The three-day anime convention schedule has come to an end. Having finished sorting out the pictures of these past few days and looking at the sets of selfies saved in my phone album, I feel that although it was physically exhausting, the experience of these three days is indeed worth recording in detail. As you can see intuitively from these pictures, I interpreted three completely different character looks in total during this exhibition trip.
The first set features a blue-gray highlighted bob cut, paired with a sweet-style outfit in pink and white, full of intricate flower and lace decorations, overall presenting a highly delicate doll-like texture. The second set is a bright pink long curly wig, paired with violet contact lenses, and the clothing material is switched to a lighter chiffon with printed textures, along with exquisite lace edges and a purple choker neckpiece as highlights. The third set, which went on stage on the last day, features a silver-white wig with a touch of ice blue highlights, with the clothing switched to a black lace high collar with tassel pendants, shifting the overall temperament to a mysterious and cold style.
Throughout this three-day itinerary, I deeply realized that creating a good character look under a proper cosplay requires far more than just surface-level dressing and matching. Getting up around four or five in the morning every single day, just the wig styling alone takes one to two hours, needing careful combing from the hairline to the fluffiness of the hair strands. Makeup is of utmost importance; to let the base makeup exhibit that clean, translucent glow in the photos under an Anime-style makeup routine, not only does one need to do basic moisturizing well, but also apply blush heavily beneath the eyes and on the apples of the cheeks. Additionally, wearing contact lenses is also a technical task; the different colors of blue, purple, and amber lenses require slight adjustments to the adapting eye makeup colors and the outward length of the eyeliner.
The exhibition environment heavily tests a cosplayer's composure, as can be seen from the backgrounds of the first and second photos; the crowded exhibition hall is filled with folding chairs, photography lights, softboxes, and all kinds of lenses. I kept a touch-up bag tightly in my hand, containing oil-control loose powder, a small comb, and a small bottle of styling spray, to quickly tidy up the styling as long as there was a gap, ensuring that I could present the most precise state at any moment. Although my feet were very sore from standing all day long, and because time was pressing, changing looks had to be as fast as a battle—sometimes even only being able to eat a piece of bread in a corner to fill my stomach—seeing those details I carefully presented in the lens still brought a genuine sense of satisfaction out of all the expenses and energy.
Especially the final silver-white look of the third day, where the black stiff lace paired with the blue tassel pendants naturally brought a calm atmosphere upon wearing it. In the intervals of resting, I specially took the third picture against the mirror. Compared to the clamor of the exhibition live scene, this moment instead allowed me to immerse myself more into the state of the character setting. Actually, an anime convention might just be a place to look around for many people, but for us who do content restoration, every 'three-day checkout' means a practice and review of makeup and styling techniques. Whether it is the control over wig styling cut details or the adjustment of clothing patterns, they can all be verified during this busy schedule. After sorting through these Anime convention snapshots of our exhibition daily life, I will also take a good rest next to absorb the experience of this exhibition, making more sufficient preparations for the next presentation.