Azur Lane Advertises With Yixian — GFL2 Players in Shambles: Same Artist's Qipao Beauties, Two Wildly Different Fates

Same artist, two qipao-clad beauties, two wildly different destinies. Azur Lane recently launched a batch of ads featuring Yixian (逸仙), a classical Chinese beauty character — routine Spring Festival hype, right? Except it detonated a full-blown "cutting ties" spectacle in the community. The reason? Yixian and Girls' Frontline 2's (derisively called "Potato 2" by Chinese gamers) most controversial character, Chuan (川), were both drawn by the same illustrator: 木石油 (Mushiyou).

The original poster added a scathing caption: "Same artist, same type of classical beauty — yet two completely different fates. Sunborn Network really deserves to burn." The 'Sunborn' (散爆网络) here refers to Girls' Frontline 2's developer, and one line was all it took to lay out the artist connection and the community's feelings toward it.

The comment section erupted immediately. One player recognized the similarity right away — "both are classical-style qipao beauties, same artist" — while another detailed Mushiyou's full portfolio at Azur Lane: the four Takao-class sisters (Takao, Atago, Maya, Choukai), Graf Zeppelin, North Carolina, Saint Louis, Azuma, and Yixian. In other words, this one artist basically defined half of Azur Lane's aesthetic.

But Azur Lane fans were united on one front: absolute separation. A top-voted reply read: "Please don't associate Yixian with that garbage, thanks." Another player went full roleplay with a dramatic naval commander's manifesto: "I, the beloved of all shipgirls, uniquely brave and clever — I've dived with Enterprise, played cards with Bismarck, sworn oaths with Nagato, and married Belfast. What right does some Griffin beggar have to call themselves a Commander?!" — 'Griffin beggars' being the derogatory term for Girls' Frontline players, and that's about as aggressive as inter-fandom rivalry gets.

One particularly sharp commenter speculated on the real marketing logic behind the ad choice: "They could've used Yixian's base or wedding skin on Bilibili — it was a hot topic back in the day. But that was ages ago... Could it be that because Mushiyou's OTHER character has been trending lately (for all the wrong reasons), his other works got priority treatment in ad placement?" The implication: GFL2's controversy accidentally boosted Yixian's visibility, meaning Azur Lane basically got free hype from a rival's disaster.

Someone else hit on the deeper irony: "Mushiyou's faces all look pretty similar — Choukai at first glance is basically indistinguishable from Type 95. That used to be a fun community meme, but now I just want Azur Lane to cut all ties with GFL2." The same signature face-similarity that once made fans chuckle has become a minefield nobody wants to walk through. That's the cruel reality of gacha fandom: the artist's style never changes, but the community's love and hatred can flip on a dime.