Even after nine mainstream games, eight spin-offs, three live-action feature films, two animated films, and several comic book stints, the Mishima bloodline continues to thrive. Introduced in the 1994 Bandai Namco video game Tekken, the infamous family of deadly, selfish corporates and supernatural martial artists has been a driving factor in every single installment that followed. Their convoluted and violent family history will once again be the central storyline in the upcoming anime, Tekken: Bloodline, Netflix’s anime adaptation of the beloved fighting game series.
Loosely set between the events of Tekken 2 and the beginning of Tekken 3 video games, viewers will be entering a dystopian world full of pain, horror, and years of generational emotional damage through the eyes of a young Jin Kazama. Those who are familiar with the game’s canon lore know the character as being an important figure in every game following Tekken 3, after being the main protagonist in the aforementioned sequel. Though the same storyline was the basis for the 2010 live-action movie Tekken, infamous for having a 0% Rotten Tomatoes rating, the new anime adaptation
he anime will see the return of a string of fan-favorite characters (aside from the beloved Mishimas, of course), and a slightly different narrative than that of the Tekken video games, which will be discussed in the later sections. So while you wait for a return to The King of Iron Fist Tournament, have a look at all the information we have compiled below about everything we know so far about the upcoming Tekken: Bloodline anime series.
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When Is Tekken: Bloodline’s Release Date?
Tekken: Bloodline’s release date was announced in the new official trailer published by Netflix on July 19, 2022. The trailer revealed the release date of the first season of the much-awaited anime adaptation to be August 18, 2022. With that announcement, Tekken has become the latest to join Netflix’s long string of video game adaptations, which includes famous titles like DOTA, Resident Evil, and Arcane, with several others like BioShock, Devil May Cry, and Dragon Age: Absolution on the way.
The official trailer for Tekken: Bloodline runs for a full 2 minutes and 29 seconds, and takes up right after where the first official teaser left. A young Jin Kazama is seen training with his mom, Jun Kazama, who is teaching him the Kazama style of self-defense. He remembers his mother’s instructions of keeping his rage in check in what seems like a dream sequence. However, all hell breaks loose when his house is stormed by an unknown entity, and Jin and his mom are forced to fight him. The muscular being (who many Tekken veterans know as the Ancient Ogre) utterly outclasses them, and Jun instructs her son to run. Jin faints and wakes up moments later to find all that he cared for in ruins.
The official teaser that was released back in March earlier this year set up the tone for the official trailer, which promises “blood will be shed” in the Netflix series. There’s an added clip from Jin’s younger days, where he is seen retracing his mother’s teachings of pacifism and keeping one’s emotions in check while being battered by a bunch of bullies. Several fan-favorite characters also make an appearance in both the teaser and the trailer, and there’s a very brief snap of Ogre’s true form
Who Are the Cast and Crew of Tekken: Bloodline?
The show’s release was hinted at in Netflix’s Geeked Week 2022 by none other than the director of the Tekken game series and General Manager at Bandai Namco, Katsuhiro Harada. He jokingly apologizes to Jin for the hardships he throws at him in the same video, and says, “I’m sorry for putting you through so many awful things.”
While Netflix has yet to announce which studio is handling the animation, Yoshikazu Miyao, who has previously directed animes like Magi: Adventure of Sinbad and Tokyo Revengers, posted on Twitter that his studio, Barnstorm Design Labo, is working on the Tekken anime.
Even though the trailer and the teaser have been released in English dub, the cast behind the voices for the English version hasn’t been revealed yet. However, voice actors for the Japanese dub were revealed along with the trailer via the Netflix Japan Anime Twitter account. They are listed below:
Tekken: Bloodline is loosely based on the plot of the critically acclaimed video game, Tekken 3. In Tekken 3, Jin is separated from his mother, who is seemingly killed by Ogre. Ogre is a monster who seemingly has some kind of connection to the Mishima bloodline, and the last thing Jin remembers about the fight is his mother instructing him to seek out his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima. Heihachi agrees to train Jin in the most brutal fashion, breaking down everything he ever believed in and turning his body into a living weapon. Jin is driven by a thirst for revenge and participates in The King of Iron Fist Tournament to lure out the Ogre, who has been theorized to actively seek out the strongest fighters. The trailer perfectly sets up Jin’s struggle to the top, and his anticipated final bout with the beast in his true form in a split-second snap in the clip. Here’s the official synopsis of the Tekken: Bloodline storyline:
