Kazuya Mishima

"So you've come."

- Kazuya Mishima

Kazuya Mishima is a video game character from the Tekken series by Namco Bandai. Although originally appearing as the main protagonist of the original Tekken, later main antagonist of the series, and later antiheroic protagonist of Tekken 7. Kazuya Mishima is one of the major characters in the Tekken series along with his father, brother, step-brother and son. His first appearance is as the main character in the first Tekken game, following on to be in all Tekken games barring Tekken 3 (in which he has a small cameo in Eddy Gordo's ending) and Tekken Advance (Nintendo Game Boy Advance in 2002 ). Kazuya is unique in the series as the only one to have a mutual partnership with "The Devil" as opposed to Devil Jin and Jinpachi who's powers result from uncontrollable transformation and a possession unrelated to the Devil Gene respectively.

Character Description
In the original entry to the franchise, Kazuya was considered to be the primary protagonist, and for all intents and purposes, there was no reason to believe differently. According to differing sources (such as Tekken: The Motion Picture and a brief scene in Ling Xiaoyu's Tekken 5 ending), Kazuya was actually quite frail and timid as a boy and was the victim of years of abuse at the hands of Heihachi. Indeed, Kazuya originally entered the first King of Iron Fist Tournament in order to face off against his father, who was played up to be a corrupt corporate tyrant. Kazuya's clothing of choice, simple white pants and red gloves and footpads, even helped to draw parallels to another "mysterious loner" hero, Street Fighter's Ryu. So most people (both within the game and in real life) simply wrote Kazuya off as the cliché fighting game hero.

There was only one clue as to Kazuya's true intents and nature: his secret PS One palette swap, which turned out to be Devil.

Tekken 2 saw Kazuya's true nature revealed in full. After killing his father (or so he thought), instead of bringing justice and honor to the Mishima Zaibatsu and righting the wrongs of his father, Kazuya repeated the corrupt practices of his father and turned it into an even much more ruthless and evil organization. While Heihachi was merely ruthless (though he had some standards), Kazuya was absolutely without conscience or any compassion at all. He hired assassins to eliminate innocent people for the sake of his own pleasure (such as the father of Eddy Gordo), he attempted to extort money from several businesses and many organizations, and he even went so far as to smuggle endangered animal species, and conducted genetic experiments on them (Alex and Roger). Of course, the reason for his evil deeds was because he had sold his soul to the Devil all those years ago, and had allowed the evil within him to fully consume him.

However, Kazuya still had some sense of goodness within his heart, which gained more and more strength after he first met Jun Kazama, resulting in Angel, who constantly battled his evil side, though this would turn out to be his downfall. Heihachi managed to take advantage of his son's confusion caused by this internal war and defeated him in the second King of Iron First Tournament. Kazuya was then thrown into a volcano and killed, while the Devil in his body escaped and eventually made contact with Kazuya's son, who succeeded his father as the series' new protagonist.

Of course, G Corporation eventually located Kazuya's remains and at this point, they regenerated his body and made a deal with him to remain hidden within G Corporation's labs and be tested on. Kazuya had learned from his mistakes; the next time he faced Heihachi, he wanted to be in full control of his Devil powers. Of course, this plan did not go as Kazuya intended; Heihachi ruined it by invading G Corporation and stealing their research.

Since his original appearance, Kazuya's character has gone through many transformations: From hero to villain, from villain to anti-hero. Whatever was left of his good side appears to be totally suppressed by his Devil persona. Kazuya no longer fights against his darker side, and the two seem to have come to mutual terms, as Kazuya can call upon Devil whenever he likes now (such as in his Tekken 5 introduction).

Background
Kazuya Mishima was born to Heihachi and Kazume Mishima. His mother was a kind nurturer, but his father was the cruel-minded CEO of Mishima Zaibatsu. Kazume presumably perished in childbirth or shortly after and Kazuya would grow up to be kind-hearted. As a 10-year old child, Kazuya was thrown down a cliff by his father Heihachi who considered him too weak to take over the family business. Kazuya only survived the fall due to a pact with the Devil that would ensure the power to defeat his father in exchange for his soul. As a result, Kazuya became more ruthless and cold-hearted. He trained in the family style of Karate and won countless tournaments across the world over the years, drawing with soon to be rival Paul Phoenix. Over the years, Devil slowly corrupted Kazuya's mind and body to suit itself.

History
As a young boy, Kazuya grew up as a gentle boy, trained under the tutelage of Jinpachi Mishima. However, when Jinpachi disappeared, Kazuya's father Heihachi Mishima took over his training and began to train him harshly. When Kazuya proved to be too gentle for him, Heihachi tossed him to a cliff to test his strength. The abuses took toll on Kazuya's psyche and thanks to the Devil Gene within the Mishima bloodline, Kazuya discarded his compassion and transformed into an evil man with demonic strength and climbed back to the cliff he's tossed into and swore revenge on Heihachi, hating him for everything. When he was thirteen Heihachi adopted Lee Chaolan, but he did only for giving Kazuya a rival. It caused hatred between each other

Tekken 1
To improve his strength, Kazuya participated in various local tournaments, reigning as a champion everywhere. There is only one man that ever came to a draw with him, the American judoka Paul Phoenix. However, Kazuya paid no mind to him.

Participating in the Tekken tournament, Kazuya eventually made it to the finals and with his new demonic strength, surprised Heihachi and defeated him. As a payback for what he did in the past, Kazuya tossed Heihachi into the very same cliff that he was thrown into in the past.

Tekken 2
As of the rules of the Tekken tournament, Kazuya inherits the Mishima Zaibatsu from his father. With his victory, he became drunk with power, and possibly to spite on Heihachi's underhanded methods on running the Zaibatsu, Kazuya not only ran the Zaibatsu in a far worse methods, he was more open in his cruelty, including drug-dealing, dojo-trashing and smuggling dangerous animals. Realizing that he is attracting attention, Kazuya opened the second Tekken tournament to get rid of all oppositions.

One participant, however, caught his attention, a woman named Jun Kazama. Kazuya became intimate, lured by her mysterious power and spent a night with her, impregnating her.

In the finals, confronting him was the returning Heihachi Mishima. In the middle of the final, however, Kazuya was distracted with the struggle between both his inner Devil and the mysterious being called Angel, possibly brought forth by his relationship with Jun. Thanks to that, Kazuya was defeated and Heihachi tossed him into a volcano.

Meanwhile, from the intimate encounter, Jun bore a son for Kazuya, Jin Kazama. He would become the protagonist of Tekken 3, where Kazuya was absent.

Tekken 4 - Kazuya's Return
Few days later, after Kazuya was thrown in a mouth of a volcano by Heihachi a biotech firm G Corporation brought him to life. Kazuya decided to master the Devil within him thus allowed himself to be experimented by the G Corporation. The efforts succeeded, and Kazuya came back more powerful than ever. Twenty years later, the Mishima Zaibatsu assaulted the lab he's in. Kazuya proceeded to trash the assault unit of the Zaibatsu and showed himself to Heihachi. In order to bait and get rid of Kazuya, Heihachi announced the fourth Tekken tournament.

Kazuya participated and made it to the finals, against Heihachi. He lost, but Heihachi took him to a temple in Honmaru where he held Jin captive. Kazuya tossed Heihachi aside and revealed that his plan was to absorb Jin's Devil essence and gather more power for himself. He awakened Jin and fought, but was defeated. Shortly after, Jin defeated Heihachi too, but ultimately spared both him and Kazuya on the spiritual urging of Jun.

Tekken 5
After regaining consciousness, the Honmaru was under attack by a lot of Jack-4 robots. Kazuya temporarily teamed up with Heihachi for survival, but when opportunity presented itself, Kazuya tossed Heihachi into a swarm of Jacks and escaped on his own, while the Jacks self-destructed, seemingly killing Heihachi, although Kazuya knew better that his old man wouldn't die with such thing (and it is true, eventually).

With Heihachi dead, the Mishima Zaibatsu was in a vacuum of power. However, the 5th Tekken is announced regardless. Kazuya participated, thinking that the one behind the attack on Honmaru must be the announcer, and he planned to get revenge. In the middle of the tournament, however, Kazuya learned the truth, the attacker was instead from G Corporation. With that information, Kazuya lost interest of the tournament and dropped out.

Tekken 6
On dropping out the tournament, Kazuya went to the G Corporation and slaughtered everyone in the division that betrayed him. In the same time, he took control of the Corporation.

Later, the newest Mishima Zaibatsu leader, Jin himself, was plunging the world into a state of war and has lost the support of the people. Kazuya used this to his advantage and announced opposition to the Zaibatsu, winning the support of the people, although he planned to use it for his own gains. When Jin announced the 6th Tekken tournament, Kazuya happily participated to defeat Jin and reclaim what was supposed to be his.

In the Scenario Campaign mode, Kazuya pursued Jin who is trying to confront and destroy Azazel. However, when defeated by Lars Alexandersson near the chamber of Azazel, Kazuya eventually retreated, warning Lars that as a member of the Mishima bloodline, they are destined to fight each other forever.

Namco X Capcom
Kazuya makes an appearance as a boss in Namco X Capcom.

Project X Zone
Kazuya makes an appearance in Project X Zone 2. He is a playable character with his partner Jin Kazama.