| Heihachi Mishima | Story | Move List | Gallery | Quotes | Trivia |
Heihachi Mishima is the main antagonist of Bandai Namco's Tekken series. He made his first appearance as a guest character in The King of Fighters All Star, along with other Tekken characters.
Appearance[]
Heihachi is an elderly yet well-muscled man. He has a distinctive hairstyle across all the Tekken series, with his hair sweeping up from behind his ears, large sideburns, and a mustache. As of Tekken 2, Heihachi has a star-shaped scar on his chest that he received when Kazuya threw him off a cliff at the end of the first Tekken. Initially, his hair is black, but after the 19-year gap between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3, Heihachi has aged to have gray hair. His black hair is thus featured in Tekken 1, Tekken 2, the non-canon Tekken Tag Tournament 2, and in the flashbacks of Tekken 7. It is also possible to customize him in Tekken 7 to resemble his younger self. In Tekken 8, Heihachi has new scars across the upper part of his chest which will glow with an orange outline when performing his Rage Art.
Personality[]
Heihachi is a clever, shrewd businessman, who is charismatic and excellent at manipulating others. He has a sense of humor that is often sadistic, and others sometimes find it hard to tell whether Heihachi is joking or being deadly serious. He once claimed that Kuma would inherit the Mishima Zaibatsu rather than any of his relatives, for example, and, on finding a young stowaway Xiaoyu on one of his ships, was so amused by her request that he build her a theme park, that he took her on as a ward of the Mishima Zaibatsu. His sense of humor can also be seen in many of his endings, and his Scenario Campaign dialogues.
Heihachi has a noticeably cruel streak, from throwing his five-year-old son off a cliff, to ordering the assassination of his former employees. He imprisoned his father for years until he finally starved to death, killed his wife (though in self-defense), shot his grandson, and frequently resorts to kidnapping, assassination, and physical intimidation. Both Kazuya and Lee, Heihachi's adopted son, bitterly resent him, suggesting he was also cruel to them in their childhood.
Heihachi has an insatiable desire for power, which has included plans for world domination, enhancing his own power through genetic experimentation, and trying to attain eternal youth. He has fought against all of his relatives for his own personal gain. Most noticeable among these are when he seized the family company from his father and later imprisoned him under the family temple, shot his grandson after using him to lure out Ogre, whom Heihachi wished to experiment on to gain eternal youth and power, and when he attempted to capture Kazuya and Jin for use in a Devil-Human Integration Program, that would try and bond human and devil cells. In his personal quest for power, he has progressively led the Mishima Zaibatsu down darker and more sinister routes, militarizing it after Tekken 2 with the creation of Tekken Force, using corrupt business practices, and conducting cruel experiments in the name of expanding the corporation's power.
Heihachi is exceptionally good at presenting himself well to the public at large and building the Zaibatsu's public image into a face that hides its darker operations. Whilst his Tekken Force were searching for Ogre for use in his experiments, for example, Heihachi also had them resolving disputes and cultivating wastelands in order to feed poorer countries, so that he could garner the support of world leaders. One of the first things he did when retaking control of the Zaibatsu from Jin in Tekken 7 was to try and bolster its ruined image and to try and bring down Kazuya by destroying his image. This manipulation of appearances has consistently been an important weapon in Heihachi's arsenal, particularly since Kazuya, often his main opponent, is not good at presenting himself well publicly. Even in his personal life, manipulation and the illusion of good intentions are important to Heihachi: for example, when he adopted the young Lee Chaolan off the streets to be his son, but then proceeded to use him only as an obstacle to Kazuya, apparently never taking any other interest in Lee or showing him any care.
Heihachi is also incredibly tenacious. Despite setbacks and defeats at the hands of his son and grandson, he bides his time and makes miraculous returns to power, demonstrating his craftiness and adeptness at handling crisis situations. He has a code that applies both to martial arts and to life that he drilled into his sons: "A fight is about who's left standing. Nothing else", highlighting his divergence from a more honorable approach favored by his father. Although an excellent businessman, Heihachi is someone for whom violence takes precedence and has an almost sacred role. He at numerous times puts up his corporation as a prize for the Iron Fist Tournament, a tournament he himself founded, and frequently resorts to solving personal and business matters through the violence of his Tekken Force, or even by interceding himself. He commands the respect and fear of many of his employees, to the point where many remain loyal to him, even when he is no longer head of the Mishima Zaibatsu. Although he does not have the same honorable approach to fighting as Jinpachi (and arguably Kazuya), Heihachi often expresses a respect for women and claims that he is chivalrous, and also expects his Tekken Force to conduct themselves according to a chivalrous code of conduct (though he seems happy to break such a code when he orders them to abduct Jin Kazama from the fourth Iron Fist tournament, and had no qualms abducting Michelle Chang in order to use her as leverage). This is ultimately showcased in Tekken 8, where he miraculously survives being thrown into the volcano after Kazuya defeats him, spends some time without recollection of his identity in hermitage, only to return after striking a comet head-on.
Despite all this, Heihachi does seem to have a more caring side to him. He has a love of animals and has hand raised two bears and taught them to fight. Before the Devil Gene took over Kazumi Mishima, Heihachi loved her dearly, and there are times when he seems more compassionate in some games. He is often kind to Xiaoyu, and gave her Panda to protect her (though he does also often mock Xiaoyu and laugh at her). It is also possible that he genuinely cared about Jin during the time that he raised him (though this may have been a deception, since he wished to use Jin to fight Ogre), and the same could be said for his daughter, Reina, whom he is implied to have trained with in order to harness her control over her Devil Gene. While Heihachi has been the subject of misfortune, with the Devil Gene tearing apart his early family and arguably pushing him down a darker path, he has also undeniably exacerbated the troubles he and the Tekken universe face at every opportunity, and has consistently been the cause behind most of the conflict in the games. By Tekken 7, with the loss of the Mishima Zaibatsu's credibility, Heihachi expressed to the world his side of Mishima Feud via the Journalist, allowing it to be judged by the world at large accordingly.
Powers[]
Fighting Style[]
Heihachi fights using Mishima Style Fighting Karate. His take on the style is similar to Goju-Ryu Karate with many horse-stance-based attacks, open-palmed strikes and advancing step moves.
Music[]
- Dojo 1st - The King of Fighters All-Star
Featured Appearances[]
Games[]
Mobile[]
- The King of Fighters All Star - playable character
Cameos[]
- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate - in the Mishima Dojo stage
Actors/Voice Actors[]
Japanese[]
| Unshō Ishizuka | |
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List of Roles:
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