Miya Amane, a popular cosplayer with over 200k followers on Twitter, apologized to her fans on July 5, 2022, for uploading a picture in which she was drinking alcohol while cosplaying as Anya Forger from Spy x Family.

Earlier this month, Amane had uploaded pictures of her cosplaying as Anya at ‘Ragcos 2022’. In one of the images, she was seen holding a highball with the caption “I’m in the smoking area with a highball”.

In another picture, she was seen drinking the highball from a cup saying that she loved drinking. While these tweets have been deleted by Amane, fellow cosplayer 米粉 (@kmkmk_cos) had a picture on her feed with Amane as Anya apparently holding the highball.

アーニャと居ます‼️ pic.twitter.com/0Dw1DsR7hH

— 米粉🌾 (@kmkmk_cos) July 2, 2022

Amane received heavy backlash from the fans for uploading these pictures, as Anya was only a child. According to many, she was also damaging the image of the character.

The criticism prompted the cosplayer to apologize for her “lack of consideration”.

“I’m sorry I went to bed and woke up and things have gotten worse 🥲.I didn’t think about the fact that some people might be uncomfortable drinking alcohol while wearing Anya’s outfit…I am sorry for my lack of consideration,” Amane tweeted.

寝て起きたら事が大きくなってしまっていて申し訳ないです🥲
アーニャ姿でお酒飲むの不快な方もいるというとこまで考えが及ばず…
配慮が足りずに申し訳ありません🙇‍♀️💦

— あまねみや🍠☔️ (@AMNmiya4646) July 5, 2022

Amane was also called out by fans for smoking, to which she replied that she was in the smoking area as a landmark, and that she doesn’t usually smoke.

“One thing, some people seem to think that I was smoking as well, but I was just in the smoking area as a landmark, and I don’t usually smoke,” Amane wrote.

Though Amane apologized, there were fans who pointed out that it was unfair that an adult had to apologize for cosplaying and drinking.

“I think it’s very difficult to live in a world where you have to apologize for cosplaying and drinking alcohol…If the person doing it was an adult, I don’t think there would be any problem,” the fan wrote.

なんかこう、コスプレしてお酒飲んで謝らなくちゃいけない世の中めちゃめちゃ生きずらいなと思っちゃうね…
してる人が成人してたらなんの問題もないと思うんだけど…
写真楽しそうで良かったと思うんだけどなぁ…

— あかちゃんなねこちゃん (@kyam_H) July 5, 2022

Amane’s apology also sparked a discourse on the rules of cosplay, and where a cosplayer should draw the line when they are portraying a character.

“I think cosplay is about pretending to be a character, isn’t it? Anya doesn’t drink alcohol in the movie… If it’s cosplay with love [for the character], I wanted her to recreate and express [the character’s habits] that much. Otherwise, she just looks like a person who loves herself in cosplay,” a person wrote.

Some pointed out that drinking while cosplaying Anya, who was only 4-5 years old, was a huge misrepresentation.

Source: J-cast