[Tokai Teio cosplay] Umamusume: Pretty Derby Energetic Teio's Sunny Outdoor selfie

Today, I deliberately chose a quiet time to go outdoors and shoot this Tokai Teio cosplay look. The sunlight was indeed great, but also truly blinding.

The reddish-brown wig on my head—especially the two hair buns and the pink highlight on the bangs—took quite some time to style last night. After putting it on, I realized it still required constant real-time maintenance, otherwise exposure to the sun and wind would flatten its dimension. As for the costume, the white shirt with blue-and-gold V-shaped trim, paired with the red jacket and pink bow tie, offers a very vibrant color scheme. The most troublesome part was the gold tasseled epaulet on the left shoulder, which was much heavier than expected and drooped whenever I turned slightly sideways, requiring frequent pauses to adjust its position and prevent it from pressing against the jacket's opening.

Although putting everything on was tedious, this outfit truly helps you get into character. The entire shoot was done from a low angle using a selfie stick, using the metal railings behind as a backdrop—which not only flattered my face shape but also brought out the extended lines of the staircase. Since the background was bright and I worried about heavy shadows on my face, I repeatedly adjusted the position of my saluting hand so it would just block the direct sunlight, preserving facial depth without causing squinting. The contact lenses appeared remarkably clear and luminous under strong light, pairing with the upturned eyeliner to capture the character's confident, slightly proud demeanor.

The wind was quite strong during the shoot and messed up my hair once, so I had to stop to restyle the wig and touch up my makeup. The collar of the outfit is relatively stiff and restricts movement, but this actually helped me maintain an upright posture. In post-processing, I deliberately preserved the authentic texture of direct sunlight without excessive skin smoothing, believing this is the best way to capture the crisp, structured feel of a Military uniform. Tokai Teio is inherently an energetic character on the racetrack, so even while sweating profusely, holding up a salute required keeping up full spirit at all times. Documenting these details serves as a wonderful wrap-up for this Cosplay photography project, and seeing the finished photos makes all the effort feel completely worthwhile.