Mishima Heihachi

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Context

Heihachi is the original big bad of the Tekken series of fighting video games.

He’s a straightforward villain with world domination set in his sights. But there’s some complexity in there. Plus it’s fun to watch an old man go toe to toe with supers.

He could also fill the niche of the jacked up aged bald man capable of punching out demons. If that’s your thing.

Background

Powers & Abilities

As a fighting tournament host and the primary antagonist throughout most of the series, he’s a world class martial art master. Despite his advanced age, he hits like a ton of bricks.

His Mishima style of karate is especially deadly. It consists primarily of powerful strikes.

It resembles real-world Gōjū-ryū (剛柔流 – “hard-soft school”) Karate. Hard for the powerful crushing blows mixed with softer techniques. Such as making circular motions with the hands for effective blocking.

He’s also able to absorb inhuman amounts of punishment. He’s survived being thrown off cliffs. And multiple self-destruct detonations from Jack 5 robots, which obliterated a large temple.

Mishima-san is a financial genius and world class businessman as well as master manipulator. He has often come quite close to world domination.

In the video games

He was the original Tekken boss, then the final or mid-boss in quite a few games. So he’s frequently overpowered.

He has a straightforward fighting style, with moves that are easy to pull off and do a ton of damage. A lot of his attacks also have a push-back effect making counterattacks difficult even after blocking.

His main drawbacks are that he’s not the fastest character and he doesn’t have a ton of great combo options. But these aren’t the worst disadvantages when just one of his normal hits can do so much damage.

History

Heihachi was the son of Jinpachi Mishima, a wealthy and sternly traditional Japanese man. He thus learned the Mishima fighting arts.

At some point (accounts vary and it was a retconMaking changes to a character or story after the fact.) he imprisoned his father underneath a temple on the family estate.

His motivation was never made entirely clear. His father manifested the “Devil Gene” and turned into a demon, so perhaps Heihachi feared for his safety. But the simplest hypothesis remains a power grab.

Kazumi

Prior to that a young woman named Kazumi had come to stay with the family and train in the martial arts. She and Heihachi married and had a son, Kazuya.

With Jinpachi missing, Heihachi assumed the role of head of the family. He quickly turned the Mishima Financial Group into the Mishima ZaibatsuA specific type of huge Japanese corporation., one of the wealthiest and most powerful corporations that the world had ever seen.

While Kazumi loved her husband dearly, she was frightened by his seemingly boundless ambition and ruthlessness. Heihachi was fast becoming a megalomaniac.

One day Kazumi fell deathly ill. Heihachi took time off to take care of her, but she attacked him in a sudden fit of rage. He was able to subdue her, but he couldn’t fathom why his loving wife would do that.

He eventually rationalized it as a side effect of sickness.

Mishima Heihachi as a younger man.

Kazumi’s secrets

But Kazumi came from a sacred order of mystics seeking to eliminate the Devil Gene. She had infiltrated the Mishima dojo under false pretenses.

Upon finding that Heihachi didn’t possess the gene himself — and had imprisoned his father when he got out of control — Kazumi’s order told her to just run surveillance.

However she eventually fell in love with him, married, and had a son. Which obviously complicated things.

The madness had been caused by her own Devil Gene. Which she used again once she decided that there was no choice but to stop her husband before he’d do too much damage.

Seeing as he couldn’t stop her onslaught, Heihachi slew her in self-defense.

Kazuya as a boy

Kazuya couldn’t understand why his mother was dead. Heihachi, in his infinite wisdom decided that a father and son training session in the mountains would get things back on track.

This ended up with the five-year old trying to kill him. Heihachi, possibly in a fit of rage, decided that throwing his son off a cliff would toughen him up. So after chucking his son away he left him to die.

Kazuya survived thanks to his Devil Gene, and eventually got home. But Heihachi had quickly adopted Lee Chaolan, a scrappy orphan from Hong Kong.

Heihachi took great pleasure in pitting the two boys against each other. He eventually sent Lee to a prestigious US university, implying that he had picked him to inherit the zaibatsu.

Tekken

Heihachi announced the very first King of the Iron Fist (“Tekken”) Tournament. The prize was control over the mighty Mishima Zaibatsu.

Lee was defeated (or forfeited, accounts vary) by Kazuya, who thus made it to the finals to face his father.

They fought for hours until Kazuya turned into a devil and threw his father off a cliff in revenge.

Tekken 2

Heihachi survived. He became a mountain hermit, with only his pet bear Kuma to keep him company. And he trained day in and day out to have his revenge.

When Kazuya announced another Tekken Tournament, Heihachi made it to the finals and faced Kazuya. His son was weakened by a newly-awakened Angel side, and the father won.

Heihachi threw his unconscious son into an active volcano, then contentedly flew off into the sunset on his private helicopter. He also had regained control of the Mishima Zaibatsu.

Jin

Decades later, a young man showed up on Heihachi’s doorstep claiming to be his grandson.

After DNA tests confirmed this, the CEO welcomed the boy with open arms. Perhaps this could be his second chance at being a halfway decent parent (spoiler alert he didn’t).

Heihachi taught Mishima karate to Jin, who was already trained in the Kazama school on his mother’s side.

Tekken 3

On Jin’s 19^th birthday, Heihachi decided that it would be a great idea to host another Tekken Tournament. With the prize of course being control of the Mishima Zaibatsu.

This in turn drew out the ancient evil Ogre. Ogre had killed a number of elite fighters, including Jin’s mother. Heihachi sought to capture and weaponise Ogre, but Jin slew it in revenge – using his Devil Gene powers.

Upset that his grandson had foiled his scheming, Heihachi shot him in the head. The devil-like Jin knocked him through a wall and flew away, but both men survived.

Soul Calibur 2

Heihachi appeared as an exclusive PlayStation crossover character in that game. Tekken is supposedly the future of the Soul Calibur world, but how canon this is is unclear.

While relaxing at a remote hot spring, Heihachi was warped back to 1590. After a few fights he returned to the spring – and to the future.

Heihachi’s actions didn’t have much of an effect on the game’s overarching storyline.

Tekken 4

The G Corporation had risen as the Mishima Zaibatsu’s rival. Their genetics R&D was advanced enough to be a threat, and Heihachi sent his Tekken Force paramilitaries to raid their HQ.

But as it turned out, they had pretty much resurrected his son Kazuya. He killed the Mishima soldiers and defied his father. Inevitably, Heihachi announced a new Tekken tournament.

During the tournament Heihachi had Jin captured. If he could defeat Kazuya, he’d have both Devil Gene bearers under his thumb.

This didn’t work. Jin ended up defeating Kazuya and left.

Tekken 5 aka “Heihachi Mishima is dead”

Both Kazuya and Heihachi came to – only to be attacked by a wave of Jack 5 combat robots. This forced them to ally… until Kazuya betrayed his father and shoved him among Jack 5s.

The robot dogpiled Heihachi and exploded. The game’s narration declared him dead.

But Heihachi was too good a recurring villain to kill off. The explosion threw him several miles into the forest. He was gravely wounded and on the verge of death for weeks.

United Nations intelligence service ninja Raven discovered that Heihachi was still alive. They had a brief skirmish, but Raven was called away. Jin had assumed control of the Mishima Zaibatsu and was pushing the entire world into an all out war.

Tekken 6 – Bloodline Rebellion

Heihachi sought revenge during the next tournament. And some Mishima loyalists left the company to help him.

Furthermore, half the Mishima troops deserted, led by mysterious soldier Lars Alexandersson.

Heihachi sought to ally with him, but neither Lars nor his companion Alisa Bosconovitch wanted to side with any Mishima.

A fight ensued, which Heihachi and his guards soundly lost. Lars’ moves made Heihachi realise that he was his long-lost illegitimate son that he had been aware of, but had kind of written off long ago.

Lars wanted to know about a mysterious engraving that Mishima had found in South America. Heihachi knew of the relic’s existence, but that Lars knew about it meant that Heihachi’s father’s friend Wang had betrayed the Mishima. He refused to talk.

Lars eventually shot his father in the face, but Heihachi caught the bullet in his teeth (!). Alisa and Lars left, and Heihachi decided to let them do their thing and stay out of the way.

Tekken 7 – Fated Retribution

Jin disappeared at the end of the previous game. Heihachi came to the Mishima Zaibatsu HQ and fought his way to the top floor. There he encountered Nina Williams, whom Jin had left behind to run things.

Heihachi defeated Nina, who agreed to work for him. Mishima then simply slid back into his old role as CEO… and announced yet another King of the Iron Fist Tournament.

He and Nina met with occult Italian group the Archers of Sirius to force an alliance. But though the Archers’ leader Claudio Serafino sought to eliminate their common enemy the Devil, he refused to work with the ruthless Mishima.

The Archers were defeated. But Mishima let the remnants of the group live, as they might be useful later.

Heihachi then sent Nina to kill Jin. But he escaped with the help of Lars, Alisa and Lee Chaolan. Mishima made it clear to Nina that he wouldn’t tolerate failure a second time.

Kazuya returns

Meanwhile, the supposedly dead Kazuya covertly took over the G Corporation. He sent an army of Jack 6s to kill his father.

These came in soon after Heihachi was suddenly attacked by Akuma, an incredibly powerful fighter. Heihachi and the attacker had to push pause and resolve their conflict later while they fended off their new assailants.

Akuma went on to fight Kazuya on the G Corporation’s HQ’s roof. Heihachi had this filmed using a spy satellite, which allowed him to show Kazuya in Devil form to the world.

This recast Heihachi as a sort of hero trying to save the world from the literal Devil. Once public opinion was on his side, he used his space laser to destroy the G Corp HQ and cement his power.

Heihashi and Kazuya ended up fighting on a volcano. The son eventually stopped his father’s heart with a powerful blow to the chest, and threw him into the lava.

As of this writing, it seems that Heihachi Mishima has indeed been slain once and for all.

Description

Heihachi is a very muscular and imposing Japanese man with a moustache. He’s mostly bald with an almost Wolverine style hairdo which sweeps back into horns.

After the first game he gained a large scar over his heart. It’s quite similar to his son’s that he got when Kazuya threw him off a cliff.

His hair later went gray during the twenty-year gap between Tekken 2 and 3.

Outfit

His original costume was a black karate gi with the sleeves ripped off and a tiger on the back.

Typically most of his costumes in later games are traditional Japanese clothes that are ornate and detailed, but he does occasionally wear finely tailored Western style suits as well.

Personality

Heihachi is a shrewd and astute businessman as well as a world class martial artist

But for all his bluster and bravado he does seem to cut a lonely figure. His wife actually being a secret agent sent to kill him drove him to paranoia. He’ll often go on the offensive and attack others, often without justification, before they can attack him.

He is truly a ruthless figure, without qualms about killing or imprisoning his own immediate family to further his ambitions. Heihachi will do whatever it takes to remove other obstacles in his way.

Other traits

Mishima-san is a master manipulator. He will often use pawns and other unwitting people to get his way. He’s savvy about how he presents himself and his company to the public, skillfully controlling his image.

Violence also has an almost sacred role of his life. He has been more than willing to take on strong opponents, but also to put up his entire empire as a prize in the Tekken tournaments as a demonstration of his prowess and fearlessness.

Lastly, he does seem to have a perverse sense of humor. Say, when he was confronted by Ling Xiauyu and she demanded that he make her an amazing amusement park he not only did so, but later adopted her as a daughter just because he thought it would be funny and that she made him laugh.

He also at one point stated that his pet bear would inherit all his wealth as well as his company.

Mishima-san as a younger man, as envisioned by Simon Bisley in his distinctive style.

Quotes

“Show me what you’ve got.”

“Try again in your next life.”

“Hahaha ! That felt good. Next !”

“Do you think you are capable of defeating me ?”

“I am going to snap you in half !”

“I’m afraid you’re about to die.”

“I haven’t felt this excitement in my blood for quite some time !”

“That infernal blood of the Devil.”

“Hmpf ! You’re not as tough as you talk.”

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