What Josie in All This?
Josie Rizal is a new, cute, bubbly character for Tekken 7. She was likely inspired by the large Tekken fanbase in the Philippines.
Let's take a look at her for a second. Her name is a pastiche of one of the heroes of the Philippines, Jose Rizal. She cries when she wins, which is the frickin most hilarious part about her; it reminds me of Filipino dramas where actors clearly go to the "More is More" School of Acting, where crying makes ANY scene better, because Filipino media logic. Her outfit is actually a slutified Filipino flag and her fighting style is a mix of eskrima without the weapons, and Filipino kickboxing; though I know nothing of how either style is supposed to look so I won't comment. Josie Rizal is basically what Japanese designers know about the Philippines put into a blender.
However, A member of the National Commission of cultural arts in the Philippines has criticized Josie Rizal for not being Filipino enough. "The problem with Josie Rizal's character is too obvious: it doesn't have any trace of Filipino-ness-neither in her physical attributes nor in her outfit"
It's a good thing he hasn't noticed that Josie's outfit actually uses the colors of the Filipino flag because that would've opened another can of worms. Under this criticism I wouldn't have any Filipino-ness in me either, despite being a living and breathing Filipino. There is just no pleasing some people. What does he want? A badass Maria Clara (above) who was the epitome of femininity according to Jose Rizal, with a torn Filipiniana dress and a Filipino eagle ready to tear your eyes out?
A minority on Twitter have complained to Tekken creator Katsuhiro Harada to change Josie's name since she doesn't have any qualities of the national hero. If Jose Rizal were alive today he'd be 154 years old and probably look like this:
Too old and too senile to give a shit. Seriously though, why put words in a dead person's mouth? Who cares what Jose Rizal would've wanted, this is Tekken we're talking about. They have an American character named Bob who is morbidly obese, and that's it, he's just fat. Tekken focuses on being fun and silly with their characters. Josie is just as good as a representation of the Philippines as Bob is to the United States. Obviously not perfect, but pretty entertaining.
Posted 10-04-2015, 11:50
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