is a character and one of the main antagonists of Bandai Namco's Tekken series. Introduced as a boss character in the first Tekken game from 1994, Heihachi is depicted as the abusive father of Kazuya Mishima and the CEO of a military firm known as the Mishima Zaibatsu, which was founded by his own father, Jinpachi Mishima. Heihachi has served as the protagonist of Tekken 2 and Tekken 7, as well as a boss character in several other installments of the series. As one of the main characters, he is one of the four characters to be playable in all eight main installments.
He is opposed by many of his relatives, especially his son and grandson, Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama, respectively. This happens across the series and one of the creators of Tekken Katsuhiro Harada has called it a "family feud". Heihachi's backstory and motives are revealed in Tekken 7, in which he is apparently killed by Kazuya and thus does not initially appear in Tekken 8. Heihachi returns in 8 as post-launch DLC, resurfacing as part of the series' thirtieth anniversary. Heihachi has two known illegitimate children in the series; the first is Lars Alexandersson; and the second is Reina, who possesses some of his moves and personality traits.
Outside of Tekken spin-off titles, Heihachi also appears as a playable character in other games such as Namco x Capcom, Soulcalibur II, The King of Fighters All Star, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Street Fighter X Tekken, Project X Zone and its sequel Project X Zone 2. He is also featured in the printed, animated and live-action adaptations of the Tekken series. Critical reception to the character has been well-received, with journalists praising his moves and characterization. However, some have criticized his design and expressed a lack of interest in his increased role in Tekken 7.
Conception and creation Tekken series director Katsuhiro Harada has stated that Heihachi is his favorite character in the series overall and the character he most frequently selects when playing the game. He further described Heihachi as a "very human character", stating that while focus has been placed on his appearance, he found the character's philosophy more interesting, and that in the series he was a "perfect portrayal of the evil that lurks in men's hearts", an evil "far more hideous than any made-up monster". In response to claims that the story of Tekken was complicated, Harada denied as he saw it as a "simple" struggle between members from the Mishima family. Despite promotion from Tekken 5 claiming that Heihachi has died in the intro, Namco Bandai denied this statement in interviews. Heihachi's story and traits are based on Harada's history with his father. Harada was born in 1970, after World War II. However, Harada claims that in that period, parents were harsh with their children in Japan. As a result, Heihachi was portrayed as an antagonistic father to his son; something that the Japanese players could relate to. Heihachi's power in the form of the zaibatsu was based on the Imperialistic Japan. Furthermore, Heihachi is Tekkens personification of wartime Japan.
After Tekken 6, Heihachi's voice actor Daisuke Gōri died. In order to include the Heihachi once again in the spin-off Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Namco hired a new voice actor who would fit well for Heihachi. As for in this game, Heihachi took a potion to make himself look younger. The voice selected was Unshō Ishizuka. Tekken 7s story mode was supposed to conclude the long struggle between Kazuya and Heihachi. However, Namco made the story so that newcomers to the franchise would understand it more easily. In further teasers of the game, Harada stated that in Tekken 7 Kazuya or Heihachi would die in their final fight. In 2016, Harada commented he had his own family. As a result, he compared it with the violent characters from Tekken who are constantly fighting each other: Heihachi, Jin, and Kazuya. He viewed this type of family as "too hard" in comparison. When asked about the final fight between both Kazuya and Heihachi, Harada called it "a major milestone in the storyline", as he was surprised by how extended the rivalry between these two characters has become due to the franchise's current popularity, and thus felt it was necessary to end this in a mortal fight.
In Tekken 5, his movesets were viewed as one of the strongest from the cast but GameSpy commented that he lacked a weakness, as well as quicker attacks. In preparations for Tekken 7, Harada commented that he would often try Devil Jin if he was an "intermediate player", comparing his skills with Heihachi's. For Capcom's crossover game Street Fighter X Tekken, the official guide noted how Heihachi's multiple combos could inflict a large amount of damage on the opponents.
For the animated film Tekken: Blood Vengeance, writer Dai Satō commented that he had to wait to get Namco's approval to introduce Heihachi's final transformation using the power of the Mokujin in order to fight Jin in his Devil form. Heihachi's transformation surprised Harada and other members due to how over-the-top it was. The fight scene between the three generations of the Mishima family proved to be difficult to make as a result of the choreography aimed as well as the movement of motion actors. In order to use Heihachi in the movie, the original character Shin Kamiya was created. Shin's relationship with the Devil Gene experiments attract villain in the story. In retrospect, Satō was shocked when learning Lars was Heihachi's son, comparing it to Masami Kurumada's manga Saint Seiya which uses a similar plot twist involving a man like Heihachi, Mitsumasa Kido, having several offsprings secretly. Tekken 8 director Kohei Ikeda had teased Heihachi in the game through a logo that resembles his hairstyle. He further aims to give Tekken 8 Heihachi a striking gameplay.
Comic book artist Cavan Scott described Heihachi and Kazuya as "demons" due to their dark character traits, making their rivalry with Jin look unfitting in the narrative because of their differences. Scott wanted fans to look forward to his Tekken comic adaptation due to his handling of the three main characters, as it's set during the time Jin becomes similar to Heihachi and Kazuya, making their war more engaging. While still treating Jin as the main character for not reaching Heihachi's traits in terms of corruption, he believed the two would, nevertheless, be interesting enemies.
Appearances In video games Main Tekken series In the first Tekken game, Heihachi hosts the first King of Iron Fist Tournament, offering a substantial prize money and even ownership of the Mishima Zaibatsu itself to those who have the courage and determination to defeat him. Kazuya wins the tournament and throws Heihachi off a similar cliff to that which Heihachi had thrown him off. Kazuya then takes control of the Mishima Zaibatsu. During the second game, Heihachi takes Kazuya's unconscious body to a volcano, and throws him into it before escaping on a helicopter just as the volcano erupts behind him, and regained the control of Mishima Zaibatsu, killing Kazuya. Fifteen years later, Heihachi learns of a creature, Ogre, which has immortal blood, Heihachi seeks his blood in order to create an "ultimate life form". Around this time, he meets his grandson Jin Kazama, whom he trains so he can take revenge against Ogre for murdering his beloved mother Jun. Four years later, Heihachi announces the King of Iron Fist Tournament 3 to lure Ogre out. After his grandson defeats the Ogre, Heihachi's forces kill Jin. However, Jin, revived by the Devil within him, reawakens and smashes Heihachi through the wall of the temple as he survives and flies away.
During the events of King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, Heihachi has managed to captured samples of Ogre's blood and tissue to splice with Heihachi's genome, in order to make him immortal and attempts to combine his and Ogre's DNA, but discovers that he will need the Devil Gene possessed by his son and grandson as a catalyst. Heihachi learns Kazuya has been resurrected and lures both Kazuya and Jin, to the fourth King of Iron Fist Tournament. However, both are defeated by Jin after. In Tekken 5, Heihachi is seemingly killed in the by Jacks. However, he managed to survive and when he came to, the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 which was organized by his father Jinpachi was already over. Heihachi went home, where he was ambushed by the Tekken Force. Shortly after the attack, the CEO of Mishima Zaibatsu Jin announced the King of Iron Fist Tournament 6. Heihachi appears in the story mode in the console version of Tekken 6, whose main protagonist is Lars Alexandersson, Heihachi's illegitimate son which Heihachi had from an unknown Swedish woman. Heihachi tries to make an alliance with Lars but Lars declines to do it. Nevertheless, Heihachi still uses Lars from behind to dispose Jin, so the former will finally retake the Zaibatsu once again.
Heihachi returns as the main character and arcade mode sub-boss in Tekken 7. The story follows most of his backstory. Heihachi is better known as the only son of Jinpachi Mishima, a famous martial artist who founded the Mishima Zaibatsu company. Heihachi later meets Kazumi Hachijo, who is much younger than him and sent by her family. Eventually, Heihachi and Kazumi become closer and get married, and Kazumi gives birth to their son, Kazuya. One evening, Kazumi attempts to kill Heihachi. Her clan foresaw his attempt at world domination in the future and she was sent to assassinate him before that future comes to pass. However, a heart broken Heihachi kills her in self-defense. Furthermore, following Kazumi's revelation as a devil, it ultimately explains the reason why Heihachi knocked Kazuya out and threw off the cliff when he was five years old, is because he, then later Heihachi's grandson, Jin inherited Kazumi's demonic blood at birth.
Back in the present, after Jin disappeared in the previous tournament, Heihachi finally has an opportunity to single-handedly retake the Mishima Zaibatsu. After defeating Tekken force soldiers and Nina Williams, he announces the seventh King of Iron Fist tournament to lure Kazuya out with the thoughts of killing him, while continue the world war which Jin started. With Heihachi's return, his pet Kuma becomes a Tekken Force officer. Heihachi was also responsible for two new previous atrocities in the past, such as a gang war at Leroy Smith's hometown at Manhattan, New York, and an assassination on Lidia Sobieska's father, which she and her grandfather survived. At the same time, he is confronted by a person named Akuma, whose life was once saved by Heihachi's deceased wife, Kazumi, and who promised to kill both Heihachi and Kazuya for her in return. Heihachi clashes with Akuma and loses, but survives. In order to save the Zaibatsu's image, Heihachi captures footage of Kazuya's battle with Akuma in his Devil form; Their fight is interrupted as Heihachi blasts the two using Dr. Abel's satellite, but both survive. The satellite is destroyed by Kazuya in his devil form, plummeting all the way down to the city, and turned the people against the Zaibatsu. Heihachi then confronts Kazuya at the site of a volcano and the two of them begin fighting. After a long battle, Heihachi is finally defeated and killed; his corpse is subsequently thrown into a river of molten lava, and only a few people know of his supposed permanent death.