For fighter info, seeKazuya (SSBU).

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

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

Origin[edit]

Official artwork ofDevil Kazuya fromTekken Pachislot 2nd.

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

Kazuya was trained in marital arts at a very young age under the guidance of his father,Heihachi Mishima, and grandfather,Jinpachi Mishima. His mother,Kazumi Mishima—a carrier of theDevil Gene—, discovered that Kazuya had inherited the Devil Gene, offering him the possibility of transforming into ademon. At the age of five, Kazumi would die and Kazuya would soon find out that Heihachi was responsible. Kazuya would confront his father, but he is easily defeated and thrown off ofa cliff as punishment for his weakness. Heihachi also used the punishment as a way to test if Kazuya had the Devil Gene, as that would be the only way he could survive and, if he did survive, be strong enough to succeed Heihachi and inherit theMishima Zaibatsu. Kazuya nearly dies from the fall, but the incident causes his Devil Gene to activate and his demonic powers to awaken, allowing him to climb back out of the ravine.

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

After the end of this tournament and the apparent death of Heihachi, Kazuya inherits his father's corporate empire. This sudden influx of wealth and power renders Kazuya obsessed with surpassing his father in every way. Under his control, the Mishima Zaibatsu becomes an even more ruthless and oppressive military force, seizingHokkaido to create an independent nation, illegally experimenting on endangered animal species, as well as kidnapping, subjugating, and even killing potential threats to his leadership. Two years after the end of the first tournament, Kazuya announces the second King of Iron Fist Tournament to prove his dominance.

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

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

InSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate[edit]

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

As a playable character[edit]

Kazuya as he appears inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Kazuya appears as anewcomer inSuper Smash Bros. Ultimate, with his inclusion being announced duringE3 2021 on June 15, 2021. He is the fifthDLC character ofFighters Pass Vol. 2, and was released on June 29th, 2021. Kazuya's design is based on his default appearance as ofTekken 5, although he also features an alternate costume based on his default appearance inTekken 7 and the opening cinematic ofTekken Tag Tournament.

According toSuper Smash Bros. series creator and directorMasahiro Sakurai, Kazuya was chosen over his father,Heihachi Mishima, due to his Devil Gene and its applicability to his moveset.^[1] Due to hailing from a traditional fighting game series likeRyu,Ken andTerry, Kazuya also featurescommand-input moves and will always face his opponent when there is one remaining (teammates included ifTeam Attack is on).

Spirits[edit]

Names in other languages[edit]

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

Trivia[edit]

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

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Article on theTekken Wiki

v • d • e Tekken universe
Fighter	Kazuya (SSBU)
Stage	Mishima Dojo
Other	Heihachi Mishima
Spirits	Spirits
Music	Ultimate

• Characters
• Tekken universe
• Kazuya
• Third-party characters
• Bandai Namco
• Spirits