// KOTAKU — GAMING
J-Pop Stars YOASOBI Talk About Capturing The ‘Soul’ Of Overwatch’s Kiriko In Their Latest Song
Overwatch’s collaborations have taken many forms, but they’re often mostly divorced from the world and story of Blizzard’s hero shooter. As the team has shifted into a narrative-heavy seasonal structure in 2026, however, these crossovers have more opportunities to factor in the stories Blizzard is telling through comics, short stories, and cinematics. Overwatch‘s latest collaboration isn’t with another property, but is instead with Yoasobi (stylized as YOASOBI), a musical act uniquely qualified to help move Overwatch’s story forward, and Kotaku spoke with both Blizzard and the musical duo about how it all came together.
Yoasobi, a j-pop duo made up of producer and composer Ayase and vocalist Ikura, has collaborated with a lot of brands since its formation in 2019. The pair is known for their narrative songs based on stories, ranging from online short stories to professionally written works, and has worked to write songs based on big properties like Pokémon and opening themes for anime like Beastars and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. As Blizzard was looking for a group to collaborate with in its new narrative-driven era, Aimee Dennett, Overwatch’s Associate Director of Product Management, says Yoasobi was an easy choice to write a song based on one of the short stories from Overwatch’s year-long “Reign of Talon” arc.
“Given how many narratives they’ve told through their albums, short stories, music videos, and performances, we knew they would create something powerful to convey the relationships between Genji, Hanzo, and Kiriko,” Dennett tells Kotaku.
Dion Rogers, Overwatch’s art director, says that the team had Yoasobi fans on staff, and that since the game’s current season is focused on Japan, centering the conflict between the Shimada clan and the Shion-led Hashimoto, the team wanted a Japanese group to set the tone.
“We look for artists whose style, personality, and fan community align with Overwatch, especially those who share the game’s hopeful and aspirational tone like Yoasobi,” Rogers says. “The best collaborations feel authentic, where both the artist and the game bring something unique to the partnership and fans of both can get excited about it.”
Yoasobi’s new song “Orion” is based on the Overwatch short story The Fall of a Sparrow, and is the opening track on the duo’s new EP The Book For, which has an “Overwatch Edition” sporting Kiriko, Genji, and Hanzo on the cover. Though the short story is primarily written from Genji’s perspective, “Orion” is a vessel through which listeners can hear the point of view of Kiriko, who is a very young child through the story’s lengthy flashback. The song’s lyrics go back and forth between Kiriko’s internal monologue and an omniscient narrator.
[All quotes from Ayase and Ikura have been translated from Japanese by an interpreter]
“I definitely wanted to keep the two perspectives in singing this song,” Ikura tells Kotaku. “One is, of course, Kiriko’s perspective, and another is a perspective as a storyteller from a bird’s eye’s view. I wanted to make sure that the [narrator’s part of the song reminded listeners of] Kiriko’s role in the story, but when the lyrics are talking about Kiriko’s bittersweet feelings, then I wanted to make sure that it sounds as if I’m coming from Kiriko’s mindset. So I was like switching between the two perspectives.”
The song’s title is a reference to the Orion’s Belt constellation, which is made up of three stars called Alnitak, Alnilam, and Mintaka. As Ayase describes it, the duo wanted to use the imagery of three stars that appear to be unified, but are actually far away from one another, to illustrate the unity between Kiriko, Genji, and Hanzo, despite each of them having gone in very different directions in the years since the events depicted in The Fall of a Sparrow’s flashback.
“Kiriko, Hanzo, Genji, those are the three stars in Orion’s belt, and when we see from the Earth, it looks like they’re next to each other, but in re