The "Tekken: The Motion Picture" anime adaptation indeed portrays Kazuya Mishima in a more sympathetic light than some of the video game installments. In this adaptation, Kazuya's character is explored with a greater focus on his tragic backstory and the suffering he endured at the hands of his father, Heihachi Mishima. The film delves into the complexities of his character and shows moments where Kazuya's humanity surfaces, despite the darkness that surrounds him. This portrayal can leave a lasting impression on viewers, as it highlights the struggle between the good and evil aspects of his persona. The anime's depiction reinforces the idea that Kazuya's descent into darkness is not entirely of his own making but is also a product of the circumstances he was subjected to, including the betrayal and abuse from his father. The narrative of the anime suggests that Kazuya's quest for power and vengeance is driven by a deep-seated pain and a desire to overcome the injustices he has faced. This adds a layer of depth to his character, making him more relatable and, to some extent, more redeemable. It shows that within his quest for power, there is also a struggle for self-preservation and retribution against those who wronged him. By showcasing these different facets of Kazuya's character, "Tekken: The Motion Picture" contributes to the perception that there may be a path to redemption for him. It taps into the universal themes of redemption and the possibility that even those who have fallen farthest can find their way back, given the right circumstances or influences. This portrayal may resonate with audiences and fans who appreciate more nuanced and multidimensional characters who are capable of change and growth. Also in "Tekken 7" where Kazuya Mishima saves his men from Akuma's attack does not align with the image of someone who desires to bring death and destruction indiscriminately.
I find his video game story more interesting as the anime just turns him into Vegeta. And about him saving his men in Tekken 7, that’s just common sense. Any commander would preserve the life of their men. The more numbers, the more powerful his army is.
Kazuya in the anime is a whole different vibe from Vegeta. He's layered, with a backstory that's more than just seeking power. In 'Tekken 7', him saving his guys? It's not just black and white-it shows he's strategic and maybe even a bit caring, in his own way. And that ending in 'Tekken 5' with Jinpachi really makes you think-he wasn't always this bad guy. And let's not forget Angel from 'Tekken 2', showing us Kazuya's inner tug-of-war between good and evil.
The Tekken OVA was a very fun watch, if very dated. I do like the idea of this more tragic Kazuya who overcomes the devil (even if Jun being a literal "I can fix him" girl is annoying), but damn it did Lee dirty. Lee goes from being the not-evil Mishima child to the evil one
@@michaelmun3521thank you! there’s a lot of picking and choosing when it comes to Kazuya. He’s an evil being that cares for nothing but death and destruction tho he goes out of his way to prevent needless deaths of a handful of men…..but thats just because they work for him so obviously he wouldn’t want them dead s/ ffs is he evil or not?? No villain who is as bad and soulless as they claim Kazuya to be, would care about preserving any life. people are replaceable to those kinds of ppl. Just goes to show how bad the writing is when it comes to Tekken. I’m so glad you brought up Angel in T2 bc its like no one remembers that part of the story. The writers of Tekken frustrate me. They have good material that already exists from the older games to build upon but they insist on ignoring what they’ve already established in favor of things that doesnt connect smh
From the perspective of someone who needed a lot of therapy to deal with my inner demons, I'd say it wouldn't be completely illogical if Kazuya and Jin buried their differences in the end. Kazuya is a hurt child, who let the devil inside him take control to survive. That's quite literally what happend to him. If the narrative is able to put Kazuya into a situation where someone he does actually care for IS hurt by him he might wake up. His whole story was about revenge and making the world a safe space for his inner child. Maybe there is a way of proving to him, that he does not need to be afraid anymore.
This does not mean we didn't need to deal with the whole World War situation and i do think Kazuya has to die for his sins in the end, HOWEVER i do still think he is able to change.
Hiehachi is the REAL Evil. NOT Kazuya. Hiehachi's the reason the family is destroyed to begin with. Kazuya felt powerless as a kid against his father and after killing Hiehachi he felt That's why in Tekken 8 he's trying to take over the world.Hiehachi being alive made him feel powerless.He doesn't feel powerless anymore.
As for Kazuya overpowering the devil. Yes. But the way I see it the Devil corruption of Kazuya had already been done in the previous games. The child abuse he suffered had already been done. So by then Kazuya is fully commited to taking over the world devil or no.
Even the devil in Tekken 4 was like “bro this mf’s more evil than me” and got forcefully assimilated into Kazuya The same happened with Azazel in T8, he pretty much just forcefully absorbed them & evolved.
Another great video. One thing I want to argue... Prior to T4 I would agree that the Devil was a separate entity to Kazuya. But once they created the "devil gene" I start to see it more as a split personality rather than an external spiritual force. 1. Bc that's no how generics work 2. Comparing him to the other two characters we know with the Devil Gene in the series. Devil Jin seems fo be a split personality as well that Jin struggles to maintain control over. Kazumi becomes more violent in her devil form but she seems to have no internal conflict about wrestling for control. I think Kazuya prior to T4 was in a similar place to Jin in that he was wrestling for control with a split personality. From T4 onwards be seems to have reconciled that within himself and no longer has need of that dissociative identity, similar to Kazumi. (Also interesting to note that DID often manifests after experiencing trauma as a means of self-preservation. We know Jin was traumatized by Ogre killing his mother, and further traumatized by his grandfather's assassination attempt. And we KNOW Kazuya was traumatized by his father. In his case that 2nd personality seems to have it's genesis after being thrown from the cliff, when he needed strength to climb to the top. We dont know if Kazumi ever had a split personality but as far as we know we never see her struggling to balance two identities. If she never experienced intense trauma she may never have developed one. Would be curious to see you compare the 3 and get your perspective on whether or not you think this fits with multiple personality. Btw, the power from the devil gene is clearly tangible in the tekken universe. I'm specifically talking about its expression in Devil (T2/T4) and Devil Jin as possible expressions of DID rather than external beings.
Dude Kazuya was always a sympathetic character. I can't imagine a worse fate that being thrown off a cliff by my father at the age of five. Just hearing that makes me want to go ape shit. I can totally see myself going evil and killing everyone because of it lol. And I'm a pretty nice dude. So no. I think Heihachi is way more evil because of his child abuse. If you were abused like him you would be evil too. Without angelic or miraculous intervention and guidance abuse can destroy a person from the inside out.
Ok, so I watched the entire video and here are my thoughts, if you care ofc. First of all, I want to say that I respect you delving more into Tekken's lore, characters' backstories and their motivations. As for Kaz though - at some points I agree and at some points I don't and here's why: -Tekken: Bloodline - you know, this Netflix show - we can hear from Heihachi that Devil Gene gave Kazuya a considerable amount of power but this power also consumed him (this whole hatred consumed him so to speak) -Kazumi - Kazumi was also pretty sane and I truly believe she loved her family but when the Devil instinct kicked in - she basically was lost at this point. So my point is - even though it may seem as Kaz controls the Devil's power and I'm pretty sure he does - then still, it's not like this evil entity/gene or whatever you wanna call it, has no effect on him whatsoever. I think it influnces him a lot. It corrupts his mind, thoughts, behavior, even though the power per se is under Kazuya's control. I don't know if you know what I mean, but I can't voice in a better way. Besides, I think you're missing even a bigger picture - if there was no any goodness left in him, then we wouldn't get Angel entity in T2 and Jun striving for saving Kazuya because she noticed that there's still some speck of humanity inside him. Even her winpose in T8 when she beats Kazuya indicates that this guy suffered a lot and it surely made him this way. "You were all alone, let me be your solace" or something like that. So it's 50/50 at this point. They may want to give him some sort of redemption or show more of his human side, without redeeming him completely OR just show that he's beyond any saving but still make him survive somehow because he is too important to the franchise.
Yeah it can be cringe when a Villian gets a sympathetic arc out of nowhere but Kazuya is not that. His Tekken 5 ending and Jun's relationship with Kazuya show his sympathetic side. The man is not pure evil 100%. Just damaged beyond all reason. And you would be too had you been in his shoes.
@@dock7777 Probably yes. But the point is he had humanity to begin with. Which is why he is a sympathetic character. That's my point. And why despite how evil he has become I can never bring myself to dislike him. All I feel is pity. He is like Cujo. A mad dog that needs to be put down but is also a victim of circumstances beyond his control.
Your Exorcist movie comparison was an episode of the tv series Angel in season one. A child gets possessed, they perform the exorcism, and hunt down the freed demon. Once they find it, the demon talks about how it didn't just possess the child, it became trapped. It encountered TRUE evil: a void of emotion. There was nothing but hate and anger. No joy of any kind. It tried to leave the boy's body, but he wouldn't let it leave, because he enjoyed tormenting it. The heroes state that they're still going to kill the demon to prevent it from causing pain to other people, and it actually welcomes it. "After experiencing that, I do not fear death." Then they return to the home. The kid trapped his family in their rooms and set the house on fire while they slept.
Kazuya felt so powerless when heihachi threw him off a cliff and under abusive parenty of him. There doesn't have to be direct evidence for that. Everyone with basic human psychology knowledge can understand that. İt's clear that kazuya didn't born to be evil. Heihachi has huge impact on his shit personality. Of course kazuya can't be justifiable but understandable at least, i'd say. You can't deny that he has tragic past.
3:00 to 4:00 This is why Jin's depiction in T8 bothers me very much. Mofo went from starting WW3 in T6 to being this sweet innocent goody two shoes in T8. At least Kazuya is consistent throughout the series always appearing evil. Same thing with the trope of forgiving the villain right at the end or portraying him in a good way. But honestly it worked for me with Heihachi idk why.
Maybe just because Heihachi is charismatic because the writing wss just as shotty. They completely retconned his character and thought we wouldn't notice. At least Jin is being retconned to what he was before. Heihachi was retconned into something he wasn't.
@@TheDarkknightrules92 he got retconned? I didn't know that. I thought about why I liked Heihachi in T7's story and I think it's because his motif of getting rid of the devil gene (and kazumi? I don't remember what she did in the story) is kinda reasonable even if he did it in an absurd way like throwing a kid off a volcano/cliff. And even when Heihachi teared up and the real life quote at the very end of the story about father and son, that got me.
@@ShaoKahnnor Yeah I loved that quote too. But What think it means is that the sins of the father affect the son. Heihachi's abuse damaged Kazuya to the point that he would never forgive him just like Jin will never forgive Kazuya for giving him the devil gene. And Heihachi's reason for throwing Kazuya off the cliff was to toughen him up so he could be worthy to run The Mishima Zaibatsu but that was retconned in Tekken 7.
Kazuya can't be pure evil. Look at his shoe collection! 😂 But I do see your point. There have been hints of the man showing some humanity, such as the T5 ending and him reminiscing over his childhood with Jinpachi (before he shut that feel good moment down), but the leap to destroying a country if its representative loses is beyond a mere stretch. While I don't mind Kazuya having some redeeming qualities, him being evil was why he became my favorite fighting game character in the first place.
Jin vs true potential devil gene kazuya in full form is similar to superman and doomsday two unstoppable force battle to the death ending the Mishima saga in this final tekken game in two weeks.
What was his relationship like with Jun? I really only know Tekken 3 onward, so she (as a character) was only connected to Jin. It can't be as simple as "I can fix him. Did you pull out?" She is portrayed as a spiritual miracle type of person and Kazuya doesn't view her as some random. So there has to be some character dynamic happening there.
I agree. I think it’s very possible that Kazuya cared deeply for Jun I just don’t think that means he’s not pure evil. Kazuya also cared deeply for Jinpachi but as we see in his Tekken 5 ending that wouldn’t have been enough to stop him from killing him for his goals.
@@rougarabid I agree that's what he is now and I'm also willing to run with it's something he always was. I just don't know the timeline of their relationship. What did she see in him? Whether it was real or not it wouldn't be pure evil given her character. It also happens in his adulthood with devil gene activated, instead of Jinpachi pre-cliff. He seemed like he didn't hold anyone in high regard but her in his adulthood. The way 8 ends, it seems like those questions might be answered. I just didn't know if it was brought up before.
Yes there is no correlation between kazuya's dictatorship ambitions and being thrown off a cliff and getting his mother killed bf his father. But isn't heihachi also a power hungry maniac? Couldn't he have brainwashed his son in that way?
Not really. Heihachi is a ruthless businessman who built a powerful corporation but he never tries to take over the world or go to war with nations like Kazuya.
@@rougarabid okay, another question. What if kazuya just wants to become the most powerful person in the world just because he felt so powerless and desperate after being thrown off a cliff? You saying he doing evil things without explanation or a reason and this is what he is as a person. But that can be reason and let's not forget that peoples' personalities can be affected by someone. Of course we can't justify his actions tho.
I don’t care what they do, but Kazuya shouldn’t be redeemed. Don’t give our boy the Kratos treatment. If they don’t want to off him, put him in captivity somehow with Jun’s powers or something. Jin ain’t a saint either, no one should forget what he did. Jin could sacrifice himself like he initially planned or just isolate himself from people and live as a hermit. Focus the next game on new characters. Maybe Reina has a son and he’s the new protagonist or some shit. They did a refresh with Tekken 3, there is no reason why they can’t do it again for a new generation of Tekken
Hi I'm from the Future. Kazuya as of now is a evil character. His ending with jun doesn't add anything to his character but it is a very funny ending that in his own in character way still loves her. Like Vegeta that loves bulma from Dragonball. 😂
I believe that everything said in this video is correct… from Tekken 4 onwards. Kazuya in Tekken 1 is pissed at his father. Kazuya in Tekken 2 is conflicted. He’s struggling with the devil gene just like Kazumi did before him. Especially after meeting Jun. I’m not saying that he was a saint from the beginning. Far from it,actually. However, Angel exists for a reason. Tekken 4 shows just how twisted he’s become since his “death” and all of Kazuya’s endings in every game after 4 shows that he’s beyond redemption at this point. I don’t believe that Jin and Kazuya will reconcile nor should they. I am however, curious as to how Jun expects to save both of them since her dialogue hints at that being her motivation.
Exactly! I generally like this dudes videos. But he's reaching when he claims that Kazuya is just evil for evil's sake. Hell, even the Tekken 8 Prologue gives motivation for Kazuya when he gives his speech announcing the next Iron Fist Tournament.
A few things. 1 Harada said years ago that Angel is a separate entity to Kazuya so her existence doesn’t undo anything I said in this video. 2) I say in the video that 8 will likely try to deepen his reasoning as to why he’s doing what he’s doing in an attempt to humanize him, although that’s a mistake. Prior to that no reason has ever been given. 3) I never said he had no motivation. His motivation has always been world domination. Calling the world weak before deciding to start wiping out countries is hardly what I’d call reason though. My video isn’t proven wrong by this. I claim there is no throughline between the evil actions he takes and his backstory. Essentially his evil doesn’t come from anywhere and his reasoning can’t be explained or justified. He simply is evil. Even if Tekken 8 does give him a some new motivation that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll give him a reason to have that motivation, although again I suspect they will try to. So in summary as of now, yes I believe this video will be made pointless in Tekken 8 but as of now it isn’t. He doesn’t have reason to do what he does.
@@rougarabid They will probably change his motivation to make him more understandable in tekken 8. But even before tekken 8 we could see glimpse of humanity in kazuya. Whether it's his first reaction to seeing heihachi sacrifice himself in his ending (tekken 2 ending none canon but it does tell about the character). At first it's shock, then a little bit of sadness then his iconic evil smile while using hei as a human shield. What this tells us is that he does care in a way but will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. The second ending i wanna talk about is tekken 5. This ending to me is the more interesting. It shows the most depth to kazuya and how far he's gone. The interactions with jinpachi shows care and respect. He seems deeply saddened to see him in that state but at the same time happy to see his grandpa again. And then again the iconic smile and he finishes him off (we could argue it was devil or kazuya but it doesn't really change much. I think the problem is that people think kazuya could've been a good guy. I don't think so. But he could've made for a great anti hero. A little bit like he did in tekken 6. Kazuya's evil with a little bit of good in him that he tries to either hide or get rid of. Even if he was to become a good guy he'd be closer to a frank castle which isn't the definition of goodness. That's where i stand about kazuya at least. He's one of my favorite so i might be biased but i definitely think they tried to show there's more to him than a full blown evil man. Anyway great video but i just wish you looked into all his ending and the evolution of his character. What they were trying to do and how well or not it worked. But keep up the good work. A lot of what you say is true. I don't want to give kazuya excuses for what he does. He's one of my favorite because he's badass and interesting. Not because he's good or has good in him. Evil character can be good.
😲 I just wanna know what the deal with Angel is. Idek she was inside of Kazuya I started tekken at 3 and I never bothered to learn what or who Angel was. I just know she is the boss for Devil and I thought she had Jun's movelist. Just watched a video and she's basically just devil it looks like with her movelist. I figured there was a reason why Jin's devil mode has black feathers almost like a devil-Angel hybrid
I do agree, Kazuya should not be redeemed as a character. He is far too gone, and I love the idea that he was just not right in the head, evil since he drew his first breath. I do disagree on not humanizing him and that his abuse didn't contribute to his desire for world conquest. I feel like Kazuya's abuse at the hands of Heihachi and growing up in a might makes right, martial arts household would establish a hierarchical mindset in kazuya. But, him choosing world domination, that's all Kazuya. The Devil was a means to an end as Kazuya puts it in Tekken 8. As it shows that everything, all of his evil was all him. And I think him being humanized makes him more evil. As it shows where his priorities lie, and while he did care about Jun in some regard, in the end he chooses world domination over her. Kazuya actively denied his shot at any type of redemption. So overall, I agree with your take but with some minor disagreements. Great video!
Lol you analysis sucks and gives the impression you are one of the new Tekken players (after TTT). You know why ppl give villains a reason? Because its tied more to reality almost all bad ppl have a reason why they became who they became only very very seldomly bad psychopaths don't have any reason except for example boredom. Look at child serial killers like Jürgen Bartsch usually all of them had very bad conditions in life. It is quite know why Kazuya became the person he is and the reason for the quest for the world scale coup d'etat is obviously power. It's not unusual for ppl who literally had no control and power to do anything to obtain that and wanting to avoid to be in that position ever again. Tekken 2 was the literal fight for Kazuyas soul Jun/ Angel/Devil. The actual sad thing is that Kazuya actually lost and Harada (the not inventor of his character) chose a downhill path from T4 omwards. With Jun being in T8 ppl can hope that he can become human again. For the last few games Harada claimed that now there is no Kazuya left anymore only the devil. Seriously your interpretation really sucks and thats also one of the reasons why I hate the constant downhill path Harada chose for him up to T8 at least
Yeah but he’s not the most bland. There are no less than 15 characters who are all just as generic as him with the exact same backstory and even personality in many cases. Tough and stern guy who wants revenge after being wronged by a Mishima is a VERY common archetype in Tekken. There really isn’t anything about Shaheen more boring than the rest of them. Miguel is Shaheen but angrier, Katerina is Shaheen but with tits, etc. I agree he needs something more to give him a unique edge but it’s not like he’s this one dull character in a sea of top tier characters. Tekken has a lot of Meh characters.
