[Grinning Professor Cosplay] A Retro Time Journey in Blue Archive

When organizing this Grinning Professor costume, what gave me the biggest headache wasn't the outfit itself, but how to make those retro props look reasonable in frame rather than piled up. From appearance design to detail coordination, this set of gear actually underwent a long period of consideration by the prop team. Having previously seen many outstanding works from the Anime Vision Project, that contrasting feel of combining anime characters with real-world scenes and objects was extremely captivating. So this time I tried leaning in that direction, using a pure white background as a base and breaking the frame with aged elements.

The main element is naturally that classic black sailor suit outfit. The thick black fabric paired with white piping along the collar immediately structured the silhouette. The oversized red bowtie on the chest serves as the absolute visual centerpiece, while the gold circular badge embellished in the middle grounds the weight of the garment, preventing it from feeling dull due to large black areas. Combined with the black pleated skirt and white ruffled underskirt, rich layering is fully realized in this look. During the shoot that day, the wind machine blew my hair floating in the air; the light blonde long straight hair looked especially ethereal against the white background. Paired with the white curved halo with gold trim overhead, the character's overall aura was instantly established. In fact, when mounting this halo, we adjusted its position three times to ensure it wouldn't tilt due to an unstable center of gravity, while keeping a natural visual distance from the wig's bangs. A slight low-angle shot maximized the outline of the halo.

The old-fashioned brown leather suitcase under my feet was a real treasure. The leather surface had already developed a mottled texture weathered by time, and those brass-colored metal corners, latches, and locks felt reassuringly cool to the touch. To complement the retro aura of this suitcase, the prop artist specially located that brass-framed glass desk clock, a gold-embossed classic book, and even hung a retro black dial telephone handset connected with a coiled spring wire above. This combination instantly broke the flat feel inherent to anime, extending the frame into a tangible time container. The dark brown travel handbag I carried also echoed the leather suitcase at my feet, making it look as though I were carrying luggage about to embark on a journey to some mysterious academy, with the time of this student or professor frozen in this white space. Considering book titles, Moby Dick, Great Expectations, and A Tale of Two Cities were specifically selected—not only because they represent classic literature, but for the texture of their bindings: gold-embossed spines reflecting subtle light under different lighting, matching perfectly with the golden clock face and golden badge.

Many people said standing there made me look like a little cake, but my pose at that time was far from relaxed. Because both feet were standing apart on the surface of the suitcase while transferring center of gravity onto the handbag, my waist and back had to be kept straight to support the jacket's silhouette and the natural drape lines of the skirt. I really love the skirt design of this outfit: the ring of white ruffling extending below the black pleated skirt formed a perfect truncated cone shape right above the knees. When light hit it, the shadows of the ruffles and the light-dark boundary formed by black stockings on my legs felt exceptionally textured. The photographer kept reminding me to maintain a steady gaze with a touch of that calm composedness unique to the Grinning Professor, but I was also secretly pushing myself, thinking about how to keep a stable standing posture while allowing the wind-blown hair to look uncontrolled, floating around my shoulders without obscuring my face.

This Anime-style photography experience made me even more convinced that great cosplay isn't just wearing clothes and a wig, but constructing the character's emotion through every prop and beam of light on set. Although a white background looks clean and modern, placing it alongside these aged objects created a wonderful sense of negative space. Because there were no redundant colors in the frame, the three main colors—black, gold, and red—could form solid memory points visually. I really enjoyed this attempt, fusing classical literature, old objects, and sailor suit outfits into a unified theme, making something flat three-dimensional and narrative. Even though makeup and hair faithfully recreated the theme, the additional context brought by this set design gave the entire work an extra layer of readability. Everyone is used to dynamic, dramatic scenes, but this quiet, retro atmosphere might offer viewers a different feeling. While organizing these, I even felt that next time I could try designing a specific scene with an even stronger sense of era, where the old phone actually rings.