In a creative gesture the Genshin Impact Twitter account offered a tribute to Kirara by means of an elaborate drawing on her birthday, where the tiny nekomata courier was seen among old cats and kittens reclining in moving boxes. These annual character birthday posts immediately made the player community very much excited with many players expressing their love towards Kirara while others took the chance to demand news about the long-awaited character Varka. This very same reaction demonstrated the humor and love which sometimes exist between the game developers at Hoyoverse and their fans over a long distance.
Was it not simply the standard Genshin Impact social media team engaging in their usual activities? They adorned the birthday with adorable character art for Kirara, the Dendro, sword-wielding nekomata courier. That was indeed very cute; no one would deny that. The image depicts her in a box pretending to be “testing its sturdiness” for work, but in reality, the character is just a cat wanting to play like any cat would. It’s a whole mood. The art is vibrant, she is with her little feline pals, a good digital gift for her birthday on the 22nd of January. You would think that the replies would just be a wall of “HBD!!” and cat emojis.
There are indeed many of them that are just like that. Players overwhelming the post with “Happy birthday my babyy!!! :3” and “Happy Birthday to the best girl🙏” and also hearts and celebratory GIFs would be no exaggeration to say. It’s very nice! It shows the extent to which people love these avatars, and how they become immersed in their daily routines. A person even referred to Kirara as their “second favorite Genshin Character,” which is a tremendous compliment in a game that has a million characters.
But then you…scroll down a little bit. And chaos begins to appear. It’s like the community saw a spotlight and decided that it was the right time to get a bit off their chest. “BRING BACK CHIBI ART!!!” was the most common plea among the replies. One player, Blackout, simply kept on posting that. They are not alone though. Other replies said, “Happy birthday daughter! Anyway HOYO GIVE US BACK CHIBIS…” It’s this funny and somehow aggressive shift from celebration to demand. To give a little background, Genshin used to create characters’ birthdays in super-deformed, chibi style art a long time back and apparently one of the player base really misses it. They see this spectacular, standard anime art and go “Nope, we want the little guys back.” The commitment is truly unmatchable.
And there is also the other big chorus along the lines of “where is the drip market?” and “where’s Varka now?” Gamers are taking advantage of Kirara’s birthday as a means to ask—no, demand—marketing for the next batch of characters. They call it drip marketing when Hoyoverse officially reveals a new character’s design, typically a few weeks before the character arrives in the game. Players are definitely very keen for news, and a birthday post for an existing character only serves to remind them that they are still waiting for the new stuff. One reply even had a user, Grok, providing a full character bio for Kirara, explaining she’s a shield support and everything, which was kinda random but useful for any newbies reading the thread.
It’s really a crazy mix. On one hand, you have pure, unadulterated love for the character and on the other hand, you have laser-focused complaints about art style and content pacing. Someone asserts “She is so cute” and underneath, the reply is “Wrong blond” along with a picture of another character, which is just the epitome of Twitter nonsense. A strange, out-of-place spam reply about a medical fundraising that got posted is another case in point, for it merely shows that great gaming accounts draw all sorts of replies.
But what does it all signify? It indicates that for a live-service game like Genshin Impact, communication is always a two-way street. Developers will often release a nice piece of content to celebrate a character, and players will respond with both affection and a list of wants. They are not just deeply involved in the lore and gameplay, they want to see the characters and the flow of new content as well. The chibi art is a nostalgia play, a request for a specific flavor of charm that they feel is missing. The drip marketing demands are about anticipation and being up-to-date.
Eventually, the Kirara birthday tweet is a perfect little snapshot of the modern gaming fandom. It’s no longer just about the game that is on your screen; it is about the community around it, the shared jokes, the collective impatience and the way players engage on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
