated by a bright blue thigh ring, which not only retained the character's features but also helped elongate proportions during the shoot.

The most central prop for this shoot was that giant candy wrapper, which faithfully recreated the "White Rabbit" design from the text with a vivid red-blue-white color palette. Posing with it was genuinely a test of arm strength; although supported by an internal rigid structure, holding it for extended periods required finding an effortless pivot point. In Photo 2, I chose to sit on the floor mat, stretching out one leg and lowering my center of gravity. This allowed my Black stockings-clad long legs to become an extension line across the frame while naturally stabilizing the giant prop. This angle was the optimal camera position that photographer NightDiva and I found after several attempts, which, paired with the cool blue ambient lighting on site, traced out crisp, defined contour edges in these Convention photos.

Managing expressions at an anime convention is quite a test for a cosplayer, especially under the gaze of surrounding onlookers. With playful expressions like pulling down an eyelid in Photo 5 or the half-face framing in Photo 4, conveying Amiya's balance of seriousness and gap-moe cuteness required putting real thought into the gaze. The base makeup this time was kept light and clean; since outdoor flash lighting at night often washes out makeup, I spent extra care sculpting the eyeshadow and aegyo-sal (tear troughs), which, together with bright blue contact lenses, maintained a clear, translucent gaze even under strong flash.

As for the shooting location, being on an outdoor plaza meant the lighting environment was complex—behind us was the deep blue dusk sky, while surrounding streetlights and building lights occasionally interfered with color temperature. We laid down a pink-and-black floor mat to construct a makeshift shooting area. For lighting, we used ultra-bright LED panel lights; this high-contrast illumination brought out rich textures on the jacket's reflective fabric and hair strands, while also casting deep shadows. Thus, when handling shadow details in post-processing, I chose not to over-brighten the scene, preserving the dramatic quality of the hard light to keep the character look three-dimensional.

Speaking of costume details, the few hours after entering the venue were quite challenging. The ears needed to be secured firmly to avoid tilting while walking or bumping into people, and the highlighted hair wefts couldn't get messy; fortunately, the wind was mild that day. To prevent the wig from getting frizzy, I styled the bangs and hair ends with setting spray beforehand, which kept them neat throughout the shoot. For the final Convention photos, although we didn't choose complex environments and simply used direct character-prop interactions, I was quite pleased with the results—faithfully capturing Amiya's grounded yet heroic demeanor in this Amiya cosplay from Arknights.