Amidst the rants bombarding Tekken 7's new character revelation, Josie Rizal of the Philippines, creator Katsuiro Hara threatens to remove the character from the roster of fighters.
Josie Rizal has not been received well, especially by the Filipino online community after it was revealed last March 29 by Bandai Namco's Katsuhiro Harada in a streaming site. The anger sparked from the alleged disrespect of the developer with regard to the character's offensive costume inspired by her country's flag, and Josie Rizal's name play derived from the Philippine's national hero Jose Rizal.
According to a Philippine-based website, Bandai Namco is not spending a good amount of money and effort for a well-rounded research for the Filipino character despite it being a huge company. Harada took Twitter to respond to criticisms. One of his tweets reads: "If you don't like her, don't download her." He also responded to another tweet pleading to change the character's name. Harada says: "No. Because we got already tons of positive feedbacks about her. You are a minority."
Josie Rizal wears a golden dress, a blue skirt, gold earrings, red bunny headband, bracelets, and gladiator sandals. While created by Mari Shimazaki, Mad Catz's Mark Julio, who has Filipino roots, was the primary consultant behind the character.
After the tedious discussions and criticism-throwing online, Harada threatens to axe Josie Rizal from the ninth installment of the game. According to his Twitter post, if the Philippine government will protest about the character's identity, Bandai Namco might remove her.
''If Josie can't get supported in the Philippines, we give her up anytime. TEKKEN7 arcade board has a network update system. We can change plan and change characters anytime & quickly,'' said Harada. Meanwhile, the Philippines' National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) said in a statement they are not taking any position regarding the issue contrary to earlier reports they are disapproving the character.
Josie Rizal is one of the 24 fighting characters in Tekken 7 and the latest addition among other four all-new characters.
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