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Kazumi Mishima (三島 一美 Mishima Kazumi?) née Hachijō (八条 Hachijō?) is a character in the Tekken series of 3D fighting games. She is the late wife of Heihachi Mishima, the late daughter-in-law of Jinpachi Mishima, the late mother of Kazuya Mishima and the late paternal grandmother of Jin Kazama. She was introduced in Tekken 7 as a new character, and as the posthumous antagonist of the game. She was originally one of the unplayable bosses along with her grandson, Jin, prior to the release of the Arcade version.

The existence of the character before Tekken 7 was alluded to twice: the first time was in Heihachi's Tekken 2 stage, in which their names ("Heihachi and Kazumi") are written on the floorboard of the temple in the style of Aiaigasa, a romantic expression to show the love between couples (the floor carving mark itself was later seen again in the very first trailer of Tekken 7[3]). The second and last time was in the non-canon OVA film Tekken: The Motion Picture, where she was simply referred to as "Kazumi." Her name was also briefly mentioned in Tekken 2's musical score.

Biography

Personality

Kazumi is shown to be quite honorable and formal, as, in one of her intro animations, she formally bows to her opponent while announcing she will be their next opponent. She also uses the formal and antiquated first person pronoun "watakushi" (わたくし).

Kazumi also seems to share her husband's affinity for animals. In Kazumi's case, she trained a pet tiger which she can summon at will as part of her moveset, unlike Heihachi who trained Kuma but cannot summon him at will. In one of her win animations, she is shown petting her tiger happily.

In Tekken 7: Fated Retribution during Akuma's reveal trailer, Kazumi is shown to have an antagonistic side towards her husband, as she tells Akuma he must kill him if she fails to do so. She then adds "and also, unfortunately, my dear son, Kazuya", implying that she is also ordering Akuma to kill him.[4] In the story trailer narrated by her, her feeling towards Kazuya indicate that she primarily fears what Heihachi will do to their little son when he discovers he has her powers. A subsequent montage of destruction attributed to Heihachi also includes crimes committed by Kazuya and Jin, implying that Heihachi is responsible for setting in motion all those subsequent evils.[5] She tells Akuma that Heihachi must be killed to stop the loss of innocent life he will inevitably cause in the future. This antagonism is exacerbated in her devil form, where she becomes hostile towards her husband and sadistically mocks him for marrying her in the first place. This is due to her family's plot to kill him.

It is later revealed that Kazumi did truly love her new family, but that the Hachijo Clan has existed to keep over-ambitious people like Heihachi monitored and kill them when deemed too dangerous, leaving Kazumi emotionally conflicted. As much as she loved her husband and Kazuya, she seems to have been prepared to sacrifice them for the good of the world, foreseeing that they would both would go down an evil path if she failed her mission. After Heihachi forcibly took over his father's corporation, it became clear to Kazumi that he was indeed walking the dark path her family had predicted. Despite this, Kazumi seems to have resisted her devil form for a long time, but delaying killing Heihachi seems to have given it greater power over her, causing Kazumi to frequently fall ill. It is thus unclear if Kazumi finally made a choice to kill Heihachi, or if her devil form finally got the better of her and made this choice for her.

Appearance

Kazumi is a woman with dark hair that is pinned up into a large bun, pointed bangs, and two locks of hair tied with red bows on the left and right sides of her head. In her primary appearance she wears light makeup including pink eyeshadow and red lipstick, and she bears a beauty mark under her right eye. In her main appearance, she wears an ornate white kimono, notable for being crossed over her chest in the fashion reserved for the dead. Her kimono features red ribbon motifs and is decorated with golden Mishima Zaibatsu emblems.

Outfits

Main article: Kazumi Mishima/Outfits

Story

Tekken 7

Kazumi Mishima, the wife of Heihachi Mishima, is well versed in Hachijō Karate. She was childhood friends with her husband Heihachi and eventually, they fell in love. Through their love, they birthed a healthy young boy. Fast forward a few years later, Heihachi would become the head of a huge organization called the Mishima Zaibatsu, with plans to conquer the world.

Kazumi loved Heihachi unconditionally, but at the same time, he was beginning to feel dangerous. In this state, Heihachi threw the world into war and Kazumi took it upon herself to stop him.[2][6]

Story Mode

Many years ago, Kazumi arrived at Jinpachi Mishima's dojo when she was a young girl. As she trained alongside Heihachi Mishima, they became fierce rivals and eventually fell in love. They married, and Kazumi then gave birth to their son, Kazuya. She was enamored by and doted on him. But the family's days of happiness came to an end one day when Kazumi collapsed with a fever during training. While Heihachi was treating her, she got up and suddenly attacked him. The next day, Kazumi had no recollection of what she did to her husband, and her fever was gone. For a while, Heihachi believed that Kazumi was suffering from a split personality disorder. But on one stormy night, his belief was proven incorrect. At some point, she found an injured Akuma out of nowhere and secretly tended his wounds. Desiring to repay this debt, Akuma offered to help Kazumi. Kazumi asked him to eliminate Heihachi, and later Kazuya, should she fail and should Kazuya walk the same path as Heihachi.

While Heihachi was practicing his martial arts moves in the dojo, Kazumi confronted him and proclaimed that he would one day become a threat to the world. As they fought, Kazumi revealed to Heihachi the reason she married him in the first place. Her family, the Hachijo Clan, wanted to kill him and it was her destiny to destroy him, as she finally assumed in her devil form. After a long and grueling fight, Kazumi attempted to kill Heihachi with a Devil's Beam but missed, prompting her to punch him in the face. But Heihachi retaliated by hitting her groin with a powerful uppercut, seemingly killing her while she reverted to her human form. After Heihachi checked upon her body and turned to leave, Kazumi transformed into her devil form again to attack him from behind. He turned in time, however, and grabbed her by the neck. Desperate, Kazumi warned her husband about the chain of hatred and begged him to release her because of their love for one another. Despite her pleas, Heihachi noticed it was a trap and stated to her that she was no longer the Kazumi that he knew. He snapped her neck, killing her. As Kazumi lay dead on the floor, Heihachi shed a single tear over the loss of his wife. Her death also led her son, Kazuya, to take revenge against Heihachi for killing his mother. It was revealed that Kazumi’s death was the same year as Heihachi’s war against Jinpachi, and the same year that Heihachi threw five-year-old Kazuya from a cliff.

Kazumi's story and death are recounted years later by Heihachi when he reveals the dark secrets of the Mishima family to an investigative journalist.

Other Appearances

Tekken (Mobile)

Kazumi is revealed to be one of the playable characters in the defunct mobile game Tekken (Mobile) and was given two renders where she was wearing both "Elegant" and "Exotic" customizations in Tekken 7 which was presumably either of these two renders are in 3-Star or 4-Star. Since the mobile game was shut down on February 15, 2019, Kazumi became a cancelled character alongside the Taekwondo Girl.

Gameplay

Kazumi has a combination of both Heihachi and Kazuya's moves, gaining both their Demon Slayer and Flash Punch Combo. Her moves include vicious punches and hand chops, and another skill where she flurries her opponent with several punches as well as knocking her opponent with both a roundhouse kick and a straight kick. Her unique ability is to summon her pet tiger which can be done during a combo or individually. It is also seen after Kazumi performs an uppercut along with her tiger. She shares her husband's Hell Axle but has an additional downward kick and his unblockable move, though it is not as strong as his. She also has a taunt where she calmly pets her tiger during the fight.

Kazumi's (and Devil Kazumi's) Rage Art move involves stunning her opponent with a single punch to the gut, knocking them with an uppercut, unleashing a single punch and a kick with two consecutive punches followed by another kick in mid-air and finally slamming the opponent with a heavy blow on their chest before landing on the ground.

Kazumi is a rushdown character, pummeling her opponents with effective, delayable pokes that she can loop over and over, forcing the opponent to challenge her. Her pokes also move her forward, keeping her close to the opponent.

While she is at her best up close and personal, she has an incredible approach tool. She is good at forcing opponents towards the wall, as some of her moves have significant pushback. Finally, she has good wall carry, good okizeme, varied power crush moves (one hits high and is safe, while the other hits are mid and have good damage), fast-tracking moves, good options when the opponent's back is against the wall, including, but not limited to, two command grabs (one of which is unbreakable) that splats the opponent to the wall, and finally, a relatively low execution requirement.

However, she also has notable weaknesses. Firstly, she has mediocre combo damage. Also, her fastest launching move - a "hop knee" - is significantly lacking in range, making it whiff against moves with a lot of pushback. Finally, Kazumi's lows are mediocre. Her best lows leave her standing, making her vulnerable to counter hits.

All in all, Kazumi is a very solid character that can bully, frustrate, and break down opponents with her pokes.

Fighting Style

Kazumi's fighting style is Hachijo-Style Karate but mixes with Mishima-Style Karate. She utilizes a strong combination of the two styles, to the degree she was a threat to Heihachi in his prime.

Moves

Kazumi Mishima Moves

Character Relationships

  • Heihachi Mishima - Her now-deceased husband.
  • Jinpachi Mishima - Her deceased father-in-law and sensei, since she trained in his dojo for many years.
  • Kazuya Mishima - Her son.
  • Jin Kazama - Her grandson.
  • Jun Kazama - Her grandson's mother.
  • Lee Chaolan - Her adoptive son, though she was dead by the time Lee was adopted.
  • Devil Kazumi - Her devil form.
  • Akuma - Indebted to her by unknown circumstances after she saved his life in a certain critical situation he was in. Vowed to kill Heihachi and Kazuya for Kazumi, should she fail to do so herself.

Quotes

Main article: Kazumi Mishima/Quotes

Etymology

  • The name Kazumi means "one" (一) (kazu) and "beautiful" (美) (mi).
  • Kazumi's surname Mishima means "three" (三) (mi) and "island" (島) (shima).
    • Her maiden name Hachijō means "eight" (八) (hachi) and "article" (条) ().

Trivia

General:

  • Kazumi's love for her son Kazuya and her death subsequently spurring him to revenge, mirrors the relationship between Jun and her son Jin.
  • A photograph of young Kazumi and Heihachi training together in Jinpachi's dojo suggests a reasonable age gap between them of at least 5+ years. Heihachi was 31 when he killed Kazumi, making her age at death in her early-to-mid twenties.
  • In the non-canon Tekken: The Motion Picture, it is stated that Kazumi died giving birth to Kazuya. However, she is still seen carrying him in the picture with her and Kazuya (as a baby).
  • Kazumi Mishima is the first and only known confirmed woman to carry the Devil Gene.
    • While Unknown, the female final boss of the non-canonical Tekken Tag Tournament and its sequel, has the "Devil Gene" mark on her upper right arm, it is currently unconfirmed if she is a Devil Gene user.
    • Kazumi carrying the Devil Gene was first confirmed in the San Diego Comic-Con 2014 trailer of Tekken 7.
  • According to Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada, Kazuya was not the first Mishima family member to make contact with the devil, and that Kazuya and Jin both believe it started with Jinpachi but only Heihachi knew who it was. Harada also pointed out that neither Jinpachi, Heihachi, nor Lars possessed the Devil Gene. This hinted towards Kazuya's mother and her family being the origin of the Devil Gene, prior to the release of Tekken 7.
  • Kazumi (through her devil form) is also the second female final boss in the series, the first being Unknown in the Tekken Tag Tournament games (although, in Tekken 2, if the player plays as Devil, Angel is the final boss).
  • In the non-canon Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge, Heihachi reveals that the amnesia Kazuya suffered and him being sold to the Minister was all part of his plan to rid Kazuya of his mother's "soft heart and weakness".
  • During her transformation to Devil Kazumi, Kazumi's kanzashi can be seen and heard falling off after a lightning strike while she is down on her knees and being engulfed in a white haze.
    • As her kanzashi noticeably falls off when she transforms into her devil form, it is possible that it acts as a limiter device to restrain her Devil Gene.
  • Prior to her playable appearance, Kazumi's default stance was actually used by Jin during his final fight in the Scenario Campaign.

Tekken 7:

  • Kazumi's voice actress, Yumi Hara, would make a surprise appearance alongside Akuma's voice actor, Taketora, during the 2016 King of Iron Fist Tournament to help announce the tournament's finals between Saint and Chanel.
  • Kazumi is the first final boss in the series to be already deceased by the time of the game present events.
  • Kazumi is the final boss of the game. The first round is against her in human form and the second round is against her devil form.
    • Her final boss transformation is very similar to the nature that of which Jun Kazama is fought during the first round before transforming into Unknown in the second round in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
    • While in her devil form in Story Mode, Kazumi can regenerate health much like both Jun and Unknown did in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.
  • In her boss intro pose, she is riding her pet tiger before facing her opponent.
    • The way she sits on her pet tiger is similar to Jun when she sits on a horse from her ending in Tekken 2.
  • Kazumi's pet tiger seems to be able to change between her human form and her devil form. In her former form, it is a normal tiger, while in her latter form, it is a white tiger.
  • Her alternate color palette is black and the flower designs are now gold.
  • Kazumi has a total of eight pre-intro quotes and four-win quotes in the game including her intro pose as the final boss of the game.
  • In one of Kazumi's moves, she uppercuts her opponent along with her pet tiger. As Harada jokingly says that her uppercut is just like Street Fighter's Sagat who uses the Tiger Uppercut.[7]
    • Eventually, Sagat would soon gain his pet tiger in Street Fighter V, though not used in the battle.
  • One of Kazumi's intro quotes is a more polite version of Devil Jin's intro quote (i.e. Kazumi has "Kyoufu wo oshiete sashiagemasu." while Devil Jin has the more violent "Kyoufu wo oshiete yarou.")
  • Kazumi and her tiger in the game outside the story flashback sequence are ghosts, according to Harada,[8] which could explain how she can float and summon her tiger from thin air.

Gallery

Main article: Kazumi Mishima/Gallery

See Also

References

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