Aka.. Kiyo! An Anime Fan's Journey in an Industry that Made her Career

Published: 5:00pm (GMT+8) January 24, 2026

Kiyo speaking during her stage segment during the third day of Cosplay Matsuri on December 30, 2025 at the SMX Convention Center, Pasay City. 

Starting out as an anime fan who was exposed to the culture since the 2010’s, Kiyo was introduced by her secondary school friend to attend anime conventions in Singapore back when the hobby was relatively niche. 

For some during the time, cosplayers and the hobby itself was still seen in a negative light. For Kiyo however, she was welcomed into the culture and the community of Singapore's cosplay community.

“Seeing all the other people in costumes, portraying characters that they like. It was a unique experience to me. [Like] if you come here as a normie, [you would be like] what is all this happening? I really love the energy, like how everyone was so positive. So for me I’ll give it a go and right now [I’m] still doing it,” Kiyo’s Response to How she started cosplaying on Cosplay Matsuri last December 30, 2025.

Kiyo who has been cosplaying for fifteen years since her first convention in 2010 also started as a merchandise seller for cosplays on funding website Patreon, which became a side job for the cosplayer.

She later moved to content creation and left her full-time job after discovering that she can earn more through the hobby, Kiyo mentioned in an interview with the Straits Times.

In recent times, Kiyo does cosplays of popular female characters from Umamusume: Pretty Derby, NIKKE, Zenless Zone Zero. With her posting content both on her social media and on fan exclusive sites.

With Kiyo’s content available on different platforms, she expressed gratitude and thanks to her fans for being respectful.

'Honestly speaking, not at all. I’m so thankful to have grown a very respectful and self-aware community. They respect my boundaries and have treated me with nothing but kindness and love.'

She enjoys interacting with her fans and personally welcoming them just like how she was welcomed into the community. 

On December 4, Kiyo posted a light-hearted reel which showed her making content with a fan that went viral as the video presented them doing a deodorant fanservice as an inside joke of attendees not wearing any. It has since reached 10,000 reactions on Facebook. 

During conventions however, Kiyo often notices that her fans are sometimes given an unfair amount of time to converse with her especially if another fan takes longer than usual. 

In an written interview submitted by Kuhaku Media, she mentioned that event organizers should impose timers to ensure everyone gets to interact with any invited guests.

Fans Queuing up for a Meet and Greet opportunity with Singaporean Cosplayer Kiyo on December 28, 2025.

‘Setting a time limit for interaction is very important, especially if the meet and greet session timings are limited. Although the time I spend interacting with each of them would be short, I want to meet every single person who is there waiting in line to see me. It’s only fair for everyone who waited,’ Kiyo replied.

Just like other cosplayers racking up their cosplay plans and slowly forgetting about it, Kiyo also had times where she procrastinated on a current cosplay once she sees a popular anime on her social media feed which she mentioned in her interview during Cosplay Matsuri.

She also expressed her likings for Strawberry Shortcake, which Kiyo mentioned that if she was turned into a dessert she would be a crumbly dessert filled with strawberries and whipped cream. 

With 540 Thousand combined followers on Facebook, Instagram, and on TikTok. Kiyo has made cosplaying from a passion to her current full-time career, which her family supports her in. She advised aspiring cosplayers to shy themselves away from social media criticisms and try things out along the way, especially with the available resources that cosplayers have now.

“Don’t forget your roots and beginnings. When I started out [Cosplaying] I looked horrible, and now there’s a lot of resources online in TikTok and on YouTube [For tutorials]..... As long as you enjoy yourself [in Cosplaying], there is not point in not doing things that make you enjoy yourself and having fun,” Kiyo mentioned on her stage interview.

Kiyo cosplaying as Mirai Kuriyama which she first posted on Facebook in 2013 (left) and Kiyo Cosplaying as Mima Kirigoe in 2025 (right).

In her Twitch livestream aired on New Year’s Eve, Kiyo mentioned that she felt emotional when she was asked about her thoughts about her fans in the Philippines. Which she cited that 2025 provided her with a lot of opportunities that she considered unreal, and that she thanks her Egglets (her fanbase) for supporting her in her journey as a content creator and a cosplayer.