[Megumi Kato Cosplay] Recreating the Everyday Casual Outfit of Saekano: How to Raise a Boring Girlfriend

This casual outfit of Megumi Kato actually involved considering details for a long time. To recreate that unassuming yet unignorable texture, the preparatory work in the early stages was actually much more tedious than expected. First is the wig; Megumi Kato's bob cut looks simple, but trimming is truly a technical skill. The straight bangs shouldn't be too heavy, the sideburns framing the face need to transition naturally, and I specifically asked the wig stylist to give the hair ends a slight inward curl so that they don't easily fly around when there's wind outdoors, maintaining a well-behaved, draping feel at all times.

In terms of clothing, I chose a true red knitted cardigan with a relatively high saturation. The cut of this jacket shouldn't be too loose, otherwise it would look listless; fitting the body shape is necessary to pull off that honors student temperament. The inner white shirt was specially picked to have a lettuce hem and fine pleat design, and the thin black ribbon bow at the neckline is the finishing touch, with a length hanging right across the chest—one part more or less would throw off the proportion. The fluffy beret worn on the head is the soul piece of this outfit, adding a bit of autumn/winter fuzziness and creating a textural contrast with the knitwear of the clothes.

For makeup, Megumi Kato is definitely not the heavily made-up type. I chose a translucent, lightweight base makeup, focusing on concealer while preserving the skin's natural glow. The eye makeup was treated with minimalist care; only an inner eyeliner was drawn without using exaggerated false lashes or glitter, and eyeshadow was mainly used to depuff with earth tones. The lip color was chosen as a very natural flesh-pink, entirely aimed at creating that comfortable neighbor-girl vibe without any aggressiveness. To match the character's setting, I also specially selected contact lenses of a similar color to make the gaze look softer.

The shooting day took place on a rooftop with exceptionally good sunlight. Photos 1 and 3 were taken outdoors; actually, the rooftop wind was very strong, so to prevent hair from sticking to the face, I constantly communicated with the photographer to adjust angles. The semi-squatting pose in photo 3 looks very playful, but in reality, the core needs to be engaged while maintaining the tension of reaching out towards the camera; it took several tries to capture a more natural moment. To neutralize the brighter red on the upper body, the lower body was paired with a white pleated skirt and white over-the-knee stockings, along with pink small leather shoes, keeping the overall color scheme clean. The texture of the over-the-knee stockings was chosen to have a bit of thickness so they wouldn't reveal skin tone, better fitting everyday attire.

Photo 2 was taken indoors against a white wall, utilizing side hard lighting to cast shadows. In this set of photos, I wanted to express that state of Megumi Kato being at home or in a quiet corner, looking slightly down without needing much eye contact. The charm of Megumi Kato as a character lies in her sense of realism and a slight sense of distance, so in terms of expression management, there's no need for overly dramatic actions; a flat yet somewhat focused gaze is quite enough. This shoot also tried to capture that quiet, slightly effortless everyday atmosphere she has.