Characters / Tekken: Kazuya Mishima

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Kazuya Mishima | Jin Kazama
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Kazuya Mishima (三島 一八)

Cold-Blooded Oppressor

^{Tekken 7}

^{Tekken 5}

貴様が持っていた全てをこれから姥てやる。貴様という存在が体現する、全てを俺はひてし抹殺してやる！(Kisama ga motte ita subete o korekara ubate yaru. Kisama to iu sonzai ga taigen suru, subete o ore wa hite shi massatsu shite yaru!)^note "Everything you have, I will now take from you. Everything you thought you were, I have proven you are not!"

Origin: Japan ^note As of Tekken 8, he abandoned his nationality.

Fighting Style: Mishima-style Fighting Karate

Appears in: 1-2; 4-8; Tag-Tag 2

Voiced by: Joji Nakata (1-Tag), Masanori Shinohara (4 onward; current), Kazuhiro Yamaji (Tekken: The Motion Picture), Kyle Hebert (EN, Blood Vengeance), Jordan Byrne (EN, Street Fighter X Tekken), Eliot (EN, Bloodline)

The apparent stoic Anti-Hero of the first game. Kazuya Mishima set out to take over his family's company, the Mishima Zaibatsu, and defeated his father Heihachi in the King of Iron Fist Tournament.

Kazuya utterly despises Heihachi for tossing him off a cliff and into a ravine when he was only five years old to see if he is a worthy successor. Fortunately for Kazuya, he just so happened to possess the Devil Gene ( later revealed to have inherited from his late mother Kasumi), a special DNA strand that allowed those possessing it to access demon-like powers. The Devil Gene allowed him to survive the fall, albeit with a huge scar on his chest. Since then, he has decided to take revenge against Heihachi.

However, all the rage and hatred he held within him over the years fed the devil inside him and poisoned his soul, and giving in to it appears to have been the tipping point, turning him from antihero to villain, and he makes the Zaibatsu more corrupt then ever, engaging in genetic experimentation, murder, and extortion.

He announces the second tournament when he receives a letter from Heihachi, who turns out to be alive and well after Kazuya threw him off a cliff after his defeat. During the tournament, he meets Jun Kazama and becomes attracted by her mysterious charm, culminating in them becoming intimate. Despite the Devil's corruption, Kazuya still had a good heart deep down, and Jun was able to suppress the demonic side in Kazuya, making his good side manifest through the entity Angel, that fought Devil trying to free the young man from the demon, but this led to Kazuya having personality crisis due of the internal struggle, confused and unable to choose a side. Some people saw Kazuya as a demonic monster while others saw a fair and pure Angel. The final match of the 2nd tournament saw him pitted against his father. Weakened by his internal struggle, Kazuya was defeated. To ensure that he would not return to oppose him again, Heihachi dropped his body — this time into a volcano, killing him.

20 years later, a group of scientists from the G Corporation, a longtime rival of the Zaibatsu, discovered Kazuya's remains within the volcano while on an expedition. The scientists began conducting an experiment to reconstruct his body. They succeeded, and Kazuya was reborn. However, just as he was finished being fully regenerated, Tekken Force soldiers raided the laboratory and killed the scientists who resurrected him. An enraged Kazuya proceeded to slaughter them all and he entered the 4th tournament. Heihachi beat him again in the finals and was captured along with his son Jin. They both fought, and Kazuya was defeated yet again, but this time he was spared by Jin, who beat Heihachi and left.

Upon regaining consciousness, a squad of Jack robots ambushed Kazuya and Heihachi, and Kazuya temporarily teamed up with his father to repel them, only to stab him in the back and retreat. During the tournament, he discovered that the Jacks were sent by none other than the corporation that revived him: the G Corporation. He dropped out of the tournament and enacted revenge, killing all those involved with the incident, and then completely took over the G Corporation. When Jin rose as the tyrannical leader of the Mishima Zaibatsu, Kazuya retaliated and amassed popularity by leading the G Corporation to rival the Zaibatsu, which culminates in the 6th tournament. In Scenario Campaign, his plans to kill Jin are disrupted by Lars, who defeats him twice throughout the story. In the end, Kazuya concedes and retreats, but not before warning Lars about the Mishimas' history of betrayal.

Having assembled forces to combat his father, Heihachi, he set out for the 7th King of Iron Fist Tournament to destroy him. This culminated into both of them smearing the images of their sides (the Mishima Zaibatsu and G Corporation) and deciding to settle their grudge in one final battle at the very same volcano which Kazuya had been thrown into all those years ago. After a long, grueling battle, Kazuya ultimately prevailed and finally, after so many years of their heated conflict, killed Heihachi with a single, decisive blow. His vengeance fulfilled at last but leaving him with a sense of emptiness, Kazuya tossed Heihachi's corpse into the volcano, cementing his eternal victory over his father and hated enemy once and for all.

Unfortunately, Kazuya wasn't satisfied with just destroying everything his father had built. With no one left to stand in his way, he could finally begin his own ambitions of world conquest. He proceeded to utterly destroy the Mishima Zaibatsu using his G Corporation armies rather than merging their resources together in order to completely erase what his father built up, and went on to further spread destruction across the globe, bringing entire cities under his iron fisted rule (no puns intended). Even the world's leading powers who try to resist prove to be no match for him, as he effortlessly appears before them and seizes control over their safe haven in New York. Now, the only true threats that stand between him and the complete domination of the world are his last remaining family members: Jin Kazama and Lars Alexandersson, who has teamed up under a new resistance group called Yggdrasil. Kazuya intends to eliminate them too as the world erupts into a chaotic war, to ensure that he is the one and only member of the Mishima clan remaining to rule the world. To lure his enemies out into the open, Kazuya announces the 8th King of Iron Fist Tournament. This time, however, the stakes have never been higher - for those who enter the tournament and lose face not only execution but also the destruction of their own home nation, his intent for the world being to destroy its current foundation and reshape into his own personal Hell on Earth where only the strong survive.

Gameplay-wise, Kazuya defines the Mishima style. He's a high-damage character designed to punish any mistakes. Though he cannot pressure through mix-ups and lacks any 'panic moves' to get out of bad situations, when mastered, he's an absolute beast that controls the battle at his own pace.

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Tropes A-J

• Abusive Parents: He's experienced both sides.
  • Heihachi threw him off a cliff. And killed his beloved mother, Kazumi, as well. Kazuya's characterization is defined by how much he hates his old man for this.
  • Played With regarding his mother, Kazumi. While she did love him, she was still willing to kill him should he ever fall to the same villainy as his father, which he has by the start of the series.
  • Kazuya's relationship with his own son, Jin, is largely one of neglect, rather than what Heihachi had put him through. Kazuya only sees him as someone who held onto the power that he had to reclaim in 4, and later on, just another obstacle in his global conquest. At worst, he’s willing to kill Jin to ensure that only he bears the power of the Devil Gene. Otherwise, he'll never bother with Jin nor needlessly antagonize him. Kazuya would default to how the Mishima clan is fated to be nothing more than a Big, Screwed-Up Family, so they may as well act on it by opposing and beating the shit out of each other.
• Actually Pretty Funny: While seemingly hurt by the fact that his beloved mother conspired to kill both him and Heihachi, Kazuya can't help but laugh at the absurdity that yet another family member has betrayed him.
• Adaptational Heroism: Kazuya in the first Motion Picture is what happens if he sticks with what's presented as his characterization in the first game. He's just an aloof Anti-Hero that still won't kill people indiscriminately if it gets him to his goal of Revenge against Heihachi. And even then, the Adaptational Early Appearance of Jun also influences Kazuya further that he eventually decides against killing Heihachi in the end, rescues Jun, and presumably lives on to be the off-screen, aloof dad for Jin.
• Adaptational Villainy: While Kazuya is far from a saint in canon, the first live-action film makes him much worse. The most notable change is that he raped Jun (and gloats about it to Jin and Heihachi), whereas the events surrounding Jin's conception in the games are left ambiguous. He also shows a more sadistic side when he turns the Iron Fist Tournament into a series of deathmatches, which Kazuya never did in the games until 8. And this is all without the Devil Gene corrupting his mind. Perhaps the only sympathetic quality the movie's incarnation of Kazuya has is the implication that Heihachi brainwashed him into becoming a ruthless bastard, as explained in the prequel.
• Adaptational Jerkass: Downplayed in Street Fighter X Tekken. While Kazuya in Tekken speaks in a rude and dismissive tone to his opponents, he's rather quiet and impersonal. In SFxT he's more boastful and openly insulting towards everyone.
• Age Lift:
  • His profile from Tekken 1 says he was thrown off a cliff when he was 5 years old and his age when that happened never got retconned.
  • In Tekken: The Motion Picture he looks significantly older than 5 when Heihachi decides to throw him off that cliff, he looks like he's 12 years old or so. The reason for this is likely because of Jun, as she's six years younger than him, so in the game's timeline she wasn't even born when Kazuya was thrown off the cliff yet, while The Motion Picture still had her being younger than Kazuya, him being thrown off the cliff when he's older allows her to be there when it happens.
• All Women Love Shoes: Gender inverted. He's a Manly Man who collects sneakers as a hobby. His ending in Tekken 8 shows he has a wardrobe covered wall-to-wall with sneakers.
• Amazon Chaser: As a firm believer in strength ruling everything in life, Kazuya's taste and respect for women are measured by how strong they are. There's only one woman who passes this measurement: Jun.
  Question #2: About His Leading Lady —Then and Now—
  Kazuya: Pathetic drivel... The path I've tread is one consumed by conflict. And our first encounter was on the field of battle. Conflict and combat are a regular part of my life. I have no use for weaklings. And she... [Kazuya throws a golden statue of himself, only for Jun to appear out of nowhere and catch the trophy.] is strong. That's all. Next!
• Ambiguously Evil: Played with, in that Kazuya is evil, and there's no ambiguity on the matter. However, some of his cruelest actions throughout the series, like his non-canon ending in 5, tend to have Devil's influence, which can take over his body altogether, as his story route in 5 shows. Usually, Kazuya is in control, but the possibility of "not always" throws into question how extensively evil he really is. Even at his worst in Tekken 2, Devil's profile mentions his presence being unbeknownst to Kazuya, leaving it up in the air how much of Kazuya's evil actions are his own doing. 8 finally answers this long-standing question: Kazuya had always only ever saw the Devil Gene, and the alternate persona that came with it by extension, as a part of himself. A tool of pure power to be used at his own leisure. When the possibility came up in 4 that he might not be able to control it, his sheer desire to dominate and control everything willed it so. Even without the Devil Gene, he still would have ended up following the same path.
• Ambiguous Situation:
  • The classic one is what exactly Kazuya and Jun feel towards each other, and why they had sex with each other despite being enemies in 2. To muddle things further, if Tag games are to be considered, Kazuya dislikes Jun in both games' netsu system, while Jun likes him in Tag 1, and is neutral towards him in Tag 2. Canon games however treat it differently, as the Story of Mishimas from 6 shows him saying that back in 2, Jun approached without fear while not saying anything else. In 8 he seemingly has a soft spot for her and won't do a kick while she's down after defeating her with his rage art, and Jun still wants to save him. Also in his Arcade Ending for 8 in his ending, when asked in an interview about his love life he states that having lived a life of conflict he has no need for weaklings. He then tosses a golden statuette at Jun (that she proceeds to catch) and states that she's strong.
  • Michelle's profile from 2 says that Kazuya wants her pendant and knows the secret behind it, and 3 eventually reveals the pendant could be used to control Ogre, and this would mean Kazuya knew of Ogre. No game afterwards says what Kazuya wanted with Ogre, even with the retcon that there's some sort of connection between Devil Gene and Ogre's blood, nothing about what he wanted with Ogre is said, and since Tekken 3 retconned Heihachi to be the one who wanted Michelle's pendant back in 2, on top of Ogre being dead.
  • Eddy's story in 3 had him wanting to find out who killed his father, and his ending reveals it was Kazuya's doing, who was supposed to be dead at the time. 4 brings Kazuya back and reveals he was with G-Corporation all along trying to learn the secrets of the Devil Gene, and this reveal makes it unclear why Kazuya decided to kill Eddy's father as he would be in G-Corporation and not caring about someone trying to end the drug cartels in Brazil. Much like the Ogre example, no game afterwards tries to explain what's up, even when Kazuya and Eddy interact (Such as Eddy's interlude with him in 5 or dialogues in 6's Scenario Campaign).
• Ambition Is Evil: When Kazuya isn't trying to put his Archnemesis Dad six feet under, he's instead working fulfill his aspirations of being an Evil Overlord himself. In 2, he ends up becoming Drunk with Power upon assuming control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, leading to him expanding its power in a particularly destructive manner, such as nearly seizing all of Hokkaido to turn it into his own independent nation. By the time of 8, with Heihachi Killed Off for Real and what remains of the Mishima Zaibatsu crushed, Kazuya is determined to Take Over the World outright.
• Anime Hair: His hair is pointed in an upwards spike. Compared to the rest of the Mishimas, Kazuya's is actually the most plausible.
• Anti-Hero: Type V whenever he is a hero. Early in the series, Kazuya wanted to stop Heihachi, but only for revenge and to take over the Zaibatsu himself.
• Arch-Enemy: Kazuya has also made enemies outside of the Mishima bloodline, among the notable ones include:
  • To Eddy Gordo. As Kazuya is believed to be responsible for setting up Eddy's father to be assassinated, which motivated Eddy in his own vendetta quest against Kazuya. This comes to a head during the interim between 7 and 8 when he embarks on a suicide mission to bring down Kazuya, only to be overwhelmed by the latter's Devil form. Eddy could have died for real if not for Yoshimitsu saving him. Even though he decided to forego revenge over redemption, Eddy refuses to let Kazuya subjugate the world to his will, and vows to defeat him to save innocent lives.
  • To Leo. Kazuya is responsible for their mother's death. Emma was a scientist formerly working for the Mishima Zaibatsu, and later G Corporation while researching the Devil Gene. Emma was killed by Kazuya as she is among the conspirators who sent JACK robots to ambush him and Heihachi at the start of 5. Also, Kazuya believes that Emma outlived her usefulness once the Devil Gene research is completed. Since then, Leo dedicated their life to bring Kazuya to justice.
  • To Shaheen. Kazuya killed his best friend, the head of an oil company when they refused to give G Corporation access to the company. He willingly sides with Jin out of facing a common enemy.
• Archnemesis Dad: In both senses — has one in the form of Heihachi, and is one to his son Jin.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: As he appears as today, he has much to be arrogant about his Mishima lineage, and that's before he turns into Devil.
• Art Evolution: His physical appearance, specifically his hairstyle, has changed through the years. In the first game, his Villainous Widow's Peak wasn't there and the spike formed by his hair on the back was more diffused (like a "ducktail") rather than ending in a single point. The second game added the widow's peak but the back kept being more of a ducktail, at least in the game itself (the game intro, ending cutscenes and other CG art depicted him with the back hair neatly slicked into a single pointed spike, as became the norm in later games). Then the first Tag game accentuated the widow's peak and finally turned the ducktail into a single-pointed spike, basically turning it into a less outrageous copy of Vegeta's hair. The fourth game established his current appearance by adding multiple body scars (the result of his brush with death at the bottom of an active volcano's crater) as well as his red eye. Come the eighth game, it shows a slightly aged version of the look we've been used to since 4.
• The Artifact:
  • The animations for his Hellsweep attacks were mostly unchanged from the first game until 7, by which point the HD graphics made it more glaringly obvious that Kazuya's character model was contorting in a very unnatural and painful way. Considering the series' increasing focus on realistic martial arts, it took until the eighth game to show Kazuya no longer contorting his body that way when performing the Hellsweep.
  • On a characterisation level, there's also his unexpected passion for shoe collecting, which was only ever mentioned in instruction manuals for the first game (back when they tried to obfuscate his true evil nature) and became a popular meme in the fandom decades later, with many joking that Kazuya kept up the hobby even after becoming a world-conquering fiend. It became something of an Ascended Meme in 8, where in an interview about his hobbies Kazuya proudly shows off his enormous sneaker collection which is enough to cover a massive room.
• At Least I Admit It: A consistent trait about Kazuya is that he is not sugarcoating the fact that he's an evil bastard:
  • He publicly performs atrocities when running the Zaibatsu during the event of 2, as a show that he hates everything about Heihachi, including his practices of doing good things while secretly desiring something in return. With overwhelming power at the call of his hand, he is free to crush anyone who dares to oppose him, and therefore has plenty of room to indulge in evil and inhuman activities, especially towards the weak, making him an equally evil Foil to Heihachi.
  • Even after assuming control of G Corporation following the events of 5, while he wins the trust of many, he doesn't even try to devise smear campaigns against his opposition; he makes it clear that G Corp vs. Zaibatsu is a case of Evil Versus Evil. About the only thing he cares to hide is his Devil form, but since no one ever asks, he usually doesn't even have to cover it up.
  • In 7, When Heihachi tries to smear his image by revealing his one well-kept secret, he does nothing about his Devil form being revealed, as if admitting that yes, he is the Devil, the people just didn't ask. He just blasts the satellite that revealed his Devil form before pinning the blame for the collateral damage caused onto Heihachi, taking satisfaction that it would piss off his old man by ending his Villain with Good Publicity status, which it did.
  • In 8, he wages war against the world and makes it clear that he's only doing it because he wants to be the iron-fisted ruler of the world. Unlike Jin in 6, he never claims to have an underlying 'noble' motive behind such war (such as either destroying the Devil Gene and reviving an ancient evil (Azazel) to do the job), and even calls out Jin to be the one who started the war to bring the turmoil to the world in the first place when Jin declares that Kazuya's existence is the one bringing turmoil to the world in the first place.
• Back from the Dead: As of 4, and has since been in every installment.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: With Heihachi in the intro to 5. It doesn't last long, as Kazuya uses Heihachi to ensure his escape.
• The Bad Guy Wins:
  • For Tekken 7, as indicated by his profile on 8's official website, Kazuya is at his most triumphant yet by the time of the game's events. After successfully killing Heihachi and with basically no one left standing in the way of his world domination, Kazuya went on to not only destroy the Mishima Zaibatsu for good, but invade various nations in response to opposition against his brutal war, setting in motion the events of the eighth tournament.
  • Losing to Kazuya in the final battle of 8 yields this as an ending, where he succeeds in defeating Jin and subsequently leading G Corporation to world domination.
• Badass Arm-Fold: A default pose for him. In Tag 2, it's how he reverts to normal from his Devil form.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: That pimpin' purple suit of his, introduced in 2, which becomes a Badass Longcoat in 5. In 7, he gets a new one as his main costume, which combines his trenchcoat from the intro of Tag 1 with the suit from Blood Vengeance.
• Bait the Dog: Supposedly an Anti-Hero out for revenge against Heihachi, but no one could have predicted he'd make the turn he did. His non-canon ending in 5 also shows him still holding respect to Jinpachi, and recounts his moments together with him, but ends up killing him.
• Baritone of Strength: His voice is decently deep, which emphasizes the sense of power and menace he projects.
• Beating A Dead Player:
  • Less overt than, say, Bryan Fury, but one of Kazuya's win poses from 4 onward has him perform a Neck Lift on his defeated opponent while decrying them as pathetic.
  • Should he win a round with his Rage Art in 8, it concludes with him contemptuously kicking his defeated opponent away.
• Berserk Button: He does NOT take betrayal well. Justified since it played a big part in his life.
• Beware the Superman: Heihachi exposing Kazuya's Devil form for the entire world to see causes him to lose support from the masses. By the time of the 8th tournament, Kazuya is more than willing to use his demonic powers to exercise his dominion over any opposition against his totalitarian rule.
• Big Bad:
  • In 2. He's the penultimate boss — the Final Boss being his Devil form.
  • Regains this status at the end of 7, having finally killed Heihachi, leaving him as the sole true antagonist in the series (as of 8).
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With his Devil form, even though they are now (technically speaking) the same person.
• Big Bad Ensemble:
  • He and his father, Heihachi, shared the Big Bad position for most of the series as a whole up until 7.
  • He also shared this role with his son, Jin, in 6 while Azazel serves as the Greater-Scope Villain of the game.
• Blood Knight: Not quite to the degree of his father, but Kazuya is a talented martial artist in the same vein who enjoys challenging opponents. His first thought when he hears that Jinpachi is hosting the fifth tournament is to anticipate a truly Worthy Opponent stronger than Heihachi eagerly. However, his pursuit of martial arts is mostly a means to an end; that end being world domination through the Mishima Zaibatsu/G Corporation.
• The Bus Came Back: Disregarding the non-canon Tag game that came before it, he returned for real in Tekken 4. The Tekken Force members were visibly shaken after seeing Kazuya bust through a wall to greet them.
  Heihachi: You're still alive?
• Breakout Villain: Kazuya was always a major character but he wasn’t intended to be as prominent as he is now. He was originally intended to be permanently killed off with his son replacing him moving forward. His popularity allowed him to be resurrected in 4 and has been a series staple ever since.
• Brought Down to Badass:
  • In the climax of 7, even after Heihachi is able to take everything his Devil form can throw at him, and left depowered with his gloves broken, Kazuya still has enough fight left in him to ultimately finish him off. This is evidenced by the fact that his red eye had even stopped glowing.
  • It happens more conclusively in 8, where Jin is able to use the powers of his Kazama heritage to completely purge the Devil Gene from Kazuya, and despite this, he's still one of the strongest human fighters alive.
• Cain and Abel:
  • He's the Cain to Lars' Abel in Tekken 6's Scenario Campaign when they fight against each other.
  • He's also the Cain to Lee Chaolan's Abel, at least in their childhood. However, their rivalry has decayed over time to irrelevance due to Lee being uninterested in the Mishima's feuds from the start and striking it rich on his own. That being there, Kazuya's biggest enemies are both his father and his son.
• Character Catchphrase:
  • 貴様か。("Kisama ka." - Translation: a disrespectful way of saying "So, it's you.")
  • くだらん。("Kudaran." - Translation: foolish, idiotic, or pathetic.)
  • 話にならな。("Hanashi ni nara na" - Translation: You're not worth talking about).
    • The in-game subtitles just translate this as "pathetic" or "pitiful".
  • どりゃ！("Dorya!" - A Japanese battle-cry)
• Character Tics: His devilish smirk, which is first shown in his Tekken 1 ending and has been present in every game since.
• The Chessmaster: Tekken 7 and Tekken 8 show what a skilled master of manipulating events and people Kazuya is. He's able to use the destruction of a town which he caused and pin it on his father Heihachi to help his own company. He later sets up the 8th King of Iron Tournament to help lure the heroes into coming into his trap and so he can free Azazel and absorb his power.

• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
  • In 2, in his non-canon ending, he used Heihachi after what would be the latter's only Pet the Dog moment (covering him from Devil's laser) as a meat shield so he can get close enough to deal the finishing blow for Devil.
  • In 4, after one Enemy Mine situation with Heihachi in Honmaru in the beginning of 5, he's quick enough to toss Heihachi into a horde of Jacks and leaving him with the Honmaru exploding.
  • He also kills his once beloved grandfather, Jinpachi in his non-canon 5 ending.
  • He "absorbs" Unknown's power in his Tag 2 ending (Unknown being Jun and all), presumably leaving her for dead afterwards.
• Cool Shades: His 2P outfit in 4.
• The Comically Serious:
  • Mostly it's not the case, but at least twice in Scenario Campaign his bluntness and seriousness are used for humor.
  Xiaoyu: Father, please stop!
  Kazuya: Who is this insolent girl?
  • In some of the game's endings, usually non-canonical ones, his more sinister personality traits are played or even subverted for humor. Lars' Tag 2 ending has him smugly snatch food from a hotpot while being amused Lars can't get any. In his 8 character ending, he sparks up as if angry and throws a trophy at Jun... who he knows has the reflexes to effortlessly catch it, as his own over the top expression of love, and laughs manically while showing off his extensive sneaker collection.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive:
  • In Tekken 2, after displacing his father as head of the Mishima Zaibutsu, he becomes a far worse warlord and crime boss in all but name than Heihachi ever was, dealing in everything from weapons to animal trafficking.
  • After some putzing around (and spending some time being dead) for the next four games, he's CEO of G Corporation as of 6, and just as evil as ever. And yet ironically, because of Jin's warmongering reputation as Mishima Zaibatsu CEO, Kazuya, by comparison, becomes hailed as a savior.
  • 7 sees him don a black business suit and trenchcoat as his default battle costume, making him look the part more than ever.
• Corrupted Character Copy:
  • To Ryu of Street Fighter, being both powerful martial artists with a competitive mentality and a darker side who partake in tournaments run by evil madmen (M. Bison for Ryu, Heihachi for Kazuya). However, whereas Ryu is a noble man, Kazuya showed himself to be entirely self-centered; after taking over the Mishima Zaibatsu, rather than undo the damage his father did and redeem it into a more benevolent company (like his dear grandfather planned), Kazuya instead chose to openly commit even worse atrocities with it and reap the benefits for himself. In addition, Ryu battled with the dark energy of the Satsui No Hado as to avoid letting it corrupt him, while Kazuya fully embraced the power of the Devil Gene and became a hateful monster without even needing to transform. As if to drive the point home, Ryu's current English VA Kyle Hebert even voiced Kazuya in Blood Vengeance. This duality was also played for what's worth in the promotional materials for Street Fighter X Tekken's debut trailer, where Kazuya approaches a meditating Ryu after throwing Dan like a toy, all the way displaying the threatening aura of his Devil form.
  • While it wasn't Namco's intention during his first conception, over time, Kazuya more or less develops into a corrupted copy of Vegeta. Both are noted to share similar hairstyles, an arrogant attitude in fighting, and being the 'prince' of a notable group (Vegeta being the Prince of Saiyans, Kazuya being the son of Heihachi, leader of the Mishima Zaibatsu). Additionally, both have their own women who could notably tame their darker sides (Bulma and Jun). However, Kazuya can be said to be what happens if Vegeta never has a Heel–Face Turn. As a result, Kazuya stays as a villain throughout the Mishima saga. He also continuously antagonizes his son Jin, while Vegeta eventually develops a grudging respect for and fatherly love for his son Trunks. This may also be due to the absence of Jun throughout his life (as she's in a coma away from the world after the encounter with Ogre), while Bulma is constantly there to mellow Vegeta down. Both also have a Superpowered Evil Side to get what they want, resulting in them ignoring whoever gives it to them (Babidi and Azazel). However, while Vegeta's true goal for that extra power is to fight evenly with Goku (but leaves Babidi alone to later be killed by his own folly), Kazuya's true goal for that is to help him take over the world (and personally kills and absorbs Azazel for it), thus making him much more nefarious. Namco merging with the company that managed Dragon Ball video games into Bandai Namco may factor in Kazuya's development into Vegeta's corrupted copy.
• Costume Evolution: Kazuya's default outfit in 8 is a cross between that of 2 (befitting his return to the role of Big Bad) and 7. Like both, he has a suit jacket, dress pants, and dress shoes, but like the former, said jacket is purple with a red interior and he retains his iconic red gloves like he did in 5's rendition of the outfit, whereas like the latter, he retains his tie and wears an alligator-patterned trenchcoat rather than a tuxedo jacket.
• Covered in Scars: Starting in 4, when he formerly only had a giant scar on his chest. Being revived from falling into a freaking volcano will do that to you.
• Cruel and Unusual Death: As reimbursement for dropping Heihachi down the very same ravine Heihachi threw him into as a child, Heihachi climbs back out, beats the tar out of Kazuya, and then drops Kaz into a volcano that subsequently erupts. Subverted since despite all that, he was Not Quite Dead. As for the events of 7, Kazuya returns the favor against Heihachi in his last fight against him. Devil Kazuya overpowers the aged Heihachi and blasts him through the heart with a laser. And just to make sure he doesn't return he also threw his corpse into an erupting volcano.
• Cruel Mercy: His ultimate fate in 8. Jin emerges victorious over Kazuya, but he does not kill him, instead leaving him unconscious but alive. Even though he's alive, however, Kazuya has been utterly defeated. Everything he is, the twisted ideals he inherited from his abusive father Heihachi, his power granted to him by the Devil Gene, his ambitions as the head of G Corporation, all of it, gone. Once again, Kazuya has lost everything.
• Darkest Hour: Whenever he wins, this follows up soon after. After he defeated Heihachi back in 1, 2's story makes it clear Kazuya is far more brutal as Mishima Zaibatsu's head than Heihachi was ^note By contrast, when Heihachi was in control of Mishima Zaibatsu for years before 1, and eventually got it back after 2, he didn't start wars, he even dispatched Tekken Force to settle disputes and use wastelands for cultivation to feed poor countries. While all of this was to get support from world leaders and political power, he's not starting wars like Kazuya is. In 7 after he kills Heihachi, the war continues, and 8 eventually reveals his motivation is to create a world where only the strong survive, and he creates the 8th tournament with the threat that losers will not only be killed, their countries will also be destroyed. While he didn't actually destroy the countries, the ones that lost fights during the tournament's preliminaries were sanctioned, meaning even if he's not actively killing everyone, he's trying to control everything.
• Deal with the Devil: How he survives to return in 4. At the end of the game, he assimilates the Devil into himself.
• Decomposite Character: With Lee in Tekken: The Motion Picture. That movie combines the stories of both Tekken 1 and 2, and since Jun is one of the main characters, it keeps the plot point of Mishima Zaibatsu doing experiments on animals. In Tekken 2 the experiments were done under Kazuya's orders, but in The Motion Picture, Kazuya isn't in control of the Mishima Zaibatsu, on top of going through Adaptational Heroism, so it's Lee who takes Kazuya's role of ordering the experiments.
• Deconstructed Character Archetype: Of the "hot headed warrior seeking to avenge themselves against the monstrous tournament organizer" archetype. Kazuya is what happens when the person in that role is completely self-interested; He wanted to avenge his near-death at the hands of Heihachi (and as 7 reveals, his beloved mother as well), but that's the extent of his sympathetic motivations; He's now every bit the spiteful, ambitious monster his father was, and he's determined to maintain a hold on the Mishima Zaibatsu... or whatever he had.
• Decoy Protagonist: He was The Protagonist of the first game, and became a Rogue Protagonist in 2. He was also originally planned to be Killed Off for Real, to make way for his son. Though he does return since 4, Jin is the closest the series has to a primary hero (except 6 and 7).
• Demon of Human Origin: The Devil Gene grants him the abilities of the Devil himself. He can even transform into a demonic form with horns, bat wings, purple skin, and a third eye on his forehead.
• Depending on the Writer: How evil and uncaring he is can be this.
  • In Heihachi's ending from 4 he looks shocked and worried when he sees Jin chained up, but in his own ending and every game afterwards it's clear he doesn't care about Jin.
  • In the Netsu system of Tag 1, Jun is among the characters he dislikes. In 6's story of Mishimas, he speaks of Jun in a rather neutral way. Tag 2's Netsu relationships includes her is among the characters he hates. In 8, he has a bit of soft spot for her and won't kick her after a win with a rage art.
• Determinator: Falling from a ravine? Survive by dealing with the devil. Falling into a volcano? Get revived by a rival company. He goes Determinator vs Determinator against Heihachi in their final battle. Kazuya manages to be the bigger Determinator; depowered from Devil form and without his gloves, he just uses his sheer hatred against Heihachi to throw one last punch and win. And he still has enough strength in him to go toe-to-toe with Shin Akuma shortly afterwards. It takes up until the finale of 8 for Kazuya to finally meet his match and face someone that even his own determination is simply not enough to overcome - his own son Jin, who wins by simply being more of a Determinator than him.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: In his non-canon ending in 2, Kazuya is disappointed that Devil is defeated by him. But then, Devil tries to cheap shot him from the back, only for Heihachi to cover for him for certain reasons. Kazuya turns his shock into advantage as he proceeds to use Heihachi as a human shield to tank Devil's lasers and gives him one final Dragon Uppercut, defeating Devil for good and proving that Kazuya's martial arts skills dominates the devil.
• Difficult, but Awesome:
  • The Electric Wind God Fist (EWGF for short). It is a "Just Frame" Bonus attack that is vital to truly mastering Kazuya (and every other Mishima character, since they also have this move). Kazuya is notable for having a "Perfect" variant of the move thanks to his Mist Step command dash. Naturally, it goes a step beyond the regular variant in terms of precision and timing.
  • Kazuya's moves tend to fair poorly in frame data on whiff or block, limiting his arsenal of safe pokes and panic moves. However, if he lands a hit, there are a ton of 50/50's he can pull off, which are compounded by a nasty amount of combos at his disposal. Using Kazuya well means that one needs to look out for any moves from his opponent he can easily block/whiff/counter-punish upon reaction, meaning that fundamentals in movement are very important to master when using him.
• Dissonant Serenity: Gives an eerily calm smile after throwing Heihachi off a cliff in 1, which hints towards him not actually being The Hero.
• The Dog Bites Back: If Kazuya isn't trying to stomp others for being weak, then his life revolves around finding people who have betrayed him and kill them out of revenge. Heihachi is basically the biggest recipient for this, but there's another incident: When Kazuya was revived by the G Corporation in 4, he actually showed gratitude for the revival, became cooperative and had no intention to betray them even after learning more about how to control the Devil Gene. It's only after the corporation out of nowhere attempted to backstab him with a pile of exploding Jack-4s and Kazuya learned about this that he returned the favor by mass-slaughtering those who were on board with the idea.
• Doing In the Wizard:
  • His grand reappearance in 4 did this to a degree. Previously, it was believed that he bargained with Devil for the power to survive and eventually defeat Heihachi, losing half of Devil after being "killed" by the erupting volcano Heihachi dropped him into (the other half of Devil attempting to possess Jin but being warded off by Jun although it unknowingly succeeds and lies dormant until Jin's ending). With Kazuya's resurrection came the revelation that the cursed blood of the Mishima family made them susceptible to supernatural entities due to a genetic anomaly called the Devil Gene.
  • In Tekken 7, it's further revealed that the Devil Gene really isn't endemic to the Mishima family, and Heihachi isn't a Black Sheep as much as he is an "ordinary" member. It came from Kazumi Mishima — or rather, Kazumi Hachijou.
• The Dreaded: As far back as the original game (according to the console port's manual), Kazuya has been perceived as a danger to the world; his goal after killing Heihachi in the tournament was to engage in a "world scale coup d'etat," with Jack 1 being sent to the tournament by the Russian government specifically to stop him.
• Dystopia Justifies the Means: As revealed in 8, Kazuya's new goal after finally getting his revenge on Heihachi is to transform the world into a literal Hell on Earth. Seeing those who currently govern the planet as little more than echoes of his late father (weaklings who hide behind facades and use politics rather than their own strength to achieve their goals), he intends to purge them and create a world where only the strong have rights. He announces the 8th King of Iron Fist Tournament as his means to that end, saying that anyone who chooses to participate and loses will not only be executed but also have their nation wiped from the face of the Earth.
• Early Instalment Weirdness: Early character bios for the first game painted Kazuya as somewhat more "normal" than later games, partly because the creators wanted to keep his true nature, as revealed in the second game a surprise. Supposedly, Kazuya was fond of collecting sneakers, and it was implied that he continued to live off his family's wealth for most of his adolescent life after the fateful cliff drop incident. Subsequent games quietly ignored the latter idea, as the idea of the Mishimas living under one roof for any length of time became increasingly implausible. The sneakers thing return in 8, however, showing that Kazuya still resumed this particularly non-evil hobby in secret even after he descended into evil.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Per his possession of the Devil Gene, Kazuya has an array of power and abilities at his disposal, and unlike Jin, he fully embraces his nature as a devil. Even without that, however, he's an exceptionally strong and skilled martial artist who actually prefers to fight without using his demonic abilities up until 7. The climax of The Dark Awakens in 8 shows this in full; having been Brought Down to Normal by Angel Jin's power of purification, Kazuya dismisses the Devil Gene as a means to an end before serving as a Marathon Boss that requires Jin to utilize every technique at his disposal—Mishima and Kazama Style alike—before he's finally defeated.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Almost everyone in Kazuya's life has betrayed him in one way or another (though that's not to say he's never at fault). His father tossed him off a cliff, his adoptive brother abandoned him, his son blamed him for Jun's death, and his grandfather went on a rampage after getting possessed by an evil spirit... The latest revelation about his mother plotting to kill him would've been the most crushing if Kazuya hadn't already hardened his heart from the other betrayals.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
  • At least in The Motion Picture, Kazuya always held a soft spot for his Missing Mom, who, in his memories, was a very loving woman.
  • 7 reveals Kazuya did care for his mother, calling out Heihachi for the murder of his mother. Story-wise, when Kazuya learns that Kazumi planned to have him killed through Akuma, that was one of the few times Kazuya looks visibly crushed, feeling betrayed by one of the few people he loved.
• Even Evil Can Be Loved: By Jun romantically and by Jinpachi platonically.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: While "love" does seem to stretch it, Kazuya at least holds some affection or a decent amount of respect towards Jun, who he remarks as "fearless". He's even positively shocked when he sees Jun alive. Notably, Jun is the only character in 8 who Kazuya will never, under any circumstances, corpse-kick after winning with a Rage Art, or perform a Neck Lift on during his win pose. His Character Episode in 8 ending shows him expressing a fondness for Jun. When asked about his "leading lady", the camera hovers around the room to show her picture in a rather fancy picture frame as Kazuya replies that while he has no time for weaklings, he very much acknowledges Jun as "strong". Considering that this is Kazuya we’re talking about here, this is the absolute highest praise he has ever given to anyone no strings attached. In his younger days, he also had mostly positive relationships with his mother and grandfather.
• Evil All Along:
  • He originally appears to be The Hero who plans to defeat Heihachi in the tournament and take over the Mishima Zaibatsu. By the time 2 rolls around, he's revealed his true colors and, now in charge of the Zaibatsu, proves to be far more openly brutal and evil than Heihachi ever was.
  • Those who read the manuals of 1 can afford to not get baited with Kazuya's hero status and know he's bad news from the start: His stated goal is to 'launch a worldwide coup' by taking over the Mishima Zaibatsu. The Russian government catches wind of this and sends Jack to assassinate Kazuya instead of Heihachi.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: By the end of 8, Kazuya is shocked that Jin was able to overcome what he saw as the "fate" of the Mishima bloodline, unable to comprehend that anyone could use the Mishima style for anything but domination and destruction. Furthermore, he can't fathom why Jin continues to keep getting up despite being beaten down mericlessly, completely going against his long-standing beliefs that battles are about who emerges the victor and not the survivor.
• Evil Laugh: Ever since he returned, he usually has one in any of his endings.
• Evil Prince: Of a family-owned corporate empire, true, but otherwise fits this trope to a T, save that his dad is just as evil as he is.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Almost to a guttural extent.
• Evil Versus Evil: In 7, he's the only one with enough manpower to fight against Heihachi and the Zaibatsu and has enough personal beef against him. He's solely driven by his self-interest instead of altruism or honor, and he defaults to being an evil prick. By the end of the game, he kills Heihachi so that nothing stands in his way to Take Over the World, as shown in Alisa's report to Lars and his allies that the Zaibatsu-G Corp war isn't ceasing with Heihachi's death.
• Evil Virtues: While Kazuya isn't exactly a Noble Demon, he nevertheless possesses a few principles of his own.
  • One of these is a twisted sense of Honor. If he commits to a fight, he'll see it through to the end without cheating or relying on dirty tactics, instead being determined to crush his opponent through power alone; if they die in the process, so be it. He's also prepared to die himself if the opponent is actually stronger than him (since he seems to believe in the 'The strong tramples the weak' law), but thus far no one has come even close to actually killing him.
  • Another one is Honesty. Kazuya cares little for being a Manipulative Bastard or Villain with Good Publicity the way Heihachi often is, and as such, will rarely ever lie or obscure his true feelings on any given matter. Which means, he'll openly admit that he is an evil bastard who wouldn't think twice about holding you in the air by your throat and telling you how pathetic you are, and he will not disguise that as anything else.
  • Kazuya also isn't averse to Gratitude. Upon being resurrected by G Corporation following his death at the end of 2, Kazuya returns the favor by being legitimately cooperative, subjecting himself to their research into his Devil Gene (which he admittedly also wanted to better understand) and generally showing no intention of backstabbing them, only vengefully disposing of the corporation's leadership and taking control after he himself is backstabbed via a squad of Jack-4s sent to eliminate him. Furthermore, while it's often for pragmatism's sake, he averts being a Bad Boss to his subordinates and is happy to reward them for a job well done, on top of becoming genuine friends with Bruce after recruiting him in 2 and accepting Anna's resignation in 7.
• Fallen Hero: He originally sought revenge against his father for hurling off a cliff and nearly killing him, but tossing him off that same cliff appears to have been the tipping point that gave the devil gene its hold over him. He seems to at least comprehend that he came from a better place than he is now, as during his devil transformation win pose against Jun in 8 he remarks he does not "seek salvation" from her, recognizing that his path has led him to a dark and vile place regardless of how comfortable he is with himself. His facial expression is also one of stoic displeasure at rejecting her attempt to reach out to him, compared to his evil smirk when he performs this win pose against anyone else.
• Final Boss: Kazuya, in both his human and devil forms, is the final opponent fought in 2's arcade ladder for most fighters; Kazuya as a human is the sub-boss, while Kazuya as a devil is the very last opponent. He also serves as this for Heihachi's story in 4, and returns as this for 7's Mishima Saga, fittingly to Heihachi one last time.
• Final Solution: Upon announcing the 8th tournament, Kazuya declares that the loser will not only be rewarded with a death sentence, but also wipe out their homeland from the face of the Earth. This plan never came into fruition as Kazuya had other plans in mind; but opted to impose harsh sanctions on the losing participant(s) and their respective countries.
• Foreshadowing: His sadistic smile after believing he killed Heihachi in the first game hints towards the fact that he will be the Big Bad of the series going forwards.
• Freudian Excuse: A lot of his personality and motivation are driven by the death of his mother and the way his father treated him. While he never really found out the truth of why his mother died (Heihachi had to kill her because she had come to kill him in the name of her clan), he can be summed up as the following: 50% hatred for Heihachi for throwing him off the cliff, 25% the belief that Heihachi killed Kazumi out of malice, and 25% just pure power-seeking and maybe the influence of Devil.
• Frontline General: In the Tekken 6 console intro, during the Zaibatsu-G Corporation war, we see Kazuya (who is the head, and thus leader of G-Corp forces) jumping off an assault helicopter (without using any ropes, no less) lead his forces in a military raid. Justified in that he's not a normal man and is likely the most powerful weapon in his forces. The fatigues he's seen wearing there are also available to him via customization.
• The Gloves Come Off: In his 7 default outfit, he's no longer wearing his iconic red gloves. In the story mode, his final battle against Heihachi is so intense and protracted that his gloves get worn down until they tear off his bloodied knuckles.
• Gone Horribly Right: Played straight initially, but then it evolves into being played for drama. Heihachi threw him off a cliff when he was a boy to see if he was strong enough to climb back up — he did it so Kazuya would grow up to be an evil badass like him. Cut to the start of the series, and Heihachi now wants to kill him because the plan worked too perfectly. As later games would reveal, Kazuya not only became more powerful than Heihachi, but also become a Viler New Villain. In fact, by 7 it's revealed that Heihachi knew from the beginning that if Kazuya survived the fall, it meant that he had the Devil Gene and would eventually pose a bigger threat to both his own ambitions and the world itself. Unfortunately, by the ending of 7, Heihachi's fears come to pass as Kazuya kills him, crushes the Zaibatsu's military forces, and then goes on to begin conquering the entire world, intending to reshape it into a Darwinist dystopia where only the strong survive, while the weak are culled and erased.
• Good Is Not Nice: He came across as a standoffish Anti-Hero in Tekken 1 before turning bad on Tekken 2 and so on.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: The scar on his chest is the end result of being thrown down into a ravine by Heihachi. After being blown up in a volcano at the end of Tekken 2, his body is scarred further.
• Guest Fighter: Kazuya makes an appearance as a DLC fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, making him the second fighter representing Bandai Namco to join the series.
• Hand Cannon: In the intro to 4 he holds up Desert Eagle with a large and long barrel.
• Hero Killer: His killing of Heihachi in 7 qualifies as this, even the latter admittedly is not a saint himself. He can also do this to Jin in the Despair ending of 8.
• He's Back!: Having been defeated by Heihachi in 2 and thrown off a volcano by him, he was presumed dead and it was seemingly confirmed in 3 when he was not part of the roster. Tekken 4 reveals he did in fact survive and had spent a few decades with G-Corp, his father's rival company, to better control and utilize his Devil gene. The intro cinematic to 4 plays up his return to the franchise:
  Kazuya: 俺は死んだはずの人間だ。切り札はこちらにある。貴様からは・・・全てを取り戻す！^note They thought I was out of the game... but I'm holding all the cards now. I... will get everything back! (knocks out the Elite Mook he was standing over)
• Hidden Depths:
  • Since the beginning, Kazuya enjoys collecting sneakers as a hobby. In fact in his Character Episode Ending for 8, an interviewer asks about his hobbies and his response is to show off his collection with the numbers large enough to cover up an entire large room while neatly arranged and displayed wall-to-wall.
  • In 6's Scenario Campaign, in Christie's stage, once Alisa is done explaining that the city was just a pasture land a few years before, Kazuya says it's just a tourist city and it will die once its novelty wears off because it lacks full-time residents. He's the only character in the game who makes a comment like this, most characters just comment the city looks good. Even if it's rude and negative, it shows that he can make a valid and grim point.
    Kazuya: A tourist city. Hmph. What a waste of resources. Without full-time residents, it's sure to die once its novelty wears off.
• Holding Back the Phlebotinum: Since the climax of 4, where Kazuya gains complete dominance over Devil, he's never used his Devil powers again (his prologue in 5 notwithstanding, where he becomes Devil Kazuya to escape Hon-Maru). It wouldn't be until 7 that Kazuya utilizes its power in gameplay.
• Homage:
  • His hairstyle and the purple suit is partially inspired by Demitri Maximoff; even his Devil form is somewhat reminiscent of Demitri's true appearance as a vampire monster/demon. It would probably have been less of a surprise if you knew Demitri's character before then.
  • His standard fighting outfit is deliberately emotive of Ryu from Street Fighter and the Fountain of Expies spawned from him, to trick you into thinking he's The Hero. Until the second game.
• Home Stage: Eternal Darkness in 2. A pitch-black room where only the floor is visible.
• Humans Are Bastards: From Kazuya's point of view, all humans are evil to the core, prone to backstab each other. This is further supported with the Crapsack World he's in and how many betrayals he has suffered by human beings he used to trust (his parents, especially). So, he is content in being evil because it's in human nature to screw each other. In the trailer of 8, Kazuya beckons that it's not just him, being the devil, who will unleash chaos to the world, but humanity in general will do it too.
  Kazuya: Come, humanity! Unleash the dogs of war!!
• Humans Are the Real Monsters: Related to the trope above, whether he wields the power of the Devil Gene or not, Kazuya is still a human with a black heart, and he knows it. Even after he's stripped off of his Devil form, he only views the Devil Gene as a stepping-stone to his goals and he can continue taking over the world without it.
• Hunk: From 4 onwards, he's put together after his horrible disfiguring a couple of decades ago. But regardless of the scar wounds, he still sports a very muscular build that some would find attractive.
• Hypocrite: Despite an obvious desire for revenge in most of his fights against Heihachi, and his own slaughter of the G Corporation executives who betrayed him at 5's intro, a few lines from 6's Scenario Campaign show him being dismissive of other people's desire for revenge against him. For the most part, it's because it never worked well on those attacking him that Kazuya lost count on how many avengers have been trying to attack him and end up being crushed under his heel.
  Kazuya: You sought me out for something as meaningless as revenge? Get out of my sight.
  Leo: "Meaningless?!" How dare you!
• I Control My Minions Through...: Respect. If you work for Kazuya, he won't treat you horribly nor use you as a pawn; if you're competent, he'll even trust you with his missions. Because of this, Bruce Irvin respects him, and Kazuya returns that respect. While he also never shows it, it seems like this is the case with Anna in 6. And in 7, when Akuma came to his tower and his own Mooks attempted to shoot him, Kazuya stopped them from doing something fatally futile and told them to let Akuma proceed to the top of the tower so he could take care of him himself (though whether this was due to pragmatism or a genuine Pet the Dog moment is debatable). What keeps him from being a Benevolent Boss that he's still utterly callous, even if he's not actively being bad with his subordinates.
• Iconic Outfit: His most well-known look is his white gi pants and red gloves.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: In the Story mode of Tekken 7, he takes down a satellite from orbit by shooting it down with his laser!
  • He ups the ante in the first chapter of 8 by blasting down countless satellites in a single stroke, disrupting communications across the planet and allowing him to broadcast his grim message to humanity uninterrupted.
• Involuntary Shapeshifting: It's implied that his transformation into Devil is this. After unifying with Devil in 4, Kazuya can do this at will.
• It's All About Me: In a bit of Gameplay and Story Integration in Tag 2, it takes longer than usual for him to get into Rage mode while his partner is getting beaten to a pulp, even if said partner is Jun. He does make an exception for Jinpachi, however, and as 7 reveals, he also deeply loved his mother, Kazumi.
• Irony:
  • Despite needing Electric Wind Godfist more than the other Mishimas, he's the last one to have gotten it. Jin had it on his debut in 3, and despite Kazuya returning in Tag 1, he still didn't get it while Heihachi did. And while Tekken 4 is when he's finally given EWGF, the irony doesn't end there, 4 is the only game in the series where WGF/EWGF is not a launcher (4 tried to put less emphasis on juggles), so it took until 5 for Kazuya to have a proper, launching EWGF.
  • Jinpachi is a Forgotten Fallen Friend for Kazuya, but despite this, Kazuya still got a move from him, Elkeid/reverse hug/df1+2, adaptated in 7's Devil transformation as f1+2, then changed into one of Kazuya's default moves as sidestep 1+2 in 8, and changed into a non-launching high for some reason.
  • In the beginning of Tekken 8, Kazuya taunts Jin about not embracing who the latter is. This proves to be his undoing, as Jin embracing his past and coming to peace with it allows him to withstand and defeat Kazuya for good.
  • Jinpachi, Heihachi and Kazumi all have great poking mids. Despite Kazuya having trained with all of them, he's famously known for having no poking mids.
• Jerkass: Less overtly so than Heihachi given his frequent stoicism, but Kazuya, in addition to his ruthless ambition and merciless nature, isn't much fun at parties; he's cold, callous, dismissive of opponents he deems weak (hence his catchphrase), and happy to backstab or eliminate whoever he has to in his pursuit of power, often with a Psychotic Smirk on the face; there's a reason his feud with Heihachi is predominantly Evil Versus Evil. While he has a few people that he respects above all (Jinpachi, Kazumi, Jun), he makes that side very hard to see.

Tropes K-Z

• Kick Them While They Are Down: "Oni Stomp," a move of his from 4 onward in which he stomps on downed opponents. Winning a round with his Rage Art in 8 will also have it conclude with him contemptuously kicking his defeated opponent away while taunting them.
  Kazuya: Is that all you got?
• Knight of Cerebus: By Tekken 8, Kazuya manages to cement himself as this after his triumph over Heihachi and further bring the entire world down to its knees. He declares that under his Darwinistic regime, losers not only get rewarded with death, but also get to watch their home country wiped out from the face of the Earth; to the point most of the cast decide to join forces with Jin to stop Kazuya's tyranny.
• Lack of Empathy: 8 reveals that Kazuya was always like this, Devil Gene or no Devil Gene, because of Heihachi's influence. He simply accepted it as a source of power and began to crave even more of it, which his original Devil persona gladly obliged as the Devil Gene is fueled by one's desires. Living to be everything his father Heihachi believed he was to spite him led to him ultimately subsuming and absorbing the Devil persona into himself, because that's exactly what he wanted - to have power under his complete control, in all its many forms, just as Heihachi had imparted onto him. To that end, Kazuya has absolutely zero care for anyone who doesn't work directly under or with him and has earned his respect through strength, seeing anyone who stands in his way as an obstacle for him to utterly destroy.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After years of fighting against his own family under the belief that the Mishima bloodline is destined to betray and kill each other for their own desires, and killing his own father Heihachi while believing that would cement it, Kazuya is defeated by his own son Jin in 8, and his life is spared, in the process symbolically defeating his fatalistic mindset and ideology.
• Last Villain Stand: In 8, near the end of his boss fight, his army is severely crippled, many of his troops abandoned him, and Jin is able to destroy both of their devil genes, losing his trump card. Despite all of that, there's still one more round to the boss fight to go, with Kazuya determined to kill Jin.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • Kazuya is not The Hero, as the first game leads you to believe, and he doesn't stay dead after the events of the second game either.
  • Parricide Fist, a move introduced in 8, is a bit of a dead giveaway to how Kazuya finally kills Heihachi with that very move, before throwing the body into the then-active volcano.
• Light Is Not Good: Invoked by the developers ever since the first game, where he was designed to look similar to the standard Shotoclone fighting game protagonist, complete with white karate gi pants, only for the rug to be pulled out once the sequel established him as the villain. The seventh main installment gives him an all-black outfit more fitting for a supervillain.
• Make Sure He's Dead: He delivers one of these to Heihachi in 7 after killing him, presumably due to Heihachi's resilience. He does this by dumping his corpse into magma. He can also do this to Jin in 8 if the Despair ending is achieved, in traditional Mishima fashion throwing his own son over a cliff while he doesn't have Devil Gene empowerments anymore, ensuring certain death the instant he hits the ocean waters below.
• Manipulative Bastard: Played With. Kazuya has been less overtly manipulative than either his father or son, who have manipulated or coerced many other characters to their side. As said above, Kazuya doesn't bother to hide who he is; the few that stand by him do so out of genuine loyalty or are paid to do a job. However, he shows remarkable aptitude at spinning good publicity for G Corporation during World War III, though it's admittedly not hard to look like the good guy in comparison when your bastard son declares war on the entire planet for no immediately clear reason. After Heihachi retakes the Zaibatsu, Kazuya still wins the PR war simply by turning his father's defamatory attacks against him.
• Marathon Boss: The final battle with him in 8's story mode goes on for 6 rounds. Keep in mind that he doesn't have the Devil Gene anymore during that fight. That's just how much of a Determinator he is.
• Master of All: Across all games in the series, Kazuya can hit quite hard, and he has many good tools at his disposal. The result is that Kazuya is a serious threat at higher skill levels, but getting there is easier said than done.
• Mean Boss: He's way too himself to be considered a Benevolent Boss, but Kazuya is a surprisingly even-handed employer; he gives his henchmen plenty of leeway and room to succeed, and genuinely praises them when they do...just as much as he punishes them harshly when he gives up on them.
• Meaningful Name: Only in the sense that his name in Kanji 一八　comes from taking a Kanji character from each of the names of both his mother and father, Kazumi (Hachijou) 一美 and Heihachi (Mishima) 平八. In terms of literal meaning though, his name is simply made up of the characters for the numbers one and eight. As for the occidental rendition of his name, "Kazuya", see the Significant Anagram entry below.
• Missing Mom: His mother is never mentioned in the games proper until Tekken 7, where she features in an important flashback sequence in the narrative. In The Motion Picture, his mother dies during childbirth. The Story mode of 7 confirms that Heihachi killed his mother.
• A Molten Date with Death: This is how he meets his demise in the second game of being thrown to a volcano by Heihachi in the latter's ending (which is literally reversed in 7). He is then resurrected by G Corporation in the fourth game.
• Momma's Boy: 7 reveals that Kazuya's mother, Kazumi Hachijou, is one of only two people in his family that Kazuya possesses love and respect for in the present day, the other being his grandfather, Jinpachi. After she was killed by Heihachi when Kazuya was 5 years old, his murderous and vengeful side surfaced with him trying to kill Heihachi and avenge Kazumi, only to be thrown off a cliff. Additionally, in Chapter 8 of The Mishima Saga, when Kazuya learns that Akuma was tasked with killing him and Heihachi on behalf of Kazumi, he refuses to believe it. The end of the game sees him finally succeed in avenging his mother by killing Heihachi.
• Moral Myopia: Kazuya, out of all people, admonishes Jin for starting World War III in the first chapter of 8. This is coming from a man whose entire goal in life is nothing but total world domination, not caring for the lives being needlessly sacrificed to achieve that goal. Jin's reasons may have genuine good intentions, but only led to a bad outcome; which is pretty much the case as Azazel wasn't truly dead, making Jin's efforts in the 6th game utterly pointless. Then again, Kazuya makes a valid point to call out his own son.
• Morality Pet:
  • Even after he absorbed the Devil, Kazuya always shows a glimmer of humanity towards his mother, Kazumi and his grandfather Jinpachi, the only two people ever to show him any shred of compassion. With Jinpachi, Kazuya respectfully greets his grandfather before the boss battle against Jinpachi's demonic transformation. Conversely, Kazuya seems legitimately shocked and hurt when he discovers that his adoring mother secretly conspired to kill him.
  • He also has a friendly relationship with Bruce, being the latter's employer.
  • Jun Kazama. While Kazuya never obviously expressed his love to her, it's clear that he means it when he considers her 'mysterious' and worthy of respect. He's shocked to see her return after thinking of her dead, and although he rejects her notions to save him from the darkness, he still speaks to and treats her with more respect than everyone else, avoiding any contemptuous actions he would inflict against others to her.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: His ambition to create a Darwinist dystopia where the strong rule over the weak backfires spectacularly: it only forces many conflicting characters to come together in order to stop him.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: His name, likeness and, presumably, parts of his irascible personality were based on Japanese author and revolutionary Yukio Mishima.
• Not Me This Time: When Jin declares that his mere existence brings turmoil to the world, Kazuya scoffs at it and points out that Jin was the one who started the war in the first place. While Kazuya himself is actually the one starting the current war, it should be noted that the first war in the sixth game was all Jin's idea, not Kazuya's.
• No-Sell: In 8's story mode, there is a battle where Jin wipes the floor with Kazuya, and Kazuya repeatedly just gets up like nothing happened and taunts Jin, even telling Jin to use his Devil power.
• No Sense of Humor: Aside from doing an Evil Laugh whenever things go his way, Kazuya is as serious as can be, something Heihachi lampshades in an interaction in Scenario Campaign.
  Heihachi: And who might you be?
  Kazuya: Don't play the senile game.
  Heihachi: Can't even appreciate a good joke. As always, Kazuya, you're such a bore. Can't you at least act surprised?
  Kazuya: I don't have time to waste on the follies of old men.
• Not So Above It All:
  • His bio in the first and second games state that his hobby involves collecting sneakers. 8 reveals that he still spares some time to build up his collection inbetween committing evil here and there, to the point that he's accumulated a massive collection stored within a big room.
  • As the CEO of G Corporation, one of Kazuya's decisions for the company was... to hire Lucky Chloe as his corporate Mascot. It kind of clashes hard with his cold-hearted devilish persona with no sense of humor.
• Offing the Offspring:
  • He intends to eliminate Jin so that he will be the only member left of his family to possess the Devil Gene. Gets most into it by Tekken 6, when he and Jin's private armies wage open war across the globe. This trope's intent returns in 8, and the Despair ending has Kazuya successfully end his own son's life.
  • He had a dangerously close brush with the wrong end of this trope as a child when Heihachi chucked him off a cliff. And he comes close to being on the wrong end of this trope again in Tekken 7, when Akuma comes to assassinate him on his mother's behalf.
• Older Than They Look:
  • Kazuya was pushing 50 by Tekken 4, but aside from his constant gruff look and the injuries he's accumulated, he still looks remarkably similar to how he did earlier in the series.
  • Downplayed by Tekken 8, where Kazuya is finally starting to look closer to his age.
• One-Winged Angel: As of Tag 2, his Devil form is now an alternative fighting stance instead of a completely separate character. In 7 he can transform in his Rage Art. His Fated Retribution Rage Drive also allows for this if it hits.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Before his Final Boss fight against Jinpachi in 5, Kazuya bows his head reverently to his grandfather and refers to him with formal pronouns, which he never does for anyone else ever. It goes to show how much Jinpachi meant to him.
• Out of Focus: Despite how much emphasis Tekken 4 put on his return, the games afterwards don't do much with him.
  • 5 is largely about Jinpachi, and while Kazuya does have interludes with him, 6 shows that he didn't meet Jinpachi and possibly wasn't even aware of him coming back.
  • 6 itself continued this trend, while both him and Jin are causing the war, Scenario Campaign puts much more emphasis on Lars' conflict with Jin, Kazuya only shows up in one scene where he fights Lars to a draw then just leaves Azazel's temple and disappears from the story.
  • 7 continues this once again, as the story is mostly about Heihachi, and while Heihachi gets some focus on his relationship with Kazumi where he talks about his past with her and flashbacks are shown, Kazuya only gets a line where he's baffled she sent Akuma to kill him. Though, perhaps in 7 it's intentional to make it more surprising that despite Heihachi being the main character, the player character winning most fights, and Kazuya being the final boss, Kazuya is the one who wins the final battle and kills Heihachi.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Even if he's undeniably evil, Kazuya handsomely rewards those who serve him well. He's on a mutually friendly relationship with Bruce Irvin and treats Anna Williams well because she does a competent job under him. To the point that in 7, when Anna wants to retire from fighting due to her own personal fatigue, Kazuya accepts her peaceful resignation rather than rejecting it and forcing her to work with him forever.
  • After all his boasts about obliterating the country that loses his tournament, Kazuya later announces that he's changing the punishment: the losers will not have their country obliterated, but given heavy sanctions, they will have to fight to even make ends meet. While it's still a very cruel punishment, it's still a better alternative than getting wiped off from the map with no chance of recovery; Kazuya is basically giving them a fighting chance to survive. He also chooses to reward the winning nations handsomely on top of that, recognizing their strength as an extension of his power-hungry personality.
• The Power of Hate: Kazuya hates Heihachi. Period. At the end of Tekken 7, when he was depowered after the brutal fight with Heihachi in the volcano and his signature red gloves were destroyed, the only thing Kazuya had for power is his undying hatred against Heihachi for everything the latter had done to the former. Which turned out to be his key to ultimate victory; his hate-powered bare fist killed Heihachi. However, this is deconstructed in 8: While he is certainly antagonistic towards Jin, he doesn't hate him as much as he hates Heihachi, so he can't muster enough extra power to last longer in their final duel and is defeated as a result. Not to mention, he became so consumed by his hate for Heihachi over the years that he effectively became everything his father believed he was just to spite him, taking his doctrines to heart and twisting them towards his own ends. Having lived to embody Heihachi's beliefs, he's left completely out of his element during the final battle against Jin, whose determination to survive and move beyond his past proves stronger than Kazuya's hatred.
• Pragmatic Villainy:
  • Kazuya may be openly villainous in 2, but he also values pragmatism. He only does things openly if he knows he can get away with it (such as most of his atrocities in 2), and doesn't see the value of openly showing the public that he is Devil. And even then, his whole show of brutality as the Zaibatsu leader also has a sense of pragmatism: He needs to destroy Heihachi's reputation and the best way to do it is to destroy the Mishima Zaibatsu's reputation. If smearing Heihachi isn't his overall goal, he may have resorted to more hidden activities to show his evil nature.
  • Additionally, he tells his men to stop wasting their lives trying to block off Akuma in 7. This can be seen as either a Pet the Dog moment, or Kazuya preferring that he does not needlessly lose assets that he could use for future villainous endeavors.
  • Him hiring Lucky Chloe may be this. While it looks odd for a character as serious as him to hire an idol, in a good chunk of the Tekken 7's story, he's in a PR war with Heihachi, so hiring an idol to be G-Corporation's mascot would help with that.
  • Him hiring Nina in 8 is likely because of this. She tried to kill him back in 2 and then worked for Jin in 6 and then Heihachi in 7. Despite her consistently opposing him, it was generally because those were her current jobs, so he recognizes she is a competent professional and made her his direct subordinate instead of needlessly opposing her. One can only wonder how Anna would feel about this though.
  • Playing as him in the Scenario Campaign on Marshall Law's stage shows that he draws the line on Get-Rich-Quick Scheme Marshall pulls on his stage. This is taken to a whole new meaning in the Despair ending of 8 concerning Marshall's fate, it's assumed Kazuya pulls a You Have Outlived Your Usefulness on Law disguised as Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves. This makes sense in a way, he knows Paul and Marshall are friends, and the latter betraying him out of greed is beneath him, and it's more appropriate to reward someone who betrays his friend with betrayal in return.
  • As seen in the Devil Jin Character Story ending, the Devil Gene gives the bearer enough power to wipe out the world. But Kazuya would rather not use his power for that kind of goal. He wants to have a world to re-shape and rule, not a big ball of ash to stand on.
  • Kazuya deciding to forego his Final Solution of wiping out the losing country if their representing fighter loses is not out of moral principle. Then again, being a Social Darwinist, even if he views weaklings as undesirables, he even believes that anyone can still have a fighting chance in order to survive. The Final Solution declaration turns out to be just a good tool to provoke the UN into attacking him and attracting Zafina, so he can gather the necessary people and negative energy to reawaken Azazel, then kill and absorb him.
  • In turn, this also makes his seemingly sudden retreat against Lars in 6 something out of pragmatism rather than grabbing the Villain Ball. After being beaten to crap by Jin in 4, Kazuya would become wary that he may not have mastered his own Devil Gene enough. He'll at least know who Azazel is, and he acknowledges that his power at that moment may not be enough to absorb him. So, he'll let Jin do his thing, take the fall, with him sorting out his own issues and increasing his own power. After sorting out his problem (by killing Heihachi), Kazuya is ready to repeat Jin's actions to reawaken Azazel, but now with enough power to kill and absorb him.
• The Protagonist: He was this in 1. And the only time this truly applies. Every other instance is either him being The Antagonist, or a Rogue Villain Protagonist.
• Psycho Electro: His battle aura has a blue electrical look, especially on his special moves like Dragon Uppercut and Electric Wind God Fist.
• Psychotic Smirk: His dark, crooked smile appears in every single game, including the cinematic intro to 3, which Kazuya is famously absent from as a playable character. The smirk most often appears in his arcade mode endings after he commits some particularly devilish act. One example is in his 6 ending, where he holds his son's body up to a series of Tekken Force soldiers, who drop their weapons and salute him. After this, he gives an evil smile.
• Purple Is Powerful: His devil form gives him purple skin, signifying an immense boost in power. Also, one of his trademark outfits is the purple tuxedo suit.
• Purposely Overpowered:
  • Successfully doing a counter hit d/f+2 (Abolishing Fist) into an Electric Wind Godfist gives you a full launch while also tacking on the damage from the CH d/f+2. The reason for this is that you need to execute a Perfect EWGF to launch, which is a double-just frame input (getting the PEWGF itself and also hitting them while when they still have standing status during the crumple). This leads to some of the most absurd damage output possible in Tekken, but because it's insanely difficult to be consistent at this, there was never a need to shave down its power (since if you were able to do this, then you should be rightfully rewarded with massive gains).
  • His PEWGF is i13, and it can be used to launch punish hopkicks, which are -13f on block. Only him, 2D guests and Eliza can launch hopkicks, and unlike 2D guests and Eliza, Kazuya doesn't have to spend a resource to do it. Being able to do this changes certain matchups as suddenly trying to use your own launcher can get yourself launched, but of course, doing it is easier said than done, because it's very much like the counter hit d/f+2~PEWGF example above, a double just frame.
• The Quiet One: He is generally the quietest and most reserved of the Mishima family, though his son Jin possibly rivals him in this regard. In stark contrast to his incredibly bombastic father, Kazuya hardly raises his voice higher than a Creepy Monotone near-whisper. As such, we rarely get much insight into his motivations or psychology, making him quite an ambiguous character.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives two of them at the start of Tekken 8:
  • The first one was given to Jin during their battle, when despite the latter turning into Devil mode, he's still powerless against Kazuya.
    "That's all you can muster from the blood I gave you? As long as I am alive, the body count will only grow. So the power's consumed you. Pathetic! Your resolve, your tenacity! All of it, for naught!"
  • The second one was given to the rest of the world when he declares the King of Iron Fist Tournament 8.
    "I speak now to all of humanity. For too long have you humans relied on weapons and ordinance, transforming into a race of spineless weaklings. The rulers of this world are too frail and have forgotten what it means to fight. Why should we abide by the rules and social conventions invented by such cowards? Foolish Humans! Open your eyes! I shall rewrite the rules of this irrational world. Only those who show the depths of their mettle have any place in the new world I shall rule."
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Since 4. Well, one of his eyes, at least. Coupled with Glowing Eyes of Doom when Devil possesses him.
• Red Right Hand: His left eye, which glows red (since 4).
• Redemption Rejection: If he wins against Jun in 8, he states that he does not need to be saved from the hell he has plunged himself into.
  "I don't need salvation! Leave my sight."
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Kazuya has been on one for the better part of his entire life, it having began when Heihachi threw him off a cliff when was merely five. Ever since then, the prospect of Patricide has been his primary motivator, the other being the satiation of his ruthless ambition. 7 adds another dimension to Kazuya's vengefulness by revealing his desire to avenge his beloved mother, Kazumi, whose death Heihachi is responsible for. In the game's release date trailer, titled "Rage and Sorrow", he represents the "Rage", implying this is his motivation for fighting.
• Rogue Protagonist: Variation (as of 2) — turns out in the first game he was a Villain Protagonist all along.
• Running Gag: Ever since Tekken 6, there's always a moment where Kazuya is baffled, or at least confused, at a sudden newcomer interfering with the Mishima plot.
  Kazuya: I don't believe it. You have the blood of a Mishima!... So all a sudden I have a brother now? This is one sick joke. ^note  When learning Lars is his brother in 6
  Kazuya: Who the hell is that?^note  The first time he sees Akuma
  Kazuya: Who are you?^note  Fate intro with Reina in 8
• Satanic Archetype: Even aside from his Deal with the Devil and assimilation of it in 4, Kazuya possesses a number of noticeably Luciferian elements, particularly by 7. His Start of Darkness—being thrown off a cliff by Heihachi—mirrors Lucifer being cast out of Heaven by his creator, God, he seeks revenge against Heihachi and to claim his power (i.e. the Mishima Zaibatsu) for himself, he believes Humans Are Bastards, he has a Red Right Hand in the form of a glowing-red left eye, and many of his outfits consist of dark colors, with his default outfit in 7 in particular consisting of a red tie and black suit. Even the white gi pants of his Iconic Outfit were deliberately designed by the developers to invoke Light Is Not Good, making Kazuya appear to be a traditional heroic fighting game protagonist à la Ryu before revealing his villainous nature in the sequel, not unlike Lucifer's association with light and deception. To top it all off, Heihachi's final battle with Kazuya, in which the latter awakens his Devil Kazuya X form, takes place in the midst of an active volcanic eruption that visually resembles Hell, complete with the in-game name of said stage being "Brimstone & Fire."
• Scars Are Forever: He's had a massive scar across his chest since Heihachi threw him off a cliff as a child. He gains several across his body after being resurrected in 4.
• Self-Made Man: Kazuya has no one to help raise him, so he is solely responsible for his upbringing, from being a nobody to a martial arts champion with an undefeated streak, to the Mishima Zaibatsu and later G Corporation CEO. Every skills he needed to get that, he learned himself, because he had no one else; the Devil Gene can only help him in fighting, not social or corporation management skills.
• Self-Made Orphan: If he gets his way, he will kill his father. He finally succeeds in 7.
• Shadow Archetype:
  • To his own son, Jin. Both are inheritors of the Devil Gene, thus they suffer mistreatment from Heihachi due to that (in Heihachi's non-canon 3 ending, he throws Jin from great height like he did to Kazuya in the cliff), which leads for them to gain bleak view of the world, and possess profound love for their respective mothers. Kazuya represents what Jin could have become if he never bothered to temper his own darkness and let it consume him:
    • While Jin experiences a constant struggle to suppress its influence and generally rejects his evil nature due to how many suffering it brought to him and the world, Kazuya happily takes advantage of its immense power for his own gain and happily embraces his evilness, working in tandem to fulfill his own ambition.
    • Both also took a multinational company and use it to commit global-scale crimes (Zaibatsu for both, G-Corp for Kazuya). However, Jin had a noble goal despite his atrocities, and after all said and done, he attempts to atone for his sins. Kazuya's goals, however, is more selfish: If it isn't about taking over the world, he uses his power and the Zaibatsu to further spite on Heihachi and sate his own hatred.
    • Both somehow also rejects their Love Interest's attempt to reach out for them. While Jin shoves out Xiaoyu out of the concern of her own well-being, Kazuya shoves out Jun because he'd like to concentrate on his evil ambitions, knowing fully that he's Beyond Redemption.
    • Finally, Jin manages to get over his issues as for 8, accepting his Devil Gene as something to protect, rekindles his relationship with Xiaoyu and his other friends, and gets over his intense hatred to the Mishimas, shown in him using his Mishima style again while also breaking the Mishima curse of not throwing Kazuya to the cliff after defeating him. At the same time, Kazuya hasn't really gotten over his hatred for his father, despite successfully killing him. Certain mannerisms (like Lars) still bring back trauma against his father. This shows that despite his ambition for world domination and trying to achieve it, he somehow feels empty on the inside, and he's alone, without anyone he truly respected (while he respects Jun, he recognizes her as being dead, thus cannot be with him). This canonically seals his fate in the fight. And if he somehow wins the fight, he continues the Mishima curse to the end by throwing Jin to the cliff.
  • Furthermore, his own actions and character arc make him one to his own Archnemesis Dad, Heihachi. Kazuya represents everything bad about Heihachi's twisted ideology and parenting style. He hates his own father so much that he effectively chose to become the monster that Heihachi saw him as, just to spite him. Heihachi desires power and domination above all else? So does Kazuya, but he takes it one step further by killing those who get in his way instead of settling for defeating them utterly. Heihachi only respects strength? Kazuya's the same way, except he'll even go so far as to enforce this view on others to the point of throwing the whole world into utter chaos and strife. Kazuya is, for all intents and purposes, Heihachi without any of his redeeming or humanizing qualities. Per director Katsuhiro Harada's own words, if Heihachi represents the evil of the human heart, then Kazuya is evil in its purest, most undiluted form.
• Shared Family Quirks: His bios in the first two games state that his hobby is collecting sneakers, and Heihachi's profile from 2 says his hobby is collecting Geta sandals (The sandals wears in a bunch of his costumes).
• Shoryuken: He has an unblockable attack with some wind up to it. However, unlike the Trope Namer, he does all his spinning before leaving the ground. He also can use the Dragon Uppercut, which is performed with his left hand rather than his right.
• Shotoclone: The standard of the Tekken series. Though, with Tekken not really having projectiles (minus Akuma in 7), Kazuya lacks one, or at least one he can use consistently.
• Significant Anagram: Yakuza. The game's creator has said this was the whole idea behind his name, and it also explains what the Mishima Conglomerate is supposed to be as well.
• Slasher Smile: His endings usually tend to end with this feature, like when he throws Heihachi off a cliff. Occasionally accompanied by an Evil Laugh.
• The Sociopath: Zigzagged depending on the game. Kazuya's remorselessly evil behavior from 2 onward paints him in such a light, whether it's his self-centered goals, his lack of moral inhibitions, or his dismissal of how his villainous actions affect others. However, it is also frequently emphasized that he wasn't always this way, and in fact Used to Be a Sweet Kid. Years of trauma and abuse, combined with the Devil Gene corrupting his personality, shaped him into the unfeeling monster he is now. Even then, he proves capable of appreciation for a select few, such as his mutually respectful and even friendly employer-employee relationships with Bruce and Anna, to the point of accepting the latter's peaceful resignation by the time of 7.
• The Social Darwinist: Tekken 8 reveals that he's a mix of Type 1 and Type 5. Kazuya was disowned by his own father as the heir to a massive corporate conglomerate, and up until the end of Tekken 7 had been locked in a seemingly endless struggle against Heihachi for control of the Zaibatsu. And now that he's finally gotten his revenge by defeating and murdering Heihachi, Kazuya sets his sights on imposing his worldview on everyone else, desiring to reshape the world into one where only those who prove themselves worthy through their own strength, their own power, have the right to exist. And he legitimately believes that all of this is what's truly best for both himself and humanity as a whole.
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the motion picture, Kazuya ended up not being killed by Heihachi. While he's off screen, it's implied in the epilogue that he is still around to be Jin's (aloof) dad.
• Start of Darkness: Getting tossed to a cliff is the beginning of Kazuya's transformation from a compassionate kid into an extreme asshole. At the very beginning of the Story mode in 7, a younger Kazuya was trying to fight Heihachi and avenge his mother's death. It was afterwards where he was tossed into a ravine.
• The Stateless: In Tekken 4, he revoked his Japanese identity (the opposite of Heihachi, who got himself revoked by the Japanese government).
• The Stoic: He rarely shows emotions, except for the occasional sadistic glee.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Since around Tekken 4, Devil has seemingly been treated as an evil(er) split personality of Kazuya that manifests through the Devil Gene, rather than a literal demonic possession as it had previously been portrayed as. Since then, Kazuya has absorbed Devil into his main personality, allowing him to tap into his demonic power at will.
• Take Over the World: Kazuya's goal has always been to take over the world^note In Tekken 1 manuals, his goal is described as 'trying to launch a worldwide coup'; he needs the ownership of the Mishima Zaibatsu for that. The fact that he can get even against Heihachi is just the icing on the cake. It's also why Jack's bio mentions that he's been sent by the Russian government to assassinate Kazuya rather than Heihachi., and the beginning of 8 sees him as being very close to achieving that goal. It's also revealed that his desire to take over the world is so great that he can use that as a clutch to keep his own Devil Gene under control rather than having the gene (and, to an extent, Azazel) control him.
• Tall, Dark, and Snarky: At 5'11".
• There Can Be Only One: His motivation in killing his son Jin is he believes he's the only one who should have the Devil Gene.
• This Cannot Be!: In 8: Kazuya absolutely did not expect Jun to be alive after all these years. While the subtitle of their encounter in Jun's trailer said "So, you're still alive...", he vocally said "Masaka..." (Japanese translation of the trope).
• Tragic Villain:
  • Kazuya might be an unrepentant bastard now, but his descent into villainy was due to something out of his control, namely Heihachi tossing him off a cliff because he was "too soft" for the latter's tastes (and because Heihachi himself killed Kasumi). If Heihachi had never done that (or his takeover of the Zaibatsu), Kazuya might have grown up as a decent man, under Jinpachi's tutelage and with Kazumi's loving embrace.
  • And even if he’s still thrown off the cliff, he probably wouldn't grow into the person he is now if Jinpachi and Kazumi continued to provide him with their tutelage and loving embrace. Since, well, y'know, Heihachi killed them both (Jinpachi the first time), too.
• Übermensch: By 8, Kazuya has not only fully embraced this mentality, but now has the means to impose his worldview upon all of humanity. Through his struggle to reclaim the Zaibatsu and finally triumphing over his father Heihachi, he has fully come to believe that power really is the only thing that truly matters in this world, and so he now intends to use The King of Iron Fist Tournament as a means of culling the weak from the population and creating a new world where only the strong survive. Ironically, this brings him more in line with the interpretation of Heihachi from The Motion Picture. This is best exemplified during his final battle with Jin where he almost stops himself from dealing a potentially mortal blow when he sees that his son is greatly injured, pausing his monologue before steeling himself and striking him, declaring that he will not allow himself to be encroached upon by outside rules or obligations, even paternal ones.
• Ungrateful Bastard: While non-canon, in his ending in Tekken 2, Heihachi shields Kazuya from a laser fired by Devil. Kazuya's response is to grab Heihachi and use him as an unwilling human shield against the rest of Devil's lasers. After Heihachi succumbs to his wounds, Kazuya simply throws Heihachi's body at Devil. It may also overlap with Disproportionate Restitution: while it's pretty ungrateful for Kazuya to take advantage of what could be Heihachi's only fatherly action, it may not be enough in Kazuya's mind to make up for Heihachi's abuses to him in the past, especially the part about throwing him off the cliff and leaving him to grow up alone in the harsh world he's in.
• Un Evil Laugh: Kazuya is usually a master of a proper Evil Laugh, but in his Arcade Ending at 8, he lets out a rather high-pitched, not-so-sinister-like-usual evil laugh while claiming that he has claimed everything... about his sneakers collection.
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Before Heihachi took over the Zaibatsu and threw him off a cliff, he was a very kind child and highly respected Jinpachi, who he even thought of as a real father. His 5 ending shows signs of this... and then he kills Jinpachi anyway, while wearing a Slasher Smile to boot. Fortunately, that ending is non-canon (Jin is the one who defeats and kills Jinpachi), so Kazuya can still be considered this. In Tag 2, the team of Kazuya and Jinpachi have one of the best synergies in the game (justified as it's one of Kazuya's only positive relationships, the other being his relationship with his mother Kazumi Mishima which makes the reunion with his mother in Tekken 7 and being forced to fight her all the more heartbreaking. Fortunately, this doesn't end up happening in canon. Unfortunately, what does happen is even worse, as Kazuya finds out that Kazumi intended to kill him too along with Heihachi. Although he isn't surprised at this point and appears unfazed on the surface, we as the audience can see and hear through Kazuya's derisive laughter and body language that is definitely not the case.
• Vengeance Feels Empty: Downplayed in 7. Despite finally succeeding in killing Heihachi for good, he remains stoic in the deed, not cracking his usual Psychotic Smirk or showing any visual satisfaction. When he drops Heihachi's corpse into the volcano, he quotes the same words Heihachi says to him before their Duel to the Death: "A fight is about who's left standing. Nothing else."
• Villain Ball: in 6's Scenario Campaign, he fights Lars to a draw in Azazel's temple and then leaves while saying he'll "let him (Lars) have this one", and if you play as Kazuya on the same stage, he mentions he wants to destroy Azazel and his power, and while his playthrough obviously isn't canon, his reasons for trying to fight Azazel likely are, so despite this, he just leaves without doing anything else to make things more difficult for Lars, or Jin. And this becomes even more noticeable in 8, which reveals he still plans on stealing Azazel's power, so leaving Lars and/or Jin to fight and possibly kill him would have made made him lose an opportunity to grow stronger.
• Viler New Villain: At first it seems that Kazuya was just trying to get back at Heihachi's abuse, only to use his newly obtained Mishima Zaibatsu to commit even worse crimes than Heihachi ever did.
• Villain Has a Point: While he may be continuing the war that left off in 6 to Take Over the World, invading many nations, Kazuya was right to point out that Jin was the one who started it, sacrificing people in the process (and indirectly enabling Kazuya to make it this far to conquer the world). Jin doesn't even deny it as well, seeking to atone for his sins.
• Villain in a White Suit: In the intro for Tekken 6 Bloodline Rebellion he is seen wearing a white version of his normally purple suit.
• Villain Protagonist: Although his son Jin is more widely regarded as the true hero of the story since his debut in 3, Kazuya is still often treated as though he is the "Ryu" of the franchise, despite his status as a literal Devil.
• Villain Respect: There is only one surefire way to earn Kazuya's respect: if you prove strong enough for his liking. This can apply to anyone, from mercenearies and assassins like Bruce and the Williams sisters, to even heroic figures such as Jun Kazama. Time will tell whether or not this ends up applying to his son Jin in the future as well, considering he was able to defeat Kazuya and foil his ambitions.
• Villainous Breakdown: Double-subverted. Kazuya holds up pretty well when Jin becomes Angel Jin and takes the fight to space. Then Angel Jin completely purifies the Devil Gene from both of them. For most evil villains, this is usually the part where they break down because they lose a massive portion of power and almost can't do anything without said power. But Kazuya does not break down just yet. He just simply dismisses the lack of Devil Gene by saying it's just a means to an end; he can still dish out a massive fight with sheer strength alone. And so begins the final battle, as Kazuya can still fight with a cool head. It's only after Jin starts accepting his inner demons, unleashing the old Mishima techniques and the Kazama clan while spitting on Kazuya's ideals, that Kazuya starts losing it, in as much as demanding his son to break already, as perhaps he starts realizing that his own hatred that drives him forward may not be enough this time and it is him who is chained to the past while Jin is moving forward.
• Villains Out Shopping:
  • One of his non-evil hobbies is collecting sneakers.
  • In his Tekken 8 ending, he sits down for interviews as part of a documentary about him, and gets through it without losing his cool. Mostly.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Zig-zagged. In 2, Kazuya consciously defies this to show how he dislikes Heihachi's practice of being the trope, he's much more open with his bad publicity to smear Heihachi's legacy to the ground, thus after Heihachi reclaimed his position, he had to do a lot of damage control to restore publicity. In 6, however, Kazuya ends up having to utilize good publicity generated by G Corporation to have a shot in defeating Jin and claim the world as his.
• Villainous Valor: Kazuya may be be evil, but he will never back down or run from a fight. This is best demonstrated by how he sees the Final Battle with his son Jin to the end even after they both lose their powers and end up as normal humans.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: By default across most of the series, including Tekken 7, where his default costume is a dress suit, and yet his cutscenes strangely depict him in his usual karate gi, sans shirt.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy:
  • He spent most of his youth trying to impress his father Heihachi. He got thrown into a ravine as a result, and he has stopped doing so ever since.
  • Ironically, his relations with Jin in 8 can be viewed as an inversion. While Kazuya is all too happy to play the Archnemesis Dad role, he wants Jin to follow his code of strength, both the bad (ruthlessly crush everything that stands in your way) and good (do not let the power consume you if you want to be considered 'strong'), as befitting of someone who has the Mishima blood in their veins. All in all, he wants his son to be a Worthy Opponent when it comes to the vicious cycle he's participating in. Of course, Jin would rather break that vicious cycle.
• The Worf Effect: Ever since his grand return in 4, Kazuya developed a nasty case of being beaten down in order to show the creeds of his oppositions. He canonically lost the 4th King of Iron Fist Tournament against Heihachi (albeit it may be excused with how he has yet to fully master his Devil power and he still needs Heihachi alive to pinpoint Jin's location), then Jin beats him right after. He drops out the 5th one, and he's beaten by Lars' Hero Protagonist credentials in the story mode of 6. The pattern is broken in 7, with his ultimate victory against Heihachi, despite the player being given the control of Heihachi all the time.
• World's Strongest Man: After killing Heihachi, he claims the title for himself, during the fight he unlocks his new Devil form in order to defeat Heihachi. Even when he was tired out after fighting his father, he still had enough power to fight and possibly even defeat Shin Akuma.
• Worthy Opponent: While Jin is Kazuya's main opposition, certain lines in 8 make it sound like Kazuya wants Jin to be at least worthy of the Mishima genes given to him and give him a hell of a fight. He admonishes Jin for holding back his true potential because of his messy emotional state, even if it sounds like he's goading Jin to be as bad as he is. If he has to shoot down some innocents to make his point about what can happen if Jin doesn't hold back, he'll gleefully do it. It works too well; Jin accepting himself ends up being someone who's more than worthy of Kazuya's caliber by beating him in the final battle.
• You Are What You Hate: In his pursuit of Revenge against Heihachi and usurpation of him as head of the Mishima Zaibatsu, Kazuya becomes much the same ruthless, power-hungry Corrupt Corporate Executive his father is, complete with becoming an Archnemesis Dad to his own son, Jin. Like Father, Like Son, after all.

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Devil Kazuya

^{Tag 2 Prologue and Blood Vengeance}

^Original

^{Devil Kazuya X}

Appears in (separate character): 2; Tag, 7 (unplayable boss outside of Story Mode), 8 (unplayable boss)

Appears in (as part of Kazuya): 1^note unlockable alternate costume for Kazuya; 7-8; Tag 2

After Kazuya got hurled into a ravine by Heihachi during his childhood, a strange power emanating from his Devil Gene, which he inherited from his mother, activated and allowed him to survive the fall. It seems that the Devil Gene has influenced his descent to villainy, though when Kazuya is defeated and killed by Heihachi by getting thrown into a volcano, Devil flew away and attempted to get Jun's still-unborn Jin unsuccessfully. Since 4, Devil and Kazuya have merged together again.

Tropes regarding the Devil

• Appropriated Appellation: He either doesn't have a name or simply didn't reveal it. He mentions in his conversation with Heihachi in Kazuya's 4 ending that "Devil" is that what he's referred to.
  Heihachi: Who are you?
  Devil: I am what you refer to as "Devil".
• Awesome, but Impractical: In the Tag games, if Kazuya and Devil are paired up, then Kazuya will transform into Devil and vice-versa instead of tagging in for each other. While it looks cool, the transformation sequence is much longer than the regular tagging animation, and it also prevents the use of tag throws and tag combos.
• Barbie Doll Anatomy: He is a naked, purple-skinned Kazuya, but with the private parts seemingly hidden by a furry lower body in 2 and Tag and gone altogether in later games.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With his host, Kazuya, in 2. After his subjugation, he technically is still a main antagonist, but is seen more as an alternative form of Kazuya than an independent entity.
• Big Red Devil: Purple, but Devil otherwise sports the classic look.
• Chest Blaster: In his final transformation, Devil can fire powerful laser beams from both his forehead eyeball and his chest, as well as every segment of his bat-like wings.
• Combo Breaker: Much like True Ogre, Devil Kazuya can float away from combos in 7, but only in his story mode exclusive transformation. Unlike True Ogre he can retaliate while floating by shooting lasers, so depending on the combo you do Kazuya will punish you for doing a combo. He also has armor during this so punishing him is tricky.
• Death of Personality: In Kazuya's 4 ending, Devil briefly takes control of Kazuya to try to absorb the devil gene from Jin, but then Kazuya forcefully takes control back, surprising Devil and seemingly killing him.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: After resurrecting Azazel, he soundly defeats the monster and absorbs his power. Azazel dies in disbelief that a mere "servant" could have grown more powerful than the originator of the Devil Gene itself.
• Extra Eyes: Devil has a third one on his forehead. It shoots lasers. 7 shows that he can manifest it without fully transforming into Devil.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: In his Devil Kazuya X form in 7, he has eyes on his chest, and a set of three on each of his wings!
• Female Angel, Male Demon: He is, at least metaphorically, to Kazuya, with Angel being the female angel. By 8, it's averted, as Angel now takes form of Angel Jin, who is male.
• Final Boss: Of 2 and 8. His Devil Kazuya X form serves as this for 7's Story Mode.
• Flight: Thanks to his wings, Devil can pull this off in some of his attacks.
• Full-Frontal Assault: Though Barbie Doll Anatomy shields his private parts. After being relegated to a transformation state in Tag 2 he now just wears whatever Kazuya was wearing prior to transforming.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Doesn't have much of a personality or motivations besides being evil. His only speaking role is in 4, and all he does there is boast about his power, try to steal Jin's Devil Gene, and be surprised that Kazama blood prevents Jin from transforming fully, then Kazuya seemingly kills him. 8 reveals that the Devil Gene is an extension of its wielder's personality, which may explain Devil's hunger of power just like Kazuya.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Those who didn't see the subtle foreshadowing in (or even know about) Devil's cameo as an alternate costume for Kazuya in 1 was probably surprised to see this guy show up as the Final Boss in 2.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Devil sports the same chest scar as Kazuya.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Devil has bat-like wings, Angel has white feathery wings, and Devil Jin has black feathery wings (perhaps to symbolize Jin's struggle to control his evil side, while Kazuya has fully embraced and subjugated it).
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Especially before firing his Eye Beams.
• Guest Fighter: Devil is more integrated into Kazuya's moveset in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate than in the actual Tekken games. Kazuya briefly turns purple for many special moves and smash attacks. The enhanced, multi-eyed Devil form from 7 also appears in Kazuya's Final Smash.
  • According to Masahiro Sakurai, Kazuya's Devil form was also a key reason why he was selected to represent Tekken in Smash Bros. over Heihachi, who has a history of being more "crossover-friendly" — it gives Kazuya more vertical mobility and projectile options that allow him to keep up with the rest of the cast.
• Hated by All: He's disliked by almost everyone in Tag 1's Netsu system, meaning that if he's getting beaten up, he'll need to take a few extra hits for his partner to activate Netsu, the only characters who have neutral netsu with him are Kazuya, Gold Tetsujin, and Xiaoyu in a special green costume (And the last two are neutral towards everyone). Curiously the cast only "dislikes" him, unlike Tag 2, if a character hates another in Tag 1, Netsu will never activate.
• Hates Everyone Equally: In Tag 1's Netsu system, his default has him never activating it no matter how many times his partner gets hit, and that includes Kazuya. The only exceptions are Gold Tetsujin, and Xiaoyu in a green costume, who both are coded to have neutral netsu with everyone.
• Home Stage: Mirror Darkness in 2. It’s essentially normal Kazuya’s stage but with the carpet replaced with a metal floor and a screen in the middle that reflects the ongoing battle.
• Horns of Villainy: Devil has a pair.
• Multi-Slot Character: In 2 and Tag Devil is a separate character from Kazuya (though pairing them in Tag will result in a special tagging animation where they transform instead of tagging — although this comes at the expense of being able to perform a tag throw). After this Devil's next in-game appearance (Tag 2) sees him as a transformation state for Kazuya, integrating his unique moves as an extension of Kazuya's moveset. Devil has remained a transformation ever since.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Devil is called Devil for a reason.
• One-Winged Angel: For Kazuya, from Tag 2 onwards. As of Tag 2, Kazuya is now capable of transforming into Devil on his own, instead of the latter being an entirely different character, as was the case in the first Tag game. In 7, Kazuya can transform into Devil in exchange for his Rage. 7 introduces a further transformed state for Devil Kazuya nicknamed "Devil Kazuya X", which gives him a spiky exoskeleton, Volcanic Veins, a Chest Blaster and much larger wings with laser-firing eyeballs on every segment.
• Our Demons Are Different: A purple humanoid demon that Kazuya can transform into thanks to his maternal heritage.
• Power Echoes: In the home ports of 2 and in TTT, Devil's voice (which is the same as Kazuya's) was distorted in order to achieve this effect.
• Purple Is Powerful: Unleashing Devil turns Kazuya's skin a luminous shade of purple, reflecting his immensely evil and powerful status. Fittingly, Kazuya takes a shine to the colour purple in his outfits after 2, hinting at his growing symbiosis with his Devil persona.
• Purposely Overpowered:
  • Turning into Devil in 7 adds a slew of crazy-good moves to Kazuya's arsenal and modifies existing properties that significantly improves his normal key moves. The Electric Wind Godfist becomes a mid attack (meaning it removes the handicap that it can be ducked), although it also removes the pushback effect on block.^note Though this is counterbalanced by giving his f+4, Right Splits Kick, a massive stun buff when hitting a crouching opponent that puts the opponent into such a long recovery that you can use his mid EWGF to launch them from this state, essentially making it a much easier CH d/f+2, PEWGF combo His Hellsweep has an extension that allows you to perform a Heaven's Gate after the left hook. He gains one of Jinpachi's best moves from Tag 2 (the move where he throws both fists outwards, now performed by pressing f+1+2). The old Devil Twin Pistons (d/f+1,2) also returns, giving him many mid threats. The only way this stays balanced is you can only become Devil if you burn your Rage Mode, so you'll only be able to do it when you're low on health.
  • Exaggerated with the devil form from story mode, as Devil Kazuya can fly out of combos, has more laser types of moves, and infinite rage drive... What somewhat mitigates this is that this version of Devil Kazuya is only playable against Shin Akuma, who's even stronger than him.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Devil. Coupled with Glowing Eyes of Doom.
• Retcon: In the earlier games, Devil was originally a character on his own, a supernatural entity different from Kazuya, who — after being dropped into a cliff by his dad Heihachi — made a literal Deal with the Devil in exchange for the power to defeat and dispose of Heihachi for good. Devil gave him such powers but was opposed by Angel, who sought to free Kazuya's soul from his malign influence. However, Kazuya ultimately turned to evil of his own volition, and in 4 he took full control of Devil, assimilating him into his body which enables him to transform at will. All this is later retconned into Kazuya inheriting the Devil Gene from his mother, Kazumi, who was able to transform into a Devil form just like her descendants.
• The Starscream: Devil is supposed to be subordinate to Azazel, what with it being created as Azazel's shadow and chaos-sowing agent. Play as Devil Jin in 6's Scenario Campaign, though, and Devil will tell Azazel to its face that it will send it to the Abyss so it can dominate the world by itself. Not only Devil followed through on his word in 8 but he absorbed Azazel as well, becoming stronger than before.
• Strong as They Need to Be: In 4, Devil is so powerful that Heihachi is clearly afraid of facing him, and a single telekinetic attack knocks Heihachi down. In 7 when fighting Heihachi, they have a very long fight that, while it's clear Heihachi is struggling to keep up, ultimately doesn't have Devil Kazuya be that much stronger than Heihachi.
• Uniqueness Decay: He gradually suffers from this as the series progresses. Back in 2 and 3 he was the only demon, and one of the few explicitly supernatural creatures in Tekken, to the point that the Devil within Jin was him, not a new one. 4 revised Devil's connection with Jin and Kazuya as the Devil Gene, and Julia's ending suggests they can make other people have it, and likely because of the Devil Gene retcon, Kazuya no longer needed him to access his powers, and since him and Kazuya shared the same objectives, Devil was redundant as a villain too, so he was killed off. 5 introduced Jinpachi who was another creature possessed by a Devil until that got retconned. 6 introduced Azazel who's Devil's creator. 7 introduced the Kazumi, and the Hachijos in general, meaning there's a lot of other people with Devil Gene out there. 8 reveals that Azazel granted the Devil Gene to humans, so there may be more than just the Hachijos. And as of the game's ending, Reina's the only character left with the Devil Gene. In short, Devil went from a huge deal to just another demon, one who Kazuya killed and was largely ignored as a character afterwards.

WARNING: UNMARKED SPOILERS FOR TEKKEN 8

True Devil Kazuya

Blue Dark Star

Appears in: 8 (unplayable boss)

The final, perfected form of Kazuya's Devil self, created when Kazuya defeats and absorbs the demon god Azazel into himself, defeating the creature and making him subservient to Kazuya's will. With the power of the Devil Gene's originator himself, Kazuya becomes a Physical God capable of causing mass destruction on an utterly catastrophic scale.

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• Brought Down to Normal: Kazuya loses access to this form along with the rest of his devil powers after being purified by Angel Jin.
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: While already evil and disturbing, the appearance of True Devil Kazuya is much more so, with demonic protrusions as far as the edges of his face.
• Fighting from the Inside: Azazel can still try to hijack Kazuya's body, thanks to Claudio's special ability, which ultimately allows the heroes to survive their first encounter with him.
• Final Boss: Of 8's Story Mode.
• Hijacking Cthulhu: Comes about from Devil Kazuya absorbing Azazel.
• Kryptonite Factor: Despite his overwhelming power after absorbing Azazel, he still has two key weaknesses:
  • The first may be more psychological, but his lingering father complex towards Heihachi enables fighters that share Heihachi's blood to inflict a Villainous BSoD for him, namely, Reina's mastery of Mishima-style karate and the similarities between Lars and Heihachi in their tenacity. making them able to catch him off-guard and land a decisive strike to him. Jin also takes advantage of this in his final duel against Kazuya, mixing his Kyokushinryu karate, classic Mishima-style karate, and finally Kazama-style martial arts to throw Kazuya off-balance.
  • The second is his vulnerability to the Kazama bloodline's purification techniques. When Jin becomes an Angel, his blows steadily peel away True Devil Kazuya's power, until eventually both of them are cleansed of the Devil Gene entirely.
• One-Man Army: He's able to take on multiple strong fighters at once, such as Hwoarang, Alisa, Lee, Victor, Lars, and Reina, as well as wreak havoc on the battle between UN and G-Corp's forces.
• One-Winged Angel: Kazuya acquires this form in Chapter 6 of 8's story mode after defeating and absorbing Azazel.
• Person of Mass Destruction: He can lay waste on the battlefield the UN and G-Corp's forces are fighting in, as well as fire a giant energy ball that can wipe out an entire island according to Jin, and after Jin threw said attack to the ocean, launches a rock (alongside himself and Jin) to the space.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: Kazuya's voice was already deep even in his normal Devil form, but once he absorbs Azazel it gets very noticeably deeper, bordering on Voice of the Legion.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Absorbing Azazel now makes both of his eyes glow red instead of just the one, even while he's in human form.
• SNK Boss: He takes everything absurd about normal Devil Kazuya and amplifies it several times over, including adding in moves from his boss incarnation in 7 combined with Azazel's crystal attacks.
• True Final Boss: If you manage to get 2 Perfects in Arcade Battle before reaching Stage 8, you will face True Devil Kazuya instead of his normal Devil form as the final boss.
• World's Strongest Man: As the combination of two Final Bosses of previous Tekken games, he's overwhelmingly powerful, stated as being stronger than Azazel by incredible margin.

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戦い後、最後にどちらが立っているか、それだけだ. (Tatakai go, saigo ni dochira ga tatte iru ka, sore dakeda.)^note "A fight is about who's left standing. Nothing else."