Josie Rizal delivers Pinoy arnis on Tekken!

Fine, come up with a Pinoy Tekken character and name her “Josie Rizal”. What I don’t get is the part where she cries whenever she wins a fight. What’s up with that??

It’s easy to see that Josie is a caricature of Filipino culture. So you get to wondering if the whole crying bit is also a specific mirroring of the Pinoy emo character.

Check it out…

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Other than that, I suppose it’s really all a marketing coup for game maker Bandai. I mean, really, these are just template mannequins donning digital skins on their surface renderings. I would argue though to those who might think the Pinoyness of Josie Rizal is just skin-deep by citing the claim that the character comes equipped with Eskrima or Filipino Arnis “skills”.

The origin of Eskrima can be traced back to native fighting techniques during conflicts among the various Prehispanic Filipino tribes or kingdoms, though the current form has Spanish influence from old fencing which originated in Spain in the 15th century. It has other influences as well, as settlers and traders travelling through the Malay Archipelago brought the influence of silat as well as Chinese, Arab and Indian martial arts.

Reception surrounding Josie has been mixed. Generally Filipinos like being well-represented in the global stage. A Pinoy character on Tekken is cause for celebration, of course. Pinoy pride!

[NB: Parts of this article were lifted off Wikipedia.org and used in accordance with that site’s Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License consistent with the same license applied by Get Real Post to its content.]

27 Replies to “Josie Rizal delivers Pinoy arnis on Tekken!”

  1. Another frivolous article from GRP on my Facebook newsfeed. I was right, it’s another article written by Kate Natividad.

    1. Tips:

      – Unsubscribe from this blog on facebook thats just silly media outlets pump out too much content and will overwhelm your social media platform
      – Instead subscribe to GRP email updates
      – Use gmail and use its filter function to automatically delete any updates with search function “Kate Natividad”
      – Stop flooding the comments section here with ad hominem attacks on Kate just because you’re either an artista fantard/just don’t like her.

      I’m not crazy about posts by Grimwald (I actually like some though and his personal stories show he’s a really nice guy) but I don’t flood his comments with tangang tae.

  2. i accept how the bandai guys made josie, and do not find her offensive at all. thank goodness no pinoy pridists were involved in her conception. it’s an honest picture of how the rest of the world view the filipino people: flamboyant appearance, emotional baggage, huge chip on the shoulder.

  3. Wow. Your self esteem is tied to a videogame character , does not say much about your life does it???

    That is addressed to anyone whose nose is out of joint from this development.

  4. Well, SoulCalibur introduced Talim in the second installment of the game and she’s obviously a Filipina (the game mentioned she’s from south east Asia). She doesn’t have powerful moves but her movements were too fast (made slower in the third installment 🙁 ). However, in the fifth installment, she was removed.

    1. I don’t know what to feel about the whole Josie thing. At least with Talim, at a glance, most won’t be able to pinpoint the “Filipino” origins in her.
      But Josie Rizal… Just her name alone screams “pandering” all over the place.

      And there there’s the inevitable erotic fanworks. Would “PINOY PRIDE” cry foul over that?

      1. As if Tekken just started putting out nationalistic caricatures for their characters.

        Law? Christie? Lili? Yep, no pandering until Josie came around.

        /sarcasm

        1. Maybe “pandering” was too broad a term to use. And yes, character stereotypes has been in videogames before I was even born. But if the mere mention of a “Filipino fictional character added in the roster of a popular fighting videogame” followed by raves and “PINOY PRIDE!!!XD” clamor isn’t “pandering”, then please tell me what that is.

    2. I’m not surprised that Talim hasn’t had much attention as compared to Josie. Talim was introduced in Soul Calibur II, way back in 2002, long before the large presence of Social Media. Also, the Tekken series is more popular than the Soul series.

      Heck, I’m not really sure of this, but there are people that are also saying that Mokujin is Filipino. If that is true, then [technically] Mokujin is the first to be introduced into the fighting game genre since he/she was introduced in Tekken 3, but the “nationality” was mentioned in Tekken 6.

  5. First they criticize Lucky Chloe and Shasheen and threaten to remove them from Tekken lineup. And now its Josie Rizal? I say critics should stop removing the fun from Tekken for expanding every countries’ lore.

    And I want Philippines included in anime Hetalia series.

    1. Ummm, @saboteur, if Philippines is one of the members of Axis powers during World War II and also if Duterte will be as Hitler & Mussolini’s iron fist rule, then our country should be include on that anime series.

    1. If you’ve been around the FMA Scene (Filipino Martial Arts) Her moves are indeed on the arnis escrima unarmed moveset. also her striking and grapleing has a hint of sikaran, panuntukan and dumog, For the part where your calling it “muay thai” its probably a throwback to yawyan or sayaw ng kamatayan. a kickboxing-esque hybrid matial arts in the Philippines that was started during the 80’s

      1. Awesome! The Philippines has more of its own brand of martial arts. And yes, Harada of Tekken tweeted:

        “Josie Rizal from Philippine Fighting Style: Eskrima & Kick Boxing”

        @Kate, I think it’s ok if it cried after winning a fight. The creator wants it to be different than the rest. Besides, athletes do cry after winning a gold or championship.

  6. As a Tekken fan, she is definitely a worthy addition. As a Filipino, I like it because it just so happens she encapsulates how Pinoys are perceived throughout the world.

    1. EDIT: Oh lol, the butthurt towards her is real. So much that even the director is going to delete her if her name gets changed.

      Good job Philippines, you lost a chance to get our local fighting style to be known throughout the world.

  7. What’s the fuzz about her? Seriously.

    I’m an avid Tekken fan, and I appreciate what Bandai Namco is doing to that franchise. But that’s it. So they decided to add a Filipino character. Okay, then.

    Just move on with it. Don’t be such drama queens.

  8. If I where a game developer, I’d create a Filipino character named Chow Juan, a stereotypical Filipino brawler raised in Tondo with dirty fighting tactics using pillboxes and balisongs. Specifically designed to offend Filipinos.

    1. (reposting a comment from above)
      If you’ve been around the FMA Scene (Filipino Martial Arts) Her moves are indeed on the arnis escrima unarmed moveset. also her striking and grapleing has a hint of sikaran, panuntukan and dumog, For the part where your calling it “muay thai” its probably a throwback to yawyan or sayaw ng kamatayan. a kickboxing-esque hybrid matial arts in the Philippines that was started during the 80’s

      Reply

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