Jin Kazama

Jin Kazama
Tekken character
Jin Kazama in Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion
First game	Tekken 3 (1997)
Designed by	Aya Takemura (Tekken 3, Tekken 4, Tekken Tag, Namco X Capcom)
Voiced by (English)	Jacob Franchek (Tekken: The Motion Picture) Darren Daniels (Tekken: Blood Vengeance) Brad Swaile (Street Fighter X Tekken)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Isshin Chiba (since Tekken 3) Minami Takayama (Tekken: The Motion Picture)
Motion capture	Ryu Narushima Tatsuya Kaneko (Tekken: Blood Vengeance) Masafumi Oishi (Tekken: Blood Vengeance) (stunts)
Portrayed by	Jon Foo (Tekken film) Brendon Huor (Street Fighter x Tekken: The Devil Within)
Fictional profile
Birthplace	Yakushima, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Fighting style	Advanced Mishima Karate (based on Shito-ryu karate)[1] combined with Kazama-style(and special moves) Traditional Martial arts (based on Koryu bujutsu) (Tekken 3, Tekken Tag Tournament) Traditional Karate (based on Kyokushinkai karate)[2] (Tekken 4, 5, 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2)[3]
Occupation	High School student and Martial Artist (Tekken 3) Unemployed (Tekken 4 and 5) Mishima Zaibatsu CEO (Tekken 6)

Jin Kazama (Japanese: 風間 仁, Hepburn: Kazama Jin) is a fictional character and main protagonist of the Tekken series released by Namco Bandai Games. Jin is consistently voiced by Isshin Chiba since he debuted in Tekken 3, making him the only Tekken character and one of the video game characters that are consistently voiced by one actor in every appearance. Trained by his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima, in order to enter the King of Iron Fist Tournament, Jin wishes to avenge his mother's apparent death. However, during the tournament it is revealed that Jin possesses the Devil Gene (Japanese: デビルの血, Hepburn: Debiru no Chi (Lit. 'Devil's blood')), a genetic abnormality within his body, which causes the betrayal of Heihachi who wants to take it. He is also antagonized by his father, Kazuya Mishima, from whom he inherited the gene. While dealing with them, Jin loses control of the Devil Gene, which causes his transformation into an alter-ego named Devil Jin (Japanese: デビル仁, Hepburn: Debiru Jin), first introduced as a non-playable character in Tekken 3 and playable in Tekken 5.

Outside the video games, Jin has also appeared in the animated adaptations from the games as well as the live-action film. Jin was created to be the new protagonist of the series whose constant fights with his family members would eventually lead him to become an apparent antagonist as crafted by the director, Katsuhiro Harada. Critical reception to him has been quite positive with comments focused on his role within the story and techniques.

Appearances

Tekken games

Jin's feud with his other Mishima family members and the inner turmoil caused by his "Devil Gene" are consistent topics throughout the series. This struggle has formed somewhat of a "tragic hero" role around the character, punctuated by his very name, Jin, which means "benevolence" in native Japanese. Jin originally liked his mother's precepts and hates deception.^[4] By the events of Tekken 6, Jin's ambitions seem to have changed from stamping out the Mishima bloodline to global supremacy until the ending, where it is revealed that his true motive is to destroy Azazel and rid himself of the Devil Gene.

Jin's first appearance was within Tekken 3, where he is introduced as a boy "claiming to be Heihachi's grandson" as a result of being the child of Jun Kazama and Kazuya Mishima. Jin was raised by his mother until a few days after his 15th birthday, when Jun was attacked by Ogre and disappeared. Swearing revenge, Jin goes to train with his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima. During Tekken 3, Jin destroys the Ogre in the King of Iron Fist fighting tournament, but is betrayed by Heihachi. Jin's Devil Gene then awakes, allowing him to survive Heihachi's attack and escape.

By Tekken 4, Jin fell into a pit of self-hatred, despising everything related to the Mishimas. Learning a new karate style for two years, Jin enters into a new tournament where he is to confront his father. Defeating Kazuya after his Devil form awakens, Jin tries to kill Heihachi, but spares him after remembering his mother.^[5] Immediately after leaving Heihachi, Jin's Devil form goes berserk. Seeking to control the Devil Gene, Jin enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 two months later whose host, Jinpachi Mishima, is responsible for Jin's change. In the same game, a mini-game focusing on Jin's prologue is featured.

In the aftermath of the fifth Iron Fist Tournament, Jin has been revealed as the winner and is now the new CEO of the Mishima Zaibatsu. During Tekken 6 Jin begins using the company for world conquest, having started a war against all the nations. Jin hosts a new tournament to rid himself of Kazuya and his enemies.^[6] Jin plays the primary antagonist in Tekken 6's "Scenario Campaign" mode. He is confronted by his half uncle Lars Alexandersson who is rallying a faction within the Zaibatsu's Tekken Force military to take down their corrupt leader. Lars eventually catches up to Jin in the courtyard of Azazel's chamber, after which it is revealed what Jin's true motivation is: Jin has been throwing the world into disarray in an effort to awaken the beast known as Azazel. Jin's ultimate goal in awakening such a monster is to fight it in a suicidal battle and free himself of the Devil Gene. During the ending of Scenario Campaign, Jin's plan is successful and Azazel awakens. Jin rushes at the monster, plunging both of them into the depths of the temple, which is promptly sealed by the sands of the desert. After the credits, Jin's body is unearthed at the temple site by a crew led by Raven. It is unknown whether Jin is dead or alive though it's implied that he is still alive due to still possessing his devil tattoo.

Jin also appears in Tekken Card Challenge, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken Advance, Tekken Resolute, Tekken Bowl, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken 3D: Prime Edition and Tekken Revolution.

Devil Jin

Devil Jin is Jin's Devil Form after the devil gene took over.

Other games

Jin is also featured in Namco × Capcom, where he joins forces with Ryu and Ken Masters from Street Fighter and seeks to defeat Devil Kazuya who was his father through the Devil Gene.

The Capcom-equivalent game, Street Fighter X Tekken, features Jin as a playable character, with Ling Xiaoyu as his official tag partner, as well as in Project X Zone where he and Ryu were targeted by Seth of SIN, and they along with Virtua Fighter hero, Akira Yuki, worked together to stop him. He also appears on a promotional poster for the Namco-produced crossover fighting game Tekken X Street Fighter, along with Street Fighter's Ryu (as well as their alter egos "Devil Jin" and "Evil Ryu", respectively).

Devil Jin's style of fighting and costume parts, along with his human form's Tekken 6 karate costume are available for use with custom characters in Soulcalibur V.

In other media and merchandise

Jin makes a brief appearance in the ending of the anime film Tekken: The Motion Picture as a child talking with his mother.

In the 2010 live-action film Tekken, Jin is portrayed by Jon Foo. This version of Jin differs slightly, wherein he was never raised by Heihachi and his mother was killed during a crackdown on insurgents by the Tekken Corporation. In addition, though he is still the illegitimate son of Kazuya, no mention of the Devil Gene is referenced in the film, and he speaks with an English accent (given that Foo is English). He enters the Iron Fist tournament to take revenge on Heihachi for his mother's death, but during the tournament, he learns that it was Kazuya who was responsible for the crackdown. He progresses through the tournament, falling in love with Christie Monteiro and forming alliances with Steve Fox, Raven and even Heihachi himself when Kazuya overthrows him. Eventually, Jin makes it to the final, beating Yoshimitsu and even Bryan Fury, and defeats his father in battle, yet refuses to kill him for the sake of their blood relation.

Brendon Huor played Jin in the short film Street Fighter x Tekken: The Devil Within.

He also appears in the CGI-animated film Tekken: Blood Vengeance. After the events of Tekken 5 Jin once again seeks to defeat Heihachi and Kazuya fighting both of them in the climax. With help from Alisa Bosconovitch, Jin emerges as the winner and leaves hoping his high school friend Ling Xiaoyu defeats him in the next tournament.

Jin has been featured in action figures from both his Tekken 3 and Tekken 4 appearances.^[7][8]

Gameplay

In his early appearances, Jin's moves were a blend between both of his parents, Jun Kazama, and Kazuya Mishima—a combination of "Kazama-Style Self Defense" and "Mishima Fighting Karate". He fights in this style in both Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament.^[9] In Tekken 4, however, this style was discarded in favor of "traditional" Karate. As Jin's power was therefore reduced, in following games he would go through minor changes.^[10] Devil Jin incorporates moves from Jin's previous incarnations, which makes him a stronger fighter than Jin.^[11] On the other hand, Devil Jin is weak in low attacks.^[12]

Creation and design

Jin is a young Japanese man with black hair which spikes up in a distinctive pattern. On his left arm, he bears a mark that was branded onto his skin by the Devil.^[13] His most recurring outfits usually consist of a karate gi or jumpsuit—both with some sort of flame design (the color of which is varied throughout the series, and has been customizable since Tekken 5). While Jin's gi costume usually consists only of trousers, gauntlets and footpads, in Tekken 4, he also wore the jacket of the gi openly, exposing his torso. Tekken 4 also introduced Jin's hooded jumpsuit, which he kept until Tekken 6.^[14] In both Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament, players can select a Mishima High School uniform for Jin to fight in. In Tekken 6, he wears a long black coat similar to the one that he wore in his ending in Tekken 5.

Devil Jin is nearly identical to Jin Kazama, except for his inhuman transformations and a change in clothing. In Tekken 3, Devil Jin simply bore tattoos over his face, sported altered glowing red eyes with changed pupils, and grew black wings used for flight. In subsequent games, however, the transformation has been expanded upon. In Tekken 4, there is a noticeable sequence to Jin's changes. As the transformation began, his body was surrounded by a purple haze, then the familiar tattoos formed on his chest and arms, and, finally, he grew two black wings from his back. This is as far as the sequence goes within that game, however, as Jin was stopped before his transformation was complete. According to Tekken 5's story, Jin's transformation within that game recurred as a reaction to Jinpachi Mishima's return.^[15] Because of this, there is no visible transformation, and Devil Jin simply appears in his most advanced state to date. His new look includes horns, chains on his right arm, waist, and legs, and warped, talon-like fingers and a paır of gauntlets wıth spikes growing out of them, like his father Kazuya Mishuma. Like his father's Devil form, Jin also has a third eye upon his head used to fire a beam of energy at his opponents. However, like all characters within Tekken 5 and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Devil Jin can be customized with an assortment of physical changes. In Tekken 6, Devil Jin's appearance remains roughly unchanged. However, in actual gameplay, the chain on his waist must be purchased before it appears.

Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada has stated that Jin is his favorite character in the overall series alongside Heihachi Mishima as he states that the story from Tekken is written from Jin's perspective because of being the main character. Jin's concept was that of an innocent young kid corrupted with evil powers that would become one of the series' greatest villains as crafted by Harada for ten years.^[16] As a result of being introduced as the protagonist in Tekken 3, Jin's movements were made to be balanced so that he would not have neither strong or weak movesets, which caused difficulties in the design of the character.^[17] As Jin has no model for his fighting style, several of his karate moves were created by the Tekken staff.^[16]

Jin's alternative outfit in Tekken 6 was designed by Clamp, a group of four Japanese manga artists.^[18]

Reception

Video game publications have mostly praised Jin's character, topping various lists. In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Jin was voted as the staff's 31st favorite character (sharing the spot with three Street Fighter characters, Charlie, and Yang).^[19] Gaming Target rated him as the fourth best Tekken character in a list, commenting on his popular heroic and demonic traits which caused comparison between him and other fighting game protagonists.^[20] In Game Informer's "Top Ten Best Fighting Game Characters" Jin was fourth with comments comparing him to Star Wars character Luke Skywalker.^[21] In IGN's "Franchise Players 2: Reader's Choice", Jin was one of the video game characters voted to be featured in a live-action movie with the site commenting his role in the Tekken series noting that it could be the "focal point" of any film. The staff from site did not choose as a result of the poor quality from films based on fighting games.^[22] In the book Trigger Happy, writer Steven Poole labelled Jin as an amalgam of "body-building action grunts" including popular martial arts film protagonists.^[23]

Multiple reactions were made in response to Jin's special moves and their changes across the series, mostly in Tekken 4. His initial moveset was noted to be based on his relatives' techniques, with the change shown in Tekken 4 labelled as a "nice touch" by Leon Hunt in the book Kung Fu Cult Masters as it demonstrates the character's feeling towards Kazuya and Heihachi.^[9] GameSpot shared similar comments, stating that Jin was one of the most notable changed characters from Tekken 4.^[24] Other publishers such as IGN and Computer and Video Games came to regard Jin's incarnation from Tekken 4 as a character almost completely different from his original form although both shared different opinions regarding the result. While the former site found such modifications entertaining as it meant learning new moves, the latter criticized the change as it made the practice from veteran players pointless. Nevertheless, Computer and Video Games still called Jin the "top-ranked character" from Tekken 4 because of his balanced movesets.^[25][26]

Capcom's senior community manager Seth Killian has found the character too powerful to the point that his constant defeats with him led him to quit the Tekken series.^[27] In regards to Jin's Tekken 5 fighting style, GameSpy stated that now players would need to be patient playing as him, as he lost his overpowered moves.^[28] Because of such change in Tekken 5 regarding Jin's moves, the same site recommended players to use Devil Jin's incarnation in such game if they missed his original techniques.^[11] While promoting Tekken 6 Namco Bandai featured various trailers with Jin as the focus. Jin's design in the trailers has received positive response by GameSpot as the character "has never looked better."^[29][30] According to GamesRadar, a fight between Devil Jin and Evil Ryu was written as one of the ones players wanted to see in Street Fighter X Tekken as the two are evil alter egos of the two main characters and poster boys of their respective series, also sharing similar designs and movesets to their original forms.^[31] Complex ranked Jin as "The 28th Most Dominant Fighting Game Character", commenting "Man, this dude has been through hell and back."^[32] Complex also ranked Jin as the 5th best Tekken character, commenting "A mama's boy with an axe to grind, Jin has slowly transformed from hero to anti-hero over the years."^[33] In the official poll by Namco Bandai Games, Jin is currently the fifth most requested Tekken character to be added to the roster of Tekken X Street Fighter, racking up 13.02% of votes; additional 5.54% votes were also cast for Devil Jin, counted separately.^[34] The Cartel ranked Jin as "The 6th Top Fighting Game Character", commenting "Ah, Jin. You are literally the face of Tekken. Cruising through forums and Tekken websites everywhere, Jin was on many lists as the most iconic of the series, and rightfully so. Jin was introduced in Tekken 3, and hasn’t let up since. Fans love Jin’s story in the series, and it helps that he is a pretty good fighter. Jin is one of the most familiar characters, and I’m sure it didn’t have anything to do with him being on the cover of every Tekken since the 3rd one".^[35] WhatCulture listed Devil Jin as the 7th most annoying video game character, calling him "cheap" and added "he can shoot laser beams from his face. In what universe is that fair in a combat game?! Just to make him more annoying to fight, he can do this from the sky, because – did I mention this already? – Devil Jin has wings."^[36]

References

v t e Tekken List of media Main series Tekken 2 3 4 5 Dark Resurrection 6 Tag Tournament series Tag Tournament 2 Portable series Card Challenge Advance 3D: Prime Edition Spin-offs Death by Degrees Revolution Crossovers Street Fighter X Tekken Tekken X Street Fighter Films The Motion Picture Tekken Blood Vengeance Characters Alisa Bosconovitch Anna Williams Asuka Kazama Christie Monteiro Eddy Gordo Heihachi Mishima Jack Jin Kazama Julia Chang Jun Kazama Kazuya Mishima King Lars Alexandersson Lee Chaolan Lei Wulong Lili de Rochefort Ling Xiaoyu Marshall Law Michelle Chang Mokujin Nina Williams Paul Phoenix Yoshimitsu Soundtracks Tekken Original Sound Tracks Tekken 2 Original Sound Tracks Tekken 3 Original Sound Tracks Tekken 4 Original Sound Tracks Related Soul Namco × Capcom Gon Urban Reign Project X Zone PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale