かわいい! Meet Wikipe-tan. She’s the unofficial mascot and moe anthropomorph of Wikipedia. Here, she’s wearing the baro’t saya, the female national costume of the Philippines. Isn’t that cute?

What happened was, Nanami Kamamira, a Filipino Wikipedian in the English Wikipedia, asked Kasuga, a Japanese Wikipedian, to draw Wikipe-tan wearing the Filipino costume. This is after Kasuga created pictures of Wikipe-tan wearing the áo dài, the Vietnamese national costume (think Miss Saigon), and a full-blown ancient Egyptian regalia. Nanami wanted this as a surprise to the Filipino Wikipedian community at the English Wikipedia.

I think it’s a very well done drawing by Kasuga, especially considering that he based his drawings from pictures on the Internet. The only iffy part is I don’t ever recall Filipina ladies carrying the train of the skirt on their arm. Nevertheless, I don’t think it detracts too much from the overall appeal of the drawing.

Wondering why Wikipe-tan is wearing jigsaw puzzle pieces as hair clips? Well, these puzzle pieces are inspired by the Wikipedia logo, which depicts a sphere composed of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Notice also that instead of floral embroidery on the baro’t saya, we have outlines of puzzle pieces. Neat!