Image: Netflix
Tekken is getting an anime adaptation on Netflix later in 2022, following the story of Jin Kazama.
Tekken is getting its first anime series adaptation on Netflix later this year. Titled Tekken: Bloodline, the series was revealed with an official teaser trailer following Jin Kazama, a fighter who joined the gaming franchise back in 1996’s Tekken 3. The anime will arrive on Netflix in 2022.
Watch the teaser below:
Tekken: Bloodline seems to have the blessing of Tekken's game director Katsuhiro Harada, who retweeted the trailer and asked fans to check it out. If you’ve been following Tekken’s generation-spanning lore of the Mishima family, you might have to give this show a watch to get the full picture. At least two central characters in Tekken lore appear in this trailer: Jin Kazama himself and his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima.
The story follows Jin Kazama as he picks up a fighting style unique to the Kazama family from his mother at a young age, before a monstrous evil appears and changes his life permanently. Swearing revenge against these evildoers, Jin trains with Heihachi Mishima and eventually takes the fight to the King of Iron Fist Tournament - even if Heihachi’s training methods aren’t as kind as his mother’s.
The teaser also hints at other familiar faces from the games making appearances in the anime. Jin’s mother Jun Kazama trains Jin, and Jin later faces off with the monstrous Ogre. Leroy Smith, King and Paul Phoenix also pop up in the teaser. Who knows how many other characters from the games might pop up at the tournament?
Netflix has a ton of videogame adaptations in the works, and many of them are animated. DOTA: Dragon’s Blood, Arcane and Cuphead have already debuted on the streaming service, but other shows like Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Devil May Cry, Sonic Prime, Tomb Raider, Far Cry and Splinter Cell are chugging along in development. Gaming and anime have a lot of history together, and it looks like that relationship is only going to grow with time.