User blog comment:Ceras SanMarina/Silly persistent fan-rumors./@comment-1271618-20100419174242

I could be fine with either a female Philippines or male one, I just hope the hoax-starters can knock it off so we all can wait for the real thing. I'm thinking some of them are likely just trolls trying to stir things up for the fans, which isn't fun at all. It's not helping those who really want to see Philippines or any other home country in the series.If people cry wolf so much, I wonder if it will even be much of a surprise when the character does actually get designed.

I've seen that the Hetalia_ph community mostly thought of a female Philippines too, from what I saw of the discussions. I felt like I had to clear it up in there for once though, not to take any stock in anons' hoaxes or "I know Himaruya/someone who knows him"-type of info, that's always a red flag of warning. Asia3's outfit doesn't look like a maid dress to me, but it could be her, Indonesia, or any other -tan that would wear that type of hat and carry a spear. General opinion from Japanese fans is that Himaruya goofed on Vietnam since he hadn't drawn her in a long time, but I wonder if we'll ever get clarification from him on that? It might be best to try and ask him. Of course he's busy and gets so much fan-mail that I doubt he'd answer it, but maybe if a few people (read: not a ton of spam) ask, maybe he'll see and think "They were confused?" and answer. Or if it IS a new character or he wants to be vague, we'll get that Russia smiley (^J^).

I am curious about Himaruya's ideas for ASEAN10, yet I'd hope he works on other characters first, we have so many. He seems to be the type of guy that will only finish something if he REALLY really wants to, from what some Japanese fans have surmised. So let's hope that he'll really really want to give some love to more characters when he has free time.