Overwatch fans and voice actress call for a redesign of its newest hero: 'This concern is important, this is a hill worth dying on'

A side by side comparison of Overwatch hero Anran as depicted in the Elemental Kin short and in-game. A dark-haired Chinese woman with red eyes looks unhappy on the left. On the right, her in-game model is brighter, with a smaller nose, and an overall younger-looking face.

(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

Blizzard has chopped the 2 off of Overwatch with what looks to be its biggest season ever, but what's really dominating the discourse is the design of its newest Chinese damage hero, Anran.

Overwatch's female hero designs have skewed young and conventionally attractive for a long time, but Anran's stood out because her in-game appearance looks dramatically different from how she looked when Blizzard introduced her in a recent animated short. And it doesn't help that she's the third Asian woman with a face that is almost interchangeable with the other Asian characters Kiriko and Juno.

how do you have a team of artists and still end up with same face syndrome as bad as this . BROTHER. pic.twitter.com/8AK1m9I7D4February 4, 2026

Blizzard hasn't made any official comment on the criticisms over Anran's design, but an Overwatch streamer—who recently attended an event at Blizzard HQ and is in a Discord server with developers—claims that the team has said it's "on their radar," and that a redesign could take months to finish. I've asked Blizzard if this is true and will update the post if I hear back.

Even if several of the recent female heroes haven't really escaped the 'same face' design that people bring up a lot with Overwatch, it's hard not to see why people think Anran looks particularly bland. The short coming out right before her release makes it even more obvious. And if Blizzard intends to start releasing heroes every single season as it kicks off a new era for the game, it would be nice to see more variety in the character designs.

TOPICS

Tyler has covered videogames and PC hardware for 15 years. He regularly spends time playing and reporting on games like Diablo 4, Elden Ring, Overwatch 2, and Final Fantasy 14. While his specialty is in action RPGs and MMOs, he's driven to cover all sorts of games whether they're broken, beautiful, or bizarre.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.