Kazuya Mishima

Kazuya Mishima is one of the main characters in the Tekken series.

He appears in all of the Tekken games except Tekken 3, in which he only made two cameo appearances. Although he is seen as the main protagonist and hero of the first Tekken game, Kazuya is one of the main antagonists of the series ever since Tekken 2. Most importantly, Kazuya is the son of Heihachi Mishima and Kazumi Mishima, the love interest of Jun Kazama and the father of Jin Kazama. He's also the half-brother of Lars Alexandersson, the adoptive brother of Lee Chaolan, and the grandson of Jinpachi Mishima.

Personality
With a few words, Kazuya is generally presented as an arrogant, destructive, self-righteous, aggressive, misanthropic, and cold-blooded man. He always sees himself as the hero and the one who has every right to take everything he wants from others. In Tekken 6 Kazuya refers himself as "the world's chosen hero". According to many other characters, including his father, Kazuya has delusions of grandeur.

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, reticent, vulnerable, and timid as a boy and was the victim of years of abuse at the hands of Heihachi and suffered various losses and provocations by his father: he lost the only persons who loved him, his mother Kazumi and his grandfather Jinpachi, both killed by Heihachi; despite his father's wealth, Kazuya was not allowed any joy nor spoiled or allowed to make friends; he was thrown down by a ravine for being too weak and an "insolent brat" who tried to kill Heihachi for his mother's death; then after he returned home from his fall he found Lee Chaolan because his father wanted them to fight for the heritage. 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 rude, corrupt, corporate, duplicitous, materialistic, unscrupulous, calculating, and collaborative 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 fraudulent practices of his father and turned it into an even much more villainous, manipulative, ruthless, and evil organization. While Heihachi was merely unsympathetic (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).

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 personality 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).

However, in Tekken 7, Kazuya displays more sentimentality, as he once again reproaches Heihachi for murdering Kazumi. Oddly enough, despite Kazuya having always wanted Heihachi dead and having hated for his father for years, he seemed somber and pitiful when he threw him off a volcano, implying that having now known his mother's true nature, Kazuya's hatred for his father had decreased considerably. He also no longer hunts for Jin, seemingly not seeing any point in hurting his son anymore.

Abilities
Kazuya is one of the most basic characters in the series. His moveset furthers powerful single strikes, and despite them being mostly slow and/or unsafe on block, they do a lot of raw damage. Most of Kazuya's best moves are predictable and hard to surprise with, so his most rewarding method of play is centered around block punishment. In fact, Kazuya's greatest assets are his punishing moves, like the Electric Wind Godfist, one of the best, if not the best punisher in every game he's in. In summation, he's overall best used as a defensive character, and a good timing is required to main him. Despite his rather heavy reliance on aforementioned good timing and strong defense, Kazuya is a formidable force of steady aggression in the hands of an experienced player. A certain rhythm of dodges, sidesteps and blocks is required to maintain the upper hand and with creative use of stuns, Kazuya's onslaught is virtually unstoppable. This is very much a high-risk tactic and requires a lot of nerve from the player.

Starting with Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Kazuya gains the ability to morph into his Devil form at will. His Devil form gives him some demonic powers, like the ability to fly and shoot laser beams. Also changes slightly his moveset, most notably giving him the ability to perform the Twin Pistons move from a standing position, which can be used as a solid launcher move for juggle combos. However, he lost most of D/F+1 follow-ups in Devil Form.

His Rage Art has him doing two consecutive punches and transforms into Devil Kazuya to rake his opponent with a powerful Devil's Beam. This ability is also retained in his powerful devil form along with his Rage Art of his own during the battle against Heihachi and later Akuma.

In Tekken (Mobile), Kazuya's Rage Art has a minor change, instead of raking his opponent by Devil Kazuya's Devil's Beam, he maintains to hit his opponent with two consecutive punches followed by Hell Lancer and heavily knocks his opponent with a Dragon Uppercut and having his arm crossed on his downed opponent.

Kazuya fights using Mishima Style Fighting Karate. In a style similar to Shotokan karate.

Trivia

 * Kazuya is the winner of the first and most likely the fourth (since he defeated Heihachi in the final stage) King of Iron Fist Tournament.
 * Possibly because of the Devil Gene, Kazuya's left eye glows red. However, it is also a possibility that Kazuya gained this red eye due to the reconstruction G-Corporation implemented on him; however, Devil Jin's eyes glow red at times too.
 * Despite fan misconception, Kazuya does not consider Jun Kazama his wife. There has never been any confirmation on his civil status either.
 * Kazuya's fighting style is heavily based on Shotokan style of karate.
 * The kanji individually mean: "one"; "eight" (ya). Also, the surname of all members of the Mishima family (Mishima) mean "third island". Lastly, "Kazuya" is a loose anagram of "Yakuza" (Japan's answer to the Cosa Nostra).
 * In Tekken 5, Kazuya can be customized to resemble Devil's appearance in Tekken Tag Tournament by adding Third eye, Devil Wings, and Devil Tail with 1P costume.
 * In Tekken 6, if one customizes Kazuya with "Neo Sunglasses" and press u+1+2, he will take off the glasses and attack his opponent using Devil's eye beam.
 * Part of Kazuya's techniques are performed by the same motion actor as Jin Kazama, Ryu Narushima (Narushima Ryū).
 * In Heihachi's Tekken 2 ending, Kazuya is wearing his purple tuxedo outfit (his extra outfit). However, in the Tekken 4 intro, he is shown wearing his 1P outfit.
 * According to Xenosaga Episode I's bonus e-mails, Kazuya is friends with Shion Uzuki, the primary protagonist of the Xenosaga series. At one point in the first game, Kazuya sends Shion an email advertising Tekken 4 as a sort of Namco universe Easter egg.
 * In Street Fighter X Tekken, He and his son, Jin's karate belts are up to the knee while in their normal game counterpart, their belts are below the knee.
 * Kazuya is playable in every Tekken game with the exception of Tekken 3 because he was believed to be dead.
 * Kazuya is the only Tekken character that has appeared in all motion pictures based on the game franchise. He has appeared in Tekken: The Motion Picture, Tekken (2010 film), Tekken: Blood Vengeance, Street Fighter X Tekken: The Devil Within, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 live-action short film, and Tekken: Kazuya's Revenge.
 * Also, he is the character that has been portrayed the most as a live-action character. He has been portrayed by 4 actors; Ian Anthony Dale, Mark Musashi, Kefi Abrikh and Kane Kosugi.
 * Kazuya's role in the 2010 film seems to be the same as Lee Chaolan's role in Tekken: The Motion Picture.
 * In Tekken: The Motion Picture, Lee was raised by Heihachi while in the 2010 film, it is Kazuya who was raised by Heihachi instead.
 * In Tekken: The Motion Picture, Lee tries to kill Kazuya while in the 2010 film, Kazuya tries to kill Jin Kazama.
 * In Tekken: The Motion Picture, Lee seduces both Nina and Anna Williams while in the 2010 film, it is Kazuya who makes out with the Williams sisters.
 * Kazuya in the 2010 film and Lee in Tekken: The Motion Picture are upset that Heihachi refuses to give his corporation to them.
 * Both are ultimately defeated by the characters they try to kill. Lee is defeated by Kazuya in Tekken: The Motion Picture, while Kazuya in the 2010 film is defeated by Jin Kazama.
 * After his crossover debut as an NPC in his Devil Form in Namco x Capcom, Kazuya (with his ability to change into his Devil Form) finally made his playable debut in Project X Zone 2, paired with his son, Jin.
 * In Square's fighting game, Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring. Ken "Godhand" Mishima is similar to Kazuya in terms of his physical appearance and the same fighting style which he was inspired by the Mishima Fighters in the game.
 * Interestingly, most of his moves are based in Kazuya's moveset which he gains his "Dragon Uppercut", "Stonehead" "Rising Sun", Spinning Demon, Demon Scissors, Ultimate Tackle, Twin Pistons, Lightning Uppercut and his unblockable move, the Lightning Screw Uppercut. However, Ken also gains other characters' moves such as Heihachi's Hell Axle and his Demon Uppercut, Hwoarang's Hunting Hawk and Paul Phoenix's Bone Breaker and his unblockable move, Burning Fist.
 * Ken has a blue lightning similar to Kazuya's when damaging his opponents as well as doing a reversal to avoid being attacked.
 * Both men also gained scars on their chest. In Ken's case, he gains two bullet scars on each side of his chest.
 * Both men always wear fingerless gloves with a pyramid pattern at the center during fights. (Kazuya's gloves are red while Ken's gloves are black as his right arm is replaced with an arm gun)
 * However, Ken's voice actor in the game is Joji Nakata which was Kazuya's previous voice actor from Tekken until Tekken Tag Tournament.
 * One of his knockout grunts is also from Kazuya in his appearance in Tekken and Tekken 2.
 * Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy VII who is a playable character in the same game utilizes Kazuya's Demon Scissors, Flash Punch Combo and Dragon Uppercut respectively as his fighting style while Vincent Valentine another character from Final Fantasy VII and also a playable character in the same game utilizes Kazuya's moveset but also gains both Paul Phoenix's Bone Breaker and Hwoarang's Hunting Hawk and his Firecracker.
 * If you pick Kazuya and Devil in Tekken Tag Tournament, then if you change character during the fight, Kazuya will transform into Devil and vice versa.
 * Kazuya's physical appearance was modeled after the late Japanese author and writer Yukio Mishima who also shares his family's last name.