Tekken Bloodlines Thoughts/Recap: Ep 1

[acequeenking]

I'm going to be honest, I kind of forgot this existed. Oops. I rediscovered its existence thanks to eggsbenedict and got snowed in over the weekend so what a time to start it!

We open with Kazuya in profile. "What is it that haunts you? Whose eyes peer at you from the dark?" his voice asks.

Ho-kay, Kazuya. I See We're Bringing the Son of Satan vibe early here. He looks into the abyss, and the abyss opens its eyes as Devil stares back.

And god damn if I don't love it.

As it opens, it becomes obvious this is a Tekken 3 adaptation as baby! Jin is being picked on by bullies. I was really surprised by this. Tekken 3 came out in 1999! It's literally 22 years old! I suppose it shouldn't be that much of a surprise considering Tekken 7 (2017) focused primarily on events that happened before Tekken 1 (1994)? Anyway, I'm down with it. This is one of my favorite "canon events we got thirty seconds of an intro clip and two paragraphs in a manual on" (that is what passed for fighting game story in 1999).

Anyway, poor Jin. :( The show opens with him being beaten up by some kids who make fun of the fact he's a country bumpkin and he lives alone with his mom. Jin gets angry and starts beating them up after they talk shit about his mom (including taking one kid's tooth clean out of his mouth -- yikes).

Keeping the proud tradition of Mishima men who are also mama's boys alive there, Jin.

The fight is quickly broken up by his mom, who comes over and stops the fight. Jin is totally indignant about it, and you get the feeling already, early on, that Jin is very much his father's son, which is a fucking fascinating take that hello, yes, I am here for.


Opening credits! Characters flash in an arcade screen: Hiehachi, (human) Kazuya, Devil Jin (heckin big spoiler there guys?!), regular Jin, Jun, Ling, Hwoarang, Leroy, Paul, True Ogre. Everyone's animated pretty well, but my favorite is the family run through between the three generations of House Mishima (of course) and Ling going into Art of Phoenix cast. All the arcade machines in the intro are Mishima-branded ones which is cute.


Jun takes Jin home for a Talking To, pointing out he lost the fight. Jin defends himself at first by pointing out they attacked him first because he doesn't fit in. Jun points out he doesn't fit in and that'll leave this small town, and they're jealous because they'll live and die in Yakushima. There's a real cute grumbly bit here when he points out they pick on him because they think he doesn't belong and she's like well yeah, you don't and he's like THANKS MOM. Teenagers! Always the same.


Jun tells him that he he lost the fight today. He was trained to defend himself without hurting others. Jin, indignantly, whines that he did not lose the fight! She clarifies that he lost against himself, and his eyes widen in realization. Honestly, I feel like they're setting it up early that Jin is really taking after his dad. Jin looks away from his mom and is clearly sad he hurt her. He looks after an assorted shelf of knick-knacks Jun got in her job before her job became Being His Mom.

Jin changes the subject from his fight and asks her why they moved to Yakushima. Jun answers they moved there because the world is full of things that are both good and evil, and she wanted him to grow up in a place where he would be exposed to good first. Weird answer, Jun, but okay. He also asks about her past, looking at some pictures of her, and Jun talks to him about a previous conservation work she did in Africa on safari. The picture they have of her on her trip is adorable. The picture next to it is also cute, showing Jun and a baby Jin.

Also, hilariously, Tekken 7 had a baby picture of Kazuya so here's the inevitable father/son baby picture comparison lmfao:

Putting this together the take away I'm getting is, uh, Jun looks a lil' like Kazuya's mom >__>;;;

I am crying at the tiny little Mishima tufts of hair. Thank you for answering the important question of just how hairy Mishima babies are, Tekken 7/Bloodline. Also, I'm sorry, but I'm still laughing that Kazumi put baby Kazuya in a karate gi.

Foreboding feelings continue when Jin then immediately asks her why they never talk about his dad. Jun avoids the subject and tells him to do his homework, and gets his pick of starting with math or English.

Ouch, Jun. But one does get the sense that the Kazuya/Jun relationship would be hard to explain. "Oh, yes, Jin, your dad? Literally a demon. In the sack. Out of the sack. Everywhere, really. Once he murdered a man because I asked for no pickles and they gave me some. Yeah, shot him right through the head. Oh, didn't I mention? He had lasers." I can't blame our girl for punting on Jin's paternity here.

Jin accepts the conversational redirect and admits he doesn't really want to do either subject and asks if they can practice fighting instead. Sigh. Oh, Jin. Surprisingly Jin is going to be a student who needs to learn to fight more than he needs to know English or math, so I suppose it kind of works out. But once again, at less than ten minutes into this limited series, Jin is very much his father's son. :(

Jun tells him he's done quite enough fighting and tells him that a strong mind and a strong body are both important. Cute.

Later on, they go out to train. The Kazama-style training section is real nifty, and I love how they've incorporated a lot of Jun's Tekken 2 moveset into her moves during the spar. Jun's dropping a lot of advise on this fight with Jin that he'd be better off taking, but we know he won't. "The first opponent you must defeat in any fight is yourself."; "If you're distracted, how will you be able to see the clear path to defeating someone else?" "Always focus on the immediate moment."

(And then Jin's throwing his motorcycle at his dad in Tekken 8 so we know he listened lol.)

While we're talking about Jun: Man, I love that they updated Jun's design. Jun was my first pick when I was a Wee Babby Tekken player back in the arcades in ...god, 1996? and she could do CARTWHEELS so obviously I was always going to be Team Jun. I will always have a soft spot for her. Honestly I just love this Norm-core hair/outfit.

Jun and Jin spare for a long time, and its really neat to see Jin doing a lot of the Kazama style moves. It's a rather femme style so the main game series only ever gave him a few nods to Jun's moveset, sadly. He looks cute doing it here. Jun mentions that's she's hungry and they go inside. Jun makes Jin some dinner while Jin asks her about what she ate in Africa and asks if people there ate what Jin and Jun do...which is fish and rice. Jun rhapsodizes about how much she wishes she could have the cooks from her safari assignment cooking for her in Yakushima. I am beginning to think she might have slept with Kazuya in Tekken 2 for gourmet chef access on demand.

And, honestly? Same Jun. I'd do exactly the same.

Jun and Jin's nice family moment is interrupted by someone yelling for Jin. Jin goes outside: it's one of the kids he beat up and their dad. Dad is several dozen sips into a wine bottle, and demands Jin apologize. Jin does not apologize. Jun rebukes him: "Control your anger. Don't let it control you!" She orders him to apologize, but before he can, the drunk dad stumbles up and tells her an apology isn't good enough. Drunk dad suggests that maybe if Jin had a dad, he wouldn't be such a little shit.He breaks his alcohol bottle and goes racing at Jin.

Jun does not take kindly to ANY of this this. Her face immediately shifts to >:( and, one very fast second later, she FALCON PUNCHES the dude into the grass several yards away and tells his kid to take out the trash (dad, dad is the trash).

As someone who detests the "Jun is the purest most virginal uwu pacifist" characterization, I v. much approve of this minute of this anime.

Jun rebukes me (and Jin) almost immediately after by telling him he should never take pleasure in the hurt of others. Oooph. She calls him out on smirking when she beat up the drunk dad. Which, for once, does not look like his dad's, which was/is a good bit nastier:

D- in Mishima nastiness, Jin.

An interesting detail here is Jun is reading by candlelight in their little mountain home which is WILD. Does she not have electricity??? Jin must have access to it somewhere because he's playing a PSP fighting game. From the sounds of it, it does kinda sound like he's playing one of the older Tekkens which is very meta lol. Jun is reading a book on Ethics.

Unfortunately, this family morality lesson is ruined when they hear a strange noise. Jin asks if its a bully and Jun points out it's a demon. And we know Jun has some experience fighting demons. :(

She tells Jin to stay inside no matter what. Jin listens, but clearly struggles with it. Jun tells him some ominous, what certainly sounds like last-time-i'll-see-you-in-life level lessons (there's a time for offense and a time for defense, you need to know which is which!) and a warning that if anything happens to her, Jin needs to beat feet to Tokyo and find his (paternal) grandfather, Heihachi Mishima.

Now, it's always been contentious in the fandom how this conversation went down because it does seem like a bit of a record scratch that Jun, who presumably saw or at the very least heard Heihachi murdered Kazuya, would send Jin to Heihachi. A lot of the fanfic authors who have tried to make this scene work have done a lot of heavy lifting on filling in blanks, and often filled in more blanks that Jun does here: most fanfic authors would at least have given Jin his dad's name. Bloodlines does not. There is no explanation of the family links, only a reveal that Heihachi is his grandpa.

Jin reacts to this with shock, as you'd imagine, because I too would be like what the heck if my mom told me to seek out my paternal grandpa, Rupert Murdoch, after a decade and a half of living in the countryside. Jun goes out and attempts to kick some Aztec god ass, but she isn't a match for him. He's kinda into it tho:

He heard all about her Monsterfucker Permit in Tekken 2, and he's checking to make sure it's still in good working order.

Jin, after listening to his mom suffer for a good moment, goes out and tries to karate kick the Aztec god, which goes about as well as you'd expect. He gets knocked out in one punch. Jun is still standing, and Jun goes full aggro and screams at Jin to run. Unfortunately, Ogre learns her Monsterfucking Permit was only for demons, and immediately turns to start going over Jin. Is this anime suggesting Ogre was there for Jin, not Jun? Oooph.

Not sure I like that retcon. On one hand, it reduces Jun and suggests she's less powerful that canon has suggested she was/is. On the other hand though, this is all the more reason for Jin to hate himself, and I love that poor boy's angst, so I am torn. Anyway, Jun fights Ogre. She puts up a good fight, but he punches her into her house, and her oil lamps falls on the ground, catching their house on fire and burning their wooden house to the ground. Jun isn't distracted by this and continues to fight Ogre, giving him the universal come the fuck on gesture, because Jun is, as I keep reminding the fandom, a gosh darn badass.

LOOK AT MY GIRL!

She brings the Aztec god of fighting into a fucking arm bar and holds him there as her house EXPLODES when the fire reaches some tanks of ...something (presumably lamp oil???). Jin wakes up after this to find his house completely burnt to the ground and only a little scrap of her headband to remember her by. :(

RIP Jun you died the way you lived: fucking monster men over magnificently.

Flash forward to Tokyo! Jin sneaks into the Mishima Zaibatsu and is almost immediately caught, for the third time. I can't imagine how he's caught given his disguise:

Interestingly, the body guard (Ganryu??) has a very "oh shit" moment to learn that he's a Kazama, not a Mishima.

The body guard brings Jin to Heihachi. I really like the choice they've made here to have Heihachi still have his Tekken 2 black hair, but it's beginning to go gray. He looks so sharp.

And again, Jin's resemblance to Kazuya is uh, pretty strong. Jin looks a lot like his dad and this outfit is meant to echo that even more. Heihachi gives him a once over and goes all I see is a street rat. OUCH. Jin defends himself and says he's Kazama Jin, and Heihachi gets up and asks if he's Jun's son. So now we know Jun and Heihachi have met or at least Heihachi knows of Jun.

I do think it's funny though that Heihachi asks about Jun when Jin literally is just "his dad, but with bangs". Like there's no way that Heihachi had to ask for a DNA test. And yet he ignores Kazuya's part of the parental equation entirely, and it's up to Jin to bring up their blood. Heihachi has no strong reaction to that but he asks for them to be left alone and then asks Jin to fight him. Jin is, as someone who hasn't grown up in this fucked up family, very confused.

But from Heihachi's side, it makes perfect sense. He wants to take a measure of how strong Jin is, and he also wants to see if he can provoke Jin into exposing if he has The Fucked Up Devil Shit that his wife (who he murdered) and his son (who he also murdered) had. :( The bodyguard leaving is for a lack of witnesses. And the bodyguard knows it, because he seems uncomfortable with it....but he leaves anyway.

Jin blabbers that he's been taught never to fight unless attacked, and Heihachi, in a top five Heihachi move of ALL TIME, goes up and punches him. "There. You've been attacked." Jin finally does attack, but he doesn't bring the lightning, which is something that Heihachi continually uses and I think is trying to evoke out of him? They got a couple rounds but Heihachi is absolutely dominating him as you'd expect from this match-up:

In the close-ups between the two, you can see they have the same eyes. :(

Heihachi basically beats the every loving crap out of him and says if Jin's name is Kazama, he brings dishonor to it which is REALLY INTERESTING and makes me long for the missing scene(s??) that occurred between Heihachi and Jun in Tekken 2. He really seems to respect the Kazama family, which I wasn't expecting. Given that he also married a martial artist, I kinda wonder if he might have approved of Jun, had things been different between him and Kazuya. Jun being from another old family with their own traditional fighting style, perhaps, would have been his "traditional" choice for Kazuya.

But because he's an asshole, Heihachi tells Jin to GTFO and that he's not worth Heihachi's time...which is heartbreaking. :( Jin indignantly points out they're blood, and Jun told him to go to Heihachi immediately before being EATEN by a GREEN MONSTER, and he WILL be killing that green monster with or without Heihachi's help.

So yeah, Jin is very much his dad's son when it comes to being determined on a goal, and doubly so when that goal is murder. :(

This makes Heihachi reverse course. Not because they're blood - he didn't care about that part - but because Jin said green, which means Jin has seen Ogre. Heihachi will train Jin if Jin will prove he is "worthy" of his ancestry...which of course he will, but Heihachi won't be happy about. Woof. The Mishima clan is so sad, and you can see that the tragic cycle that doomed Kazuya is going to start again.

And yet here I am, putting on my clown shoes as I sit down to watch the 3 ring circus.

Comments

[meteordust]

I don't think I've ever watched this, and I enjoyed your detailed recap! I'm glad to hear Jun is pretty badass in it.

Jin blabbers that he's been taught never to fight unless attacked, and Heihachi, in a top five Heihachi move of ALL TIME, goes up and punches him. "There. You've been attacked."

That is definitely a very Heihachi move.

[acequeenking]

Thank you! I have a terrible memory so I wanted to write it out so I could refer back lol. I plan to write out the other four episodes too at some point.

Heihachi is such a bastard here and I'm kind of glad they kept that instead of retconing him into a nice guy lol.