Heihachi Mishima

Heihachi Mishima (三島 平八) is a character in Tekken fighting game series created by Bandai Namco Entertainment (formerly Namco), serving as its main antagonist. Introduced as the boss character from the first Tekken video game from 1994, Heihachi appears as the CEO/leader of a military firm known as the Mishima Zaibatsu founded by his father Jinpachi Mishima. Heihachi was the protagonist of Tekken 2 and one of the two main characters of Tekken 7 along with his son Kazuya Mishima, furthermore Heihachi was a boss character in two additional main installments of the series. He is opposed by many of his relatives who wish for his death out of revenge and to take over the Mishima Zaibatsu. This happens across the series and one of the creators of Tekken Katsuhiro Harada has called it a "family feud". Heihachi wants to defeat his son and grandson, Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama respectively. Heihachi's backstory and motives are revealed in Tekken 7, in which he is killed by Kazuya and thus does not appear in Tekken 8. Heihachi has two known illegitimate children who are playable in the series, the first is the hero Lars Alexandersson, who debuted in Tekken 6; and the second is Reina, who was introduced in Tekken 8, uses some of his moves and has a similar personality, and is later revealed to be also a Devil Gene user as both Kazuya and Jin.

Outside of Tekken spin-off titles, Heihachi also appears as a playable character in other games such as Namco x Capcom, Soulcalibur II, The King of Fighters All Star, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Street Fighter X Tekken, Project X Zone and its sequel Project X Zone 2. He is also featured in the printed, animated and live-action adaptations of the Tekken series. In contrast to the main Tekken installments, Heihachi also appeared in many games with a younger appearance especially in Tekken Tag Tournament 2.

Harada referred to Heihachi as one of his most favorite characters from the series. Critical reception to Heihachi has been positive with journalists praising his moves and characterization. However, critics made fun of his design and expressed a lack of interest in his role in Tekken 7, where he is one of the most important characters in the game.

Conception and creation
Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada has stated that Heihachi is his favorite character in the series overall and the character he most frequently selects when playing the game. He further described Heihachi as a "very human character", stating that while focus has been placed on his appearance, he found the character's philosophy more interesting, and that in the series he was a "perfect portrayal of the evil that lurks in men's hearts", an evil "far more hideous than any made-up monster". In response to claims that the story of Tekken was complicated, Harada denied as he saw it as a "simple" struggle between members from the Mishima family. Despite promotion from Tekken 5 claiming that Heihachi has died in the intro, Namco Bandai denied this statement in interviews. Heihachi's story and traits are based on Harada's history with his father. Harada was born in 1970, after World War II. However, Harada claims that in that period, parents were harsh with their children in Japan. As a result, Heihachi was portrayed as an antagonistic father to his son; something that the Japanese players could relate to. Heihachi's power in the form of the zaibatsu was based on the Imperialistic Japan. Furthermore, Heihachi is Tekken's personification of wartime Japan.

After Tekken 6, Heihachi's voice actor Daisuke Gōri died. In order to include the Heihachi once again in the spin-off Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Namco hired a new voice actor who would fit well for Heihachi. As for in this game, Heihachi took a potion to make himself look younger. The voice selected was Unshō Ishizuka. Tekken 7's story mode was supposed to conclude the long struggle between Kazuya and Heihachi. However, Namco made the story so that newcomers to the franchise would understand it more easily. In further teasers of the game, Harada stated that in Tekken 7 Kazuya or Heihachi would die in their final fight. In 2016, Harada commented he had his own family. As a result, he compared it with the violent characters from Tekken who are constantly fighting each other: Heihachi, Jin, and Kazuya. He viewed this type of family as "too hard" in comparison. When asked about the final fight between both Kazuya and Heihachi, Harada called it "a major milestone in the storyline", as he was surprised by how extended the rivalry between these two characters has become due to the franchise's current popularity, and thus felt it was necessary to end this in a mortal fight.

In Tekken 5, his movesets were viewed as one of the strongest from the cast but GameSpy commented that he lacked a weakness, as well as quicker attacks. In preparations for Tekken 7, Harada commented that he would often try Devil Jin if he was an "intermediate player", comparing his skills with Heihachi's. For Capcom's crossover game Street Fighter X Tekken, the official guide noted how Heihachi's multiple combos could inflict a large amount of damage on the opponents.

For the animated film Tekken: Blood Vengeance, writer Dai Satō commented that he had to wait to get Namco's approval to introduce Heihachi's final transformation using the power of the Mokujin in order to fight Jin in his Devil form. Heihachi's transformation surprised Harada and other members due to how over-the-top it was. The fight scene between the three generations of the Mishima family proved to be difficult to make as a result of the choreography aimed as well as the movement of motion actors. In order to use Heihachi in the movie, the original character Shin Kamiya was created. Shin's relationship with the Devil Gene experiments attract villain in the story. In retrospect, Satō was shocked when learning Lars was Heihachi's son, comparing it to Masami Kurumada's manga Saint Seiya which uses a similar plot twist involving a man like Heihachi, Mitsumasa Kido, having several offsprings secretly.

Comic book artist Cavan Scott described Heihachi and Kazuya as "demons" due to their dark character traits, making their rivalry with Jin look unfitting in the narrative because of their differences. Scott wanted fans to look forward to his Tekken comic adaptation due to his handling of the three main characters, as it's set during the time Jin becomes similar to Heihachi and Kazuya, making their war more engaging. While still treating Jin as the main character for not reaching Heihachi's traits in terms of corruption, he believed the two would, nevertheless, be interesting enemies.

Main Tekken series
In the first Tekken game, Heihachi hosts the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, offering a substantial prize money and even ownership of the Mishima Zaibatsu itself to those who have the courage and determination to defeat him. Kazuya enters the tournament to take revenge on Heihachi for throwing him off a cliff twenty-one years ago. Kazuya wins the tournament and throws Heihachi off a same cliff that Heihachi had thrown him off. Kazuya then takes control of the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Heihachi, as thrown off a cliff by Kazuya in the previous tournament, instantly lost his dignity and fortune. Grief-stricken over his past transgressions and for neglecting his studies drove Heihachi to a life of seclusion deep within the mountains with his dear friend and pet, Kuma, where he refined his fighting style Mishima-ryu Karate. Heihachi descended from the mountains after catching wind of the King of Iron Fist Tournament 2 organized by Kazuya, Heihachi enters the tournament with the intentions to defeat Kazuya.

Determined to reign supreme from his throne once again, Heihachi sharpened his hair to meet the battle head-on. During the tournament, Heihachi loses to Paul Phoenix in the semi-finals, however the tournament officials reinstated Heihachi, replacing Paul, who was forced to forfeit after getting stuck in traffic as result of a multi-car collision on the expressway, and therefore unable to make the match on time, after defeating Kazuya in the finals, Heihachi takes Kazuya's unconscious body to a volcano, and throws him into it before escaping on a helicopter just as the volcano erupts behind him, having taken his revenge and regained the control of Mishima Zaibatsu, killing Kazuya. Fifteen years later, Heihachi learns of a creature, Ogre, which has immortal blood, Heihachi seeks his blood in order to create an "ultimate life form". Around this time, he meets a teenager named Jin Kazama, who claims to be his grandson and tells Heihachi to train him so he can take revenge against Ogre for murdering his beloved mother Jun. Heihachi agrees to train Jin, and four years later, Heihachi announces the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3 to lure Ogre out. After Paul defeats Ogre's base form in the finals of the tournament, but then quits the competition under the impression that he has won, when he still had one last opponent remaining and that is Ogre's true form, after Ogre absorbs Heihachi's fighting force, after Heihachi tried to capture him while he was unconscious. Jin was reinstated in the tournament and replacing Paul in the finals, he manages to defeat Ogre's true form named True Ogre and completely dissolves, avenging his mother's death and winning the tournament as a result. Moments later, Jin is suddenly gunned down by a squadron of Tekken Force led by an awakened Heihachi, who no longer needing him anymore, personally fires a final shot into his grandson's head. Jin, however, revived by the Devil within him, reawakens and dispatches the soldiers, smashing Heihachi through the wall of the temple as he survives and flies away.

After two years after the events King of Iron Fist Tournament 3 and during the events of King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, Heihachi Mishima and his scientists have captured samples of Ogre's blood and tissue to splice with Heihachi's genome, in order to make him immortal and attempts to combine his and Ogre's DNA, but discovers that he will need the Devil Gene possessed by his son and grandson as a catalyst. Heihachi learns Kazuya has been resurrected after two decades. To lure both Kazuya and Jin, Heihachi holds the fourth King of Iron Fist Tournament two years later. Heihachi defeats Kazuya in the finals, and takes him to Hon-Maru where Jin was present. However, the two are defeated by Jin, who escapes after sparing Heihachi's life after seeing the vision of his mother Jun Kazama. Following Jin's departure in Tekken 5, after that an organization named G Corporation sent Jack-4s to invade Hon-Maru. Heihachi is seemingly killed in the attack, but in reality was blown a great distance away after the Jack-4s self-destructed. However, he managed to survive and when he came to, the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 which was organized by Jinpachi was already over. Leaving him without any knowledge of the events that occurred during the tournament, by this time, Heihachi encountered a person named Raven and they began to fight. Before a winner could be decided, Raven received orders to return to headquarters, and he had to withdraw from the battle.

After that encounter with Raven, Heihachi went home, where he was ambushed by the Tekken Force. Shortly after the attack, the CEO of Mishima Zaibatsu Jin announced the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6. Heihachi appears in the story mode in the console version of Tekken 6, whose main protagonist is Lars Alexandersson, Heihachi's illegitimate son which Heihachi had from an unknown Swedish woman. Heihachi tries to make an alliance with Lars but Lars clearly declined to do it.

Heihachi returns as the main character and arcade mode sub-boss in Tekken 7. The story follows most of his backstory. Heihachi is better known as the only son of Jinpachi Mishima, a famous martial artist who founded the Mishima Zaibatsu company. Heihachi later meets Kazumi Hachijo the mother of Kazuya's, who is much younger than him and sent by her family. Eventually, Heihachi and Kazumi become closer and get married, and Kazumi gives birth to their son, Kazuya. Few years after Kazuya’s birth, whereas Kazuya was away with Jinpachi, Heihachi was about to nurse Kazumi when she suddenly fell ill in a critical state, but she somehow mysteriously recovers and starts to act strange. One evening, Kazumi attempts to kill Heihachi in cold blood and reveals that was the reason she married him. Her clan foresaw his attempt at world domination in the future and she was sent to assassinate him before that future comes to pass. However, Heihachi overpowers and, realizing the woman he loved is gone, kills her in self-defense. In the same year, Heihachi overthrows his father for control of the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Following Jin's disappearance after his battle with Azazel, Heihachi single-handedly retakes the Mishima Zaibatsu after defeating Tekken force soldiers and Nina Williams and announces the seventh King of Iron Fist tournament to lure Kazuya out with the thoughts of killing him. At the same time, he is confronted by a person named Akuma, whose life was once saved by Heihachi's deceased wife, Kazumi, and who promised to kill both Heihachi and Kazuya for her in return. Heihachi clashes with Akuma and loses, but survives. In order to save the Zaibatsu's image, Heihachi captures footage of Kazuya's battle with Akuma in his Devil form; Their fight is interrupted as Heihachi blasts the two using Dr. Abel's satellite, but both survive. Things go awry for Heihachi, however, as the satellite was destroyed by Kazuya in his devil form, plummeting all the way down to the city, and turned the people against the Zaibatsu, ruining its image permanently and enraging Heihachi. Heihachi then meets an exorcist named Claudio Serafino and they began fighting, Heihachi however defeats Claudio, after a while they both find out that they are working for the same goal of bringing down the devil gene. Heihachi then confronts Kazuya at the site of a volcano and the two of them began fighting. After a long battle between them, Heihachi is finally killed; his corpse is subsequently thrown into a river of molten lava, and only few people know of his permanent death by the time of Tekken 8 and a girl named Reina also has some of his moves, and later revealed to be not only an illegitimate daughter of Heihachi, but also secretly a third known Devil Gene user like Kazuya and Jin, whom even Heihachi unaware of.

Other video games
In the non-canon spin-off Tekken Tag Tournament, Heihachi appears as a playable character. By winning the game as him, Heihachi is seen meditating while remembering his fights against Kazuya and Jin. In Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Tekken 3D: Prime Edition, Tekken Revolution, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Project X Zone, and Project X Zone 2, Heihachi appears to have regressed back to his original appearance. Heihachi is seen with a full head of hair for the first time. According to his character profile on the Tekken Tag Tournament 2 website, this is because he drank a rejuvenation serum. In the ending of such game, Heihachi tries to drink a serum to become a Devil like Jin, Kazuya and Kazumi, but instead turns into a bear. Additionally, In the "Fight Lab" section of the game, Lee kidnaps the Mishima three fighters for Combot's final test of the machine Heihachi, Kazuya and Jin.

Heihachi makes a brief appearance in the Tekken spin-off game Death by Degrees as an optional boss. He also makes an appearance as a playable guest character in the PlayStation 2 and HD Online versions of the fighting game Soulcalibur II, and as an unlockable narrator in Ridge Racer 6, one of the launch titles for Xbox 360. A Mii costume of Heihachi was added to Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U and also in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate through DLC., Heihachi Mishima was also briefly considered as a playable character in the same game: Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U, but was decided against because the game's developer, Masahiro Sakurai, considered implementing Heihachi's movement in Super Smash Bros. to be difficult, this was mentioned in Sakurai's Thoughts About Making Video Games 2. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the costume returns and he is also featured as a sprite in Pac-Man's Namco Roulette taunt. He later appears as a background character in the Mishima Dojo stage and as a Spirit. Heihachi made cameo in the Tekken Bowl App due to the pins being based on his face. Heihachi is one of the bonus characters available to play as or against in Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis for the PlayStation (alongside fellow Namco characters) and is an unlockable character in Smash Court Tennis Pro Tournament 2. He also makes guest appearances in the role-playing game Tales of the Abyss (as one of Anise's custom dolls) and in Pac-Man Fever (alongside several other Namco characters). In the crossover tactical RPG Namco × Capcom Heihachi appears as one of playable characters representing the Namco universe. He also appears in the crossover fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken with Kuma as his official tag partner. He also appears in SNK's mobile phone game The King of Fighters All Star. Heihachi also makes a cameo appearance with Kazuya in the PlayStation 5 game, Astro's Playroom. Heihachi appears as a playable character in Fist of the North Star Legends ReVIVE.

In other media
Heihachi appears as the main antagonist in the anime Tekken: The Motion Picture, voiced by Daisuke Gōri in the Japanese version and by John Paul Shepard in the English dub. In the beginning, Heihachi throws Kazuya off a cliff as a child, and sixteen years later, hosts the King of Iron Fist Tournament in order to lure Kazuya out in the hope that he will accept his destiny as his heir. In the climax, Heihachi battles Kazuya and initially takes the upper hand, but is ultimately defeated. Kazuya, however, spares his father's life, and Heihachi escapes the battleground in a jet.

He is also present in the 2009 film Tekken where Heihachi is portrayed by stuntman Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Tagawa reprised his role in the prequel Tekken 2: Kazuya's Revenge. He also appears as the main antagonist in the 2011 CGI animated film Tekken: Blood Vengeance, which is an alternate retelling of the events between Tekken 5 and Tekken 6. In it, he was supposedly killed by Kazuya four years ago, though in reality he is hiding and had conducted the M-cell experiment (taken from the Devil Gene) on a high school class to test immortality. However, all of the subjects died with the exception of Shin Kamiya, who managed to gain immortality as Heihachi desired. Heihachi is absent for most of the film until the climax, where he reveals that the experiment was just a ruse; he instead tries to take the Devil Gene from Kazuya and Jin, which gives its users increased power. After killing Shin, he fights Kazuya and Jin, awakening the Mokujin spirit for help, though he is ultimately defeated by Jin. He is also present in the novel Tekken: The Dark History of Mishima.

Tooru Fujisawa featured Heihachi as a cameo in his manga Great Teacher Onizuka, modeled after his younger appearance in Tekken. In it, he engages in an arm wrestling competition with protagonist Onizuka, shouting out controller inputs while the crowd shouts for him to "Do a combo!" Though Heihachi strains him for a moment, Onizuka defeats him, calling him "triangle head" as an insult. Heihachi cameos again in a later issue briefly, overseeing students as they clean graffiti from the school's walls. Heihachi also makes a cameo appearance in the Puchimas! Petit Petit Idolmaster ONA series.

Promotion and reception
In 2006, Namco released a Heihachi figurine as part of a Tekken 5 set based upon his promotional artwork for the game. While not posable, the PVC figure came with equipable clothing items modeled after those in the game. A "statue" of Heihachi modeled after his Tekken 5 attire also appears in the Namco-themed lounge available for Japanese PlayStation Home users. A Heihachi Mishima-Inspired "Sukajan Jacket" was also released.

Heihachi has been a very popular character in the Tekken series and well received from the critics. In 1996, Japanese magazine Gamest magazine listed Heihachi as the 15th best character of the preceding year, and in December 1997 he placed 40th on their list of the top 50 best video game characters. Sites have noted him as one of the best Tekken fighters citing his recognizable strength despite his old age. A professional Tekken player known as "JDCR" listed Heihachi as the second most powerful character in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. In the official poll by Namco, Heihachi is currently ranked as the 24th most requested Tekken character to be playable in Tekken X Street Fighter, at 6.12% of votes. He was also recognized as one of the best bosses in gaming as well as Tekken characters by multiple websites.

Critics enjoyed his work in the Tekken narrative. Complex noted that what made the character stand out mostly within fighting games in general was to his history in Tekken. The same site enjoyed his narrative in Tekken 2, calling his ending as "the craziest moments in the Tekken series" as he throws Kazuya into a volcano. His portrayal as a villain also earned subject of praise due to his treatment to his relatives. GameSpot listed Heihachi as one of the top ten villains in video games at number three, describing him as one of the most interesting villains in fighting games and adding comments on his little changed design across the series. He was listed as the 78th "most dastardly ne'er-do-wells" villains on video game by GamesRadar. GamesRadar listed Heihachi as the 3rd "Top badass old folk", with comments focused on his role within the story. The same site also listed him as the "3rd gaming's richest jerk", for having the "10th most impractical hairstyle in gaming" and as the "3rd gaming hero you didn't realize was dead the whole time". Edge described him as "a legendary fighting game villain", and cited the impact of his supposed death in Tekken 5.

Both Kotaku and Game Informer have labelled him as one of the worst parents in video game history because of how he treats his relatives Kazuya and Jin. Den of Geek ranked Heihachi as the 9th best fighting game character, adding "The grand dame of the Tekken series, Mr Mishima Senior is one of only a handful of characters to have appeared in each of the main entries in Namco's legendary brawler." His character design, however, has been the subject of criticism due to ridiculous it looks. His younger appearance in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 resulted in surprising reactions by critics who mainly pointed his hair.

PlayStation Universe included Heihachi and Kazuya among the top 5 rival pairs in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 based on the potential a team up the two can make. Heihachi has also been rivaled with Capcom's characters including M. Bison and Gen due to their portrayals as in the games.

Heihachi's role in the story of Tekken 7 was met with mixed responses. This was mainly due to how both he and his son are the center of the narrative and the resolution might not appeal to most players despite scenes within the game showing nostalgic value. The character's final fight in Tekken 7 has been noted to be one of the hardest for newcomers due to how much more powerful he is than Kazuya, his rival. However, Akuma was noted to be far more challenging than Heihachi's fight.

Journalists have also commented on Heihachi's role in other games and adaptations. GamesRadar also ranked Heihachi's guest appearance in Soulcalibur II as the "40th awesome character cameo". GamePro in their preview of Soulcalibur II ' s console ports called Heihachi's appearance in the series a landmark both as the second Tekken character to appear in the titles and as the first unarmed fighter in the series. On the other hand, Arcade Sushi listed Heihachi for his appearance in Soulcalibur  as one of the "worst fighting game guest stars". In a review of the first Tekken live-action film, DVD Talk had negative opinions on Kazuya and Heihachi's subplot regarding their rivalry. THEM Anime Reviews criticized poorly pronunciation of Heihachi's name in the anime film of the series. Anime News Network joked about how ridiculously evil Heihachi is seen in the film due to how he nearly kills Kazuya. The Fandom Post enjoyed Heihachi's fight against Kazuya in the Western comics while also noting that the comic gave him more honor than his son.

Polygon praised the role of Heihachi in Tekken: Bloodline citing "Even though he may seem at first glance like the same “hard-ass martial arts master” archetype we’ve seen time and time again, the show faithfully paints Heihachi as both a fighter and a CEO of a major corporation, and it’s fun to watch him apply his “no mercy” rules of fighting in a business setting."