My first reaction upon receiving the raw photos was that this outfit really tests one's physique and temperament. In Zenless Zone Zero, Master Yixuan has always given me the impression of a calm, majestic, mature, and wise woman. So when cosplaying this character myself, the pressure was very real.
First, let me talk about the styling details. Although the upper clothing is a white modified cropped top, it comes with many black leather straps and red Chinese frog buttons, along with a glossy black corset featuring a metal waist plaque and tassels below. If the body fit isn't quite right or the posture isn't executed properly, it can easily look bulky or fall short of the character's aura. The jacket is a very bright yellow; such a high-saturation jacket naturally tends to create harsh shadows. To prevent the jacket from looking flat under studio lighting, I placed very thin shoulder pads inside, which ultimately made the shoulder lines look crisp and sleek.
For this shoot, we specifically chose a blue-and-white gradient background in the studio with soft, even lighting to capture clear, translucent skin texture. However, it exposed another challenge: handling facial shadows. Since my face shape is naturally rounder, pulling off that sharp, fierce Onee-san vibe required using contouring and eyeliner to elongate my eye shape and facial structure. I specifically extended the eyeliner into a subtle swallowtail cat-eye at the outer corners and kept my eyebrow shade lighter to complement the straight, silver-white long hair. As for those two highly recognizable ahoge (hair tufts), it took serious effort to fix them in place without making the hairspray look too stiff.
I actually spent about half an hour retouching this photo. Compared to the youthful, lively, or ethereal characters I cosplayed before, editing an Onee-san cosplay is truly detailed work. On one hand, I needed to preserve natural skin texture without over-smoothing into a plastic look—especially around the cheeks and neck area, where subtle liquefying was used to enhance bone structure and convey a mature woman's aura. On the other hand, elements like metal buckles on boots and intricate metallic patterns on waist ornaments had to be individually selected for sharpening and light-and-shadow adjustments. Without treating these localized details separately, the final image would look flat. This was probably the most extensive post-processing I've done for a photoshoot so far. But hard work pays off—seeing the character's upright posture in the picture and that confident, slightly-tilted chin made every minute of retouching worth it.
As for poses during the shoot, we tried two different setups. In standing poses, to showcase the flowing, cool feel of the jacket, it was mostly worn half-off, using arm movements to outline body curves. The seated pose leaned more towards showing the character's relaxed, lazy composure after unwinding—legs crossed and elbows resting on knees, capturing both upper body lines and the asymmetrical Cosplay outfit on her legs. I really liked that seated shot; it wasn't overly flashy, yet naturally radiated a calm, commanding aura.
Looking back at my photoshoot journey over the past few years, I've mostly been accustomed to cosplaying sweet or energetic characters closer to my age, where makeup styling feels natural and photos come out quickly. But challenging a mature female character like Yixuan in Anime cosplay truly taught me what 'commanding an aura' really means. It's not just about wearing a well-fitting costume; it's about conveying the character's personality through subtle eye contact and body language. In the future, I might need to recognize my path in cosplay and take on fewer high-aura Onee-san roles—otherwise retouching takes too much time, and finding the right feel drains energy. Yet it's precisely these occasional off-track experiments that reveal where I can still improve in shooting and post-processing.
This studio shooting experience was genuinely valuable. Lighting angles, prop placements, and even the hand gestures used to hold the jacket hem were meticulously refined. While pursuing the charm of anime characters, figuring out how to make real-life photos look stunning is indeed a process of continuous refinement.