Josie Rizal

Josie Rizal artwork.

Josie Rizal is a fictional, playable Filipina character in the fighting game Tekken 7. She is the first and only playable character in the Tekken series with a Filipino nationality.

On March 19, 2015, new character images for the recently released fighting game Tekken 7 were leaked from arcade data. Among them was an image of a new female character for the series. Her design characteristics have led people to speculate that she is a Filipina.

On March 29, 2015, Bandai Namco Games revealed three new playable characters for the game: Jin Kazama, Devil Jin, and the character in question, Josie Rizal. Josie is confirmed to be a Filipina. The name "Josie Rizal" is based on the name of the Philippines' national hero, José Rizal.

A controversy occurred when the Philippine news website GMA News published a story wherein an interviewee who had negative impressions of Josie Rizal was misreported as an official of the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). The news went viral internationally.

Josie's character design was done by Mari Shimazaki. Mad Catz's Mark "Markman" Julio was also instrumental to the design of the character.^[1] Her fighting style is a mix of Eskrima and kickboxing.^[2]

Danish player Adnan Zaman, nicknamed "Blackbeard", is the first player to win a major Tekken 7 tournament using Josie Rizal. He won the Tekken World Tour 2017 EU Regional Finals in November 2017.^[3]

Another Tekken character, Mokujin, was widely mistaken to be from the Philippines as the official Tekken 6 EU website listed the character under "Filipinos". Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada debunked this claim on Twitter, stating that it is a mistake on the website and that Mokujin is from Japan.^[4]

• 

  A screenshot of Mokujin's profile on the now-defunct Tekken 6 EU website which mistakenly lists it under 'Filipinos'.

1. Video: Jin, Devil Jin, Josie Rizal (Eskrima practitioner and kickboxer from The Philippines) officially unveiled for Tekken 7. March 29, 2015 at 7:55 PM. Cheng Kai 'KarbyP' Sim. Event Hubs. Retrieved on 2024-01-14.
2. @Harada_TEKKEN Twitter post. March 29, 2015 at 4:57 PM. Katsuhiro Harada. X (Twitter). Retrieved on 2024-01-13.
3. @MarkMan23 Twitter post. November 6, 2017 at 12:41 AM. Mark Julio 『マークマン』. X (Twitter). Retrieved on 2024-01-14.
4. @Harada_TEKKEN Twitter post. March 30, 2015 at 8:38 PM. Katsuhiro Harada. X (Twitter). Retrieved on 2024-01-13.