Anna Williams

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Anna Williams is a character from the fighting game series, Tekken. She is the younger sister of Nina Williams, with whom she appears to have a somewhat conflicted love/hate relationship. She is trained in Assassination Martial Arts and the old ways of the Samurai warrior. After the King of Iron Fist Tournament 2 the Mishima Zaibatsu used the sisters as test subjects for experimental cryogenics research, and as a result they have remained in their early twenties throughout the entire series. After 19 years of induced 'cold sleep', Anna awoke with no side effects. However, Nina was not so lucky, and began to suffer amnesia that caused her to lose all memory of her sister.

History

Tekken 2

Ever since the death of their father, Richard Williams, Nina and Anna have blamed each other for his death, and this tragedy lies at the root of their bitter sibling rivalry. Anna was hired in Tekken 2 to be Kazuya's bodyguard along with Bruce Irvin and Ganryu, until that part of her life was cut short by choosing to be put into "cold sleep" with her sister (the storyline is ambiguous regarding the cause -- she said she didn't want to turn old while her sister remained young, but it's hinted that in actuality would miss her sister who she really just wants to be at peace with). She did not lose her memory and was not controlled by Ogre upon waking from Cold Sleep, unlike her sister, and attended Tekken 3 in an attempt to stop Nina from becoming an assassin again. Some claim that Anna was Lee Chaolan's girlfriend, but in truth he is a ladies man, enjoying the company of many women as shown in his stories and ending in Tekken 5; the two only worked with each other during Kazuya's leadership in the Mishima Zaibatsu, along with Bruce and Ganryu.

Tekken 5

In Tekken 4 Anna is mysteriously and inexplicably absent, but she returns in Tekken 5, where Nina decides to make contact with Anna in hopes of restoring her memory. Unfortunately their meeting serves only to trigger Nina's lost feelings of hostility towards her sister, and she immediately opens fire. Anna retaliates, and the reunion descends into a gunfight which lasts for days. The situation eventually becomes a stalemate and the sisters agree to settle things for good at the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5. A portion of their gunfight can be seen in the introductory sequence of the game.

Tekken: The animated movie

In the animated movie Nina and Anna are Lee Chaolan's "girlfriends". Although Anna proclaims to Nina that Lee was using her, he was actually playing them both, not even caring that his test subjects would kill them both when he released them. Nina also pronounces her name "Aun-Na", suggesting that her name would not be pronounced like the North American "Anna" (though it should be noted that the animated movie was notorious for mispronouncing character names). The animated movie storyline diverges from the original one; in it, Anna enters Tekken to finish her sister off without any feelings of compassion whatsoever, and is tragically killed by a test subject Lee sets free. The animated movie also states that it was Anna who killed her own father, Richard Williams, because she grew mad with bitterness over him always treating Nina better than her; in the original storyline, it was never stated who killed Richard Williams, and it is implied that both sisters loved their father and blame each other for responsibility for his death, but not literally killing him.

Death by Degrees

In the Tekken spin-off game, Death By Degrees, Anna is a member of the Tekken Force, the Mishima Zaibatsu's military wing, whilst Nina, the player's character, is working as part of a joint operation between the CIA and MI6. She is twice a boss in this game, when she turns up to stop Nina. Once the game is completed, Anna becomes a playable character, especially in her own mini-game, "Anna Mode."

Gameplay

Anna was present in the first installment of Tekken and the rivalry between the two sisters was also manifested. She was equipped with all of the same moves as Nina, but with the addition of her own distinctive crouching moves as well as a Somersault Kick (FC u/f+4) similar to Marshall Law’s. Her standing (tier-wise) in the first Tekken however, with the absence of complex frame advantages and disadvantages, high/low crushes, throw escapes, reversals, tech traps, and a limited move set, is unknown.

The situation in Tekken 2 is similar, but with the addition of sidestep maneuvers (to a select few characters), reversals, new throws and general refinement of the overall system. Anna, along with a number of other ‘Sub boss’ characters received little in the way of character specific enhancements. Tier status once again remains a dull issue as far as this installment is concerned.

Come Tekken 3 (console version only), Anna's standing was roughly mid-tier. Her juggles weren't as damaging as most characters (eg. Nina and Hwoarang), though other enhancements such as a parry property on her Scarlet Windmill (FC f+2) attack, and the addition of a version of her Somersault Kick (U/F+4) which could be performed from a standing position enhanced her abilities. Anna was also given two string attacks dubbed by Tekken players as Jail Strings. These forced the opponent to block continuously until the string terminated, at which point Anna could use ‘frame traps’ and ‘mix-ups’.

In Tekken Tag, Anna ranked easily as an upper-mid to a top tier character. She possessed powerful new moves such as her infamous Assassin’s Dagger (qcf+1) elbow attack that could lead to powerful juggles. Her new Offensive Push (d/f+1+2) was not only an ‘unblockable’ attack which provided a lot of frame advantage, but also worked well as a ‘tech-trap’. Anna's Chaos Judgement (b+4) stance even gained the ability to reverse throws, a technique that is still exclusive to Anna. Added to this, her moves from Tekken 3 remained largely intact, resulting in a character with great pressure and mix-up capabilities.

Tekken 5.0 however, saw Anna drop down to a low tier position. Almost all of the effective techniques that she had acquired during Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag were either removed or toned down, in some cases to the point of being completely ineffective. The new attacks which she received failed to compensate for this deficit, as many of them suffered from slow execution times, lack of safety, impractical hit levels or extreme linearity. Anna became completely overshadowed by her sister, who not only avoided any tone downs but was also given some of the best ‘okizeme’ tools in the game. Anna’s low tier status was consolidated by her lack of compatibility with Tekken 5’s newly introduced ‘crush’ system, which failed to benefit Anna while making her take greater risks. Her saving grace was her new Treading Water (f,f+3,4,b+3,3) attack which was able to inflict extremely high wall damage, and her Treading Water to Hunting Swan (f,f+3,4,b+3:1+2) attack, which was a powerful, 'unblockable', 'tech trap', able to cause massive damage.

It was expected due to her low rating in tier listings, that she would have been somewhat improved in Tekken 5's arcade revision, Tekken 5.1. But the Namco administration reached a different consensus. Tekken 5.1 pushed Anna even further down the lower ranks as she ironically suffered detrimental effects as a result of her top tier sister being toned down. Her main poking tool, Rouge Palms (d/f+1,2) changed from giving frame advantage (necessary for her to maintain momentum) to disadvantage, while her launching attack, Radiant Arch (d/f+1,2,3) lost it’s launch property. The only positive thing Anna derived from this version was that a number of the stronger characters in the game were also toned down, though this did not prevent a number of fans from shunning her.

In Tekken 5:Dark Resurrection (the difference between versions A and B is almost negligible), Anna has risen up again. Although Dark Resurrection’s system reduces wall damage to 50% (70% in Tekken 5 and therefore a change detrimental to Anna), enough improvements have been made to solidify her overall standing. A number of her moves have been made safer, others have enhanced damage or properties, and the unreliable ‘hit-boxes’ of some of Anna’s moves have been rectified. The ability to hit grounded opponents with her crouching attacks, along with her new Pin Heel Stitch (u/f+3+4) attack also enhance her ‘okizeme’ capabilities. Generally, the risks Anna must take in proportion to the rewards she receives have been balanced out, and this also applies to the majority of other characters. Her tentative rank is mid to high-mid tier.

For detailed information regarding Anna’s move properties during each revision of Tekken 5, please refer to:[Changes Summary]

Trivia

• Like Nina, Anna has had a number of different voice actresses, but the most prominent so far is [Lenne Hardt], who performs Anna's voice in Tekken 5. This is especially noticeable in her line "You BITCH!" and when Anna laughs.

• Anna is most notable for the stylish outfits she wears in matches. Usually she's shown wearing a modified qipao with matching red stockings, gloves, and shoes, and keeps her hair well-coiffed and cut to the neckline.

• Anna's zebra suit outfit was removed due to PETA's insistent demand on removing fur clothing.

• Anna is renowned for being a tease. She uses her beauty to lure her opponents to their own demise, often shaking her butt in the opponents face. Given the instinct of a cat, she can kill her opponents with stealth or cause massive destruction with big guns.

• The peacock design embroidered onto the right side of Anna's dress is shown to be facing backward during gameplay in Tekken 1 and 5, but forwards in Tekken 2, 3, and Tag.

• Anna was rumored to be Nina's twin sister, but wasn't proven true.

• Anna appears to have the look of the 1920's "flapper", due to her short hair and what would be considered "revealing" attire.

 

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