FIF#181-Tekken: Bloodline

Jin Kazama lives with his mother, Jun, in seclusion, training daily in the Kazama style of Martial Arts.  His tranquil life is destroyed when a Demon called Ogre attacks and Jun sacrifices herself to protect her son.  In order to learn more about this senseless murder and grow stronger, Jin seeks out his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima, who vows to train Jin even if it kills the boy in the process.  An opportunity to get revenge presents itself in the form of the King of the Iron Fist Tournament.  Jin enters but his fight soon becomes more than just about revenge.  There are darker aspects to his family lineage and if he doesn’t find a way to master them, he’ll become the very evil he seeks to destroy.

 
When it comes to Fighting Games, I’ve always been a bigger fan of Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter.  That said, I do like other franchises and Tekken has always had my eye.  I’ve played a couple of the game and they’re fun with their own colorful cast of powerful and sexy fighters and a unique, family led storyline.  I’ve seen more of my fair share of Tekken Anime from the incredibly terrible OVA that I should review one of these days to the slightly better CG Film Tekken: Blood Vengeance.  Well now there’s a new Tekken Anime adaptation on the block, Tekken: Bloodline.  This FIF comes as a request from a good friend who’s a big fighting game enthusiast and wanted me to look at this.  Despite my reservations, I did…and I still have them but I am willing to give some credit where credit is due.
 
First off, yes, this is yet another Netflix Anime that is trying to push that 3D Anime angle.  I’ve looked at plenty of shows in this animation style and I don’t think I’ve found one I really liked.  At least with Tekken: Bloodline, there’s more reason to use it.  Much of the action in the first episode feels like exact recreations of fights from the Video Games, to the point where they feel less animated and more like a recording of actual gameplay between two guys on PS4 controllers.  There isn’t anything special added to spice things up or make it stand out.  If you compare the fight between Jun and Ogre and the fight between Chun Li and Vega from the Street Fighter II Animated Movie, the difference is night and day and not just because of the animation styles.  SFIIA showed the animators clearly studied the fighting styles of the cast and didn’t just replicate them, they enhanced them with vicious choreography and an awesome soundtrack.  By comparison, Tekken: Bloodline’s first fights feel like youre just watching a demo or cutscene for one of the video games.
 
On the slightly more positive side, the writing of this show isn’t terrible, at least when it comes to Jun and Jin.  I liked the Mother/Son dynamic here and not just because Jun is one of the hottest Moms in gaming history who can throw down with the best of them.  There’s a harshness with her training but also a good amount of caring.  As Jun says, she wants to show Jin the good in the world before he experiences the bad.  This is a woman with a past though and considering she seems like the single mother in a complex situation, she does a good job with Jin.  Jin is your current basic protagonist with a basic revenge motivation and not a lot of character.  But I did enjoy his interactions with his Mom, he’s got a solid motivation there.  And then there’s everyones favorite meglomanaical Martial Arts powerhouse (and Tekken poster character), Heihachi Mishima…yeah he hasn’t changed much from the other adaptations I’ve seen.  He’s still OP, still a colossal dick and wont hesitate to let Jin die during training because he doesn’t measure up…honestly, Jun sending her son to see this mad man for training is the most questionable move preventing her from achieving true “Mother of the Year” status.
 
Eh, I know my friend really wants me to press on with this one and it’s only six episodes.  Honestly it could go either way with me on Tekken: Bloodline.  Six episodes isn’t bad and I’d hope the writing improves a bit with Heihachi and Jin and I’m curious who else from the games shows up (always on the look out for the sexy Nina Williams).  But this artstyle and the feeling that I could be playing this Anime instead of watching it is a downside.  I could rant all day about Netflix’s determination to push 3D Anime that isn’t working for them but Tekken is a big brand name that could become an exception to the rule and a hit for them.  So this is a coin toss, it could go either way.  We’ll see how it turns out.