Kazuya Mishima

For fighter info, see Kazuya (SSBU).

Kazuya
Official artwork of Kazuya from Tekken 6 and Tekken 7.
Universe	Tekken
Debut	Tekken (1994)
Smash Bros. appearances	Ultimate
Most recent non-Smash appearance	Tekken 8 (2024)
Console/platform of origin	Arcade
Species	Human (augmented via the Devil Gene)
Gender	Male
Place of origin	Japan
Created by	Seiichi Ishii
Voice actor	Masanori Shinohara
Article on Wikipedia	Kazuya Mishima

Kazuya Mishima (三島 一八, Mishima Kazuya) is a major character from the Tekken series of fighting games. He is the main protagonist of the first Tekken game, but becomes one of the main antagonists of the Tekken series after the second installment.

Origin

Official artwork of Devil Kazuya from Tekken Pachislot 2nd.

Kazuya is a recurring character in the Tekken series and first appeared in Tekken in arcades. In the first game he would serve as the main protagonist, seeking to get revenge on his father and stop his plans of conquering the world. In later games he would typically act as the main antagonist, taking over his father's evil organization and plans for world domination.

Kazuya was trained in marital arts at a very young age under the guidance of his father, Heihachi Mishima, and grandfather, Jinpachi Mishima. His mother, Kazumi Mishima;a carrier of the Devil Gene whose home clan, the Hachijos are one of the descendant clans of Azazel's original servants, discovered that Kazuya had inherited the Devil Gene, offering him the possibility of transforming into a demon. It is revealed that Mishima clan had been on a war against Azazel's army since ancient times, and Kazuya inherits the bloodlines of both opposing sides. At the age of five, Kazumi would die and Kazuya would soon find out that Heihachi was responsible. Kazuya would confront his father, but he is easily defeated and thrown off of a cliff as punishment for his weakness. Heihachi also used the punishment as a way to test if Kazuya had the Devil Gene, as that would be the only way he could survive and, if he did survive, be strong enough to succeed Heihachi and inherit the Mishima Zaibatsu. Kazuya nearly dies from the fall, but the incident causes his Devil Gene to activate and his demonic powers to awaken, allowing him to climb back out of the ravine.

Following this incident, Kazuya continued to train to prepare his revenge against his father. At the age of 26, he participates in the first King of Iron Fist Tournament that Heihachi organized. The winner of this tournament would be rewarded with a large sum of money. Kazuya participates in hopes of revenge and of taking the family business for himself. Making it to the final fight against his father, Kazuya defeats Heihachi with his Devil Kazuya form, and throws his body off the same cliff from which Heihachi threw him off of as a child.

After the end of this tournament and the apparent death of Heihachi, Kazuya inherits his father's corporate empire. This sudden influx of wealth and power renders Kazuya obsessed with surpassing his father in every way, and his growing avarice desire, combined with his Devil's power is what cause Azazel to grow stronger for years prior to its reawakening sometimes later. Under his control, the Mishima Zaibatsu becomes an even more ruthless and oppressive military force, seizing Hokkaido to create an independent nation, illegally experimenting on endangered animal species, as well as kidnapping, subjugating, and even killing potential threats to his leadership. Two years after the end of the first tournament, Kazuya announces the second King of Iron Fist Tournament to prove his dominance.

During the events of Tekken 2, Kazuya meets a woman named Jun Kazama, who attempts to stop the Zaibatsu's illegal animal trading. Kazuya became attracted by her strange presence and unknowingly impregnated her, later resulting in the birth of Jin Kazama, named after Kazuya's late grandfather, Jinpachi, when Kazuya explains to her about a happy childhood life he had once prior to his fifth birthday. Jun's presence also caused Kazuya to question his corrupted lifestyle, but he proceeds with the tournament regardless. The final opponent is Heihachi, who had survived his fall and came out of hiding to take revenge on his son. Despite Kazuya unlocking his Devil form as a last resort, Heihachi reigns victorious. He throws Kazuya into an active volcano from a helicopter, whereupon he is presumed dead.

In Tekken 3, Kazuya doesn't make a formal appearance due to being in the hands of a mysterious biotech firm known as G Corporation, which helped him recover. Due to his loss in Tekken 2, his son would inherit half of Kazuya's Devil. Later in Tekken 4, Kazuya would attempt to assimilate Jin's Devil into him, but was unsuccessful. He speculated that the Kazama blood within him was preventing the merger. As it turns out, Kazuya's human half had been letting his Devil-half took over his body, and used a momentary distraction to regain control of his body, consequently gaining permanent command over his other half, and merging into a unified being.

During Tekken 5, Kazuya enters the tournament to remain focus on finding and disposing the G Corporation executives who betrayed him, and seized the company's leadership. Afterwards, in later games, Kazuya must settle his score against both Heihachi and Jin, where Azazel re-awakens at the same time the existence of the Devil Gene becomes known to the public, as well as learning the truth about his mother, Kazumi, from Akuma (a guest character from Street Fighter in Tekken 7).

In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Prior to his formal debut as a DLC character (see below), Kazuya is referenced in the reveal trailer for the Heihachi Mii Brawler costume, where Heihachi's throwing of Kazuya into a volcano is referenced with Wolf being used as a stand-in for Kazuya.

As a playable character

Kazuya as he appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Kazuya appears as a newcomer in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, with his inclusion being announced during E3 2021 on June 15, 2021. He is the fifth DLC character of Fighters Pass Vol. 2, and was released on June 29th, 2021. Kazuya's design is based on his default appearance as of Tekken 5, although he also features an alternate costume based on his default appearance in Tekken 7 and the opening cinematic of Tekken Tag Tournament.

According to Super Smash Bros. series creator and director Masahiro Sakurai, Kazuya was chosen over his father, Heihachi Mishima, due to his Devil Gene and its applicability to his moveset. Due to hailing from a traditional fighting game series like Ryu, Ken and Terry, Kazuya also features command-input moves and will always face his opponent when there is one remaining (teammates included if Team Attack is on).

Spirits

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  1,474. Kazuya Mishima

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  1,475. Kazuya Mishima (Coat)

Names in other languages

Language	Name
Japanese	カズヤ, Kazuya
English	Kazuya
French	Kazuya
German	Kazuya
Spanish	Kazuya
Italian	Kazuya
Chinese	一八, Kazuya
Korean	Kazuya
Dutch	Kazuya
Russian	Кадзуя

Trivia

• Kazuya's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate marks the second time he is playable in a 2.5D fighting game, with the first being Street Fighter X Tekken.
• Among the fighters that have the 1-on-1 facing fighter ability, Kazuya is unique in that he does not have stance mirroring. This is a reference to him being an orthodox fighter in Tekken no matter what side of the stage he is on. The same also applies to the Akira Yuki Assist Trophy, due to both Tekken and Virtua Fighter being 3D fighting game franchises.
• Kazuya is the only fighter to lack a victory theme. Instead, the announcer from Tekken 7 simply says "Kazuya Mishima wins" as a callback to the Tekken series lacking victory themes during a character's win screen.
• Kazuya is one of the four characters who possess a taunt that can deal damage. The others are Luigi, Solid Snake, and Greninja.
• Kazuya is currently the only fighter in the entire series whose game of origin is not playable on a Nintendo console.
• Kazuya is the only DLC fighter to not make any appearance on the Nintendo Switch outside of Ultimate.
• Kazuya and Pac-Man are the only characters to have a taunt with an official name, with Kazuya's being Demon's Wrath. Incidentally, they are both owned by Bandai Namco.
• Kazuya's name is written in kanji for the Tekken series, but in the Japanese version of Ultimate, it is written in katakana on the character selection screen—for both of his fighter spirits, however, the kanji is properly used for his full name.
• Kazuya possesses the most moves out of any fighter in the Super Smash Bros. series, with a total of 35 moves that can be used via special inputs.

External links

• Article on the Tekken Wiki