[Sunna Cosplay] The Angels of Delusion in Zenless Zone Zero, Snapshotting a Dynamic Moment

This Angels of Delusion look for Sunna took a few days of bustling around from receiving it to the formal shoot. First, talking about the costume, the white shirt with a pink bow tie, paired with a black multi-layered fluffy skirt, brings a highly powerful visual contrast. The pink-and-white striped sleeves on the arms and the asymmetric lace-up leg warmers on the legs have the most details in the entire coordination. Especially the pink thigh ring on the thigh and the black leather strap on the ankle, it took quite a lot of time to adjust their positions during every wear and removal, otherwise they could easily pinch uncomfortably.

The hairstyle part utilized a mint-green gradient silver-white wig, a hair color that turns out exceptionally well against a solid background. On the day of the shoot, to replicate the character's flamboyant yet slightly playful combat aura, the photographer Banli Bu Tian and I ran back and forth in the studio dozens of times. The massive baseball bat prop in hand, imprinted with the word "LOVE" and featuring a black, pink, and mint-green color scheme, has quite a lot of weight. Striking this dynamic jumping pose in the photo actually tested core strength immensely; that lifted leg must be stretched straight, and the arm's bat-swinging angle must be in place simultaneously, otherwise the captured movement would look stiff.

Participating in this Anime-style photography project, my greatest realization was that a sense of dynamic energy is truly not something captured by pure luck. To achieve this mid-air leaping effect shown in the photo, we experimented with many types of shutter speed combinations, combined with the cooperation of flash lights, to completely separate the character's silhouette against the pure white background inside the studio. For the makeup, the eyeliner and lip color were amplified, hoping to embody a touch of a combat girl's stubbornness rather than a purely sweet path.

During post-processing, Banli Bu Tian specially preserved some clothing creases and reflection details on the props in the frame without utilizing excessive skin smoothing or heavy filters; I feel this is closer to an authentic visual texture. Actually, shooting a dynamic presentation in a controllable environment like a studio shoot means that once the posture intensity gets too large, expression management can easily lose control. It often takes shooting dozens of photos to get just one or two where both expression and action are accurately grabbed.

For me personally, the greatest joy of doing cosplay is discovering new things about the character every time I face the lens. Interpreting Sunna's Angels of Delusion this time, although playing with a baseball bat was indeed quite exhausting, seeing this final look photo makes all the previous hardships of adjusting straps and repeatedly trying actions thoroughly worth it. This kind of tension belonging to an anime character is transmitted through the photographer's viewfinder and turned into a truly existing photograph, which itself brings a great sense of accomplishment.

When setting up the scene and checking props before the shoot, we agreed to capture that lightweight mid-air feeling. Selecting a solid-colored curtain with large areas of negative space can maximize the prominence of the clothing's vivid color scheme, especially that iconic pink-and-white stripe and the small black skirt hemline. To capture the optimal moment, I repeatedly practiced that single-leg jumping action, having to control my center of gravity upon landing to prevent falling, as the inertia of the bat swinging out would cause the body to rotate along. Fortunately, the photographer's snapshot timing was extremely precise, freeze-framing this final image.

In the circle of Anime-style photography, this kind of studio shoot involving large-scale movements actually has quite high requirements for physical stamina. Sometimes, for a perfect arm and leg line, one needs to repeat jumping up numerous times; by the time a satisfying one is shot, you are already out of breath. However, being able to present my favorite character in this manner filled with energy dissipates all discomfort and fatigue during the process. I hope to have more opportunities in the future to experiment with characters of more diverse personalities, treating every shoot as a process of exploring a new style. This dynamic cosplay exploration was truly a memorable experience.