Tekken 7: Harada Asks Fans To Calm Down, No TRO On Josie Rizal

Tekken 7 developer Katsuhiro Harada is now calling for calm from fans still riled up about Josie Rizal, as the NCCA has clarified they are not taking any action against Bandai Namco for the character.

Don't worry guys. Calm down.

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) April 3, 2015

Fans continue to be enraged at the NCCA (National Commission of Culture and the Arts), a Philippine gov’t agency, after blog Definitely Filipino posted an April Fool’s joke that the NCCA issued a TRO against the character using the name of state hero Jose Rizal.

Enacted into law in 1992 via Republic Act 7356, the NCCA is, by virtue of its mandate, the de facto Philippines Ministry of Culture. If you look up its mandate and functions, the agency encourages the development of a pluralistic culture, so it’s not actually in the position to prohibit or control portrayal of the Philippines. Most of its work involves managing regional and state councils, managing institutions like the National Library and National Museum, and funding other initiative to promote Philippine culture.

The NCCA today sent out more clarificatory statements, making it categorically clear they have not asked Namco to delete Josie Rizal, and in fact have taken no position or issued any opinion in the matter.

No TRO has been issued on Tekken 7's Josie Rizal. The article in Definitely Filipino is definitely a satirical post. Thank you very much.

— NCCA (@NCCAOfficial) April 3, 2015

Clarification on the Josie Rizal issue: Dr. Canete's opinion is his own and not necessarily that of the (cont) http://t.co/P1VsekLGm8

— NCCA (@NCCAOfficial) April 2, 2015

Harada himself seems flabbergasted at the reaction to the issue, just recently asking fans to calm down after retweeting the NCCA’s latest statements. This tweet indicates his frustration at fans still being confused at the situation.

フィリピン政府機関のNCCAが鉄拳の新キャラに言及したという『誤報』のせいでNCCAが『記事内容は誤報です』と公式声明を出して俺もツイートしたのに、状況が理解できないゲーマーがNCCAを今だに総攻撃してて、NCCA公式が絶叫してる↓ https://t.co/9GsySqdOBk

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) April 3, 2015

If you are a Tekken fan, know that it does Harada, Studio 765, and Bandai Namco no good to continue to harass the NCCA for things they did not state or make. Of course, Harada continues to monitor fan reaction to the issue, but as of right now the fans seem to be the problem. If anything, Harada is more likely to remove Josie to end fan reaction on his own than be compelled by any outside agency to do so.

Tekken 7 is in location testing in arcades, and is expected to be announced for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Back to work. I'll create my life.

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) April 2, 2015