Kazuya Mishima

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Kazuya
{{{content1}}} {{{content2}}} Official artwork of Kazuya from Tekken 6 and Tekken 7.
Universe	Tekken
Debut	Tekken (1994)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Astro's Playroom (2020, cameo)
Console/platform of origin	Arcade
Species	Human/Demon
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Japan
Created by	Seiichi Ishii
Voice actor	Masanori Shinohara
Article on Wikipedia	Kazuya Mishima

Kazuya Mishima (三島 一八, Mishima Kazuya) is a major character from the Tekken series of fighting games. He has acted as both the main protagonist and main antagonist multiple times, alternating roles between entries.

Origin

Official artwork of Devil Kazuya from Tekken Pachislot 2nd.

Born from the union between Kazumi and Heihachi Mishima, Kazuya began his life with happiness. Heihachi would later say that he and Kazumi were "overjoyed" to have a son, and they treated him with utmost care. Kazuya began martial arts training at a very young age, under the guidance of his father and his grandfather, Jinpachi.

Heihachi, at age 31, overthrows Jinpachi and takes over his family business, renaming it to Mishima Zaibatsu. Under his control, it becomes a corporation bent on warfare, fueling Heihachi's desire to conquer the world. This change startles Kazumi, who realizes that Heihachi is becoming a threat to the world, and conspires to kill him before he can cause any further damage. Meanwhile, Heihachi thwarts his father's coup attempt by restraining him in a prison built on the Mishima estate called Hon-Maru, where he eventually dies of starvation.

When he was five, Kazumi discovered that Kazuya had inherited her Devil Gene, offering him the possibility of transforming into a demon. Knowing that her husband could discover the truth at any moment, and still seeing him as a threat to humanity, Kazumi makes a pact with the demon Akuma; having saved his life in the past, Akuma is indebted to her. Kazumi asks Akuma to kill Heihachi should she fail to do so herself, and to kill Kazuya should he follow the same path as his father. Heihachi soon discovers the truth about his wife and kills her soon thereafter, leaving him alone with Kazuya.

The five-year-old Kazuya, aware that Heihachi was responsible for his mother's death, directly confronts his father, but he is easily defeated. As punishment for his weakness, Heihachi throws Kazuya off the top of a cliff, to confirm that he had inherited the Devil Gene and to test that he could succeed him as the heir of Mishima Zaibatsu. Kazuya nearly dies from the fall, but the incident causes his Devil Gene to activate and his demonic powers to awaken, allowing him to climb back out of the ravine.

Following this incident, Kazuya continued to train to prepare his revenge against his father. During one of these trips, he fought Paul Phoenix; the match ended in a draw. Since then, Paul has seen Kazuya as his rival, and he continually attempts to rematch him, albeit with no success.

In Tekken, a 26-year-old Kazuya participates in the first King of Iron Fist Tournament that Heihachi organizes. The winner of this tournament would be rewarded with a large sum of money. Kazuya participates in hopes of revenge and taking the family business for himself. Making it to the final fight against his father, Kazuya defeats Heihachi with his "Devil Kazuya" form, and throws his body off the same cliff from which Heihachi threw him more than two decades prior.

After the end of this tournament and the apparent death of Heihachi, Kazuya inherits his father's corporate empire. This sudden influx of wealth and power renders Kazuya obsessed with surpassing his father in every way. Under his control, the Mishima Zaibatsu becomes an even more ruthless and oppressive military force, seizing Hokkaido to create an independent nation, illegally experimenting on endangered animal species, as well as kidnapping, subjugating, and even killing potential threats to his leadership. Two years after the end of the first tournament, Kazuya announces the second King of Iron Fist Tournament to prove his dominance.

During the events of Tekken 2, Kazuya meets a woman named Jun Kazama, who attempts to stop the Zaibatsu's illegal animal trading. Kazuya became attracted by her strange presence and unknowingly impregnated her into bearing a son, Jin Kazama. Jun’s presence also caused Kazuya to question his corrupted lifestyle, but he proceeds with the tournament regardless. The final opponent is Heihachi, who had survived his fall and came out of hiding to take revenge on his son. Despite Kazuya unlocking his Devil form as a last resort, Heihachi reigns victorious. He throws Kazuya into an active volcano from a helicopter, whereupon he is presumed dead.

While Kazuya does not physically appear in Tekken 3, he makes a cameo in the opening movie next to Jun Kazama. Pictures of him are also seen in Eddy Gordo's arcade ending, revealing that he murdered the formerly rich capoeira fighter’ parents and framed him around either Tekken or Tekken 2.

Soon after his presumed death, Kazuya was recovered by a mysterious biotech firm known as G-Corporation, despite awakened in his weakened state. With their aid, Kazuya’s presence had been covered while he took an absent from Tekken 3 tournament, allowing him to study his Devil gene at the corporation’s Nebraska branch, in an attempt to understand and control its true potential, then take back the Mishima Zaibatsu from Heihachi afterwards. It is likely that Kazuya became aware of Jin’s presence off-screen during his time hiding at G Corporation where the third tournament occurred, presumably when Jin’s Devil was awakened at the end of the tournament, due to his son inherited a half of Devil he lost at the end of Tekken 2. This period lasted for twenty years, until the Tekken Forces raided G Corporation and stole the research data, under orders from Heihachi. Kazuya was furious and became even more determined to exact his revenge. A fourth King of Iron Fist tournament was suddenly announced soon after. Kazuya knew full well that this was a trap to lure him out of hiding, but he entered anyway for the chance to defeat Heihachi and confront Jin in person.

During the events of Tekken 4, he was scheduled to fight his son Jin in the semi-finals, but Jin did not show and seemingly disappeared. The Tekken Forces captured him at Heihachi's command. Kazuya was declared winner by default and advanced to the final round. Personally disrespected and worried for his son, he met Heihachi as his final opponent to get some answers. After losing to his father once more, Heihachi took him to the Hon-Maru temple, where Jin was being held. While finally sees his son’s face in person, Kazuya was presumably overpowered by his alternate Devil personality, who took control of his body. Kazuya’s Devil-half explained how he lost half of his power which resides inside Jin, referring to his last encounter with Jun before Heihachi defeated Kazuya and thrown him into the volcano back in Tekken 2. Devil Kazuya then knocked Heihachi out and attempted to assimilate Jin’s Devil into him, but was unsuccessful. He speculated that the Kazama blood within him was preventing the merger. As it turns out, Kazuya’s human half had been letting his Devil-half took over his body, and use a momentary distraction to regain control of his body, consequently gaining permanent command over his half, and merge into becoming a unified being. He urged Jin to re-awaken his own Devil gene and defeat him. Jin awoke and progressively about to turn into Devil Jin, who knocked Kazuya, then Heihachi unconscious. When Jin’s transformation into Devil Jin was progressively 80% (which is barring his third eye and facial mark) by the result of intending to kill both of Heihachi and Kazuya at blind rage, an illusion of Jun suddenly came out of nowhere in front of Jin, causing him to spare both of his grandfather and father, then fly to an unknown point somewhere in Japan, believing to be on her behalf.

Once Kazuya and Heihachi regained consciousness after Jin fled, they were ambushed by a Jack-4 squad, which G-Corporation had sent to kill them. The two fought side by side for a while, but Kazuya quickly assumed his Devil form and flew away, leaving Heihachi to die. Heihachi was pronounced dead, but an unknown figure assumed the Mishima Zaibatsu soon after, and announced a fifth King of Iron Fist tournament. Suspecting the deployment is from Nebraska, the same corporation’s branch where it helped Kazuya on his Devil Gene research data, he entered the tournament to find out the identity of this person, and exact revenge on those that both betrayed him because of being its potential threat and stole his research for themselves. During the events of Tekken 5, Kazuya meets a man named Raven, who both recognize each other from the Hon-Maru incident. Kazuya interrogated Raven and learned that something was awoken underneath Hon-Maru. Kazuya realizes that his grandfather, Jinpachi Mishima, was sealed under Hon-Maru and was likely the sponsor behind the tournament. It is unclear how far Kazuya got in the tournament, though he did not win. However, he reunited with his old subordinate and acquaintance from Tekken 2, Bruce Irvin, who helped him find and dispose the traitors at G-Corporation’s Nebraska branch.

After killing the corporation’s Nebraska officials that betrayed him, Kazuya managed to take control of G-Corporation behind the scenes. Since Jin managed to defeat Jinpachi, he took control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, and the world was thrown into chaos from his actions. Kazuya used the might of G-Corporation to suppress the Zaibatsu, and was heralded as a hero for saving the world. However, Kazuya only did this because he could not accept a world run by anyone other than him, and him alone. Kazuya uses his newfound political sway to place a bounty on Jin's head, dead or alive. During the events of Tekken 6, Kazuya learns about Azazel, the supposed source of the Devil Gene. He eventually locates Azazel in a temple in the desert and goes to obtain its power. However, he and several G-Corporation soldiers are ambushed at the temple by Lars Alexandersson, a rogue Tekken Force soldier and Kazuya's half-brother. After fighting for a while, Kazuya simply walks away, only warn Lars that the life of a Mishima is not a life worth living.

Later, Kazuya learns that Heihachi is still alive, has once again taken control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, and has announced a seventh King of Iron Fist tournament. Not surprised by any of this, Kazuya sends his minions to thwart whatever plan Heihachi has before he found and captured a recently disappeared Jin. During the events of Tekken 7, Kazuya sends a Jack-6 army to kill Heihachi, who was battling Akuma at the Mishima Dojo. Heihachi and Akuma fight off the army and successfully destroy all of them. Kazuya then learns that Akuma was sent by his late mother to kill both Heihachi and himself. He disregards this revelation and laughs it off, believing it to be absurd. Akuma seemingly kills Heihachi, though Kazuya believes his death was faked. Akuma then tracks down Kazuya and confronts him on the top of the G-Corporation building. Kazuya agrees to have a 1-on-1 fight. Initially overwhelmed by Akuma, Kazuya resorts to his devil form, not knowing that the fight was being recorded via space satellite and the world now knew he was a demon. Both Kazuya and Akuma are then hit by a death ray from space by Heihachi via satellite which happened to be created by the late-Doctor Abel, destroying the building. Public opinion is now on Heihachi's side. Kazuya survives the laser attack and uses his own laser via Devil Blaster eye beam to destroy the satellite, which falls to earth and destroys a whole city. With the world believing Heihachi destroyed Abel’s satellite death ray, public opinion is once again on Kazuya's side. Several hours later, Kazuya and Heihachi (who did in fact survive his encounter with Akuma) confront each other inside a volcano. Both manage to severely injure the other, but Kazuya eventually manages to defeat Heihachi and throw his seemingly lifeless body into a river of lava. Kazuya is then confronted by Akuma, who also survived the laser attack and still had his mission to attend to. The outcome of this battle is currently unknown. However, when G-Corporation is confirmed to have not ending the world war after Heihachi’s death, and Jin fully recovers from his comatose thanks to Lars and Lee, Jin’s Devil flows in him, indicating Kazuya survived his battle against Akuma.

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Prior to his formal debut as a DLC character (see below), Kazuya is referenced in the reveal trailer for the Heihachi Mii Brawler costume, where Heihachi's throwing of Kazuya into a volcano is referenced with Wolf used as a stand-in for Kazuya.

As a playable character

Kazuya as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Kazuya is part of the Fighters Pass Vol. 2 as Challenger Pack 10. He was revealed on June 15, 2021, during E3 2021. His design is based on his recent main appearance since Tekken 5, with an alternate costume based on his appearance in Tekken 7 and the opening cinematic of Tekken Tag Tournament.

In Mr. Sakurai Presents Kazuya, Sakurai claimed that he had chose Kazuya as the Tekken representative over Heihachi Mishima, due to the former possessing the Devil Gene factor.

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	カズヤ, Kazuya
English	Kazuya
French	Kazuya
German	Kazuya
Spanish	Kazuya
Italian	Kazuya
Chinese	一八, Kazuya
Korean	Kazuya
Dutch	Kazuya
Russian	Кадзуя

Trivia

• Kazuya is the second third-party villain to be playable in Smash, the first being Sephiroth from Final Fantasy. However, he was the protagonist of the original Tekken, albeit one who was originally an anti-hero, before being succeeded by his son Jin in most sequel Tekken games.
• Kazuya’s appearance in Smash marks the second time he is playable in a 2.5D fighting game, with the first being Street Fighter X Tekken.
• Among the fighters that have the 1-on-1 facing fighter ability, Kazuya is unique in that his back is facing the camera when he turns stage right. This is a reference to him being an orthodox fighter in Tekken no matter what side of the stage he is on. The same also applies to the Virtua Fighter universe’s Akira Yuki, due to both series being 3D fighting games.
• Kazuya is the only character from a traditional fighting game to be a villain.
• Kazuya's win theme is the only one to be a win statement from an announcer instead of a jingle.
• Kazuya, Luigi, Snake, and Greninja are the only characters who possess a taunt that can deal damage.

External links

• Article on the Tekken Wiki