'Overwatch' Developers Agree To Redesign Anran After Voice Actor Trashes Design As "Ozempic Chic"
Overwatch developers agreed to redesign the character of Anran after the character’s English voice actor Fareeha Anderson trashed the character design as “Ozempic Chic” and called for “better representation.”
In a video post to X, Anderson said, “I got to mourn Anran between the design I had hoped for her and the design we ended up with. Because, I think, in her comic and the cinematic, Elemental Kin, there was a precedent set by it. There was an unspoken promise that said, ‘We’re going to challenge the beauty standards plaguing, ransacking media these days.’ The ‘Ozempic Chic,’ The ‘Contour your nose. You have no nose. The tiniest nose.’
“And I think because of that precedence people feel understandably let down,” she continued. “Overwatch is a trailblazer at challenging that, of trying to break those molds, of trying to explore the bounds of what it means to be good, what it looks like to be heroic. And I think the result we got says something else. It says something that leaves a bad taste in our mouths. It’s not the bold, optimistic swing that we know Overwatch to make.”
After just claiming the game challenges what it looks to be heroic, she absurdly said, “And it’s a look that isn’t congruent with her personality. She looks like the younger sibling. She looks more docile. Somehow as a fire hero she looks more docile that the most docile peacekeeping support in the game.”
From there she revealed she already shared her concerns with the designers and developer at Blizzard, “I wanted you to hear that this concern is important. This is a hill worth dying on. It is worth speaking on. Because I believe that the more we speak up about the things that truly matter to us, the more we’ll see ourselves reflected in the world around us. The more we’ll see our values in the world around us. And I want you to know that I shared all of this with the dev team.”
“Not only that, but I was encouraged to be as open and honest as possible to not hold anything back. It’s my hope that this isn’t for naught. That they see it, they hear it from you all too,” she added. “And while it’s not my position to decide what can be done and what gets done about this, I will keep championing for the version of her that we all wished for. And I want you to do the same with boldness, with kindness, and with hopium because Overtwatch is not an exploration of what the world is, it’s an exploration on what the world could be.”
Overwatch Game Director Aaron Keller responded to this activism by admitting they are working to redesign her. He said, “The team is currently discussing what it’ll take to make Anran look and feel more like the fierce older sister that we all envisioned her to be.”
“We’re so proud of the work that our team has put into Anran and the rest of the five heroes launching into Season 1 and we agree that she can be even better if we get this aspect right in game,” he added.
Keller later added, “We’re hoping to make this update in Season 1, but I don’t have specifics to share just yet. Our hero models are incredibly complicated and we really need to test out what we can do. We are always striving to make Overwatch better and I think Season 1 is a great example of the dedication and tireless work that our team puts into this game, its universe, and ultimately its players.”
Anderson reacted to this writing on X, “I LOVE THIS GAME thank you devs for listening! Thank you Overwatch community for speaking up!!!”
She added in a subsequent post, “THEY'RE GONNA MAKE HER EVEN HOTTER AND COOLER I JUST KNOW IT.”
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It was all clear as day when they made soldier 76 gay.
This hero, made to appeal to the typical FPS crowd, and patriot-coded too, was retrofitted - and I suspect - purposefully so.
Well, they can do whatever they want with their dying franchise
The voice actress clearly hates beauty.