Heihachi Mishima

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is a character, and the main villain in the Tekken fighting game series. In English, his full name would roughly be translated to "Eighth Plain of the Third Island". Apparently all Mishima given names end with the kanji 八 (meaning eight, pronounced as "Ya", "Pachi", or "Hachi").

He is also one of the bonus characters available to play as or against in Anna Kournikova's Smash Court Tennis, for the PlayStation, alongside fellow Namco characters including Richard Miller (from Time Crisis), Pac-Man, Reiko Nagase and fellow Tekkenites Eddy Gordo, and Yoshimitsu in his Tekken 3 incarnation. He is also a playable character in the PS2 version of Soul Calibur II.

History

Heihachi Mishima is the host of most of the King of the Iron Fist Tournaments (the second one is hosted by Kazuya Mishima, and the fifth one is hosted by Jinpachi Mishima). He is the son of Jinpachi Mishima, the father of Kazuya Mishima, adopted father of Lee Chaolan, and the grandfather of Jin Kazama. He fights with the power of Mishima Style Karate (his style in particular has more Goju-Ryu influences). He is the founder and the "Commander" of the Tekken Force Unit.

Before the Iron Fist Tournament

Heihachi was born as the heir to the rich, powerful, and well-respected Jinpachi Mishima, the owner of the powerful Mishima Zaibatsu and a world-famous martial arts master. During this time, Heihachi married and eventually had a son of his own--Kazuya. Heihachi's wife, it's believed, died either in childbirth or not long afterwards. Heihachi raised Kazuya harshly; in his mind, he was forging a strong heir to eventually pass the Mishima Zaibatsu to. Much to his chagrin, Kazuya grew up kind and frail, perhaps due to the more loving treatment he received from his grandfather, Jinpachi. (See Kazuya's Tekken 5 ending.) At some point, Heihachi betrayed Jinpachi and stole the Zaibatsu from his father. His motives for this act are as-of-yet unknown, but it can be speculated that he disagreed of Jinpachi's lack of ruthless aggression and his "soft" treatment of Kazuya. After assuming control, Heihachi began to steer the Zaibatsu into the military industry while his father vanished. After some time, Jinpachi attempted to launch a coup to retake the Zaibatsu from his son, but failed and was ultimately imprisoned underneath Hon Maru, where he would remain for either close to, if not exactly, 50 years.

The First and Second Tournaments

Finally fed up with Kazuya's "weakness", Heihachi tossed his son down a deep ravine, claiming that if he were truly his son, he'd be able to survive the fall and climb back up. (This is possibly similar to male lions throwing their sons into ravines). Kazuya actually managed to do so, but only because he'd made a deal with the Devil in order to survive. (See Devil Gene.) To further motivate Kazuya, Heihachi adopted a Chinese orphan named Lee Chaolan and raised him as a rival to his true son. It's assumed that Heihachi never really cared about Lee at all, and only used him to irritate Kazuya. Over the years, Kazuya traveled abroad and competed in martial arts championships, becoming an undefeated champion (The only blemish on his record being a draw to Paul Phoenix). Eventually, Heihachi decided it was time to test his son's strength and announced the King of Iron Fist Tournament.

Much to Heihachi's surprise, he is beaten by his son, Kazuya. Kazuya tosses him off a cliff just as had been done to him when he was younger by Heihachi. However, being no ordinary man, Heihachi survived and returned two years later as a competitor in Kazuya's second KOIF Tournament. After winning the contest, he has a showdown with Kazuya, and defeats him. Afterwards, he tosses Kazuya, who had proven to be much too dangerous, into a volcano and kills him.

Tekken 3

Sometime later, he created the Tekken Force (Tekkenshu in the Japanese version), and used them as a quick-response group to appease the nations of the world. One day, 15 years after the end of the second KOIF tournament, the Tekken Force found ruins in Central Mexico and discovered Ogre--who destroyed them all. Later, Heihachi was approached by a young man claiming to be his grandson, Jin Kazama. Heihachi took in Jin and taught him the Mishima style karate for his own selfish purpose of using him as bait for Ogre. At the conclusion of the tournament, Jin succeeded and defeated Ogre, but Heihachi betrayed him and shot him in the forehead. Surprisingly, Jin survived, transformed into Devil Jin and struck Heihachi down before escaping.

Tekken 4

Afterwards, Heihachi intended to combine his own DNA with that of Ogre, but he discovered that he would need the Devil Gene that Kazuya and Jin possess in order to combine the DNA. Heihachi searched desperately for Jin over the next two years, but could not locate him anywhere. Fortunately for Heihachi, Jin was not the only one with a compatible Devil Gene. Heihachi discovered evidence that his son Kazuya's body was taken by G-Corporation (a rival company) and used for research. Heihachi's Tekken Forces raided the G Corporation's facilities to discover that Kazuya had been resurrected by the corporation. Heihachi decided to hold the fourth KOIF Tournament (with his very company's ownership as the grand prize) in an attempt to lure Kazuya so that he may extract the Devil Gene. At the same time, he expected Jin Kazama to become involved, so he set a trap. His plan was to send the Tekken Force to capture Jin, make the two Devil hosts fight one another, and then defeat the winner while he was hopelessly weakened. With Jin captured by the Tekken Force, Heihachi faced Kazuya in the finals of tournament and defeated him. He then led Kazuya to his Hon Maru compound where Jin was being held captive. Everything went as planned, except that Jin was able to defeat both his father and Heihachi. Luckily, Heihachi was spared Jin's wrath when a vision of Jin's mother stopped him in his tracks.

Tekken 5

Right after Jin's departure, an army of Jack-4 units sent by the G Corporation invaded Hon-Maru. Heihachi and Kazuya fought together, managing to destroy several Jacks, but Kazuya threw Heihachi to the Jacks and used the opportunity to escape. One of the Jacks activated a self-destruct sequence, detonating and completely destroying Hon-Maru, leading everyone to believe Heihachi was dead. In reality, Heihachi was thrown miles from the site, landing in a graveyard and remaining unconscious for weeks. But Heihachi, no ordinary man, survived the near-impossible odds to take part in the 5th tournament.

Analysis of Heihachi

Heihachi is considered by most fans to be somewhat of an "anti-hero"; not as evil as Kazuya, and not as noble as Jin. At times, his actions are cold-hearted (he used his own grandson as bait for a murderous monster) and sometimes, they are inspirational (he has survived every attempt on his life thus far from pure willpower). But, in general, Heihachi is not above betrayal, deceit, or committing small crimes in pursuit of what he perceives as a "greater good". Blood relation means nothing to him--once Heihachi discovers anything he perceives as a threat, it will be eliminated without hesitation.

Heihachi is basically the epitome of a self-made man. Heihachi believes in complete self-reliance and in being the best in every endeavor. The only charity he will give or alliance he will accept is in a case where it can be beneficial to himself; he is therefore a somewhat Machiavellian character. Thus, Heihachi treated his own son cruelly in an attempt to instill him with the same toughness. When Kazuya proved too stubborn, he resorted to drastic measures; an action that has come back to bite him on several instances. Occasionally, Heihachi will reward people that he deems as extraordinary. For example, he adopted Lee Chaolan after witnessing the orphan fighting, he took in Jin Kazama (and many believe he actually came to respect the boy's determination to defeat Ogre before he sensed the Devil Gene and decided to eliminate him), and admitted Ling Xiaoyu into his school (complete with a Panda bodyguard) after she aggressively attacked one of his yachts. Of course, he also had ulterior motives to each of these actions, which fits into his personal code of mutual gain. The only times Heihachi has been shown with a genuine soft side is when he plays with his best friend and pet bear, Kuma and Kuma's son, Kuma Jr.

It's not yet known why Heihachi has become so interested in creating an "ultimate lifeform" by combining the DNA of himself, Ogre and Devil, but it can be assumed that because he no longer wishes to succeed his company to either of his hereditary heirs (Kazuya and Jin), that the best he could do now would be to clone an heir and ensure that it would be worthy. Another theory is that he wants to find a way to use Ogre and Devil's blood to make himself an immortal, thus making an heir unnecessary. A third theory is that his interest may simply have something to do with his desire to take over the world using these lifeforms. The answer to this will likely come in future Tekken installments.

Trivia

• Heihachi is one of only 4 characters (Namely Paul Phoenix , Nina Williams , and Yoshimitsu ) to have appeared in every game in the series, and is a staple character amongst fans.
• Despite being 75 years old (as of Tekken 5), Heihachi appears to be in superhuman health, although his endurance seems rather short as shown in Tekken 5's opening, where he gets tired early in the combat. However, he's still not Tekken's oldest combatant. Both his father Jinpachi and Wang Jinrei are his seniors by at least 30 years.
• Heihachi's closest friend was Kuma, his bear bodyguard. After Kuma's death, Heihachi raised Kuma's son, Kuma Jr., but that Kuma left Heihachi to train in the wild after it lost to Paul Phoenix in Tekken 3.
• Heihachi doesn't have a devil gene, because he's never made a pact with the devil as Kazuya did. Jin, however didn't make a pact either, but he inherited the gene from his father Kazuya. Jinpachi didn't have the devil gene from the beginning; it was not until he was locked in under Hon-Maru by Heihachi, that he was taken over by a demon, according to the dialogues in Tekken 5. Therefore Heihachi couldn't have inherited the gene from Jinpachi. Whether Jinpachi acctually has the devil gene is unknown.
• In Tekken 3, when Ogre is defeated he seems to absorb Heihachi to transform into True Ogre (unless the player plays as Heihachi, in which case it is Jin who gets absorbed).
• Heihachi actually forgot that he'd left Jinpachi imprisoned under Hon-Maru, according to both his and Kazuya's Story Mode dialogue.
• Heihachi has been voiced by Daisuke Gouri since Tekken 3, but he was voiced by Banjou Ginga on the first 2 Tekken games.
• Though completely non-canonical, Heihachi also made a guest appearance in the PlayStation 2 version of Soul Calibur II as well as the Mario Party-esque Pac-Man Fever and the crossover game Namco x Capcom.

 

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