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Tekken series logo as of 2012

Tekken is one of Namco's most popular franchises, and possibly the most successful 3D Fighting Game series.

The game's plot starts with the Mishima Zaibatsu, a conglomerate of the very rich and corrupt Mishima family, run by Heihachi Mishima, sponsoring a tournament called King of Iron Fist. The winner is promised a huge prize... if they can beat Heihachi, that is. As it turns out, the tournament winner is... his VERY angry and disgruntled son, an apparently stoic man named Kazuya Mishima. Having been thrown into a ravine when he was only five years old by Heihachi himself, Kazuya survived due to a mysterious Devil Gene that he possessed, and trained himself so he could exact revenge. Heihachi, too late to realize Kazuya's devilish power, was soundly beaten and was thrown by Kazuya into the same ravine where he was thrown by Heihachi. Eventually, Heihachi comes back and reclaims his place in the Zaibatsu through winning the following tournament and then killing Kazuya by throwing him into a volcano. . .

The third game takes place after a Time Skip and deals with Kazuya's illegitimate son, a young man named Jin Kazama, who after the disappearance and apparent death of his birth mother (Jun Kazama, an Action Girl who appeared in the second game) has to deal with Heihachi and with his own share of the Devil Gene. The fourth deals with the return of Kazuya plus Jin's struggles, and later games continue to cover the struggle inside the Mishima family, with the Devil Gene complicating matters. . .

Tekken has been extremely successful in arcades (and later in console ports), with characters' fighting styles influenced by real life martial arts. The series contains seven games so far, as well as two dream tag match game called Tekken Tag Tournament. It has also spawned 3 separate movies; one traditionally animated, one live-action and a CG movie; there are also some pachinko games. Ports were exclusively to the PlayStation consoles until the 6th installment, which received an Xbox 360 port. The series has often been derided by the father of the Dead or Alive series, Tomonobu Itagaki; however, other fighting game developers (such as Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon), enjoy the series.

Lately, the series has been going from strength to strength; Tekken Tag Tournament 2 was confirmed in late 2010 to much fanfare and approval, and looks to be one of the most expansive and exciting entries of the series so far. Nintendo fans are finally seeing some Tekken love for the first time since Tekken Advance also, with Tekken 3D: Prime Edition for the Nintendo 3DS. Lastly, but certainly not least, the series is finally going head-to-head with its old rival, in the form of Street Fighter X Tekken and Tekken vs Street Fighter, 2 separate Crossover games developed by Capcom and Namco respectively (Sadly, the second was and is still is stuck in Development Hell). An updated version of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 Unlimited was released consoles, featuring handicap matches, one on one battles and character re-balancing.

Furthermore, a 3D CG movie based on the series (and developed by Namco itself) premiered in July 2011, called Tekken: Blood Vengeance, a semi-canonical movie expanding on the series lore of the Devil Gene. The movie saw a limited theatrical release, but saw most of its distribution via DVD and Blu-ray releases later in 2011, as well as being bundled with Tekken Hybrid (a Blu-ray which also includes Tekken Tag Tournament HD and a demo of Tekken Tag Tournament 2) and Tekken 3D: Prime Edition.

Tekken 7 was released in 2015 for the arcades and in 2016 / 2017 for X-Box One, Playstation 4, and PC, and it went strong for a long time strong thanks to the popularity of online battles and several DLC's. There's an anime series, Tekken: Bloodline, which was released by Netflix in mid-late 2022. Aaaaaand last but not least, Tekken 8 was FINALLY announced in September 2022, and released with huge successs in January 2024.

The series' many, many characters can all be found here.


This series provides example of:[]

  • Added Alliterative Appeal: Tekken Tag Tournament and its sequel.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: There's Kuma for Panda, Ganryu for Michelle, and later her replacement Julia, and Xiaoyu for Jin (he does care quite a bit for her, but swears by the "It's Not You, It's My Enemies" way so even if he does love her back. . .). And then, 8 all but makes Jin/Xiaoyu canon...
  • Ambiguous Gender: Leo. Word of God zigzags on whether they're a Pretty Boy, a Bifauxnen, nonbinary. . .
  • And Your Reward Is Clothes: Taken to an extreme in Tekken 6.
  • Anime Chinese Girl: Xiaoyu, despite being arguably the most stereotypically Japanese character. She doesn't even speak any form of Chinese. Possibly justified in that she's enrolled in a Japanese high school, having been taken to Japan personally by Heihachi after she impressed him by knocking out all of his security personnel on a Mishima Zaibatsu boat she snuck aboard.
  • Anime Hair: Pretty much all of the Mishima kin, as well as Paul.
    • Special mention must go to Lars, who looks like a Super Saiyan. Of course, he is Heihachi's secret son and so has inherited the Mishima blood (and hair), but NOT the Devil Gene..
  • Arrogant Kung Fu Guy: Feng, who was actually based on evil, arrogant kung fu movie villains.
  • Art Shift: For some reason, Xiaoyu's ending in Tekken 3 is in a 2D anime style with lots of Super-Deformed.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: This is how you take control of the Mishima Zaibatsu.
  • Ax Crazy: Bryan, complete with awesomely evil laugh. In fact, he gains health when Nina kicks him in the crotch. Or stomps on his crotch with her stiletto heels.
  • Badass: Everybody. It's a fighting game.
  • Badass Army: The Tekken Force.
  • Badass and Child Duo: In the early games Jack carries around Jane, a little girl whose parents he killed and who he subsequently adopted.
  • Badass Family: The Mishima clan, natch. And, in what could be seen as a subversion of Gameplay and Story Segregation, this even applies in-game. The Mishima family characters have consistently appeared in the top tiers of every Tekken game up until they were finally bumped down to upper-mid and mid-tier characters in Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion.
  • Badass Grandpa: Heihachi, Jinpachi, and Wang.
  • Back From the Dead: Kazuya (via G Corporation retrieving his remains and then experimenting on them), and Heihachi even does it twice. (But he seems to have died for real in 7)
  • Bait the Dog: In the first game, Kazuya was believed to be the typical stoic hero. He was a Villain Protagonist all along.
  • Balls of Steel: Tekken Tag Tournament featured a number of special intros/outros from combining certain pairs of fighters on your team. Several outros involving Nina Williams features her delivering her signature Groin Attack to her partner, causing him to crumble to the ground. If you pair her with Bryan Fury, however, she'll deliver the groin attack — but he laughs at it and does one of his taunts in response.
  • Beauty Is Never Tarnished
  • Big Bad: Heihachi in the first, third (with Ogre), and fourth games (w/ Kazuya), Kazuya in the second and fourth, Jinpachi in the fifth, Jin and Azazel in the sixth, and Kazumi Mishima (in a way) in the seventh. Basically, anyone who takes over the Mishima Zaibatsu becomes the Big Bad. It's subverted in 7: Heihachi and Kazuya take turns as Villain Protagonists, Jin is sorta Out of Focus but is set to be the Anti-Hero of the next game, and the actual bosses are: Kazumi, the ghost of Heihachi's wife / Kazuya's mother and not exactly a villainess; and Akuma (YES, THAT ONE) who's there to fill a promise he made to her.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: Heihachi and the Ogre in the third, and Kazuya, Jin, and Azazel in the sixth.
  • Big Damn Heroes: Lars' team of renegade Tekken Force members in Tekken 6's Console story mode.
  • Big Screwed-Up Family: The Mishima clan. Oh God, the Mishima. There is at least one murderous link between every one of the five, blood-linked family members who have appeared so far, spanning four generations. Pretty much the only one who's NOT fucked up is Lars, one of the two Heroic Bastards (the other being Jin)
    • The Williams' are also pretty rough, though this is one truly bad case of Sibling Rivalry gone horribly wrong.
  • Bishonen: Lee Chaolan, Hwoarang, Jin Kazama, Steve Fox.
  • Bilingual Bonus: Kuma is the Japanese word for Bear.
  • Bilingual Dialogue: Characters understand each other even though one speaks English, one speaks Japanese. They even understand what animals are talking about, when all they hear are growls.
    • This is taken further in Tag Tournament 2, where almost every character now speaks their respective native language (Leo speaks German, Lili French, and both Eddy and Christie Portuguese) as opposed to English in previous games.
    • This continues in 7: the above mentioned charas (save fore Christie, who's not in the game) still talk in their respective mother tongues, Miguel now has a Spanish VA in his cutscenes (though it seems Liam O'Brien still provides his in-game grunts), and newcomers like Katarina and Claudio talk in their native languages too. Averted by Lucky Chloe, who speaks in Japanese (thanks to Hisako Kanemoto) despite NOT being Japanese, and by Josie who speaks in English and not Filipino/Tagalog (to be fair, both are official languages in the Philippines).
    • It alsdo continues in 8 - the Peruvian Azucena speaks Spanish, the French Victor talks in French, and everyone understands them just fine.
  • Boss Rush: Tag Tournament 2 provides one; arguably the biggest (and only) one of the series thus far. Players must face a team of Heihachi and Jinpachi, followed by Ogre. The final boss is Jun Kazama herself, and when she is defeated, she transforms into Unknown. The player must defeat her to complete arcade mode.
  • Boxing Kangaroo: Roger and his family.
  • Bruce Lee Clone: Marshall and Forrest Law.
  • But for Me It Was Tuesday: Kazuya pulls this on Leo when confronted about the death of their mother, and Jin does something similar when Miguel confronts him on the death of his sister.
  • Button Mashing: Newbies love to do this using Eddy or Christie, and Hwoarang and Lili to a lesser extent. The CPU used to do this with Law in Tekken 2.
  • Calling the Old Man Out: Kazuya to Heihachi, later Jin to BOTH of them, and even later on Lars to Heihachi. And later Kazuya does it AGAIN to Heihachi, regarding Kazumi.
  • The Cameo: Snoop Dogg will appear in a special stage featuring background music from a single he performed just for Tag 2. Evidently he's a big Tekken fan.
  • Chainsaw Good: Alisa Boskonovitch is built and fights with this.
  • Character Roster Global Warming: Each game tends to feature two heavy characters, Jack and the bears. Now contrast this with the character roster of Tekken 6 and 7, which are gigantic.
  • Chef of Iron: Marshall Law, called "the fighting chef."
  • Comeback Mechanic: Tekken 6 has "Rage Mode", which activates when a character is low on life and does more damage the lower their life gets.
    • In Tekken Tag Tournament 2, it returns but tweaked so that the losing character's partner is the one who gets "Raged" and the only way to get the buff is to tag them in. Also, it goes away after a certain amount of time and there are moves the opponent can do to end Rage Mode instantly.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Kazuya during his reign as Zaibatsu CEO. Heihachi subverts this in that he uses the Zaibatsu behind the scene for his own machinations, but does a lot of good with the organization on the surface (legitimate good, not just Villain with Good Publicity stuff). Jin deliberately invokes the trope as a part of his Batman Gambit: he wants the world to see him as such, so the hatred gathered on him with help him lure out Azazel.
  • Crossover: Yoshimitsu's ancestor shows up in the Soul Series series.
  • Damage Sponge Boss: In Jack 6's level (Container Terminal 3) of the Scenario Campaign in 6, there's a Boss in Mook Clothing much like this. It rarely blocks because it doesn't need to; burning through its health on Hard mode will usually drain the timer before it can actually be brought down even with S-Class clothing (in most cases the endlessly swarming Jack bots are the real offensive threat). Most players opts to just knock it into the nearby water.
  • Dance Battler: Eddy and Christie, especially in her victory pose. There's even a mode that allows Eddy to dance, disco style. Disco ball included.
    • Not to mention Tiger, who is based on the original idea for Eddie, where he was an African American disco dancer rather than a Brazilian capoeria artist.
  • Deal with the Devil: Kazuya, especially in 4 where he fully merges with Devil and controls the Devil Gene.
  • Dedication: Played for Laughs at the end of Tekken Force Mode in Tekken 4. Upon beating the final stage, the words "Dedicated to all of the Tekken Force members who lost their lives in battle" will be shown, followed by a scrolling list of every named Tekken Force member you defeated as well as the specific moves you used to defeat them.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Azazel, Devil, Ogre.
  • Difficult but Awesome: Despite being the main characters of the franchise (which usually assures accessibility), the Mishima characters are probably among the most challenging to use (with very demanding move execution and movement technique for a good player). However (Tekken 6: Bloodline Rebellion not withstanding), a player who does understand their subtleties will have learned the best characters in the game.
  • Dirty Old Man: Put Wang against any of the girls (with the exception of Xiaoyu), and see for yourself. This becomes major Squick when he does it against Roger Jr..
  • Ditto Fighter: Mokujin, Tetsujin, Combot, Unknown.
  • Doing in the Wizard: The Mishima Clan's Devil powers seem to be attributed to a fluke of genetics in the later games, rather than anything supernatural, in 4. In 5 and 6, however, it's pretty clear that the genetic fluke in question does have a supernatural origin. Confirmed in 7... but as it turns out, it's not the Mishima's power to start with.
  • Dream Match Game/Gaiden Game: Tag Tournament. Tekken Tag Tournament 2 seems to be.
    • Heihachi lost about 40 years and Jinpachi isn't dead anymore. Pretty sure you've got a Dream Match Game on your hands.
      • On the other hand, this is hardly out of the realm of possibility. Heihachi's change is likely to stick for Tekken 7, given Daisuke Gouri's passing.
      • .... It didn't. Heihachi was back to his "normal" old self, and was voiced by Unsho Ishizuka. (And then Ishizuka died after 7....)
  • Easily Forgiven: King forgave Marduk for not only killing Armor King, but spitting on Armor King's name; basically they're now best buds. (Mostly because he realised that Marduk, even when he's a cad, has a family that he deeply loves) Armor King II, however...
  • Easter Egg: every game since at least the 3rd installment has featured hidden moves, win poses, or character specific actions not listed in the manual or the in-game movelists. Some are hardly noticeable (i.e. moves with extra particle effects or Asuka berating Jin while hitting him), while others are ridiculous over the top, and/or hilarious, (the Jacks malfunctioning and using their windmill punch when hit by a Devil laser, most male characters performing the Headbutt Carnival with Heihachi....)
    • Tekken Tag Tournament 2 has fun with this using the tag mechanics; King and Armor King, for example, can do a special KO throw where the point character will execute a powerbomb grab, then hold the opponent down for a pin whilst the other character runs in as a ref and taps the 3-count.
  • Embedded Precursor: Tekken 5 had the arcade versions of the first three games. It also included StarBlade, a Namco space shooter from the early 1990s.
  • Everything's Better with Bob
  • Everything Is Worse With Bears: Kuma.
  • Everythings Funkier With Disco: Tiger, so very much.
  • Evil Laugh: Bryan.
  • Evil vs. Evil: Mishima Zaibatsu vs G Corporation.
  • Expy: Lars Alexandersson, which looks a lot like Archer. As a bonus, Lars is voiced by the same voice actor as Archer.
    • Take a look at Julia's ending in Tekken 6, then have fun making up Lara Croft.
    • Leo looks a lot like Rock Howard.
  • Extremity Extremist: Steve, Hwoarang and Baek.
  • Fallen Hero: Kazuya, quite literally when Heihachi threw him on a cliff.
    • Heihachi inverts this as a fallen villain when Kazuya pays him back. His reply? "You should have found a steeper cliff."
    • Like his father, Jin has gone from primary good guy to even worse than those who came before him. Not, he did not. He DOES want the world to hate him, however, and when it doesn't work he becomes The Atoner with Lars and Lee's help.
  • Flash Step: Lars has a lot of this.
  • Generation Xerox: This series lives on this trope. If a Legacy Character doesn't make an appearance in the latest installment, expect a new character to show up with most of, if not all of their moves.
    • This is especially interesting when the Legacy Character and the new character appear in the same game: Hwoarang/Baek, Eddy/Christie, Michelle/Julia, Asuka/Jun, and in Tekken Tag Tournament, the record is Jack-2/P. Jack/Gun Jack in the same game.
    • This occasionally leads to Divergent Character Evolution: in the original Tekken, all of the bosses were basically the original 8 again with a few moves borrowed from other fighters. Lee Chaolan was originally Marshall Law with Paul Phoenix's jumpkicks, in Tekken 6, the character is very different.
    • In-story: a fearless and cute-looking female martial artist interacts with an angry young man whose heart is ensnared by darkness, and wishes to save him from it. Is this blurb about Jun Kazama and Kazuya Mishima, or is it about Ling Xiaoyu and Jin Kazama?
  • Goldfish Poop Gang: As of 6, it's Marshall Law, Steve Fox, and Paul Phoenix.
  • Glowing Eyes of Doom: Kazuya Mishima's left eye glows red as of Tekken 4, either because of the Mishima bloodline's Devil Gene, or his resurrection by G Corporation. Mokujin, as well, though his aren't really evil as much as an indicator of evil. The wooden dummy comes to life whenever an evil force arises.
  • Hollywood Old: Guys like Baek, Kazuya, Law or Paul were allowed to look older in later installments. Women? Not a chance. Nina and Anna, who were there from the beginning, still appear in their late 20's/early 30's due to cryosleep. Michelle was simply written out and replaced with her daughter Julia, and Xiaoyu has barely grown a bit since she first came in. Only Julia evolved from teenager to 20-something.
    • Actually, the first King was killed off by Ogre so the one from later games is his disciple - and was a kid raised in his Orphanage of Love. Kazuya was fully intended to be replaced by Jin, but was brought back because fans adored him THAT much.
  • In Name Only: The naming of Tekken 3D: Prime Edition is somewhat redundant, as there's no other edition of the game at all. It's probably to prevent potential confusion if it were simply called Tekken 3D though.
  • Jerkass: Kazuya and Heihachi. Oh, boy.
  • Joke Character: Dr. Bosconovitch and Gon in the PSX port of Tekken 3. Kuma, Panda, Roger, and Alex qualify, as well. Ironically, Dr. Bosconovitch was arguably the best character in Tekken 3.
  • Just Like Robin Hood: Yoshimitsu, who takes after his ancestor.
    • In Tekken 6, he gains an item that allows him to dance in a circle and scatter gold coins around.
  • Kevlard: Bob purposely gained weight so he could have this advantage.
  • Killed Off for Real: The first King, and the current Armor King's brother.
    • Tekken 5's roster seemingly defies this trope, bringing back a whole slew of Tekken 2 sub-bosses who were thought to have perished against Ogre (due to Ogre possessing some of their moves). Some of their stories claim they never even crossed paths with him.
    • Jun is believed to be this and Jin certainly believes that Ogre killed her, but Word of God states that she's just missing. If her being Unknown is 100% upgraded to canon outside the Tag Team games... oh boooooooy...
  • Kissing Cousins: Parodied - in Asuka's ending, her (apparently distant) cousin Jin passes out on her. . .and ends up in her cleavage. In quite a slapstick manner.
  • Legacy Character: King and Yoshimitsu.
  • Losing Your Head: Alisa Boskonovitch. She can even detonate it and materialize a new one.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Steve Fox, Nina Williams is your Hot Mom.
  • Mask Power: King and Armor King.
  • Mega Corp: The Mishima Zaibatsu and the G Corporation. In Tekken 6, Jin is using the former to try and Take Over the World (supposedly) and the latter [run by his father, Kazuya] is his only opponent.
  • Missing Trailer Scene: A weird video game example (albeit, minor). One trailer for Tekken 6 showed NANCY-MI847J's stage as being playable in a standard fight. This is not an option, even via random select.
  • The Movie: A grand total of 3 (completely canonically separate) movies exist; Tekken the Motion Picture (an OVA made in 1998), Tekken (a live action movie made in 2010, which was not supervised by Namco and later disowned by Harada), and Blood Vengeance (a 3D CG movie supervised by Namco and written by Dai Sato of Cowboy Bebop fame) .
  • Mr. Fanservice: Jin Kazama, HOLY SHIT, Jin Kazama. Steve, Lei, Eddy, Hwoarang, the Laws, Lars, Lee, Baek, Bryan, Miguel and Claudio are VERY easy on the eyes, too. Heck, Kazuya is an asshole but he's not exactly ugly either.
  • Ms. Fanservice: Christie. And Anna, if you can get the death cam to shoot at the right angle...
    • Many of the playable female characters, actually. Some with more revealing costume options than others. Christie's got the most Stripperiffic ones in Tekken 6, not to mention her normal fighting stance really shows off the Jiggle Physics.
  • Ninja: Raven, Master Raven and Kunimitsu (both of them). Yoshimitsu will tell you he is but he's a bit over the top and Raven gets pissy when he says this.
  • Nature Hero: Julia Chang, and Michelle Chang before her. Jun Kazama was this mixed with angelic spiritual qualities.
  • Nobody Poops: Averted in Law's Tekken 6 ending. Paul, Law and Steve had agreed to share the prize money, but Law uses laxatives to incapacitate them and give him enough time to steal all the money for himself (what a Jerkass). Paul's ending also implies that Law used these laxatives throughout the tournament to cheat their way to victory.
  • No Export for You: it seems Tekken 3 will never see the light of day on the European (it's the PAL region, big surprise here) Playstation Store. Apparently, it's because of Gon's presence alone, as Jawad Ashraf of SCEE himself confirmed on April 11th, 2011 a bit too nonchalantly:
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  • No One Could Survive That: Just look at Bryan's Tekken 3 and 6 endings... and Heihachi too, in Tekken 5.
  • No Celebrities Were Harmed: The Law family, Lei Wulong, and Raven look like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, and Wesley Snipes, respectively. Also, Marduk has a strong resemblance to Australian wrestler Nathan Jones who had a brief WWE stint. Not surprising since Marduk's look was actually based on him. (In fact, Jones plays Marduk in the Live Action Adaptation.)
  • Not Even Bothering with the Accent: Several (though not all) English-speaking characters from non-American countries all have American accents instead of the ones you'd expect them to have. For example: Nina and Anna (Irish), Steve (British), Leo (German), Eddy and Christie (Brazilian), Marduk (Australian), Lili (Monégasque - well, French for extension), Bosconovitch (Russian), and so on. Lei was initially a subversion, until his Chinese accent suddenly became American in Tekken 6 (it is, however, a Hong Kong English accent, so this might be a Double Subversion).
    • Also the main characters in 6's Story Mode. Lars is Swedish and Alisa is a robot made by a Russian. They for some reason decide that the optimal language to speak would be perfect Japanese.
      • Alisa is arguable, considering she is a robot and can be programmed to speak Japanese. Lars seems to not have excuse. . . but as it turns out, he's half Japanese (and his father is Heihachi) and has been working for a Japanese company for a while already, it would make sense that he would be bilingual. It's actually not too strange since Lars himself is well aware how big a deal his Japanese father is and that he probably have to deal with issues revolving around his father's family sooner or later. In the end, the final decision to make him speak Japanese is probably its easier that way while still remaining feasible.
    • Most of the characters in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 speak their native languages like Hwoarang speaking Korean (which has been done ever since Tekken 4), Steve with a British accent and Leo with German. The Japanese characters (with the half-Japanese Lars included) speak Japanese as always. The Williams sisters don't speak Irish English, though someone suggested in a forum somewhere that it was probably due to their time in cryosleep experiments.
    • Xiaoyu has always spoken in Japanese, even when she's Chinese and her relative Wang speaks in Chinese. Justified since she's been living in Japan for years already.
  • Not Just a Tournament: In Tekken 2, Kazuya announces the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 2 to get rid of Heihachi and his other enemies. In Tekken 3, Heihachi announces the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 3 to lure Ogre out in order to capture him using the contestants (and especially Jin) as bait. In Tekken 4, Heihachi needs to get the devil gene to become immortal so he announces the King of the Iron Fist Tournament 4 to lure Kazuya and Jin out to obtain the devil gene. In 5, Jinpachi announces the tournament to find someone who will be strong enough to kill him before he's completely taken over by a demon. And in 6, Jin uses the tournament as a part of his Thanatos Gambit
  • The Old Convict: Eddie Gordo's backstory from Tekken 3 is that he was framed by the Mishimas (but later it's implied that his dad asked him to take the blame so the real murderers wouldn't reach him in prison), and while in prison, was trained in Capoeira by the oldest convict interned there. Distaff Counterpart Christie Monteiro is the old man's granddaughter, whom Eddy trained in Capoeira at the man's request.
  • Old Master: Wang Jinrei.
  • Older Than They Look: Nina and Anna are in their 40s from Tekken 3 onwards, but still look as though they're in their 20s due to their time in cryogenic sleep. Also, Lee is approaching 50, but you wouldn't think it just from looking at him. Lei used to avert it, but in 7 he suddenly looked older than before. . .
  • One-Winged Angel: Several characters in the series have their own one-winged angel forms:
    • Kazuya has Devil (the final boss of Tekken 2), who can fly, shoot lasers, and has purple skin. Since Devil's last appearance in Tag Tournament, Kazuya has fully accepted his demonic powers and it shows. (For reference, he uses Devil's lasers in the Street Fighter/Tekken crossover and can transform into Devil in Tag Tournament 2.)
    • His son, Jin, has been "cursed" to inherit his father's devil gene. Since the fifth game, a second Jin aka Devil Jin has been playable. This version of Jin is not only batshit insane, but embraces his devil powers and uses them in combat, in conjunction with a new fighting style (a mix of the Mishima-style Karate that normal Jin unlearned and the more traditional Karate that post-Tekken 4 Jin uses).
    • Even the supposedly innocent Jun Kazama is not safe from this trope. Tag Tournament 2 shows her one-winged angel form is Unknown, the final boss of the Tag Tournament games. Junknown uses other characters' fighting styles (ala Mokujin) but can willingly change her style mid-battle (not like Mokujin).
    • Tekken 3 has Ogre (the Final Boss, mind you) and True Ogre. The upgrade from Ogre to True Ogre comes with a somewhat Nightmare Fuel-esque change in apperance as well as a power upgrade. Oh, and he can fly.
    • Another Final Boss example is Tekken 6's Azazel. Fulfill the right conditions, and a powerful golden Azazel (confirmed in 6's Scenario Campaign to be Azazel's ultimate form) can be fought in the place of the normal variant.
    • Yet another example in the form of Jinpachi Mishima. His true demonic form is fought as Tekken 5's final boss (worth noting that a fiery variant is fought as the final boss of 5: Dark Resurrection.) This is actually more of an inversion, as Jinpachi's (supposedly) regular form can be used as a playable character in Tag Tournament 2 (where he is downgraded to a sub-boss; being a sub-boss battle with Heihachi).
    • And then 7 has. . . the ghost of Kazuya's mother, Kazumi Mishima, the one who actually brought the Devil Gene into the Mishima clan. It's even done in a a rather Jun -> Unknown-esque manner.
  • One Steve Limit: Subverted in the fandom. Hwoarang's nickname "Bob" is complicated, now that there's an actual Bob in the character roster. Possibly it's because Tekken was making fun of serious tournament players who started using "Bob" because they couldn't pronounce Hwoarang's name properly.
  • Pandaing to the Audience: Xiaoyu's pet panda, Panda.
  • Panty Shot
  • Pet the Dog: In Kazuya's 5 ending, he is shown to respect Jinpachi (he's the only person he talks to formally, to start with) and even remembers the good old days training with him before making the Deal with the Devil... and then kills his grandpa.)
    • The Scenario Campaign's Prologue in 6 has Kazuya narrating his experiences in the second tournament. When he talks about Jun, he refers to her as a fearless woman with a mysterious aura - the closest to a sincere compliment he's given to any woman.
  • Pimped-Out Dress: A few outfits, especially in 5.
  • Power Tattoo: Jin's devil tattoo. Claudio has one on his face and another in his arm, anmd they appear and disappear depending on whether he uses his powers or not.
  • Practical Taunt: Lee Chaolan has one where he leans back and wags his finger at his opponent, beckoning them to come at him. While this may look like a taunt, it also has the more prominent utility of being an alternate stance that gives him access to moves that are great at countering a reckless charge, which is the likely reaction for someone who falls for the taunt.
  • Preorder Bonus: Pre-ordering Tag Tournament 2 gave players access to a Snoop Dogg stage, with the Doggfather himself appearing in the background. Snoop even provides the BGM for his stage; a single recorded just for the game.
  • Promoted to Unlockable
  • Recovery Attack: starting with the third game in the series.
  • The Rival: Hwoarang to Jin and to a smaller degree Steve, Lili to Asuka, Kuma to Paul, Lee to Kazuya, King and Marduk, the members of the Mishima family to each other, Nina to Anna.
  • The Ojou: Lili, a more battle happy of the Spoiled Brat type.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Almost everybody has this, usually coming back to the tournaments for revenge. In fact, Kazuya's whole life has been a big one against Heihachi for his abuse, his mother's death, and other things.
    • Miguel, oh Miguel. First, his sister and Morality Chain was killed in a Mishima Zaibatsu raid. Then, he joined La Résistance and many of his newfound friends died fighting the Zaibatsu. Any wonder why he's so fucking angry at Jin?
  • Rule of Cool: Realistically, certain characters like Kuma, Panda, Roger Jr., Yoshimitsu, and Alisa should not have been allowed into fighting tournaments alongside humans, for the simple reason that they'd kill all of their opponents within seconds. Then again, who cares about being realistic when you can pit a panda bear against a kangaroo?
  • Running Gag: Lee Chaolan's Thumbs Up. And his "EXELLENT".
  • Ryu and Ken: Eddy and Christie. As of Tag 2, that also extends to Kuma and Panda.
  • Samus Is a Girl: Kunimitsu was a Palette Swap of Yoshimitsu in the first game, but clearly female in subsequent installments. Leo now counts too. Though the 7 site calls them a boy, Harada refers to them as girl. Oh, boy. . .
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Ogre, Jinpachi, and Azazel.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Baek Doo San, according to his backstory.
    • The Mishima wish they were... Kazuya seems to have finally attained it in 7 via killing Heihachi in Story Mode. And, at the very end of said Story Mode, Jin promises Lars that he will do it to Kazuya so he stop the war he began.
  • Shock and Awe: Though it doesn't actually electrocute anyone, the Mishima characters (Lars included) all emit some kind of electricity when they make a hard hit. As of Tekken 6 there are hints that this actually factors into their heritage (based on Kazuya's comments to Lars during the final stage of Scenario Campaign), though the actual electricity may only be a visualization.
  • Shout-Out: Especially in regards of King and Professional Wrestling. Some of the customization items as well. CLAMP designed a special costume for Jin in celebration of the console release of Tekken 6. It's Lelouch vi Britannia's emperor outfit from R2, minus the Nice Hat. And that's not all: other notable names in anime made costumes for some characters. Masashi Kishimoto has made a costume for Lars Alexandersson. He looks kinda like Deidara, but without the Akatsuki robe. Said outfit will making an appearance in Naruto Shippuden Ultimate Ninja Storm 2. Yoshimitsu gets a bonus costume in the pre-order version of 6 — the Cardboard Tube Samurai. In the same game, Julia has thigh holsters, grenades, short shorts and boots. Now think about that as you watch her ending and ask if that reminds you of anyone.
    • To go along with the above Julia example, Marshall Law gains some customizations that pretty clearly give him the appearance of Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken. As both men derive inspiration from Bruce Lee, this is a justified nod.
      • Tekken 6 also lets the player buy a series of tracksuits for Marhsall Law with the yellow tracksuit costing around three times as much as the rest
    • The shootout scene in the Tekken Tag Tournament intro's PS2 version is said to have been a nod to Terminator 2.
  • Shown Their Work: Come on, a luchador who spends all his money on a Mexican orphanage and--holy shit.
    • And of course, the martial arts displayed are impressively well researched.
  • SNK Boss: All of the bosses have some cheap trick up their sleeve. True Ogre, Devil, Jinpachi, and Azazel spam ranged attacks (most of which can't be blocked) and have insane combos - the latter two have insanely cheap stun movies that will stop any combo in its tracks. Unknown has an insane health bar and regenerates health to make up for her lack of cheap moves.
  • Someone to Remember Him By: Subverted. Kazuya did die at the hands of Heihachi when Jun was pregnant with their son Jin... but then his remains were retrieved by G Corporation, a top biotech firm that experimented on his remains and revived him to (consensually) make him their top experiment subject. And with time, he'd kill them all and become the chairman of the group. And he'd also become Jin's Archnemesis Dad.
  • Spank the Cutie: When Anna defeats Lee in her Tekken 5 story mode, she sits on his back and spanks him.
    • In COMBOT's ending for Tekken 4, Lee shows up to yell at him when he's busy celebrating in front of everyone else. He promptly gets spanked and thrown aside.
    • Also happens in Tekken Tag Tournament when you choose Lee and Heihachi.
    • Prototype Jack gained this as a side throw in Tag.
    • Heihachi's item move in Tekken 6 lets him spank anyone, adopted son or otherwise. As a bonus, said item is a Tiger Coat - and it makes him look like a pimp.
  • Spinning Out of Here: Yoshimitsu possesses a special in his Indian mediation stance allowing him to spin so fast (while sitting down) that he instantly warps on the other side of his opponent.
  • Status Quo Is God: Averted in some aspects, played straight in others. As of the seventh game, the storyline spans 24-25 years and it shows: technology evolves, characters age and some are outright Killed Off for Real. However, some older character plots seem to be stuck in perpetual limbo, perhaps because they've been around for a long while and nobody has any idea what to do with them (Paul wants to win the tournament, Law's short on money, Hwoarang has a rivalry with Jin, Xiaoyu has a crush on Jin AND wants to end the Mishima mess, Nina & Anna have issues, Julia wants to be a Nature Hero). Things might change after 7, however, now that Heihachi has died and everything shouts that this time he will NOT be Back From the Dead.
  • The Stoic: Sergei Dragunov. At times, to hilarious extents.
  • Stripperiffic: Christie, Zafina, Katerina.
  • Super-Powered Evil Side: Devil Jin and, uh, Devil himself, being Kazuya's actual evil conscience.
  • Take That: Bob is a Take That at tournament players who called Hwoarang "Bob" because they couldn't pronounce his name.
  • Time Skip: Nineteen years between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3. 4 then jumps ahead another two years.
  • Tragic Hero: Jin. Being Good Sucks big time if you're a Mishima.
  • Translation Convention: Tekken 6 has the character speaking in different languages (Bear!) and perfectly understanding each other. Thank Namco there's subtitles.
    • Briefly Subverted in Tekken 4, where Jin speaks heavily-accented, broken English to Hwoarang in an ending cutscene.
    • Taken Up to Eleven in Tekken Tag 2 and 7, now almost every single character is speaking their native language, not just a variant of English, Japanese and Chinese from the previous games.
  • Unknown Rival: Paul considers himself Kazuya's biggest rival, though he's largely ignored. Applies for Jin and Hwoarang later on in the series.
    • After Tekken 2, Paul's pretty much stopped caring about Kazuya and moved onto Kuma, who genuinely dislikes him.
    • Lili and Asuka is another example. In the 6th game, Lili is determined to defeat Asuka, but the latter couldn't really care less...
    • Jin's actually aware that Hwoarang wants a piece of him (in fact, he even remembers why) but he simply can't be bogged down with matters like this. It's an unusual case of It's Not You, It's My Enemies that applies to a rival rather than a loved one. And since Devil Jin almost beat Hwoa to death at the end of 5, it's justified
  • Use Your Head: Hoo, boy. The Mishimas are not above headbutting you during a fight. Heck, all the Mishimas and the animals will headbutt you when given the chance.
  • Villain Protagonist: Kazuya, in the first game.
    • Jin, in 6... sort of.
  • Villain with Good Publicity: Heihachi.
    • Kazuya becomes this in 6, hailed as a 'savior' by the people by the now-tyrannical Zaibatsu under the Face-Heel Turned Jin.
  • The Voiceless: King and Armor King. Because all their "dialogue" is just unintelligible growls. Dragunov, who just doesn't talk at all - although Word of God and the Scenario Campaign of Tekken 6 confirm that he is capable of speech, he just doesn't like to do it very often. Roger and Alex also can't talk properly, but they are animals...
  • We Can Rebuild Him: Bryan. And Kazuya, who is brought back by the G Corporation after being thrown into a volcano by Heihachi.
  • "Well Done, Son" Guy: Lee is desperate for his adoptive father Heihachi's respect; he's never come anywhere near getting it. By the time of 4, though, he's decided to settle for humiliating him.
    • The same with Jin and Kazuya towards Heihachi. Heihachi himself towards Jinpachi? He never asked a "Well Done" treatment from him. He preferred a more... direct... way of getting glory. By displacing and imprisoning Jinpachi. Essentially, Heihachi has no intention of doing anything that looks like relinquishing power to anyone, even a son or grandson. "Well Done, Son" Guy is not going to work on someone who doesn't believe in reciprocal respect in the first place, only power.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?: Kunimitsu, Tiger, Alex, and COMBOT. The Kunimitsu that shows up as a DLC in 7 is the original one's daughter and pupil, not her..
  • Wham! Line: In 6: "Alisa, disable safe mode. And then reboot." We all knew it was coming, but still pretty cool.
  • White-Haired Pretty Boy: Lee.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: In Raven's ending, Dragunov does, but misses. In Dragunov's ending, he takes a different approach.
  • Why Won't You Die?: Heihachi and Kazuya supposedly "died" several times during the games' events, often with one killing the other. In the case of Kazuya, it's justified: his corpse was found by the G Corporation, who resurrected him and then got him to willingly become their experiment subject.
  • World War III: According to Tekken 6, Jin has begun using the Mishima Zaibatsu for world conquest and declared war on several nations until the whole world itself is at war. Although it's not conquest he's after, but trying to plunge the world into enough strife and horror that the demon Azazel, the source of the Devil Gene will gain material form — and thus be killable, which will eliminate the Gene and kill the two of them. The war is still going on as of 7, with Kazuya's G Corporation and a Zaibatsu again under the thumb of Heihachi ducking it out, while Lee's Violet Corporation is getting ready to counter both now that Lee has become the Big Good and allies himself with Lars and the now back to Anti-Hero-ism Jin.
  • Wrestler in All of Us: The game features two fighters, King and Armor King, who are wrestlers. But that doesn't explain Heihachi Mishima (a karate master) busting out powerbombs, or kickboxer Bryan Fury's DDT, or even (Kenpo and Xing Yi practitioners) Michelle and Julia Chang's range of suplexes... the reason? Wrestling moves are cool!
    • In Julia's Twisted Sister throw, especially cool. Even Jun has a couple of wrestling moves, though to be fair they are common, and lest we forget Goldber--sorry, Craig Marduk.
    • Christy and Eddie can do a float-over DDT while Michelle and Julia can do tiger suplexes.
    • Julia returns in Tekken Tag 2 as "Jaycee" and gets a luchador outfit by default. Guess she really did wrestle on the side.
  • Xanatos Gambit: Jin let Alisa be captured by the rebels, as she had cameras set up inside her to record their every move. Being able to activate her 'Kill them all' programming at any moment was another plus too.
  • Yakuza: The Mishima Zaibatsu seems to draw lots of inspiration not just from the real-life Zaibatsu, but from this.
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