‘Tekken: Bloodline’ Netflix Anime Series Will Finally Show Jin Kazama’s Life With His Mother, Jun

During Netflix Geeked week, Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada entered the ring to talk about the upcoming anime series Tekken: Bloodline. Harada has been a part of the Tekken video game franchise since its initial debut back in 1994, voicing Marshall and Forest Law, Yoshimitsu, and Kunimitsu for a number of years, and working as series director since Tekken 3 in 1997. Tekken: Bloodline will be the first time the games have gotten an anime series. (They’ve had movies before, both animated and live action.)

Synopsis of the anime series

“Power is everything.” Jin Kazama learned the family self-defense arts, Kazama-Style Traditional Martial Arts, from his mother at an early age. Even so, he was powerless when a monstrous evil suddenly appeared, destroying everything dear to him, and changing his life forever. Angry at himself for being unable to stop it, Jin vowed revenge and sought absolute power to exact it. His quest will lead to the ultimate battle on a global stage—The King of Iron Fist Tournament.

A behind-the-scenes look at the anime series

During his interview with Netflix, Harada revealed that parts of the story that had “only been written in words” would be seen in the anime. One big thing that looks to include is Jin’s time with his mother, Jun. “Those are really my favorite scenes,” Harada says, and as a longtime Tekken fan I can understand why. The anime looks like it revolves around Tekken 3, which is when we’re first introduced to Jin Kazama, who would go on to be a major character in the video games. Despite there being two games prior to Tekken 3, the third one is when I really started to get into the franchise. It’s a fantastic mix of “old meets new” as a younger generation of fighters (such as Jin, Hwoarang, and my girl Ling Xiaoyu) joins a roster of veterans like Paul Phoenix, Yoshimitsu, and the always feuding Williams sisters, Nina and Anna.

That being said, Jun Kazama, who we meet in Tekken 2, isn’t in the third game. In fact, she’s not a playable character in any games past Tekken 2 besides spinoffs like Tekken Tag Tournament (which is still one of my favorite fighting games of all time). While she does have an interesting story in those games (she’s confirmed to be the final boss, Unknown, in Tekken Tag Tournament 2) those games are, technically, not canon to the ongoing storyline of Tekken.

In the canon storyline, Jun is presumed to be dead, so whenever she’s in the main series after the second game, it’s through characters remembering her. When we meet Jin in Tekken 3, Jun’s already “dead,” and he’s been training under his “I’m totally not gonna throw you over a mountain or into a volcano” grandfather, Heihachi Mishima. Even if we know that Jin was living with Jun during his childhood, we never see them together in the games. Their time together was in the past, with Jun raising Jin on her own after the events of Tekken 2 (the game where Kazuya Mishima, Jin’s father, got tossed into a volcano by his father, Heihachi – did I mention that family drama is a Tekken staple?)

Finally, Jun and Jin!

With Tekken: Bloodline being an anime series, I’m hoping that gives us a good amount of time to flesh out these plot threads that have only been talked about but not fully realized on screen. Jin is a character who struggles between the devil gene he’s inherited from his father (Kazuya and Jin turn into demonic entities, just go with it) and the kind, angelicness of his mother (there’s a literal angel in the game, again, just go with it). This is something that’s always been a part of his story, but we’ve never really gotten to see the bond he shared with his mother because she’s gone when you start Tekken 3. Now, we’ll be able to see Jun’s teachings and her time with Jin.

Unfortunately, we’ll also be able to see the tragic day Jin lost Jun. That’s probably why Harada says in the interview, “If Jin Kazama were a real person, the one thing I would say to him is, ‘I’m sorry for always putting you through so many awful things.'” It’s cool, Harada, this is definitely a thing we do to the characters we love, especially if we’re the ones who created them.

Tekken: Bloodline will be out on Netflix in 2022.

(featured image: Netflix/Bandai Namco Entertainment)

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