Returning home from the live venue, the very first thing I did was fire up the photo editing software. As a nine-to-five corporate drone who still has to clock in for work, squeezing out spare time after hours to pull together this Uika Misumi styling for the MyGO!!!!! vs Ave Mujica live battle was running on pure adrenaline and sheer willpower. Frankly speaking, the live performance was an emotional powerhouse that moved me to tears.
I had been prepping this setup for quite a while. The blonde blunt-bang wig took endless trimming to perfect. To evoke the character's porcelain doll-like presence, I applied heavy, full-coverage foundation, paired with vibrant blue contact lenses and dramatic false eyelashes; in the mirror, the Anime-style makeup and styling truly looked straight out of a 2D frame. Layering a high-necked white blouse beneath a pinstriped pleated duster coat, accented with that massive white floral knot tie at the collar and an intricately detailed off-white lace bonnet on top, I was bundled up tight—breaking into a heavy sweat with the slightest movement on the floor.
Because the foundation was so heavy and the venue grew sweltering, my skin condition suffered, resulting in cakey, creasing makeup around my mouth and cheeks. Worse still, during the show I completely lost control of my emotions, and tears streamed down uncontrollably. Do you know that visceral horror? Freshly painted, exquisite makeup instantly washed out by two streaming tear tracks, where liquid foundation and mascara slurry merged into an unmitigated disaster.
I recorded videos, only to be struck with utter despair when reviewing them. The tear streaks were glaringly stark in motion—impossible to salvage in software. Scrubbing frame by frame to erase them, I wanted to smash my phone midway through. Ultimately, I surrendered video retouching and pinned all my hopes onto stills. Those tear streaks in the photos were erased stroke by stroke on my phone screen: zooming all the way in with the brush tool, meticulously reconstructing skin texture, while simultaneously blending out the caked foundation patches. The raw files are buried in my drafts folder where they will never see the light of day—it looked far too messy! Guys, this really wasn't funny; the final stubborn dignity of an overworked employee went into an all-out battle against tear tracks and creased makeup.
Attending the MyGO!!!!! vs Ave Mujica live battle on-site was explosive. Ave Mujica - The Die is Cast delivered an intensely visceral musical assault, and the crowd chants from the floor were electrifying. Though present merely as an audience member, standing in the crowd draped in Uika's attire while watching the spectacle on stage gave me a sense of immersion that defies verbal description. When the crescendo hit, waving my penlight in sync with the melody made me forget all about having to cram into the morning subway for work the next day.
As an ordinary worker, managing to put on a full face of makeup over the weekend, slipping into this complex wardrobe, and enduring heavy wigs and headwear for hours on end is fueled purely by devotion to the character. Despite the physical exhaustion, frustrating makeup meltdowns, and retouching into the dead of night, looking at these few precious Convention photos that are finally presentable makes every ounce of struggle feel worth it. That wraps up today's record; it's high time to slap on a hydrating sheet mask to salvage my skin after suffocating under heavy foundation all day.