Kiriko is one of the newest characters in the Overwatch franchise, debuting in Overwatch 2’s Season 1. From the beginning, Kiriko quickly became a fan-favorite for her kitsune-inspired design, powerful Support abilities, and lore intertwined with the Shimada Clan brothers, Genji and Hanzo.
Luckily for the guardian of Kanezaka, she’s received a gorgeous animated short and a handful of beautiful Hero Skins, such as the Witch, Visual Kei, and Amaterasu designs, to show appreciation for her precise kunai-throwing, ofuda-healing skills, and confident personality. While these have all been big hits in the community, a lot of players can’t help but feel that the majority of skins for Kiriko — and every other character in the game — are inconsistent in terms of quality and visual appeal and don’t match the same excitement these outlier skins bring.
Numerous times in Overwatch’s history, a brilliant fan-made Hero skin design has popped up and blown the official concepts out of the water. Once again, this is one of those moments. Popular Overwatch 2 news and leaks Twitter channel OWCalvary recently posted an adorable fan-made Magical Girl-themed Kiriko by talented concept artist Rene Reza, and fans immediately jumped on their post to show their appreciation and love towards the design.
This concept takes Kiriko and gives her an anime-inspired magical girl look, complete with a pastel pink color palette and aesthetically pleasing Kunai, Suzu, and Ofuda tools. Even Kiriko’s kitsune has had a pretty color change to pink, complete with a big bow and heart-shaped collar — it’s almost impossible not to love how adorable this design is.
Many fans have admired the ‘Sailor Moon’ vibes the skin and variations bring, as well as plenty of comments begging the devs to make it legit or base a Battle Pass around the same theme. Some users even claim that Blizzard needs to look into hiring talented individuals that come up with these concepts, as they show far more intricate details and unique variations from many current in-game cosmetics.
While it’s disappointing that this is only a mere fan-made concept, there’s still an impressive level of talent on display in terms of character design. I think we can all agree that the Overwatch team could learn a thing or two from the fan-made Hero skins. Perhaps they should start privately commissioning more artists to come up with them because the results are seriously impressive.
If you enjoy the Hero skin concept above, check out Rene Reza’s work on Artstation and give them a like on the post or a follow so you can watch out for any more brilliant Hero skin concepts they create. If this one’s any indicator, I’m sure they’ll leave us all awe-struck.
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