Well, as a Tekken lore buff, I would say that this IS indeed the best Tekken adaptation so far. But should they try to make one more season based on Tekken 4, I think they should keep focusing on the Mishima feud for one because Tekken 4 has its story realized the best in all of the franchise and because what's needed is not focusing on characters outside of the Mishima-Kazama family - what's needed is more slice of life, more talking, more Jin with mom at the table, walking home with Xiaoyu, stuff that belonged to the realm of fanfiction before and that's where you could introduce those other characters, maybe with a symbolic fight or two. But yeah, this definitely needs more than 6 episodes to work, so I hope for that
A fighting game does not need slice of life lmao. Just do it well. There are plentyyyy examples This was barebones use of Tekken. In the hands of others these episodes could have actually been really good
@@iterativeimprovements1713 honestly, I was so distracted by the CGI that the shadows snuck by my scrutiny. Like they couldn't even do 2D animation for Heihachi walking down a corridor XD
@@lwazinkasawe3887 I think the use of 3D models is fine as they blend in with 2D fairly, make action scenes cheaper and easier to copy the moves from the games. My only issue is they seem to be rendered at a lower framerate than the 2D assets so they look like they're missing frames on closeups and sudden smooth actions like a head tilt.
I don't have a problem with the main story revolving around the Mishima, just make the whole tournament and show each of the small stories, Kengan Asura style or any tournament based shounen.
I hate that they made Paul lose to King and not allow him to beat Ancient Ogre. Man, it is such a twist and would prove Paul's skills, but then they just show his fight against King, which he loses. I mean, if they had followed canon it would be a surprise like Gensai from Kengan. If you want to show a character is strong you don't say, you show them doing stuff. People didn't keep saying "Gensai Kuroki is an unbeatable, invincible and flawless master" and then make him lose against Rihito. No, they showed his skills and even then he was not perfect and could actually lose if he wasn't careful. But what makes his loss even dumber is that either Paul or Kazuya beat King I in Tekken 1, because King I got third place in Tekken 1 and Paul lost to Kazuya after a fight lasted for hours. King II i supposed to be on par with King I and there are no statements saying he was much stronger, so it makes no sense he could beat Paul. Also, Ogre fucking killed King I, and Paul beats Ogre (first form).
@@takezokimura2571 this is what bothered me as well. When I saw Paul get K.O. I was disappointed. I was waiting to see all the confusion when he thinks he won everything then later finds out about True Ogre. But I think they wanted King to win so they could show Jins heart when he gave him the money for the orphanage.
Same here. There was story and there were fights. There weren't story in fights. I was hoping each fight, Jin would be looking for opponent's weakness. Like maybe against hwoarang, he would eventually notice, most attacks are kicks and for the dangerous high kicks to reach, hwoarang needs to stand even closer, meaning his vulnerable leg that maintains his stance is within reach. Something like that.
Great vid. The big take-away for me, is that this is the most we've ever actually seen these purpetually antagonistic characters... *talk.* Since when did Tekken characters do that without being at one-another's throats? Sparing Tekken Tag 2 endings?
I'd rather have 12 episodes with rectangular shadows, just so the 1st season get's enough time to be flushed out better. There were moments, that you also mentioned where more time on it would make the series a lot better. Hell, this one anime that has the exact opposite problem from typical anime releases. Most have some fluff episode just to pad out the time, while Tekken Bloodlines has no time to breathe and has to jam pack story moments into training montage segments.
As I mention in the video I just uploaded, Jin asking for flame pants is a nice contrast to the live-action Tekken movie, where he thought they were dumb but his manager made him wear them. It shows that Bloodline isn't ashamed of being based on a videogame in the way early adaptations often felt like they were; it's similar to the superhero costume situation.
I think this might be a symptom of Netflix' business model, i.e., throw money at something and scrap it if we feel like it. I think the certainty of initial cash flow and the uncertainty of continuity of their work might influence how creators approach their projects in this platform. Also, no Eddy Gordo button mash joke tho... Great analysis as usual. Keep it up. Stay safe. ^^b
That's not how it works. It's not randomly scraping shows. The people making it have to make it good so that it's a success and will bring in more subscribers. Netflix thinks using a subscription model . Its not cable TV were being popular is enough
As a huge fan of the Tekken series, I enjoyed my time with Bloodline but yeah there is a lot of missed potential with it. Tekken continuously relying on the Mishima story is just kinda upsetting, I love the Mishimas but they are not the most interesting characters. Jins representation in the show I dug as yeah, he's a teenager trying to fully understand what's happening and at the end maybe still doesn't grasp everything. I think the best possible Tekken adaptation would be an anthology series, an episode focusing on a certain character or number or characters since those stories interject with one another. Seeing Anna and Steve in the stadium and Nina being there made me go crazy. Sisters and Ninas possible son legit just there but nope, that's not important.
@@Mitsu2040 yeah king was cool and a fucking badass but then that made me wonder how paul defeated orge. That's when I figured out that someone rearranged the original plot.
God, I hope there is going to be a season 2 of this. Personally, I feel like keeping the Mishima feud as the main storyline is okay, but occasionally there have to be some episodes focusing on other characters. A side arc, if you will, like a proper anime.
This is indeed the best Tekken adaptation to date, though hopefully the 2nd season fixes this complaints. Hell, considering Yoshimitsu and Lei Wulong made cameos in Bloodline, there could be a scene in season 2 where Lei was revealed to be an informant investigating the Mishima Zaibatsu by entering the tournament and Yoshimitsu initially being the mysterious observer and Lei's contact, who then comes out of the shadows and takes action. In addition, Paul goes back to the US, visits the Law family, talks to Marshall and his son Forest about what happened in the tournament and that it's happening again, while wondering where Jin is. Julia gets her mother's pendant back, then later helps Lei in his investigation while also hoping to find her Mom as well. Xiaoyu and Hwoarang then search for Jin. Jin crash lands where Asuka then comes in and finds him while also accidently triggering the Kazam Blood thus reverting Jin back into Human form, later taking him back to her father's dojo. Jin later wakes up and is confused about what happened, then remembers when Heihachi shot him. It could also be where he got the Kazama style gloves he wore in Tekken 4 and 5. Not to mention like Tekken 4, Kazuya returns and Heihachi is surpised how this was possible. In addition, Kazuya also has a rematch with Paul, who is shocked to him still alive after all these years.
Boi stop that show was hahaha cringe as fuk Jin loses to Carlos but beats Leeroy season 5 characters from Tekken 7 enter the show huh that's weird was Leeroy in Tekken 3 because I don't remember that not even that Bruce beat the entire Mishima family and other people that tried to jump him so idk why they have Jin just winning fights than showing true character development so I hope s2 is what it is or it's not getting watched
What annoyed me most about Bloodline is how Jin meeting Hwoarang and Xiaoyu happened in a montage... a friggin _montage_ The part of Jin's teen years that could've helped make him a more grounded and relatable character by showing how he interacts with people of his age and they couldn't be bothered to spare more episodes around it. How did they expect the audience to believe that these three are such close friends when they can't be bothered to *show* how they got to that point?
Omg yes! There could've been better ways to introduce the two! I'm a fan of Xiaoyu and I'll go back to the other games to confirm my beliefs but this is the most I've seen Xiaoyu's relationship with Jin that doesn't feel one-sided. Again I'll go back to Tekken 3-6 and see what I missed but this is probably the most I've seen him care for her before he got all cold and distant.
The biggest wasted opportunity imo was Anna and Steve, you can’t just show them and do nothing with them. Their troubled family shenanigans with Nina compliments the Mishima’ plotline extremely well. Steve has the opposite problem to Jin, whereas Jin wants nothing to do with his family, Steve doesn’t realise he has a family to begin with. Additionally Nina and Steve’s relationship unlike with Jun and Jin, subverts the universal idea that moms are always loving and attentive. Which could be fun to unpack.
I think the anime handels Paul very well and i enjoyed him not being the butt of the joke and also beong fatherly torwards Jin was also pretty sweet, hell even a friend that i have who gave up on tekken because of Pauls recent treatment loved how he is potrayed in the show. Also no Bryan or Eddie?
This reminds me that my first Tekken was Tekken 4. I loved how detailed the stories were. I've been dissapointed with every game's execution of the story since.
Same. I view Tekken through the lens of tekken 4 and no other game has ever been as good story wise. Every character felt important, for the most part. Everything felt well thought out. I hope they get back on track in tekken 8. I think they see where they went wrong with the story and are getting back in track. 7 had Jin in a coma so they could focus on Kazuya and Heihachi. The ending of it set up Jin to take his place as the main protagonist and more importantly, the hero, again.
I noticed the weird triangle shadow thing right away, but I tried to justify it in my head like "surely the artists knew what they were doing and it's meant to be like that for some reason" so it was great to hear that there wasn't just confusion on my part about that :D (oh yeah, the video was great, really enjoyed listening to your thoughts, subscribed!)
The triangle shadows were one of the first thing I noticed . I couldn’t ignore after. I did like the art style and animation . Should’ve had more fights and episodes. Yoshi shouldn’t have lost to Anna lmao i didn’t like the rushed tourney . They could’ve definitely added some of the missing details that are found In that further connect plot points like Nina originally being possessed/influenced by ogre for ex. . 4th snake made a “wasted plotential” about this recently that’s is pretty spot on.
As a long time Tekken fan i really enjoyed Tekken Bloodline. I liked seeing the characters interact with eachother and see more of Jin's life with Jun. I agree with you that they did a good job making Jin a likeable person. And yea i would also love to see more of the other characters than just the Mishima's, though i can see with only 6 episodes it might be hard to give those enough screen time aswell. There are definitely more stories they could tell with the large roster we have. The reason they decided to tell us this story? My guess is, because Tekken 3 being the best sold Tekken game until Tekken 7, it would probably appeal to the most people telling us the Tekken 3 story. If Bloodline does well, we might even get a season 2, which maybe could dive into the story of other characters aswell and perhaps go back to the Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 story to kinda fill the gap that's in Bloodline. Tekken Bloodline didn't really give us much new information and i think the reason for that is because it's not made by the Tekken team and it's non canon, so the writers probably didn't want to change too much about the story and put in their own story ideas in. Personally i really enjoyed Tekken Blood Vengeance aswell. It was a nice change having Xiaoyu and Alisa as protagonists, instead of it always being the Mishimas. I also think they did a great job with the writing for Xiaoyu, making her a more interesting character. And the 1v1v1 fight between Jin, Kazuya and Heihachi was so cool, really enjoy that one.
Overall I think we need to applaud the show. Yes, they didn't include as much of the stories of the other characters but they did at least follow the source material for Tekken 3 with the small amount of episodes they were given and a perfect lead in to a season 2 Tekken 4 story which in my opinion is the best in the series. They probably will also get more episodes to flesh out the other characters in the tournament
I was really hoping to see the story of Jin and Hwoarang's rivalry getting fleshed out in more detail in Tekken Bloodline. It would've been the perfect opportunity to tell the lore behind their rivalry. According to an official Tekken 3 guide book, Hwoarang and his gang would get into street fights, placing bets on the outcome of those fights. Hwoarang's friends would go first and purposefully lose one after another in order to lure their opponents into betting more money, only for Hwoarang to step in at the last second to turn the tables and win all the money. Until one day they pick a fight with Jin, who proceeds to beat all of them, including Hwoarang. After that, Hwoarang makes it his mission to get back at Jin and thus their rivalry is born.
Just a quick fix but Jin didn’t beat Hwoarang funnily enough. They drew and Hwoarang was so pissed that he held a grudge about that……about a damn tie 😭😭. Hwoarang’s record against Jin is actually pretty solid tho. 1 win (T5), 1 draw (pre T3), and 1 lost against Devil Jin (T5 right after Hwoarang beat Jin)
I think the problem with tekken adaptations is that it has too much characters they dont seem to know what to do with them. Its like making a smash bros show /series where would you start, most likely mario and who would you continue to end up following probably mario🤷♂️ They want to give everybody their time to shine but in doing that they give nobody their time to shine if you know what i mean. The games do it well cause you play as a single character and follow their stories kinda like a spin off but when it comes to series/shows and movies like bloodline it just falls back on main story. I believe this is one of the best tekken adaptions in a long time but in me saying this it also could have been better.
And this is why I don't wanna watch it. Quite frankly I'm not trying to screw up what I already know and love about the series. The two animated movies or ovas or whatever u wanna call them that they made yrs ago were just fine imo aside from the graphics. Netflix did what no one asked them to do (as usual) and animated something we didn't need to see. Let the game stay a game since it works better that way. U try to animate something as huge as a fighting videogame series and ur only gonna end up screwing stuff up. (But hey what do I know, I'm just trusting my gut here and saying that I'm not willing to watch it because I've got several bad feelings about this thing.)
Kengan Ashura is pretty much the prototype on how to do a tournament type show perfectly. But of course if you want to give everyone their time to shine you need to have time
Thank you, from all the Tekken story fans! It's not shakespeare or anything. And it's easy to be cynical about a fighting game story line. But there's something to be said how Tekken hasn't rebooted its story and got to build on itself instead. It's refreshing to see someone celebrate what Tekken does have and how its new media respect its' reverence
Bloodline was my first contact with Tekken, outside of Kazuya being added to smash (I dont really like him there). Maybe most people act differently but all the missing pieces in the story have made me want to find out more and get the game myself. The thing I was most interested about was who Kazuya actually was, since he is such an important piece of the story but has only been mentioned in the show itself. The story that I found in Tekken 7 was actually a bit of a letdown compared what I had experienced previously and I haven't really gotten used to the fighting either. But I will keep on trying as I am still very interested in the series.
Kazuya is mostly absent from Tekken Bloodline because TB is an adaptation of Tekken 3, which is the only Tekken game that Kazuya didn't appear in due to plot reasons.
Yea I played a bit of tekken 2 as a kid characters seemed cool but didn’t know much. The anime I thought was really good and interesting plus I liked the fighting scenes definitely made me want more tekken lol
Your last tekken video got me interested in the game but not quite ready to dive into something so massive without any fighting game experience. This show might be just what I need to bring me into the fold. Thanks for making me aware of it!
As someone who is essentially a newcomer to Tekken (other than having seen your videos on it plus having gotten a couple matches in game here or there), I really enjoyed Tekken Bloodlines. I can definitely see its flaws, but ultimately it gave me a story that I was decently intrigued by and a desire to check out more if new episodes get made.
I just remembered where the random plot point was brought up by Xiao yu(i can’t remember how to spell it forgive me) about her being strong and having to prove herself or something and then immediately get swept by King.
Couldn't agree more with your comments 👏🏽👏🏽 after watching the series, I did two things. 1: I started charting each Iron Fist tournament according to canon and filled the missing fights. 2: proceeded to think of ways the many tekken storylines could be told in a satisfying manner. I think the best route would be following story beats in the same way the TV show Lost did. That had a massive cast with diverse stories to tell and over time we got to see and understand everyone's motivations and character arcs. We don't need to know everyone's story straight away but we can use this approach to build intrigue, mystery and fascination to these characters. Who's that ninja with a mask? Why is she in the tournament? She seems to know one of the other fighters, how did they meet? Are they working together? When we eventually do get to them, we'll be invested in knowing the person behind the fighter. One of my main gripes with this series was how accessible Heihachi was. Mister CEO of the Zaibatsu who runs the world and we see a 16 year old consistently defy his instructions, we see people talk shit about him TO HIS FACE and there's absolutely no consequences??? Mr Evil incarnate didn't seem that scary at all. We needed to see much less of him, and hear wayyy less from him to establish his omnipresence and omnipotence in the world of the story. Which they managed to do much better with Kazuya.
to sum it up they show was only 6 episodes long and everything was rushed with characters getting little to none screen time. the show just needed to be longer in order to flesh out characters and their motivation to be in the tournament like most anime's in during their tournament arcs. the most we got that was somewhat satisfying was the Hwarong, Xioayu, Paul dynamic.
I never noticed the shadow thing until now 😂 but this was the best tekken adaptation so far and I really enjoyed it, definitely hope there's a second season
@@ReluctantWarrior Yeah not saying it's not a legit complaint, just missed it. But once i heard of it i can't unsee it. But my bigger complaint is the lack of episodes, otherwise i really enjoyed watching, the fights were all tekken moves etc.
I think all the problem here is mostly because it's actually a 2 hour film that is hyper-focused on Jin. We only see things through his perspective, therefore a lot of the tournament was obscured because he wasn't even there to watch the fight. He was so focused in training for revenge, that the encounter between him, Xiao Yu, and Hwoarang, was partially buried among the memories of his training. He only remember Hwoarang as this person he had a good fight with a couple of times on the street, and Xiao Yu as a schoolmate with some kung fu knowledge he somehow got along with. That's why he was quite shocked seeing Xiao Yu actually did well against Nina; he didn't know Xiao Yu enough to know about her actual combat skill. Perhaps another hour of runtime (about 5 more episodes) will do the series better. But that said, given the direction of the film (focusing solely on Jin's perspective) it might be hard to slip in more character stories in without making Jin to look like an rpg player that seek to unlock all character's dialogues and events...
Hey I just wanted you to know that your video on how dark souls helped you manage depression and look at life differently really helped me with my own struggles with addiction and mental illness and I just wanted to say thank you.
I liked Paul too. Sad to see his only contribution to the Ogre fight being his finisher, which could KO any opponent in Tekken 3 to only just displacing the ogre a bit.
The anime gets a 5/5 from me simply because I want a season 2. It was great for what it was in a short season. It told Jin's story and the fights were awesome. With a 2nd season, the narrative problems will be resolved.
I hope Bloodline gets more seasons that focus on different characters and changes up its artstyle. I wanna think of this season as "Jin Story Mode" which alludes to the other characters but focuses on one at its centre. I wanna see the same events portrayed through the others perspectives and get more context on the stuff that this season glossed over. I also think Yoshimitsu could work well as a foil to the now Devilized Jin: someone also driven by revenge, but also a need to help people. It'd be interesting to see him be the one who teaches the kid how to control his demonic powers. I just don't want Bloodlines to turn out into a one-and-done, because if they stick to it, I think it can really grow on people.
@@siddiqsmouse5004 alisa is a tekken 6 character though, this show takes place during tekken 3. There's a whole 2 games that need to be adapted before she turns up
The problem with the fans, is that with these large casts, they always want to see their “favorites” even if it serves the story no purpose. Like…I’m sure the 2 Mokujin fans were mad. Or the three Marduk fans were mad. And you can’t focus on those characters. Every fighting game has a set of main characters that carry the story. In Tekken, it’s the Mishimas. This anime tried to center around that. But it made fans mad because Roger and Kuma didn’t get the same treatment than Jin or Heihachi. Read the comments here, and notice how most of the people complaining, cry over their “favorite” character not being featured and therefore…NETFLIX RUINED IT.
I remember the movie Anna when it came out. My Dad thought it was an adaptation of Anna and Nina Williams’ stories so we watched it. While a little disappointed, we really liked it and I think that experience makes a case for the fact that Tekken fans do crave stories and adaptations about other characters
I have a theoy that Jun has a foresight ability that lets her see the future enough where she herself can manipulate only by Jin's influence in the story and see what the Demon who watches the family feud between the Mishimas intentions.
Bloodlines is good for one thing: it got me back into Tekken after _years_ of not playing the franchise. I only ever played Tekken 6 when I was much younger and obviously being a kid didn't really understand the gameplay or the story, but I watched Bloodlines I kinda remembered "...holy shit this franchise actually fucking slapped." It's the reason I ended up buying Tekken 7 recently
7:21 That's her fighting stance from Tag 2 and she didn't have it in Tekken 2. I like how they reincorporated that here since her moveset from Tag 2 definitely fits more in line with her tranquil character being in touch with nature. Even if she still uses her old cartwheel kick from Tekken 2, lol.
Tbh if I was the one making Tekken Bloodline S2 I would focus it on Paul's storyline from Tekken 4. Yeah you can have your Kazuya/Heihachi/Jin hate boner triangle story too but I would heavily focus on the Michima Zaibatsu making Paul look like an Alex Jones type after he opens up about the fight with Ogre. Leading to him losing everything and starting his redemption arc into winning the king of iron fist tournament.
It think this anime was pretty well written. I hope we get a season covering Tekken 4. Tekken is just a series of tournament arcs, political crime drama, and classic revenge stories with Kazuya's story being the most like a Greek tragedy. The real issue is the way lighting reacts to all the character models and fight scenes that don't feel as fluid as the cgi animation of Kengan Ashura or the Berserk OVA.
I thoroughly enjoyed Bloodline, but it needs a 2nd or even 3rd season. With it only being six episodes, certain things did feel rushed, but that’s to be expected. For what they had to work with, they did a good job IMO. I loved how we got to see the relationship between Jun and Jin, since we only hear about it and have never seen it physically (same goes for the Ogre attack and Jun’s “disappearance”). I also liked the dynamic that Jin had with Xiaoyu and Hwoarang as well, and Paul was handled a lot better here than in some of the more recent Tekken games. I do hope they continue into Tekken 4’s story, or even do a prequel of sorts that focuses on the events of Tekken 1 and 2, since there’s a lot of unexplained lore in those games as well (prime example being how and why Kazuya and Jun hooked up and “created” Jin). At the end of the day though, this is still the best adaptation of Tekken’s lore to date. The only other thing before this that was close enough to the lore was Tekken: The Motion Picture, but even then, that film was plagued with flaws.
As Tekken is set in modern times while Soulcalibur takes place in a medieval fantasy setting, the first Soulcalibur Yoshimitsu was originally considered to be an ancestor to Tekken's Yoshimitsu; however, the introduction of Yoshimitsu II revealed that Yoshimitsus are willingly killed and replaced by a younger protégé as part of a secret ritual, in order to make "Yoshimitsu" appear immortal to outsiders. Therefore, the Tekken version of the character is implied to have inherited the mantle in a similar way... Googled what is Yoshimitsu way back
A character that I believe could actually benefit from the long-winded emphasis is Lars, a character introduced in Tekken 6 as a all-new core member of the cast, who has only had 2 games to his name. Aside from his relationship with Alisa and his hatred of his father Heihachi, we never understand how he comes to meet Jin and become his right hand, how he learns the Tekken Force Martial Arts, who his mother is, or how Heihachi regarded him at all besides the flagrant disregard of an illegitimate And this has lots of potential, considering you could go very deep into Lars’s emotions regarding this. We don’t get to explore it in T6 because he has Amnesia, nor in T7 where the emphasis is on the end of the original Mishima feud. So yeah, I’d hopefully like some evaluation of him, maybe in a potential 3rd or 4th season where they introduce him to Jin in the events of T5, after Jin assumes control of the Zaibatsu
The whole Williams family subplot is more interesting than the Mishimas boys being petty with each other. Steve is like Nero if Dante and Vergil were hot assassin ladies.
I think this first season is like a short start to see if the fans would dig it. I hope Netflix will give a season two a goa nd give them more episodes to work with. Because I think they wanted to do more but are limited by the amount of episodes the season was allowed to have.
Great video but as a Jin main I really hope the next season still focuses on him cos now well be getting Tekken 4's story which completes his arc (his story after 4 was never as good IMO). The season after that can then be used for the other characters.
The problem I have, which you could say that I could be a little nitpicky, is many of the Tekken 3 lore or minūte details were brush over. Like Forest Law. He was specifically in Tekken 3 because Marshall didn't want to join the tournament and forbid his son to join as well iirc, which Paul snuck him out to join anyway. Why is Leroy, Steve, Marduk, Feng, and other later installment characters there? Why did the OG characters not have their Tekken 3 outfits on? I would have loved to see their take on Julia's P2 outfit (orange/maroon croptop and jeans with the matching sneakers and fingerless gloves). Why is Eddy missing?? Just straight up not present and he debuted in T3 and also was a very popular character! These are my my gripes but otherwise, I enjoyed the adaptation as well. The most memorable highlight for me was seeing the 10-hit combos translate very well in the animation.
god, I am so fucking ready for a Yoshimitsu anime with Bryan, Kuni, and Raven as main rivals. or a slice of life with Paul, Law, and Forest. or Wang Jinrei and Jinpachi.
Great essay on Tekken Bloodline. It's wonderful to see a good adaptation on Tekken for once, maybe inspired by the Castlevania anime... That being said, I worry about Netflix not greenlighting another season since they rather give Loud Mouth more seasons than it deserves or exploit Squid Game for all its worth than letting better shows have their stories concluded, which makes Tekken Bloodline a rather oddity since it did told a complete story within the 6 episodes it got than just tell a small chunk of a larger story. Hell, there wasn't even any post-credit scene, hinting that the showrunners believe Netflix won't pursue anymore Tekken.
For me I noticed a lot of inaccuracies like how Julia looks like her tekken 7 self despite that being 5 or 6 years later at least or how Paul did not do as good as he originally did as although jon did best ogre in its monster form we had Paul beat him before hand and thinking yeah its knocked out left and was disqualified from the tournament. Setting was another thing as the dome just didn't feel right compared to the stages of tekken 3 with some characters left out for characters retroactively added in.then there is the voice acting that sure is leagues better than tekken 4 with jin trying to speak English, but heihachis.voice sounds more like a snake than the boastful fighter who likes to destroy people and with all the budget some scenes felt off like jin fighting heihachi in the end did not feel brutal in comparison to our tragic boy slamming his grandpa's head through an Aztec pyramid down to the ground with a knee to the throat on the way down seeing as grandpa gunned him down. Having the side characters help with ogre bugged me too as although I like hworoang as a character he lost and went home and do did xiayou and with help it kind of made it feel less personal on jins part. Plus yeah 6 episodes isng enough it felt rushed which surprised me as Netflix will green light anything for a full season run at least once so what happened here. If there is a second season I'd focus on jin training in Australia and kazuyas return personally then lead into the side characters like marduk and Steve. Personally I feel tekken 5 and 7 did the lore a lot more justice especially 5 but 7 with the main plot is ironically still feels like the closest thing to an anime feud arc I will get from the series.
I didnt know jack shit about tekken having a storyline until tekken 5. Before that i just saw the endings as just a silly game reward, like, congratulations you completed the game, now heres a cutscene as a reward.
I understand why they didn’t do this scene 1:53 because Harada retconned the story, but I would’ve loved to see this. I still hate that they retconned the Devil and made it Devil Gene. But all in all, I loved the show and can’t wait for them to do t4 and t5. Edit: Hahaha omg, the triangle shadowssss, I didn’t even notice them. It’s so weird!
Well this season is literally going based off Tekken 3 story line where the main focus is Jin. I just felt like some parts were missing and rushed. Nonetheless, it is a great adaption compared to its past adaptions that kind of stray from the main story. I do agree introducing each character from the games and having their little side stories that relate to the Mishimas. Especially Paul and Nina since they were from the first two games. I really want to see how they would adapt Tekken and Tekken 2 or show a flashback episode from those two events. I honestly want to know how Kazuya and Jun got together and at least interact besides of their body languages in the Tag games.
Going off Devil Katz’s Tag 1 ending, where he sweeps an unconscious Jun up into his arms and flies away, I think he loves her to a sizeable extent and she loves him judging by her motives in Tekken 2. I know people love to make it out as something more insidious (in the awful live action film Kazuya rapes her) but I think it was as simple as that. The existence of Angel’s character is also tied to Kazuya’s feeling to Jun. Two adaptations have explored their relationship the first anime movie and the Aspect Shojo manga (sadly the latter hasn’t been translated).
They really should have done some sort of end credit scene where we see kazuya in a healing tank to hint that he is alive so mishima fans can have something to be excited about.
I'm not a Tekken buff, I only played Tekken 3 to death as a kid and loved how much personality each character had and how they all mostly felt like they had a strong back story. I was surprised how good this short series was, I honestly was expecting it to majorly detour from what the series is about. I only wish it lasted longer, I think even filler episodes just deepening the characters would have been amazing. I hope there's a season 2.
I would like a prequel to see Tekken 1 and 2. The Darth Vader like struggle of Angel and Demon within Kazuya and his loss to humanity but Jun that could be his only good thing in his life beside his Grandfather and mother in his youth.
You're mentioning of how they put so much emphasis on jins story made me remember this other anime based on a videgame i like, sengoku basara end of judgement. The anime is a brief retelling of sengoku basara 3 and it does half decent job of making sure multiple characters stories get told from the game. Not just the vengeance 3 way between date, mitsunari and ieyasu (3 of the poster characters along with sanada) but also some characters silly plots about falling in love with other characters and going on a journey to win their heart, or others who find themselves a pawn in a conspiracy to attack their friend only to realize at the eleventh hour who their real is. These are all stories ive actually played through in game and it was great to see them all adressed.
I agree with most of what you said, I was just sad it wasnt longer and we didnt see more about other characters, especially my favourites like Yoshimitsu and Bryan, not to mention Kazuya/Devil but im sure he will come back in the next show.
I think the problem with the visuals is that the studio making Bloodlines tried to copy the Arc System Works style of 3D emulating 2D without actually knowing the secrets to what makes it work. To make a long story incredibly short, ArcSys basically forces the imperfections of 2D anime back into 3D. Character models are slightly tweaked to add imperfections, they manipulate the size and length of limbs for foreshortening, models hold poses tor long periods of time, there are fewer frames of animation, every model has their own unique shadows that don’t change no matter what lighting they’re in etc. Tekken Bloodlines though seems to be doing *some* of those things, but it all fails because they’re still following the rules of 3D animation, rather then trying to force 3D to act like 2D. If you want better context for what I’m saying go look up New Frame Plus’ video on Arc System Work’s animation style. He does a way better job explaining it then I can.
I hate the fact that when he transformed Jin was in full form, unlike in the games where it took times. Because during all these years he was trying to keep it in control. And even though in Tekken 5 he failed it showed that he kept his emotions down, that's why he was such a quiet individual (and not emo like people are saying he is)
this is the best adaptation of Tekken though. even though it only focused on Tekken 3, i was satisfied because of how Jin grows as a character. he constantly fights his Mishima side in favor of the Kazama.
I was expecting a bait and switch where Kazuya is set up as super evil, with Heihachi feeding Jin lies (including that Kaz assaulted his mom) then Jin finds out his dad was the real victim along his great grandfather Jinpachi.
@@li-limandragon9287 yea, I'm thinking something similar. Like let's get to know the real Kazuya as he was when his mother was still alive. Currently we don't know how much of him is kaz and how much is devil.
Man I love RUclips so much Watched the series and was feeling good but had mixed emotions. Wanted to talk to someone about it but unfortunately all of my friends aren’t really as deep in Tekken lore as I (also it wouldn’t help they’re not big fighting game fans either 🤦🏾♂️) but I found this on the algorithm and peeped. Such an excellent video and I loved it also the comments here really are great. Good to see other Tekken fans comment on the Game!
Love this video, definitely going to give this show a watch, also love this series and even though I never knew the story much I always done how related to Jin, don’t know why 11:00 Also wholly agree, you could not tell me you were not hard if your word flames on your clothes😭😭😭 I wanted to have Jin’s fits so bad
If your going to do a Tekken anime, this is the story you have to tell first unless you go back and do the first tournament (which doesn't have much plot to work from). If you think of it as a first part, with another series or two coming along it's pretty decent. Watched it last night and it was way better than I expected it to be. I was disapointed that we didn't get more with maybe each match in teh tournament taking an episode with a bit of back story on teh charachters and why they are there. Maybe they'll do that next? One thing it does do well is tell the Tekken 3 story, arguably the most impactful of the series, for people who weren't around then or for people who didn't play it.
Well, as a Tekken lore buff, I would say that this IS indeed the best Tekken adaptation so far. But should they try to make one more season based on Tekken 4, I think they should keep focusing on the Mishima feud for one because Tekken 4 has its story realized the best in all of the franchise and because what's needed is not focusing on characters outside of the Mishima-Kazama family - what's needed is more slice of life, more talking, more Jin with mom at the table, walking home with Xiaoyu, stuff that belonged to the realm of fanfiction before and that's where you could introduce those other characters, maybe with a symbolic fight or two. But yeah, this definitely needs more than 6 episodes to work, so I hope for that
Best so far is not a high bar. Do you include 'Tekken: Blood Vengeance'?
@@orionhan2431 I do not consider Blood Vengeance an adaptation, just a separate story set in the universe in a different medium
A fighting game does not need slice of life lmao. Just do it well. There are plentyyyy examples
This was barebones use of Tekken. In the hands of others these episodes could have actually been really good
I'm more annoyed that they replaced Eddie with Leroy. Like, for what reason?
Leroy never existed during Tekken 3.
but anyway.
I watched the whole anime and never noticed the triangle shadows XD it cannot be unseen now
Yeah, I saw while watching. Had to stop a few times because I was all "wait where's the light source again?"
Not trying to belittle you, but how is it possible to watch this and not notice?
@@iterativeimprovements1713 honestly, I was so distracted by the CGI that the shadows snuck by my scrutiny. Like they couldn't even do 2D animation for Heihachi walking down a corridor XD
@@lwazinkasawe3887 I think the use of 3D models is fine as they blend in with 2D fairly, make action scenes cheaper and easier to copy the moves from the games.
My only issue is they seem to be rendered at a lower framerate than the 2D assets so they look like they're missing frames on closeups and sudden smooth actions like a head tilt.
didn't really care About those but heh, namco budget
I don't have a problem with the main story revolving around the Mishima, just make the whole tournament and show each of the small stories, Kengan Asura style or any tournament based shounen.
I second this. Was disappointed we didn't get to see Paul and Kuma's rivalry or Law fight.
I hate that they made Paul lose to King and not allow him to beat Ancient Ogre. Man, it is such a twist and would prove Paul's skills, but then they just show his fight against King, which he loses. I mean, if they had followed canon it would be a surprise like Gensai from Kengan. If you want to show a character is strong you don't say, you show them doing stuff.
People didn't keep saying "Gensai Kuroki is an unbeatable, invincible and flawless master" and then make him lose against Rihito. No, they showed his skills and even then he was not perfect and could actually lose if he wasn't careful.
But what makes his loss even dumber is that either Paul or Kazuya beat King I in Tekken 1, because King I got third place in Tekken 1 and Paul lost to Kazuya after a fight lasted for hours. King II i supposed to be on par with King I and there are no statements saying he was much stronger, so it makes no sense he could beat Paul. Also, Ogre fucking killed King I, and Paul beats Ogre (first form).
@@PlebNC Not even having Anna or Steve interact with Nina is baffling.
@@takezokimura2571 this is what bothered me as well. When I saw Paul get K.O. I was disappointed. I was waiting to see all the confusion when he thinks he won everything then later finds out about True Ogre. But I think they wanted King to win so they could show Jins heart when he gave him the money for the orphanage.
Same here. There was story and there were fights. There weren't story in fights. I was hoping each fight, Jin would be looking for opponent's weakness. Like maybe against hwoarang, he would eventually notice, most attacks are kicks and for the dangerous high kicks to reach, hwoarang needs to stand even closer, meaning his vulnerable leg that maintains his stance is within reach. Something like that.
Great vid.
The big take-away for me, is that this is the most we've ever actually seen these purpetually antagonistic characters... *talk.*
Since when did Tekken characters do that without being at one-another's throats? Sparing Tekken Tag 2 endings?
Agreed.
*perpetually
I love how the flames are inspired by the night his mother died. Always felt kinda obvious to use that yo explain his gi design.
I'd rather have 12 episodes with rectangular shadows, just so the 1st season get's enough time to be flushed out better. There were moments, that you also mentioned where more time on it would make the series a lot better.
Hell, this one anime that has the exact opposite problem from typical anime releases. Most have some fluff episode just to pad out the time, while Tekken Bloodlines has no time to breathe and has to jam pack story moments into training montage segments.
As I mention in the video I just uploaded, Jin asking for flame pants is a nice contrast to the live-action Tekken movie, where he thought they were dumb but his manager made him wear them. It shows that Bloodline isn't ashamed of being based on a videogame in the way early adaptations often felt like they were; it's similar to the superhero costume situation.
I think this might be a symptom of Netflix' business model, i.e., throw money at something and scrap it if we feel like it. I think the certainty of initial cash flow and the uncertainty of continuity of their work might influence how creators approach their projects in this platform. Also, no Eddy Gordo button mash joke tho...
Great analysis as usual. Keep it up. Stay safe. ^^b
That's not how it works. It's not randomly scraping shows. The people making it have to make it good so that it's a success and will bring in more subscribers. Netflix thinks using a subscription model . Its not cable TV were being popular is enough
@@piusdoe8984 so you’re saying that popular shows that people want to watch don’t bring in subscribers
As a huge fan of the Tekken series, I enjoyed my time with Bloodline but yeah there is a lot of missed potential with it.
Tekken continuously relying on the Mishima story is just kinda upsetting, I love the Mishimas but they are not the most interesting characters. Jins representation in the show I dug as yeah, he's a teenager trying to fully understand what's happening and at the end maybe still doesn't grasp everything.
I think the best possible Tekken adaptation would be an anthology series, an episode focusing on a certain character or number or characters since those stories interject with one another. Seeing Anna and Steve in the stadium and Nina being there made me go crazy. Sisters and Ninas possible son legit just there but nope, that's not important.
they prolly had budget just for 6 episodes
Or Marduk being on the same tourney as King. That's a miss opportunity.
Paul really did some damage in Tekken 3 sucks that was changed
@@hopscotch_ Yeah, he actually defeated Ogre by himself!
@@Mitsu2040 yeah king was cool and a fucking badass but then that made me wonder how paul defeated orge. That's when I figured out that someone rearranged the original plot.
God, I hope there is going to be a season 2 of this. Personally, I feel like keeping the Mishima feud as the main storyline is okay, but occasionally there have to be some episodes focusing on other characters. A side arc, if you will, like a proper anime.
This is indeed the best Tekken adaptation to date, though hopefully the 2nd season fixes this complaints. Hell, considering Yoshimitsu and Lei Wulong made cameos in Bloodline, there could be a scene in season 2 where Lei was revealed to be an informant investigating the Mishima Zaibatsu by entering the tournament and Yoshimitsu initially being the mysterious observer and Lei's contact, who then comes out of the shadows and takes action. In addition, Paul goes back to the US, visits the Law family, talks to Marshall and his son Forest about what happened in the tournament and that it's happening again, while wondering where Jin is. Julia gets her mother's pendant back, then later helps Lei in his investigation while also hoping to find her Mom as well. Xiaoyu and Hwoarang then search for Jin. Jin crash lands where Asuka then comes in and finds him while also accidently triggering the Kazam Blood thus reverting Jin back into Human form, later taking him back to her father's dojo. Jin later wakes up and is confused about what happened, then remembers when Heihachi shot him. It could also be where he got the Kazama style gloves he wore in Tekken 4 and 5. Not to mention like Tekken 4, Kazuya returns and Heihachi is surpised how this was possible. In addition, Kazuya also has a rematch with Paul, who is shocked to him still alive after all these years.
Boi stop that show was hahaha cringe as fuk Jin loses to Carlos but beats Leeroy season 5 characters from Tekken 7 enter the show huh that's weird was Leeroy in Tekken 3 because I don't remember that not even that Bruce beat the entire Mishima family and other people that tried to jump him so idk why they have Jin just winning fights than showing true character development so I hope s2 is what it is or it's not getting watched
@@joanheartless9817 Hmm.
Dude you pretty much nailed the story line I would love to see that shit if they make it right
if you ever write a tekken related fanfic then please link it to me because holy shit this thing actually sounds great.
Paul is not getting a rematch, if they add a rematch in Tekken 4, then Kazuya is still winning.
What annoyed me most about Bloodline is how Jin meeting Hwoarang and Xiaoyu happened in a montage... a friggin _montage_
The part of Jin's teen years that could've helped make him a more grounded and relatable character by showing how he interacts with people of his age and they couldn't be bothered to spare more episodes around it. How did they expect the audience to believe that these three are such close friends when they can't be bothered to *show* how they got to that point?
Omg yes! There could've been better ways to introduce the two! I'm a fan of Xiaoyu and I'll go back to the other games to confirm my beliefs but this is the most I've seen Xiaoyu's relationship with Jin that doesn't feel one-sided. Again I'll go back to Tekken 3-6 and see what I missed but this is probably the most I've seen him care for her before he got all cold and distant.
The biggest wasted opportunity imo was Anna and Steve, you can’t just show them and do nothing with them. Their troubled family shenanigans with Nina compliments the Mishima’ plotline extremely well. Steve has the opposite problem to Jin, whereas Jin wants nothing to do with his family, Steve doesn’t realise he has a family to begin with.
Additionally Nina and Steve’s relationship unlike with Jun and Jin, subverts the universal idea that moms are always loving and attentive. Which could be fun to unpack.
Man I would love if Anna eventually adopt Steve, their life are kinda screwed over by Nina's involvement (or lack thereof)...
@@raydhen8840 At least give us DMC5 moment where Steve comes in between Nina and Anna like Nero did with Vergil and Dante.
I think the anime handels Paul very well and i enjoyed him not being the butt of the joke and also beong fatherly torwards Jin was also pretty sweet, hell even a friend that i have who gave up on tekken because of Pauls recent treatment loved how he is potrayed in the show. Also no Bryan or Eddie?
I always thought Tekken would work really well if adapted into an anthology
This reminds me that my first Tekken was Tekken 4. I loved how detailed the stories were. I've been dissapointed with every game's execution of the story since.
6 had a badass story mode. I wish we had another game with Lars as the MC
@@HonerableG I felt like Lars's role should've been given to Lee. Making a new character the Protagonist felt wrong for 6
Each game experiments with new ways to tell the story, but always seems to fall short on the actual story itself.
@@Jeezes718 except Tekken 4. They mastered it there.
Same. I view Tekken through the lens of tekken 4 and no other game has ever been as good story wise. Every character felt important, for the most part. Everything felt well thought out. I hope they get back on track in tekken 8. I think they see where they went wrong with the story and are getting back in track. 7 had Jin in a coma so they could focus on Kazuya and Heihachi. The ending of it set up Jin to take his place as the main protagonist and more importantly, the hero, again.
Oh God once you see the shadows that's all you can pay attention to. I want my naivete back damn it.
I noticed the weird triangle shadow thing right away, but I tried to justify it in my head like "surely the artists knew what they were doing and it's meant to be like that for some reason" so it was great to hear that there wasn't just confusion on my part about that :D (oh yeah, the video was great, really enjoyed listening to your thoughts, subscribed!)
The triangle shadows were one of the first thing I noticed . I couldn’t ignore after. I did like the art style and animation . Should’ve had more fights and episodes. Yoshi shouldn’t have lost to Anna lmao i didn’t like the rushed tourney . They could’ve definitely added some of the missing details that are found In that further connect plot points like Nina originally being possessed/influenced by ogre for ex. . 4th snake made a “wasted plotential” about this recently that’s is pretty spot on.
As a long time Tekken fan i really enjoyed Tekken Bloodline. I liked seeing the characters interact with eachother and see more of Jin's life with Jun. I agree with you that they did a good job making Jin a likeable person. And yea i would also love to see more of the other characters than just the Mishima's, though i can see with only 6 episodes it might be hard to give those enough screen time aswell. There are definitely more stories they could tell with the large roster we have.
The reason they decided to tell us this story? My guess is, because Tekken 3 being the best sold Tekken game until Tekken 7, it would probably appeal to the most people telling us the Tekken 3 story. If Bloodline does well, we might even get a season 2, which maybe could dive into the story of other characters aswell and perhaps go back to the Tekken 1 and Tekken 2 story to kinda fill the gap that's in Bloodline.
Tekken Bloodline didn't really give us much new information and i think the reason for that is because it's not made by the Tekken team and it's non canon, so the writers probably didn't want to change too much about the story and put in their own story ideas in.
Personally i really enjoyed Tekken Blood Vengeance aswell. It was a nice change having Xiaoyu and Alisa as protagonists, instead of it always being the Mishimas. I also think they did a great job with the writing for Xiaoyu, making her a more interesting character. And the 1v1v1 fight between Jin, Kazuya and Heihachi was so cool, really enjoy that one.
Overall I think we need to applaud the show. Yes, they didn't include as much of the stories of the other characters but they did at least follow the source material for Tekken 3 with the small amount of episodes they were given and a perfect lead in to a season 2 Tekken 4 story which in my opinion is the best in the series. They probably will also get more episodes to flesh out the other characters in the tournament
I was really hoping to see the story of Jin and Hwoarang's rivalry getting fleshed out in more detail in Tekken Bloodline. It would've been the perfect opportunity to tell the lore behind their rivalry.
According to an official Tekken 3 guide book, Hwoarang and his gang would get into street fights, placing bets on the outcome of those fights. Hwoarang's friends would go first and purposefully lose one after another in order to lure their opponents into betting more money, only for Hwoarang to step in at the last second to turn the tables and win all the money.
Until one day they pick a fight with Jin, who proceeds to beat all of them, including Hwoarang. After that, Hwoarang makes it his mission to get back at Jin and thus their rivalry is born.
Just a quick fix but Jin didn’t beat Hwoarang funnily enough. They drew and Hwoarang was so pissed that he held a grudge about that……about a damn tie 😭😭. Hwoarang’s record against Jin is actually pretty solid tho. 1 win (T5), 1 draw (pre T3), and 1 lost against Devil Jin (T5 right after Hwoarang beat Jin)
@@antg2183 You're right, it was a draw! Hwoarang was so pissed because he couldn't beat Jin xD
@@bakaringoit gets more surprising as you saw his ending in T7 when he decided to take a grenade to the face and saved Jin anyway
I think the problem with tekken adaptations is that it has too much characters they dont seem to know what to do with them. Its like making a smash bros show /series where would you start, most likely mario and who would you continue to end up following probably mario🤷♂️
They want to give everybody their time to shine but in doing that they give nobody their time to shine if you know what i mean. The games do it well cause you play as a single character and follow their stories kinda like a spin off but when it comes to series/shows and movies like bloodline it just falls back on main story.
I believe this is one of the best tekken adaptions in a long time but in me saying this it also could have been better.
And this is why I don't wanna watch it. Quite frankly I'm not trying to screw up what I already know and love about the series. The two animated movies or ovas or whatever u wanna call them that they made yrs ago were just fine imo aside from the graphics. Netflix did what no one asked them to do (as usual) and animated something we didn't need to see. Let the game stay a game since it works better that way. U try to animate something as huge as a fighting videogame series and ur only gonna end up screwing stuff up. (But hey what do I know, I'm just trusting my gut here and saying that I'm not willing to watch it because I've got several bad feelings about this thing.)
Kengan Ashura is pretty much the prototype on how to do a tournament type show perfectly. But of course if you want to give everyone their time to shine you need to have time
Yeah, I think my problem is the fact that Tekken cast is big to the level you can't put everyone in story...
@@hydellas678 movies don’t have graphics m8 and this adaptation was fine. Not great but fine.
Thank you, from all the Tekken story fans! It's not shakespeare or anything. And it's easy to be cynical about a fighting game story line. But there's something to be said how Tekken hasn't rebooted its story and got to build on itself instead. It's refreshing to see someone celebrate what Tekken does have and how its new media respect its' reverence
Bloodline was my first contact with Tekken, outside of Kazuya being added to smash (I dont really like him there).
Maybe most people act differently but all the missing pieces in the story have made me want to find out more and get the game myself. The thing I was most interested about was who Kazuya actually was, since he is such an important piece of the story but has only been mentioned in the show itself.
The story that I found in Tekken 7 was actually a bit of a letdown compared what I had experienced previously and I haven't really gotten used to the fighting either. But I will keep on trying as I am still very interested in the series.
Kazuya is mostly absent from Tekken Bloodline because TB is an adaptation of Tekken 3, which is the only Tekken game that Kazuya didn't appear in due to plot reasons.
@@lukejones7164 wasn’t he dead at the time
@@harrylane4 I know that, I never said that he was.
Yea I played a bit of tekken 2 as a kid characters seemed cool but didn’t know much. The anime I thought was really good and interesting plus I liked the fighting scenes definitely made me want more tekken lol
Your last tekken video got me interested in the game but not quite ready to dive into something so massive without any fighting game experience. This show might be just what I need to bring me into the fold. Thanks for making me aware of it!
Once you made mention of the shadows, I could not unsee them. How much could that (relatively) simple fix help improve this series?
As someone who is essentially a newcomer to Tekken (other than having seen your videos on it plus having gotten a couple matches in game here or there), I really enjoyed Tekken Bloodlines. I can definitely see its flaws, but ultimately it gave me a story that I was decently intrigued by and a desire to check out more if new episodes get made.
Same here for the most part
I just remembered where the random plot point was brought up by Xiao yu(i can’t remember how to spell it forgive me) about her being strong and having to prove herself or something and then immediately get swept by King.
That was hilarious as fuck. "I'm fighting to prove myself. Cuz I'm a wuman" 😂
I wish they could’ve shown more of the kaza-hei fight cuz good lord the way they were moving got me hyped to see them fight again
Couldn't agree more with your comments 👏🏽👏🏽 after watching the series, I did two things. 1: I started charting each Iron Fist tournament according to canon and filled the missing fights. 2: proceeded to think of ways the many tekken storylines could be told in a satisfying manner.
I think the best route would be following story beats in the same way the TV show Lost did. That had a massive cast with diverse stories to tell and over time we got to see and understand everyone's motivations and character arcs. We don't need to know everyone's story straight away but we can use this approach to build intrigue, mystery and fascination to these characters. Who's that ninja with a mask? Why is she in the tournament? She seems to know one of the other fighters, how did they meet? Are they working together? When we eventually do get to them, we'll be invested in knowing the person behind the fighter.
One of my main gripes with this series was how accessible Heihachi was. Mister CEO of the Zaibatsu who runs the world and we see a 16 year old consistently defy his instructions, we see people talk shit about him TO HIS FACE and there's absolutely no consequences??? Mr Evil incarnate didn't seem that scary at all. We needed to see much less of him, and hear wayyy less from him to establish his omnipresence and omnipotence in the world of the story. Which they managed to do much better with Kazuya.
to sum it up they show was only 6 episodes long and everything was rushed with characters getting little to none screen time. the show just needed to be longer in order to flesh out characters and their motivation to be in the tournament like most anime's in during their tournament arcs. the most we got that was somewhat satisfying was the Hwarong, Xioayu, Paul dynamic.
6 episodes wasn't alot of screen time, so sacrifices had to be made. I feel like they did alot with what they gave us.
tekken bloodlines structure: flashback, flashback, namedrop, flashback, namedrop, fight scene, flashback during fight scene, name drop, etc etc
I never noticed the shadow thing until now 😂 but this was the best tekken adaptation so far and I really enjoyed it, definitely hope there's a second season
Same, i had to go rewatch to get what people were talking about.
I noticed even before it came out, it is a legitimate complaint but to say it ruins the whole show is perhaps being more than a bit dramatic.
@@ReluctantWarrior Yeah not saying it's not a legit complaint, just missed it. But once i heard of it i can't unsee it. But my bigger complaint is the lack of episodes, otherwise i really enjoyed watching, the fights were all tekken moves etc.
@@yoyo-co3tx Agreed, lack of episodes amd too much focus on the Mishimas. Personally, I'm just glad King finallu got some proper screen presence.
@@ReluctantWarrior Hopefully it was to test the waters and we get a longer season 3 😤
I think all the problem here is mostly because it's actually a 2 hour film that is hyper-focused on Jin. We only see things through his perspective, therefore a lot of the tournament was obscured because he wasn't even there to watch the fight. He was so focused in training for revenge, that the encounter between him, Xiao Yu, and Hwoarang, was partially buried among the memories of his training. He only remember Hwoarang as this person he had a good fight with a couple of times on the street, and Xiao Yu as a schoolmate with some kung fu knowledge he somehow got along with. That's why he was quite shocked seeing Xiao Yu actually did well against Nina; he didn't know Xiao Yu enough to know about her actual combat skill.
Perhaps another hour of runtime (about 5 more episodes) will do the series better. But that said, given the direction of the film (focusing solely on Jin's perspective) it might be hard to slip in more character stories in without making Jin to look like an rpg player that seek to unlock all character's dialogues and events...
Incredible writing as always! Your scripts are so smooth and rich with great information!
Don't forget the triangle shadows
The ever present shadow-illuminati loams over the Tekken universe!
Hey I just wanted you to know that your video on how dark souls helped you manage depression and look at life differently really helped me with my own struggles with addiction and mental illness and I just wanted to say thank you.
Paul canonically didn't lose a single fight in Tekken 3, and I hate that this series changed that
I liked Paul too. Sad to see his only contribution to the Ogre fight being his finisher, which could KO any opponent in Tekken 3 to only just displacing the ogre a bit.
The anime gets a 5/5 from me simply because I want a season 2. It was great for what it was in a short season. It told Jin's story and the fights were awesome. With a 2nd season, the narrative problems will be resolved.
I hope Bloodline gets more seasons that focus on different characters and changes up its artstyle. I wanna think of this season as "Jin Story Mode" which alludes to the other characters but focuses on one at its centre. I wanna see the same events portrayed through the others perspectives and get more context on the stuff that this season glossed over. I also think Yoshimitsu could work well as a foil to the now Devilized Jin: someone also driven by revenge, but also a need to help people. It'd be interesting to see him be the one who teaches the kid how to control his demonic powers.
I just don't want Bloodlines to turn out into a one-and-done, because if they stick to it, I think it can really grow on people.
We need Alisa in season 2!!
@@siddiqsmouse5004 alisa is a tekken 6 character though, this show takes place during tekken 3. There's a whole 2 games that need to be adapted before she turns up
@@patrickhanlon2325 there were a whole 2 games to cover before doing this one too and that didn’t stop them
@@siddiqsmouse5004 Please no, her and Lars can stay away. Nothing from Tekken 6 please.
@@li-limandragon9287What about Miguel?
I didn’t notice those shadows and now they look so hilarious to me. Great essay man!
The problem with the fans, is that with these large casts, they always want to see their “favorites” even if it serves the story no purpose. Like…I’m sure the 2 Mokujin fans were mad. Or the three Marduk fans were mad. And you can’t focus on those characters. Every fighting game has a set of main characters that carry the story. In Tekken, it’s the Mishimas. This anime tried to center around that. But it made fans mad because Roger and Kuma didn’t get the same treatment than Jin or Heihachi.
Read the comments here, and notice how most of the people complaining, cry over their “favorite” character not being featured and therefore…NETFLIX RUINED IT.
I remember the movie Anna when it came out. My Dad thought it was an adaptation of Anna and Nina Williams’ stories so we watched it. While a little disappointed, we really liked it and I think that experience makes a case for the fact that Tekken fans do crave stories and adaptations about other characters
other series:jump the shark
tekkin: throw off mountain
I liked they gave a "canon" reason why Jin has flame designs.
They really need to make Kazuya a savage but good guy also .
Only thing i didnt like was giving other characters their latest outfits when they had a specific look during the time of the plot (julia for example)
right? With Julia at least they didn't use her tekken 7 personality even though they used the look, I was so relieved LMAO
I have a theoy that Jun has a foresight ability that lets her see the future enough where she herself can manipulate only by Jin's influence in the story and see what the Demon who watches the family feud between the Mishimas intentions.
i havent touched tekken in YEARS, and im so happy that Paul is a semi-serious character than comic relief TT
I honestly never noticed the shadows until you mentioned them.. now i can’t unsee them
Bloodlines is good for one thing: it got me back into Tekken after _years_ of not playing the franchise. I only ever played Tekken 6 when I was much younger and obviously being a kid didn't really understand the gameplay or the story, but I watched Bloodlines I kinda remembered "...holy shit this franchise actually fucking slapped." It's the reason I ended up buying Tekken 7 recently
I didn't even notice the shadow thing at first but now that it's been pointed out I can't unsee it!
It's everywhere and my eyes are now drawn to it!
Leroy was in tekken 3, we just didn't know to pay for the dlc yet.
I didn't notice the shadows because most people never notice unless you are actively looking for them, but now I can't unsee it
7:21 That's her fighting stance from Tag 2 and she didn't have it in Tekken 2. I like how they reincorporated that here since her moveset from Tag 2 definitely fits more in line with her tranquil character being in touch with nature. Even if she still uses her old cartwheel kick from Tekken 2, lol.
Tbh if I was the one making Tekken Bloodline S2 I would focus it on Paul's storyline from Tekken 4. Yeah you can have your Kazuya/Heihachi/Jin hate boner triangle story too but I would heavily focus on the Michima Zaibatsu making Paul look like an Alex Jones type after he opens up about the fight with Ogre. Leading to him losing everything and starting his redemption arc into winning the king of iron fist tournament.
It think this anime was pretty well written. I hope we get a season covering Tekken 4. Tekken is just a series of tournament arcs, political crime drama, and classic revenge stories with Kazuya's story being the most like a Greek tragedy. The real issue is the way lighting reacts to all the character models and fight scenes that don't feel as fluid as the cgi animation of Kengan Ashura or the Berserk OVA.
I really liked the part where Jin says, "I'm sorry, mom"
I never noticed the shadows on the characters and now that you pointed it out I did, and it looks like a messy hurtbox always showing lol
I thoroughly enjoyed Bloodline, but it needs a 2nd or even 3rd season. With it only being six episodes, certain things did feel rushed, but that’s to be expected. For what they had to work with, they did a good job IMO. I loved how we got to see the relationship between Jun and Jin, since we only hear about it and have never seen it physically (same goes for the Ogre attack and Jun’s “disappearance”). I also liked the dynamic that Jin had with Xiaoyu and Hwoarang as well, and Paul was handled a lot better here than in some of the more recent Tekken games. I do hope they continue into Tekken 4’s story, or even do a prequel of sorts that focuses on the events of Tekken 1 and 2, since there’s a lot of unexplained lore in those games as well (prime example being how and why Kazuya and Jun hooked up and “created” Jin).
At the end of the day though, this is still the best adaptation of Tekken’s lore to date. The only other thing before this that was close enough to the lore was Tekken: The Motion Picture, but even then, that film was plagued with flaws.
As Tekken is set in modern times while Soulcalibur takes place in a medieval fantasy setting, the first Soulcalibur Yoshimitsu was originally considered to be an ancestor to Tekken's Yoshimitsu; however, the introduction of Yoshimitsu II revealed that Yoshimitsus are willingly killed and replaced by a younger protégé as part of a secret ritual, in order to make "Yoshimitsu" appear immortal to outsiders. Therefore, the Tekken version of the character is implied to have inherited the mantle in a similar way... Googled what is Yoshimitsu way back
I didn't pay attention to the obelisk shadow till you said it and now I cannot unsee it.
A character that I believe could actually benefit from the long-winded emphasis is Lars, a character introduced in Tekken 6 as a all-new core member of the cast, who has only had 2 games to his name. Aside from his relationship with Alisa and his hatred of his father Heihachi, we never understand how he comes to meet Jin and become his right hand, how he learns the Tekken Force Martial Arts, who his mother is, or how Heihachi regarded him at all besides the flagrant disregard of an illegitimate
And this has lots of potential, considering you could go very deep into Lars’s emotions regarding this. We don’t get to explore it in T6 because he has Amnesia, nor in T7 where the emphasis is on the end of the original Mishima feud.
So yeah, I’d hopefully like some evaluation of him, maybe in a potential 3rd or 4th season where they introduce him to Jin in the events of T5, after Jin assumes control of the Zaibatsu
I’m surprised they didn’t give more screen time for characters like Anna or Steve (Steve’s got history with the Mishimas due to his “childhood”)
The whole Williams family subplot is more interesting than the Mishimas boys being petty with each other. Steve is like Nero if Dante and Vergil were hot assassin ladies.
Yeah ack, those triangle shadows are impossible to ignore for me. I guess they just cheaped out on a shadow rendering algorithm???
What happened with me is that after I watched the show I went and watched a vid about the lore and it made me interested in Tekken
I think this first season is like a short start to see if the fans would dig it. I hope Netflix will give a season two a goa nd give them more episodes to work with. Because I think they wanted to do more but are limited by the amount of episodes the season was allowed to have.
Great video but as a Jin main I really hope the next season still focuses on him cos now well be getting Tekken 4's story which completes his arc (his story after 4 was never as good IMO). The season after that can then be used for the other characters.
The problem I have, which you could say that I could be a little nitpicky, is many of the Tekken 3 lore or minūte details were brush over. Like Forest Law.
He was specifically in Tekken 3 because Marshall didn't want to join the tournament and forbid his son to join as well iirc, which Paul snuck him out to join anyway.
Why is Leroy, Steve, Marduk, Feng, and other later installment characters there?
Why did the OG characters not have their Tekken 3 outfits on? I would have loved to see their take on Julia's P2 outfit (orange/maroon croptop and jeans with the matching sneakers and fingerless gloves).
Why is Eddy missing?? Just straight up not present and he debuted in T3 and also was a very popular character!
These are my my gripes but otherwise, I enjoyed the adaptation as well.
The most memorable highlight for me was seeing the 10-hit combos translate very well in the animation.
Thank you for mentioning the shadows…felt like it was the shading was rendered as a cube with a clipping mask on it.
Once you see the triangle shadows over every single char in every single scene, you can't stop looking at it.
Not showing law fight at all or the King and Marduk fight was criminal. Other than that, I loved the show.
god, I am so fucking ready for a Yoshimitsu anime with Bryan, Kuni, and Raven as main rivals.
or a slice of life with Paul, Law, and Forest.
or Wang Jinrei and Jinpachi.
Yeah that would be so sick
Great essay on Tekken Bloodline. It's wonderful to see a good adaptation on Tekken for once, maybe inspired by the Castlevania anime... That being said, I worry about Netflix not greenlighting another season since they rather give Loud Mouth more seasons than it deserves or exploit Squid Game for all its worth than letting better shows have their stories concluded, which makes Tekken Bloodline a rather oddity since it did told a complete story within the 6 episodes it got than just tell a small chunk of a larger story. Hell, there wasn't even any post-credit scene, hinting that the showrunners believe Netflix won't pursue anymore Tekken.
For me I noticed a lot of inaccuracies like how Julia looks like her tekken 7 self despite that being 5 or 6 years later at least or how Paul did not do as good as he originally did as although jon did best ogre in its monster form we had Paul beat him before hand and thinking yeah its knocked out left and was disqualified from the tournament. Setting was another thing as the dome just didn't feel right compared to the stages of tekken 3 with some characters left out for characters retroactively added in.then there is the voice acting that sure is leagues better than tekken 4 with jin trying to speak English, but heihachis.voice sounds more like a snake than the boastful fighter who likes to destroy people and with all the budget some scenes felt off like jin fighting heihachi in the end did not feel brutal in comparison to our tragic boy slamming his grandpa's head through an Aztec pyramid down to the ground with a knee to the throat on the way down seeing as grandpa gunned him down. Having the side characters help with ogre bugged me too as although I like hworoang as a character he lost and went home and do did xiayou and with help it kind of made it feel less personal on jins part. Plus yeah 6 episodes isng enough it felt rushed which surprised me as Netflix will green light anything for a full season run at least once so what happened here. If there is a second season I'd focus on jin training in Australia and kazuyas return personally then lead into the side characters like marduk and Steve. Personally I feel tekken 5 and 7 did the lore a lot more justice especially 5 but 7 with the main plot is ironically still feels like the closest thing to an anime feud arc I will get from the series.
I didnt know jack shit about tekken having a storyline until tekken 5. Before that i just saw the endings as just a silly game reward, like, congratulations you completed the game, now heres a cutscene as a reward.
I want a Yoshimitsu show so badly. I want happy-go-lucky Yoshimitsu and his friends struggling with tragedy.
I understand why they didn’t do this scene 1:53 because Harada retconned the story, but I would’ve loved to see this. I still hate that they retconned the Devil and made it Devil Gene. But all in all, I loved the show and can’t wait for them to do t4 and t5.
Edit: Hahaha omg, the triangle shadowssss, I didn’t even notice them. It’s so weird!
Well this season is literally going based off Tekken 3 story line where the main focus is Jin. I just felt like some parts were missing and rushed. Nonetheless, it is a great adaption compared to its past adaptions that kind of stray from the main story. I do agree introducing each character from the games and having their little side stories that relate to the Mishimas. Especially Paul and Nina since they were from the first two games. I really want to see how they would adapt Tekken and Tekken 2 or show a flashback episode from those two events. I honestly want to know how Kazuya and Jun got together and at least interact besides of their body languages in the Tag games.
Going off Devil Katz’s Tag 1 ending, where he sweeps an unconscious Jun up into his arms and flies away, I think he loves her to a sizeable extent and she loves him judging by her motives in Tekken 2. I know people love to make it out as something more insidious (in the awful live action film Kazuya rapes her) but I think it was as simple as that. The existence of Angel’s character is also tied to Kazuya’s feeling to Jun.
Two adaptations have explored their relationship the first anime movie and the Aspect Shojo manga (sadly the latter hasn’t been translated).
They really should have done some sort of end credit scene where we see kazuya in a healing tank to hint that he is alive so mishima fans can have something to be excited about.
I’d love to see some of the king, armor king, Marduk story line :p
I'm not a Tekken buff, I only played Tekken 3 to death as a kid and loved how much personality each character had and how they all mostly felt like they had a strong back story. I was surprised how good this short series was, I honestly was expecting it to majorly detour from what the series is about. I only wish it lasted longer, I think even filler episodes just deepening the characters would have been amazing. I hope there's a season 2.
Oh wow I didn't even notice the shadows when I watched it. That would have driven me crazy if I had noticed!
I would like a prequel to see Tekken 1 and 2. The Darth Vader like struggle of Angel and Demon within Kazuya and his loss to humanity but Jun that could be his only good thing in his life beside his Grandfather and mother in his youth.
RIP anyone who watches this who hasnt finished all episodes. Once you notice the weird shadows, you cant unnotice them.
that shadow thing.. I can't unsee it, its like a graphical bug in the lighting shadow system, because you haven't updated your graphics card drivers.
You're mentioning of how they put so much emphasis on jins story made me remember this other anime based on a videgame i like, sengoku basara end of judgement.
The anime is a brief retelling of sengoku basara 3 and it does half decent job of making sure multiple characters stories get told from the game. Not just the vengeance 3 way between date, mitsunari and ieyasu (3 of the poster characters along with sanada) but also some characters silly plots about falling in love with other characters and going on a journey to win their heart, or others who find themselves a pawn in a conspiracy to attack their friend only to realize at the eleventh hour who their real is. These are all stories ive actually played through in game and it was great to see them all adressed.
I agree with most of what you said, I was just sad it wasnt longer and we didnt see more about other characters, especially my favourites like Yoshimitsu and Bryan, not to mention Kazuya/Devil but im sure he will come back in the next show.
I think the problem with the visuals is that the studio making Bloodlines tried to copy the Arc System Works style of 3D emulating 2D without actually knowing the secrets to what makes it work.
To make a long story incredibly short, ArcSys basically forces the imperfections of 2D anime back into 3D. Character models are slightly tweaked to add imperfections, they manipulate the size and length of limbs for foreshortening, models hold poses tor long periods of time, there are fewer frames of animation, every model has their own unique shadows that don’t change no matter what lighting they’re in etc.
Tekken Bloodlines though seems to be doing *some* of those things, but it all fails because they’re still following the rules of 3D animation, rather then trying to force 3D to act like 2D. If you want better context for what I’m saying go look up New Frame Plus’ video on Arc System Work’s animation style. He does a way better job explaining it then I can.
I hate the fact that when he transformed Jin was in full form, unlike in the games where it took times. Because during all these years he was trying to keep it in control. And even though in Tekken 5 he failed it showed that he kept his emotions down, that's why he was such a quiet individual (and not emo like people are saying he is)
Thanks, now I can't unsee these ... FUCKING SHADOWS man.
this is the best adaptation of Tekken though. even though it only focused on Tekken 3, i was satisfied because of how Jin grows as a character. he constantly fights his Mishima side in favor of the Kazama.
I would love a story of the kings, armoured to mainline.
I dont mind the Mishima stories, but I would like to know Kazumi's full story and when Kazuya was a kid training with Jinpachi, etc.
I was expecting a bait and switch where Kazuya is set up as super evil, with Heihachi feeding Jin lies (including that Kaz assaulted his mom) then Jin finds out his dad was the real victim along his great grandfather Jinpachi.
@@li-limandragon9287 yea, I'm thinking something similar. Like let's get to know the real Kazuya as he was when his mother was still alive. Currently we don't know how much of him is kaz and how much is devil.
Nice video, I wasn't aware this even existed.
Man I love RUclips so much
Watched the series and was feeling good but had mixed emotions. Wanted to talk to someone about it but unfortunately all of my friends aren’t really as deep in Tekken lore as I (also it wouldn’t help they’re not big fighting game fans either 🤦🏾♂️) but I found this on the algorithm and peeped. Such an excellent video and I loved it also the comments here really are great. Good to see other Tekken fans comment on the Game!
Love this video, definitely going to give this show a watch, also love this series and even though I never knew the story much I always done how related to Jin, don’t know why
11:00 Also wholly agree, you could not tell me you were not hard if your word flames on your clothes😭😭😭 I wanted to have Jin’s fits so bad
3:58 I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD I NEVER NOTICED THE POINTY SHADOWS BEFORE BUT NOW I JUST CANT UNSEE THEM
If your going to do a Tekken anime, this is the story you have to tell first unless you go back and do the first tournament (which doesn't have much plot to work from).
If you think of it as a first part, with another series or two coming along it's pretty decent.
Watched it last night and it was way better than I expected it to be.
I was disapointed that we didn't get more with maybe each match in teh tournament taking an episode with a bit of back story on teh charachters and why they are there. Maybe they'll do that next?
One thing it does do well is tell the Tekken 3 story, arguably the most impactful of the series, for people who weren't around then or for people who didn't play it.