Jin Kazama

Jin Kazama (Japanese: 風間 仁, Hepburn: Kazama Jin) is a fictional character and main protagonist of the Tekken series (Tekken 3 and onward) released by Namco Bandai Games. Jin is consistently voiced by Isshin Chiba since he debuted in Tekken 3, making him the only Tekken character to be 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 the apparent death of his mother Jun Kazama. 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. He is also a high school friend of Ling Xiaoyu.

Outside the video games, Jin has also appeared in the animated and live-action films adapted from the games. 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 antihero, as crafted by Bandai Namco director Katsuhiro Harada. Critical reception to him has been quite positive with comments focused on his role within the story and techniques.

Appearances

Main series

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.^[3] 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.

Outside of his canonical appearances, Jin also appears in Tekken Card Challenge, Tekken Tag Tournament, Tekken Advance, Tekken R, Tekken Resolute, Tekken Bowl, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken Pachinko Slot 2nd, Tekken 3D: Prime Edition, Tekken Card Tournament, Tekken Revolution, Tekken Arena, CR Tekken and Tekken Pachinko Slot 3rd.

Tekken 3

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 defeats the Ogre in the third King of Iron Fist tournament, but is betrayed by Heihachi. Jin's Devil Gene then awakes, allowing him to survive Heihachi's attack and escape.

Tekken 4

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 about to confront his father until the Tekken Force captures him, he wakes up in Honmaru. Defeating Kazuya after his Devil form awakens, Jin tries to kill Heihachi, but spares him after remembering his mother.^[4] Immediately after leaving Heihachi, Jin's Devil form goes berserk.

Tekken 5

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 called Devil Within.

In the aftermath of the fifth Tournament as well as his ending (which is canon), Jin has been revealed as the winner as he defeated Jinpachi Mishima and also as the new head of the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Tekken 6

During Tekken 6 Jin began using the company for world conquest, having started a war against all the nations. Jin hosts the sixth King of Iron Fist Tournament in order to rid himself of Kazuya and his enemies.^[5] In gameplay, just as his devil form served as the Stage 8 sub-boss in Tekken 5, Jin serves as the Stage 8 sub-boss in Tekken 6 with a gimmick which activates his rage mode permanently, giving him a significant advantage over the player. Similarly, he plays as the primary antagonist in Tekken 6's "Scenario Campaign" mode and is the last story-related enemy that the player has to fight. Near the end of the Scenario Campaign, 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 former leader, where 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 both save the world from Azazel and free himself of the Devil Gene. In the end, the Devil Gene still remained inside his body, while being found by Raven and his men for Jin's recovery.

Tekken 7

Jin appears in Tekken 7 as a sub-boss after the game's official launch, replacing Heihachi Mishima if the right conditions are met. Unlike Tekken 6, though, he does not have any advantage over the player. However, in Fated Retribution/console ports, he is a no longer a sub-boss. In Story Mode, Jin's comatose body was found by UN and being transported safely, until the Devil Gene inside him goes awry again and destroys the UN's helicopter. While awakened in his weakened state, Jin wanders around a desert in the Middle East. Due to his weakened state while being cornered by the soldiers who pursued him, Jin's devil power is stronger than ever. He then arrives at a marketplace and is about to be captured by the soldiers when he is saved by his half-uncle Lars and transported to another branch building of Violet System, owned by his adopted uncle Lee Chaolan, for him to rest and regain his strength. Recovering from his coma after Heihachi's death, Jin is sent out by Lars to find and kill Kazuya as he is now the only one who can defeat his father.

Devil Jin

Devil Jin in Tekken 7

Devil Jin (デビル仁, Debiru Jin) is a form that Jin exhibits when the Devil Gene takes over. The form first appears in Jin's ending in Tekken 3, where after his grandfather, Heihachi betrays Jin by shooting him in the head directly after the latter has defeated Ogre, Jin turns into his Devil form and knocks out Heihachi. The form appears again in Jin and Kazuya's endings in Tekken 4, in which after Kazuya subconsciously taunts Jin, the latter awakens his Devil powers and proceeds to fight him and Heihachi. The form finally makes its first playable appearance in Tekken 5. Jin's storyline indicates that the Devil Gene takes over his body without his knowledge multiple times, and he causes violent outbursts during that time because he could not control it.

In both Tekken 5 and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Devil Jin serves as the Stage 8 sub-boss that the player has to face before advancing to the final boss, Jinpachi Mishima. Unlike Jin who fights with Traditional Karate since Tekken 4, Devil Jin utilizes Jin's fighting style and moveset in his Tekken 3 appearance; a mixture of Advanced Mishima Style Karate and Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts, thus completely separating him from the original Jin. He also has several of Devil's moves to reflect his now demonic state, including flying and firing lasers. In a later main games after Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection, Devil Jin is a regular character, instead of his human form, whom once served sub-boss in Tekken 6 and an arcade version of Tekken 7 (via special condition) prior reverting back as a regular character.

Other than his canonical appearances, Devil Jin also appears in the non-canonical Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken 3D: Prime Edition, and Tekken Revolution.

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. 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 returned in the sequel Project X Zone 2 with Kazuya as his partner.

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.

Although he does not appear, Jin is mentioned in the crossover fighting game PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.

In other media and merchandise

Jin makes a brief appearance in the epilogue of the anime film Tekken: The Motion Picture as a child.

He also appears in the CGI-animated film Tekken: Blood Vengeance. In it, 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.

In the 2009 live-action film Tekken, Jin is portrayed by Jon Foo. This version of Jin differs significantly, 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. Jin also appears in the short film Tekken X Street Fighter: Challenger, portrayed by Ken Leung. Jin has been featured in action figures from both his Tekken 3 and Tekken 4 appearances.^[6][7]

Creation and design

Jin is a young Japanese man with black hair that seems to be a mixture of the hairstyles of both of his parents: its back spikes upward like Kazuya, while its bangs makes it similar to Jun. On his left arm, he bears a mark that was branded onto his skin by the Devil.^[8] 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,.^[9] which he kept until Tekken 5, but regains it in Tekken 7 as his sole default costume, although a bit dissimilar in its colors (all black with red gauntlets instead of blue and white) and with its front zipper unzipped, exposing his chest. In both Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament, players can select a Mishima High School uniform for Jin to fight in: it consist of a dark blue V-neck blazer with greenish-orange checkered pants. Tekken 5 also features a special costume designed by guest artist Mutsumi Inomata for Jin: it is a panda-themed costume with an unzipped jacket that only reaches just above his midriff with a blue flame motif and a matching white pants. In Tekken 6, replacing the jumpsuit, Jin instead wears a long black coat similar to the one that he wore in his ending in Tekken 5.^[10]

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.^[11] 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 pair of gauntlets with spikes growing out of them, like his father Kazuya Mishima. 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. Subsequent games have been consistent with this appearance, except with the addition of chains wrapping around his hip , hands and left leg, which are featured in his CG render in Tekken 5 but are not actually worn in-game unless the player have bought and equipped either one of them, as all three cannot be worn simultaneously, in advance. From his debut until Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Devil Jin is the only character whose default costumes are color swaps of each other; his P2 costume simply recolors his wings and the flame motif in his pants white.

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 by the evils of society that would become one of the series' greatest villains as crafted by Harada for approximately ten years.^[12] 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.^[13] As Jin has no model for his fighting style, several of his karate moves were created by the Tekken staff.^[12] Jin's alternative outfit in Tekken 6 was designed by Clamp, a group of four Japanese manga artists.^[14]

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.^[15] In Tekken 4, however, this style was discarded in favor of "traditional" Karate. Jin Kazama is often regarded as the best character choice in Tekken 4.^[16] As Jin's power was therefore reduced, in following games he would go through minor changes.^[17] Devil Jin incorporates moves from Jin's previous incarnations, which makes him a stronger fighter than Jin.^[18]

Reception

Video game publications have 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] In Game Informer's "Top Ten Best Fighting Game Characters" Jin was fourth with comments comparing him to Star Wars character Luke Skywalker.^[20] 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.^[21] In the book Trigger Happy, writer Steven Poole labelled Jin as an amalgam of "body-building action grunts" including popular martial arts film protagonists.^[22] Since Tekken has had a long history of being exclusive to the PlayStation series of consoles, Jin Kazama as the protagonist is often recognized as a PlayStation mascot.^[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.^[15] 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] Devil Jin was once used on the cover of a Stephen King novel.^[27]

Capcom 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.^[28] 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.^[29] 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.^[18] 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."^[30][31] 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.^[32] In GamesRadar article for Street Fighter X Tekken, they stated "Following Kazuya’s fall from grace, his son Jin had to take over for him as the lead of the Tekken series in Tekken 3."^[33] Den of Geek ranked Jin as the 9th sexiest computer game character, adding "You can't argue with that hair, really."^[34] MenxXP namedd Jin as one of the "most stylish video game characters", adding "Known for his high kicks and acrobatic flips, Jin favors loose-fitting patterned track pants and a generous dose of hair product."^[35] Complex ranked Jin as the 28th "most dominant" fighting game character.^[36] Complex also ranked Jin as the fifth 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."^[37] 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.^[38] GamesRadar ranked Devil Jin as the 15th "best unlockable character", commenting "Devil Jin pounds foes with the high-level Mishima fighting style, full of dragon punches, tsunami kicks, and 10-hit combos. Bad to the bone."^[39] In 2014, WhatCulture ranked him as the 11th greatest character in fighting games, calling him "the poster-boy of the Tekken franchise".^[40] In 2015, WhatCulture ranked Jin's devil tattoo as the "3rd famous video game tattoo", adding "It may look a bit ’90s’ by today’s tattoo standards, but Jin’s tribal tat on his left bicep is not just there to draw attention to his bulging guns."^[41] Prima Games ranked Jin's "Laser Scraper" as the "30th greatest fighting move in video game history".^[42] Chris Hoadley from VentureBeat named Jin as one of the "Best (and worst) fighting game clones."^[43] In 2013, 4thletter placed Jin's Tekken 3 ending at 73rd place in their list "The Top 200 Fighting Game Endings", commenting "After spiking Heihachi into the ground, Devil Jin flies off into the night. Heihachi just sits up and looks off, knowing that this is bad news."^[44] PlayStation Universe included Hwoarang and Jin Kazama among the top 5 rival pairs in Tekken Tag Tournament 2, commenting "Jin’s traditional karate style marries well with Hwoarang’s fancy footwork, and the disparity between each style – Jin’s a bit of a bruiser while Hwoarang’s style is more intricate – makes for a devastating combination of tactics when used correctly."^[45] WatchMojo ranked Jin (alongside Heihachi) as the "5th best fighting game character" and as the "top Tekken character", adding "This character got nerfed quite a bit as the series progressed, but that still wasn’t enough to keep him from topping our list. With moves inspired by his father, Kazuya, and his mother, Jun, he becomes a nearly unstoppable force."^[46][47] Arcade Sushi ranked Jin as the "3rd best fighting game good guy". adding "Heihachi and Kazuya Mishima just keep killing each other, so Kazuya’s son, Jin, may be the only bit of moral fortitude this family has left."^[48]

References