Is Tekken: Bloodline Canon to the Games? (& How It Connects)

Tekken: Bloodline has just been released on Netflix as this is the newest video game series to be adapted by the streaming giant. Of course, the Tekken franchise itself is quite popular but has seen its fair share of disappointing film adaptations throughout its history. But the Tekken: Bloodline anime introduces a new chapter to the Tekken adaptation because it is separate and distinct from all of the other adaptations. So, is Tekken: Bloodline canon to the games?

Tekken: Bloodline is canon to the video game series because the anime series talks about the events that transpired during the 19-year timeskip between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3. As such, it allows us to understand what happened to Jin Kazama before the events of Tekken 3 and how he learned martial arts.

The massive timeskip between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3 was something that was hardly talked about in any of the Tekken games. But the good news is that Tekken: Bloodline seeks to give us a good look at the events that transpired during that timeskip, as not a lot of fans are aware of how Jin found himself learning how to fight from Heihachi himself. Now, let’s look at how Tekken: Bloodline connects with the games.

Is Tekken: Bloodline Canon To The Games?

We have seen a lot of different video game franchises getting their own series on Netflix. Of course, some of the more popular ones include DOTA and League of Legends, as both of these games have their own animated series on Netflix, which has doubled up on video game adaptations. While a lot of fans were disappointed with the live-action series adaptation of Resident Evil, we are now looking at a new video game adaptation in the form of Tekken: Bloodline.

The Tekken franchise has long been one of the most popular video game series ever created, as its introduction in 1994 allowed it to instantly compete with the likes of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, among others. Along with those aforementioned fighting game franchises, Tekken is one of the most prominent names in the world of video gaming today.

But as popular as Tekken is, it hasn’t had its fair share of great adaptations. We did see Tekken getting a live-action adaptation in 2009, as this was a massive failure that didn’t even get the approval of Katsuhiro Harada, the man behind the entire Tekken franchise. 

“We were not able to supervise that movie; it was a cruel contract. I’m not interested in that movie,” Harada said at that time.

The fact that the 2009 version was a massive flop did not prevent a 2014 sequel from happening, as that was an even bigger flop than the first movie. And the reason why those movies were never successful was the fact that they weren’t supervised by the Tekken team over at Bandai-Namco and weren’t faithful to the storyline of the entire Tekken franchise.

It is needless to say that the live-action adaptations of Tekken were not canon to the video game. This is where the anime version of the series enters the spotlight, as expectations are quite high for it. So, is Tekken: Bloodline canon to the Tekken video game franchise?

From what Katsuhiro Harada said, it does seem like Tekken: Bloodline is canon to the Tekken video game franchise. That’s because this anime series was supervised by Harada and his team themselves, and that means that the events and storyline of the anime are quite faithful to the video games. 

In fact, Katsuhiro Harada promoted Tekken: Bloodline and encouraged fans to watch it. We cannot say the same about the 2009 Tekken movie, which was something that Katsuhiro Harada never wanted to happen in the first place. And he also said that the series would have something in store for the fans of the video game franchise.

“I think die-hard fans of the original, and new viewers as well, will discover many new things that will make them say, ‘So, that’s what happened!’,” Harada said.

So, because of the fact that the Tekken: Bloodline anime has the outspoken Tekken video game director’s fingerprints all over the production and storyline, we do believe that it is canon to the video game franchise’s storyline. And the best part is the fact that there is a connection between the anime and the entire video game series.

How Does Tekken: Bloodline Connect With The Games?

As mentioned, there is a good reason to believe that Tekken: Bloodline is canon, considering that Katsuhiro Harada supervised its creation. But the thing that we need to look at to truly say that it is canon is the connection it has with the video games. And we have to go back to the time between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3.

Throughout the entire history of the Tekken video game franchise, the longest timeskip in between each game as far as the chronological events in the storyline are concerned happened between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3. While there were only two years between the two games in terms of their released dates, there is a huge 19-year skip between the events of the two games.

In Tekken 2, Kazuya Mishima and Jun Kazama met and were able to have a son due to their romance. However, Heihachi apparently killed Kazuya in the final events of Tekken 2, as Jun had to raise their son together. Jin was already 19 years old during the events of Tekken 3, as it was clear that there were almost two decades in between the events of the games.

But the thing is that not a lot of people understand what happened between the events of Tekken 2 and Tekken 3 other than the fact that Jin was born and that there was no King of Iron Fist Tournament held in between those two games. And that is where Tekken: Bloodline comes in.

The events of Tekken: Bloodline chronicle the things that happened between Tekken 2 and Tekken 3. Fans vaguely know that Jun Kazama died in the hands of Ogre, and that was the reason why Jin went on a revenge tour in the King of Iron Fist Tournament so that he could avenge his mother by killing Ogre. And we also know that Jun’s death was what triggered Jin to train under Heihachi, although these events were never properly shown in any of the video games.

Nevertheless, Tekken: Bloodline allows us to see what truly happened during the time after Jun’s death and the time when Jin was training to kill Ogre. We get to see how Jin was able to hone his martial arts by training under Heihachi, who taught him the Mishima style of fighting. As such, we get to understand why Jin’s style of fighting in Tekken 3 is sort of a blend between his mother’s Kazama style and his grandfather’s Mishima style.

Of course, as Katsuhiro Harada mentioned, there are more surprises in store for fans of the franchise. But, basically speaking, the connection of Tekken: Bloodline to the video games could be seen in how it allows us to understand what truly happened between the events of Tekken 2 and Tekken 3 so that we would be able to see what led Jin to Heihachi and why he wanted to defeat Ogre.