Jin Kazama

Jin Kazama
Jin Kazama in Tekken 6.
Series	Tekken
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) Patrick Seitz (credited as Darren Daniels) (Tekken: Blood Vengeance)
Voiced by (Japanese)	Isshin Chiba
Portrayed by	Jon Foo (Tekken film)
Fictional profile
Birthplace	Japan[1]
Fighting style	Advanced Mishima style fighting karate combined with Kazama-style self-defense[1] (Pre-Tekken 4) Traditional karate (Post-Tekken 4) [2]
Occupation	Mishima Zaibatsu CEO (Tekken 6) Martial artist [1]

Jin Kazama (風間 仁, Kazama Jin^?) is a video game player character in the Tekken fighting game series released by Namco Bandai. 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 (デビルの血, Debiru no Chi^?), 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 (デビル仁, Debiru Jin^?), first introduced as a playable character 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 mostly positive with comments focused on his role within the story and techniques. However, the character's change of fighting style in Tekken 4 resulted in mixed opinions by critics.

Appearances

Tekken games

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.^[3] His most recurring outfits usually comprise 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.^[4] 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.^[5] 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'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.

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. According to the profile provided by the Tekken 3 instruction booklet, Jin likes his mother's precepts and hates deception. Both values are demonstrated in his ending for Tekken 4: Jin resolves to kill Heihachi Mishima for betraying him, but soon changes his mind and tells Heihachi "thank my mother, Jun Kazama." 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.^[1] During Tekken 3, Jin destroys the Ogre in the King of Iron First fighting tournament, but is betrayed by Heihachi. Jin's Devil Gene then awakes, allowing him to surivive Heihachi's attack and escape. During this game, Jin also meets fighter Hwoarang whose rivalry would develop in following games. His following apeparance is in Tekken Tag Tournament which does not contain a storyline.

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 awakenes, Jin tries to kill Heihachi, but spares him after remembering his mother.^[6] Immediately after leaving Heihachi, Jin's Devil form goes berserk and appears for the first time as a playable character and sub-boss. Seeking to control the Devil Gene, Jin enters the King of Iron Fist tournament 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.^[7] Jin plays the primary antagonist in Tekken 6's "Scenario Campaign" mode. He is confronted by his 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.

Jin is one of the first four fighters demonstrated in the debut gameplay trailer for Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Other appearances

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.

He 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). The Capcom-equivalent project, Street Fighter X Tekken, has so far not confirmed Jin as a playable character in the game, but he is mentioned in a trailer by Kazuya, who states that Jin desires to meet Ryu. Jin makes a brief appearance in the ending of the original video animation 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.

He also appears in the CGI movie Tekken: Blood Vengeance which takes place between Tekken 5 and Tekken 6.

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.^[8] 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.^[9]

Devil Jin incorporates moves from Jin's previous incarnations, which makes him a stronger fighter than Jin.^[10] On the other hand, Devil Jin is weak in low attacks.^[11]

Creation and design

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.^[12] As a result of being introduced as the protagonist from 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] In Tekken 6, Jin's alternative outifit was designed by Clamp, a group of four Japanese manga artists.^[14]

Promotion and reception

Jin has been featured in various types of merchandising including action figures from both his Tekken 3 and Tekken 4 appearances.^[15][16]

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 thirty-first favorite character. He shared the spot with three other characters, including Street Fighter characters, Charlie, and Yang.^[17] 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.^[18] In Game Informer's "Top Ten Best Fighting Game Characters" Jin was fourth with comments comparing him Star Wars character Luke Skywalker.^[19] 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.^[20] In the book Trigger Happy, writer Steven Poole labelled Jin as an amalgam of "body-building action grunts" including popular martial arts film protagonists.^[21]

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.^[8] GameSpot shared similar comments, stating that Jin was one of the most notable changed characters from Tekken 4.^[22] 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.^[23][24]

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.^[25] 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.^[26] 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.^[10] In 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."^[27][28] In a GamesRadar article by Michael Grimm, 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 from two existing characters sharing also similar designs and movesets to their original forms.^[29]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Tekken 3 Instruction Manual.
2. ^ Tekken 5 Character Selection Screen
3. ^ Tekken 3 Opening Movie
4. ^ Tekken 4, Jin Kazama "Prologue"
5. ^ Tekken 5: Devil Jin "Prologue"
6. ^ Heihachi: "I will make your power mine . . . Time to die, boy!"
7. ^ "Tekken 6 - Characters - Jin Kazama". http://tekken.namco.com/characters/jin/. Retrieved June 21, 2009. 
8. ^ ^{a b} Hunt, Leon (2003). Kung Fu Masters. Wallflower Press. p. 195. ISBN 978-1903364635. 
9. ^ "Tekken 6 Characters Guide (Jin Kazama)". GameSpy. January 18, 2005. http://psp.gamespy.com/playstation-portable/tekken-next/guide/page_27.html. Retrieved September 1, 2011. 
10. ^ ^{a b} "Tekken 5 Walkthrough & Strategy Guide (Devil Jin)". GameSpy. January 18, 2005. http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/tekken-5/guide/page_20.html. Retrieved August 21, 2011. 
11. ^ "Tekken 6 Characters Guide (Devil Jin)". GameSpy. January 18, 2005. http://psp.gamespy.com/playstation-portable/tekken-next/guide/page_20.html. Retrieved September 1, 2011. 
12. ^ ^{a b} "Tekken 6: Your Questions Answered". Computer and Video Games. 2009-10-28. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=226228. Retrieved 2009-11-15. 
13. ^ Davies, Paul (2001-08-15). "Tekken 3 team interview". Computer and Video Games. Archived from the original on 2009-06-28. http://web.archive.org/web/20090628031835/http://www.computerandvideogames.com/article.php?id=11177. Retrieved 2008-09-13. 
14. ^ Andrew, Yoon (June 17, 2009). "CLAMP designing costumes for Tekken 6, anime fan girls squee". Joystiq. http://www.joystiq.com/2009/06/17/clamp-designing-costumes-for-tekken-6-anime-fan-girls-squee/. Retrieved August 20, 2011. 
15. ^ "Tekken 4 Series 1 12" Figure Jin Kazama". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001KZ69H2/. Retrieved August 30, 2011. 
16. ^ "Tekken 3 Jin Kazama Figure Sculpted By Hiroki Hayashi". Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001J749DW/. Retrieved August 30, 2011. 
17. ^ Gamest, ed (1997) (in Japanese). Gamest Game Hero Collection 1997; issue 208. Shinseisha. p. 240. 
18. ^ Swider, Matt (July 25, 2006). "Tekken A Look Back". Gaming Target. http://www.gamingtarget.com/article.php?artid=5787&pg=3&comments=. Retrieved August 21, 2011. 
19. ^ "Top Ten Best Fighting Game Characters". Game Informer (GameStop Corporation). August 2009. ISSN 1067-6392. 
20. ^ Scheeden, Jeese. "Franchise Players 2: Reader's Choice". IGN. http://stars.ign.com/articles/867/867018p6.html. Retrieved August 20, 2011. 
21. ^ Poole, Steven (2004). Trigger happy: videogames and the entertainment revolution. Arcade Publishing. p. 151. ISBN 1-55970-598-1. 
22. ^ Torres, Ricardo (April 11, 2002). "Tekken 4 Updated Preview". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/ps2/action/tekken4/news/2861082/tekken-4-updated-preview?mode=previews. Retrieved August 21, 2011. 
23. ^ Dunhan, Jeremy. "Tekken 4 (Import)". IGN. http://ps2.ign.com/articles/356/356385p2.html. Retrieved August 21, 2011. 
24. ^ "Tekken 4 Review". Computer and Video Games. http://www.computerandvideogames.com/80102/reviews/tekken-4-review/. Retrieved August 21, 2011. 
25. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley. "Street Fighter x Tekken: the Killian opinion - Interview". Eurogamer. http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-04-21-street-fighter-x-tekken-the-killian-opinion-interview?page=2. Retrieved August 30, 2011. 
26. ^ "Tekken 5 Walkthrough & Strategy Guide (Jin Kazama)". GameSpy. January 18, 2005. http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/tekken-5/guide/page_14.html. Retrieved August 21, 2011. 
27. ^ Calvert, Justin (May 16, 2005). "Tekken 6 E3 2005 Preshow Impressions". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/tekken6/news/6124983/tekken-6-e3-2005-preshow-impressions?mode=previews. Retrieved August 31, 2011. 
28. ^ Kasavin, Greg (May 12, 2006). "E3 06: Tekken 6 Trailer Impressions". GameSpot. http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/tekken6/news/6149554/e3-06-tekken-6-trailer-impressions?mode=previews. Retrieved August 31, 2011. 
29. ^ Grimm, Michael (August 3, 2010). "12 matchups we want to see in Street Fighter X Tekken". GamesRadar. http://www.gamesradar.com/f/12-matchups-we-want-to-see-in-street-fighter-x-tekken/a-201008039113116048/p-3. Retrieved August 20, 2011.