Tekken/YMMV

• Alternate Character Interpretation: Kazuya's relationship with Jun Kazama can be seen as a Hope Spot regarding him, or something a bit more nefarious, depending on the interpretation of his tactics in seducing her. Given Scenario Campaign in 6, it would appear that he holds a genuine soft-spot for Jun or at least views her neutrally, seeing as he describes her as fearless and mysterious. And from Jun's part, according to Harada she sensed the power of his Devil Gene and sincerely wanted to free him from it. In the trailers for 8 he's genuinely shocked to see her, and she quietly but sternly calls him by his name...
  • Heihachi's Pet the Dog moments with Kuma in a few games hint at a kinder man underneath that Badass Grandpa exterior. That, and the fact that his son is Kazuya. 7 states that he did not start as a Card-Carrying Villain (and neither did Kazuya, BTW), but wasn't exactly the kindest man ever either.
  • Some fans believe Angel to be nothing more than a mask for Devil based on their Tekken 2 story, but it hasn't been confirmed. Jossed: she's a completely different entity, according to Harada.
  • What is Lee's exact position on the morality table? He's never been seen to make a formal Heel Face Turn and his endings show him to be a bit of a jerk, but he is one of the most helpful characters in 6's storyline and seems to be sincerely supportive of Lars' goals in 7 (even shipping him with Alisa, apparently)
    • Most would peg him as a neutral entity. He's generally decent nowadays (with quite a few Pet the Dog moments in both 6 and Blood Vengeance) and really only has it in for the Mishimas (adoptive half-brother Lars notwithstanding).
    • People consider his 7 actions as a Heel Face Turn, as he has become a borderline Big Good via both opposing Kazuya and Heihachi's Villain Protagonists stunts and supporting those who oppose to them, like Lars and Jin.
• And the Fandom Rejoiced: Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Nothing more needs to be said.
  • This announcement, while ambiguous, is still good news.
  • It's official. Jun Kazama is coming back for TTT2. And speaking of Tag 2, the music will be composed by none other than Akitaka Tohyama, the same guy responsible for the musical scores of the original TTT and Katamari Damacy. And finally, this video.
    • The soundtrack has been leaked, complete with several remixes of older tunes.
  • The AOU 2011 Trailer for Tag 2. Is that Jun? Yes it is.
    • Ruined FOREVER: Her character's redesign, to a vocal minority.
  • The announcement of Blood Vengeance as being a fully-CG movie, with a screenplay written by Dai Sato of Cowboy Bebop fame and direction by Youichi Mouri, who also directed the CG opening movies for Tekken 5 and Bloodline Rebellion.
    • The home version will come packed with the original Tekken Tag if you play it on the PlayStation 3, remastered in HD!
  • Speaking of which fan opinion of the first Tekken Tag went like this. "Yeah, Tekken 3 was pretty cool, I'd be interested in seeing what this is li... what's this? Jun's one of the playable characters. Oh. I am getting this game."
  • Cary Tagawa as Heihachi in the live-action movie. His performance in Mortal Kombat may have something to do with it.
  • The console version of TTT2 has recently been announced to have more than 50 characters. It will also use Soulcalibur V's netcode.
    • After an absence lasting over 10 years, KUNIMITSU and MICHELLE are coming back to Tekken on the console version of Tag 2. IT. IS. ON! Of course, having Angel and Ogre's humanoid form (dubbed as Ancient Ogre) is something not to be taken lightly as well.
  • E3 2012 trailer for Tag 2 featuring Snoop Dogg and having his own stage!
  • And 2022 had quite a bit of this. Especially with the announcement of the Tekken: Bloodline anime series, then the confirmation of Tekken 8 being in the works, and last but not least... the official return of Jun Kazama.
• Awesome Music: Check the list here.
• Base Breaker: Bryan. In a bit of a subversion, people have no qualms with the character. It's simply a matter of which characterization of him you like: the more reserved Badass that debuted in 3 or the raging, power-hungry One-Man Army that emerged in 5 (4 was a bit of intermediate stage).
  • Ogre gets similar scorn, but not because of his character (or lack thereof). He's seen as The Scrappy mainly because his inclusion forced the removal of Jun from the roster, something that has yet to be rectified three games later. Only time will tell if his inclusion in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 alongside Jun will rectify this.
  • This seems to be the case amongst the Tekken community for Lars and Alisa, but the "hate" part is much more outspoken (especially for the latter).
  • Xiaoyu is either super Moe, a ray of sunshine in the dark plot and Jin's ideal girlfriend, or a super sugary dumb bitch who should stop following Jin around.
• Crack Pairing:
  • Ever since the second trailer for Tekken 6, Hwoarang/Lili has gained some popularity simply because the two were depicted as tag-teaming against Jin. That and (in terms of Foe Yay), Lili is Asuka as Hwo is to Jin.
  • Julia with King II, due to the maybe 14 seconds of dialogue they shared in T5, although that dialogue had a very Kilik/Xianghua feel to it. And then it turns out she's Jaycee, who's also a wrestler...
  • For some reason, Christie/Steve was big around the time of 4. It's still a common ship in Fan Fics.
• Crazy Awesome: Yoshimitsu is unmatched in terms of this. No one--and we mean no one--has a moveset revolving around Confusion Fu and then some. He can rotate his mechanical hand to propel himself like a one-man helicopter, spew poisoned breath, enter Lotus Position and spin with enough velocity to reappear on the other side of the opponent, and even commit Seppuku and then spin (with the blade still embedded in his stomach), spraying his blood all over the place and damaging you with it! Or, he can just crash into you and fall down.
• Designated Hero: Heihachi was, more or less, the central character in Tekken 2 alongside Jun.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Kazuya, and surprisingly Heihachi after 7.
• Ensemble Darkhorse: The reason for Kazuya's return in 4. Also Nina, so much that she spawned her own Spin-Off game. It's also the reason of why both of them were the first Tekken fighters revealed in Street Fighter X Tekken.
  • Yoshimitsu as well. He's one of the four characters to be present in every game (the others being Heihachi, Paul, and Nina) and his eccentricity has earned him a very devoted fanbase, to the point that his ancestor was ported over to Soulcalibur to tell us that, yes, these two series share common ground. Like Kaz and Nina, Yoshi is also present in SFxT.
  • Given the ruckus fans have been making since their disappearance post-Tekken 2 (Tag doesn't count), one can assume that Jun Kazama and Kunimitsu have this going for them as well.
  • Lili is really popular for someone not involved in the whole Devil Gene business. She even appears as the sole Tekken representative in Queen's Gate: Spiral Chaos and also pops up in SFxT.
    • She was also among the first characters revealed for Tekken 6, seen alongside Jin and Hwoarang in the E3 2006 trailer.
• Epileptic Trees: There has been some fan speculation that Angel came into existence because of Jun's presence.
  • Heihachi's tenure as a Guest Fighter in the PS2 version of Soulcalibur II (most notably, Heihachi accidentally cutting his hand with a fragment of Soul Edge) has a few fans wondering about a possible connection between Soul Edge and the Mishima bloodline. However, it should be noted that his participation in the series is non-canon.
    • His ending in Soulcalibur II states it was All Just a Dream, though...
  • Quite a few people are convinced that Ogre is holding Jun's severed head in the arcade intro to 3. Alternatively, this could be how Jin interpreted the events, seeing as he was knocked unconscious by Ogre.
  • The true extent of Ogre's connection to Devil/the Devil Gene is ripe for these. Heihachi sought the Devil Gene in 4 so that he combine his genetic material with Ogre's to gain Immortality or create a new lifeform. In Devil Within, True Ogre's presence causes the Devil inside Jin to flare out of control. In Dark Resurrection, Dragunov's ending has him revive an inanimate figure resembling True Ogre using Devil Jin's power/lifeforce.
• Fan Dumb: Jun perhaps has one of the biggest in the series. Fans even sent death threats to series director Katsuhiro Harada's Twitter and Facebook accounts, demanding that she be brought back for Tekken Tag Tournament 2. Sadly, he caved in to them.
  • Actually if he got six thousand tweets he'd bring her back. Looks like fans shored up the numbers and he'll give them Jun, just not the Jun they remember. She only fully returned in 8.
• Fanon: Fans believe Wang to be Xiaoyu's grandfather due to Xiaoyu addressing him as such. In this case, Xiao was calling him "Grandpa" in the same way that a person would say "Gramps" to a random elder. They are distant relatives and Wang trained her, but Wang is not her grandfather.
  • For a long while, most fansites had the story of Bruce being Lei Wulong's police partner, who lost his memory on the plane crash and was manipulated by Kazuya into becoming his bodyguard. This seems to be a confusion from his canon story, where Lei's actual nameless partner was with Bruce in the plane.
  • Most of Roger and Alex's story in Tekken 2, probably due to them having little to none back then. This includes being trained by Armor King and being saved/sent to a safe wild area by Jun.
  • Jun's role as Kazuya's Morality Pet in The Motion Picture is sometimes used to depict their relationship for the series proper.
  • Christie's grandfather is not named Ho Chi Myong; the name was created by a Fanfic writer to fill in blanks.
• Fight Scene Failure: Averted in the movie: The quality of the film as a whole may be Your Mileage May Vary, but the fight scenes are very well choreographed.
• Funny Aneurysm Moment: Heihachi Mishima... is dead.
• Funny Moments:
  • Paul's ending in 5. "BRING IT ON, YA ALIENS!"
  • Lee's 5 ending. To elaborate: he wins the tournament and makes Heihachi his butler. While he's attending to him (and his girls) by his estate pool, he mutters threats under his breath... just as Lee reminds him that there is a bomb in the bowtie he's wearing, and Lee has the detonator with him. Heihachi resumes his duties quickly and frantically, while Lee utters his trademark "Excellent!"
  • In Bob's ending from 6, he loses all of his weight, prompting him to Freak-Out and bang his head against the wall of his house until he passes out.
• Game Breaker:
  • Paul's Phoenix Smasher. It's incredibly easy to pull off, has very little vulnerability, and does and obscene amount if you hit someone on counter.
    • However, it takes SO long to wind up. If the opponent catches up with you while you're charging it...
      • You're thinking of the unblockable Burning Fist (b+1+2 or b,b+1+2, depending on the game). The Phoenix Smasher (QCF+2) is much faster.
    • Similarly, Roger and Alex's wind-up punch. Had a charging time, but it was fast enough to murder a knocked-down player. Was nerfed with Roger Jr., where it now needs a complex analog roll.
    • Same goes for the Jacks and their Megaton Punch/Gigaton Punch.
  • Heihachi's incarnation in 5. As you can see, his jab combos can punish you like there's no tomorrow and his juggles are dangerous. Summed up by this comment:

"[The] thing I love about Heihachi is that all of his moves are soo overpowered and seem really cheap. Well, I guess if I was 70-years-old, I'd need cheap moves too. lol"

• • Jin in 4. His Laser Scraper combo (if properly-timed) and a recovery time that was faster in most situations than most of the cast gave him viable tools to constantly apply pressure to his opponents. The end result? You're looking at the sole occupant of top tier in high-level Tournament Play. Jin endured quite a bit of Tier-Induced Scrappy disdain during this time.
  • Devil Jin is just as bad, as according to Character Tiers, he's the only A+ tier character in 5 (true to form, his dad and grandpa are no. 2 and no. 3).
  • Steve Fox in the original Play Station 2 version of 5 had an absurdly high priority on his jabstrings. And if that wasn't enough, he is the only character to have a legit infinite in any Tekken ever, making him the true Game Breaker.
    • In fact, he was considered a main reason for the Dark Resurrection update to 5.
  • In 3, Guest Fighter Gon is this due to his really small size.
• Hate Dumb: Asuka has one. The amount of hate this poor girl gets is nearly unmatched by any other character in the series, and it's usually for the perceived Replacement Scrappy status (see below), or because she's "fat and ugly" compared to the rest of the cast, instead of legitimate faults.
• Heartwarming Moments: King I's ending in 2. Having lost the tournament, a depressed King watches some children celebrate Christmas as he leaves gifts for the orphans. As he turns away, the children swarm him and King smiles.
• Ho Yay: Hwoarang, towards Jin. With a healthy does of Foe Yay.
• I Knew It!: What many fans said after the reveal during the Final Boss battle in TTT2. Jun Kazama is indeed Unknown. Whether it carries to the actual game canon or not...
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Jin has been literally coupled with ALL the characters in the series, might that character be male or female, and even including his family members.
• Les Yay: Play as Zafina on Lili's stage in Tekken 6's Scenario Campaign, and you'll see what we mean.
  • If you've read the Ultra Jump Egg manga, Lili really pushes it with Asuka, including landing on her face crotch-first, trying to sleep in her bed, and grabbing her breasts all the while insisting it's for her rivalry. Yeeaaaah.
  • Looking over that Ultra Jump Egg manga, Lili and Asuka fall into this big time. Let's add in Lili calling Asuka her soulmate and two bathing with each other. That or their Tekken 6 endings alone. Sure, they may be fighting, but both have shown that they not only both enjoy fighting, even Lili's butler comments that this is her making friends.
  • In Blood Vengeance, we have Xiaoyu and Alisa as well. Their relationship there is pure Romantic Two-Girl Friendship, including a scene where Xiao (in a Modesty Towel) leans on Alisa's lap and tells her lots of things about herself.
• Memetic Mutation: Black Winter Night Sky (the opening theme of Tekken 2) seems to have become a minor one, It's being used for everything from Sailor Moon to Dead Space.
• Memetic Outfit: The hoodie Jin sports in 4 (popular enough that it returned for 5 and was used as his attire in Namco X Capcom), Kazuya's purple tuxedo from 2 onward.
• Memetic Sex God: Asuka Kazama in 5, Lars Alexandersson in 6.
• Moe: Xiaoyu.
• Mondegreen: In 3, the audio for Jin's (Left) Spinning High Kick (foward + left kick; that's f + 3 for those of you fluent in Tekken lingo) sounds like "Guess who!"
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Bryan's slaughter of the Manji clan after they had JUST saved his life.
  • Kazuya offing his grandfather Jinpachi, the only person aside of his Missing Mom who he had a good, loving relationship with, in his ending in 5, thus cruelly subverting what was meant to be a Pet the Dog moment. Further subverted: Kazuya's ending is not canon, the one who kills Jinpachi is Jin
  • Heihachi's treachery starts earlier than the series (mostly with tossing Kazuya over the cliff) but if he were to have one, using his grandson (who completely trusted him back then) to attract Ogre to the third tournament and then shooting him in the head with nary a second thought once he got what he wanted is probably his darkest hour. While his actually more troubled than believed reasons for such a fall into villainy are explained in 7, it doesn't erase the crap he pulled.
  • Jin's Batman Gambit involves him literally crossing this like a thousand times. And doing so consciously - so people will HATE him and let him execute his Thanatos Gambit.
• Nightmare Fuel: Alisa. Sure, she's cute, but when you realize that parts of her moveset is her having her head gets detached (and sometimes exploding) and she's taking it like nothing happened... she might've been a robotic female dullahan (an unseelie faerie who carries his detached head around and acts as Death's messenger).
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome: From the 2010 film, a news report mentions that Marshall Law qualified for the Iron Fist Open Call by beating Paul Phoenix. In 28 seconds.
• One True Threesome: There's a tiny, but loyal group of Hwoarang x Jin x Xiaoyu shippers. Xiaoyu is openly in love with Jin while Hwoarang is his rival, both of them qualify to one or another degree as Jin's Morality Pets, 6's Scenario Campaign confirms that Xiaoyu and Hwoarang are in friendly terms. . . yeah, the whole deal writes itself.
• Periphery Demographic: Despite being aimed at teenagers and young adults, Tekken has also become popular with children aged 6 to 12, in large part due to the anthropomorphic animals you can fight as.
• Replacement Scrappy: A lot of people hate Combot for being a robotic Mokujin.
  • Asuka for Jun, to some.
• Robo Ship: Lars/Alisa. Guess who's the robo... It doesn't help that Lars gets pretty emotional about Alisa towards the end of Scenario Campaign.
• Ruined FOREVER: Some people think the fourth entry killed the series.
• Saved by the Fans: Kazuya.
• She's Just Hiding: There is a surprisingly large contingent of fans waiting for the reappearance of Kunimitsu from Tekken 2, even despite the fact that her original moves and later costume have been subsumed into Yoshimitsu's repertoire. Unsurprisingly, when she did return in Tag Tournament 2, the fans all but orgasmed, and they did the same when she she showed up as DALc in 7. The fact that the Kuni from 7 is her daughter rather than the original one didn't exactly discourage them.
  • This is also the general presumption for Jun Kazama after her run-in with Ogre prior to 3. The official verdict is that she's "missing"/"in hiding."
• Ship-to-Ship Combat: Tekken shippers are tame compared with others, but the fanbase as a whole is NOT immune to this:
  • Even when series producer/creator Katsuhiro Harada has apparently said that Jin Kazama is a Celibate Hero due to the Devil Gene, the guy still gets Ship Tease with several characters: Ling Xiaoyu is his best friend who's openly in love with him and determined to save him from the Mishima family mess, Hwoarang is The Rival who has lots of Foe Yay with the guy and loses an eye shielding him, Nina Williams becomes Jin's Dragon and bodyguard and seems to somewhat care for him on a personal level which gives Unholy Matrimony / Bodyguard Crush vibes, and Asuka Kazama is his really cute and spunky cousin who has the same ability to hold off the Devil Gene that Jin's mom Jun had. As such, there have been several cat fights between shippers across the net. (In the meantime, many Asuka/Lili fans tend to simply sit down and watch from the sidelines)
    • The Xiaoyu/Jin ship seems to be the biggest target of this particular "war", since she's his biggest Morality Pet after his mother to the point that the pachinko games show that he can't bring himself to hurt her even as Devil Jin and thus she currently has one of the biggest chances to be Jin's Love Interest, or at least get close enough. However, they're not completely innocent either: they tend to get VERY insecure in the presence of Asuka, and some can't get enough of bringing her down to prop up Xiaoyu.
  • There's also the Robot Girl Alisa Bosconovitch. On one hand, she gets a lot of Ship Tease with Lars Alexandersson in 6, plus 7 pushes them VERY close to Official Couple levels and even has Lee shipping them in-story. On the other, Alisa and Xiaoyu team up in the Blood Vengeance movie and their relationship oozes Romantic Two-Girl Friendship from the beginning to the end. Logically, Alisa/Lars and Alisa/Xiaoyu fans have been spotted cat-fighting it out.
• Sidetracked by the Gold Saucer: Tekken Bowl in the Play Station 2 version of Tekken Tag Tournament. Anyone who tells you they didn't waste hours playing it is a liar. The persistent rumour of unlocking Dr. Bosconovitch through it didn't help matters. So popular, it even appeared as a free iOS app to celebrate the premiere of Blood Vengeance. Tekken Ball in Tekken 3 also counts, if only because it was the easiest way to unlock Gon.
• Smurfette Breakout: Nina Williams, the only woman to have appeared in every Tekken game, got her own spin-off game titled Death By Degrees based off her assassin background.
• Tear Jerker: Hwoarang's reaction to Baek's death in Baek's 6 ending, wherein a very distressed Hwoarang screams "Sa buh nim!" as Baek lays dying.
  • Alisa's "death" in Scenario Campaign. The accompanying music also enforces the sad mood. However, if you complete all of the missions of Scenario Campaign (including the secret ones), you'll unlock journal entries detailing her restoration, with all of her memories intact... and it finally happens in 7
• That One Boss:
  • Alisa. The first time you fight her is arguably one of the hardest parts of the campaign mode in 6. Not only does she have long range attacks, the ability to recover health, and a nigh inescapable grapple (you'd think your character would eventually learn not to accept her head when she hands it to him,) but she can also break any combo on a low blow by initiating her chainsaw-hand transformation. Make sure you save your chickens.
    • Then there's the battle with her in Hard Mode. Have fun with her brand-new frost brand!
    • To make things worse, you fight her after Nina and Jin, with no chance to save!
  • Jinpachi in 5. Just look at the "SNK Boss" excerpt under his entry.
  • Azazel, with his insane crystal-based moves and rolling attack.
  • In Devil Within, Ogre (or to be specific, his One Winged Angels True Ogre and Monstrous Ogre) serves as this.
• Tier-Induced Scrappy. Because of Button Mashing, a lot of people loathe fighting Eddy online despite the fact that he has been balanced out since 5. Christie, being a female Eddy, gets some of the same flak.
  • Also due to Button Mashing, Lili has largely replaced the Capoeira fighters as the go-to character for button mashers since her debut in 5 DR. It doesn't help that she's also considered a high-tier character.
• Uncanny Valley: That damn smile Kazuya does in his Tekken 1 ending.
  • What about the intro for Tekken 2? Looks like Heihachi is gonna swallow you up!
  • Long story short, the first two games and their primitive-by-modern-standards graphics tended to make many of the characters look (for lack of a better word) odd. This goes double for ending FMVs.
• Unfortunate Implications: In Tekken 5's story mode, Craig has an interlude where he flirts with Anna, who coldly rebuffs him. When he wins, Marduk carries her on his back, and says, "I ALWAYS get what I want!" It really gives off the impression that he's going to rape her.
• Video Game Movies Suck: The 1997 OVA was decent, if narmy and not on the level of Street Fighter's anime. The live action film? Heh, Your Mileage May Vary, oh yes it will. A few side notes about the film. A fan made film looks to be considerably more faithful than the Hollywood production. There has been talk of a CG film since the game was first released. And ten years ago, the Australian Playstation magazine proposed a Tekken movie... Ray Park as Ogre, Patrick Stewart as Heihachi, Bill Goldberg as King.
  • About that CGI film... ^___^
  • Very much YMMV. While it does depart from the game storyline, it also maintains a lot of the core story and character elements. The actors look and dress like their counterparts, and the fighting styles displayed are fairly distinct. Taken on its own merits, it is well-written, well-acted, and well-paced. I doubt it would have done well had it been released in the US theatrically simply because so many people would hide behind this trope.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: In the first Tekken, Kunimitsu was nearly identical to Yoshimitsu in terms of looks and the two even shared the same voice.
  • Kunimitsu's Japanese profile in Tekken actually uses He when speaking of her (him?). But her daughter and disciple Kunimitsu II specifically refers to her as "mother", so. . .
  • Leo. To the point that there's a split on whether Leo is a boy with a high-pitched voice, or just a Bifauxnen. It didn't help that the Japanese used gender-neutral pronouns (or just the character's name) when referring to Leo. (What most don't know when regarding Leo is that s/he is 19 years old, and thus an adult. The term "boy" wouldn't really apply in most countries; this is a "man" if Leo is male. Anyway, technicalities.) It was later revealed by Harada himself that Leo is, in fact, female.. . and then the Tekken 7 site referred to Leo again with male pronouns, and Harada seems to simply think "well, think whatever you guys will"
• Vindicated by History: 4 was hated upon its release, but in recent days people have begun to appreciate it. . .
• Win Back the Crowd: 5 seems to have some element of this, following the (initial) poor reception of 4. Designing the stages closer to older Tekken games (infinite stages return and walled stages are much simpler in design), making the gameplay closer to 3, and bringing back a good number of characters missing (canonically) since Tekken 2 (quite a few of them presumed to be dead, due to the existence of Ogre).
• The Woobie:
  • Poor, poor Jin... He also plays triple duty as a Stoic Woobie and a Iron Woobie. He eventually gives in and succumbs to becoming a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. Or so it seems - he's more of a mix between Stoic and Jerkass Woobie, judging from 7.
  • Steve: a lesser example, but the dude's got it rough. The fact that he keeps going on and smiles as much as he can makes him one Hell of an Iron Woobie.
  • Dr. Bosconovitch. This guy seems to never have a good ending, or not least, not for long. He's kidnapped by Kazuya, his daughter dies (but appears to have be reanimated to some degree in the form of Alisa) and he's afflicted by a mysterious disease (thus requiring Ogre's blood), and Bryan severely injures him after Yoshimitsu saves Bryan's life and Dr. B. offers to repair Bryan.
    • This even extends to his cameo in TTT, where you can actually K.O. him with the bowling ball.
  • Anna is something of a Jerkass Woobie. A very tragic backstory involving her family, but she can be quite the bitch. However, there are hints that Anna is a bit softer than she lets on.
  • Xiaoyu has also had her Woobie moments, especially in Blood Vengeance.
  • Surprisingly, Kazuya and Heihachi get Jerkass Woobie vibes in 7. Kazumi, however? She's near 100% Woobie material.
  • Lars is pretty much Iron Woobie incarnate.