Overwatch’s ‘Same Face Syndrome’ Has Claimed Another Victim

Overwatch’s character design has gotten a bit homogeneous over the years, and fans have taken notice of it. Specifically, the women of Blizzard’s hero shooter have suffered from a bit of “same face syndrome” for years, with characters like Widowmaker, Ashe, and Freja being nearly identical in some skins. However, it’s gotten especially bad for the game’s East Asian heroes since Kiriko came onto the scene in 2022. Now Anran, one of the new heroes joining the game next week, is the latest victim of this phenomenon.

Anran is a fire-wielding hero and the sister of the game’s water-bending support hero Wuyang. As such, she appeared in animated trailers, comics, and other lore before she was implemented into the game itself. Before her in-game appearance, she was depicted with a longer nose and sharper features, and overall had a distinct face compared to other characters on the roster. Now that we’ve seen her in the game itself, however, fans have pointed out that her face is much more round and her nose has been shrunken down to the same button nose Kiriko and Juno have. 

the audible sigh I let out pic.twitter.com/0HYZoKjiB7

— Dahja 🐧 (@Dahja3D) February 4, 2026

The similarities are so striking that some fans are joking she looks like she’s an alternate skin for Kiriko. The comparison between Anran’s old face and her new one is pretty stark, but seeing Kiriko or Juno’s face next to her current appearance is when the issue really becomes apparent. She looks less like Wuyang’s sister than she once did.

how do you have a team of artists and still end up with same face syndrome as bad as this . BROTHER. pic.twitter.com/8AK1m9I7D4

— ☆Ki★ (@foxkiez) February 4, 2026

rhinoplasty, eye lift, jaw shave, botox, cheek filler, facial bone surgery, gastric bypass surgery, face lift, lip filler, buccal fat removal pic.twitter.com/f4OAgIquGg

— Sasha 🔨 Torbjörn CEO (@torbillionare) February 4, 2026

They rly messed up with Anran's face bc I got multiple languages on my feed upset about it

— Moira's Little Rabbit⸆⸉ (@MoirasLilRabbit) February 5, 2026

rewatched wuyang’s cimematic and. who is this ??? #NOTMYANRAN #overwatch pic.twitter.com/YTx7GjL8Vu

— moss ₊ ⊹ ✧ (@staplesquid) February 4, 2026

"got your nose!" but it's anran's in-game model

— Wuyangful 🌊Azelf (@wuyangart) February 4, 2026

Fans have created some edits that try to recapture Anran’s original look and they show how, with just a few tweaks, Anran can not only look like she once did, but can look pretty distinct in a game in which several characters look like each other.

just some changes i'd make going off how she looked in the animation https://t.co/cV61EIVvql pic.twitter.com/JpTyvcam2B

— 🌠ramu🌠🍉 (@ramunaeee) February 4, 2026

Anran is available to play today as an early trial character, so it’s not like the Overwatch team has time to make any changes, despite fan reactions. She is one of five heroes joining the roster on February 10, alongside the beginning of the new season in which Overwatch 2 is dropping the 2 from its name.