The world of Overwatch — Blizzard dropped the ‘2’ in its name with a major overhaul back in February — is no stranger to collaborations, having joined forces with the likes of Transformers, Cowboy Bebop, One Punch Man, and even popular K-pop girl group Le Sserafim. Switching tracks to the Japanese music scene, the hero shooter has announced an upcoming collaboration with J-pop superduo Yoasobi, which will go live on 1 July.
As part of the special event, players can expect themed skins for Kiriko, Hanzo, Genji, and more characters, alongside an animated music video by A1-Pictures, the studio behind the Solo Leveling and Mashle: Magic and Muscles anime adaptations, outside of the game. It follows the same approach as the previous Le Sserafim outing, except that the original short story, The Fall of a Sparrow, has also been included, centring around Genji’s recon mission to gather more information about the Hashimoto clan, the criminal syndicate that assassinated Sojiro Shimada, Genji and Hanzo’s father, and has ties to Talon.
The focus on the Japanese trio certainly makes sense, considering the addition of Hashimoto clan member Mizuki to the playable roster in Season 1 and the confirmation of a Japan-set map in the roadmap for Overwatch. Running from 15 April to 16 June, the game’s second season introduced Sierra as the new DPS hero, with the third season expected to arrive sometime in mid-June. In the meantime, an Overwatch crossover is taking place in Fortnite, featuring cosmetics for Tracer, Genji, D.Va, and Mercy, as well as landmarks based on the Hanamura, Busan, King’s Row, and Watchpoint: Gibraltar maps.
As for Yoasobi, the musical pair of songwriter-slash-producer Ayase and vocalist Ikura first rose to prominence with their debut single, “Yoru ni Kakeru” or “Racing into the Night”. Since then, they have performed a handful of anime series openers, including “Idol” from Oshi no Ko, “Kaibutsu / Monster” from Beastars, “Shukufuku / The Blessing” from Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury, and “Yuusha / The Brave” from Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End.
The Yoasobi and Overwatch collaboration kicks off in-game on 1 July.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
