Tekken: The Motion Picture

[areaseven]

Tekken ( 鉄拳 )

NAMCO/Studio DEEN/Sony Music Entertainment, 1997

ADV Films, 1998

Directed by Kunihisa Sugishima (Yu-Gi-Oh!).

Rated 15+ for graphic violence, nudity and mature situations.

Based on the best-selling videogame by NAMCO (Soul Calibur I-II, Ridge Racer 1-5). After being thrown off a cliff as a child, Kazuya Mishima enters the King of Iron Fist Tournament to extract revenge from his father, multi-billionaire Heihachi Mishima. Meanwhile, WWWC operative Jun Kazama and Hong Kong detective Lei Wulong also enter the tournament to investigate on Heihachi's illegal activities involving cloning and genetic engineering. A handful of other skilled fighters are also in it merely to win the grand prize of $1 billion, not knowing of the fate that awaits them.

Story: D-

Yup...another videogame jumping into the anime bandwagon. Tekken is your typical cookie-cutter martial arts anime with hardly any plot and a lot of uninteresting characters. Even worse is that not only is it a ripoff of Enter the Dragon, it also bites on Jurassic Park. The fights are completely boring, lacking any of the moves used in the videogame. As a matter of fact, what's with Anna using a bazooka in her fights?

Animation: C

While it's better than Samurai Shodown and Art of Fighting, Tekken's animation suffers from being too digital. Many layers are flat, clashing with the detailed backgrounds. The character designs seem too generic and the fights are poorly-drawn.

Soundtrack: C

The music itself is generic and hardly ever noticeable in the anime. For the English version, ADV decided to plug in a song by The Offspring in the ending credits, which does not help much.

Sub vs. Dub

Tekken features Kazuhiro Yamaji (Darth Maul in Star Wars Episode I, Maximus in Gladiator) as Kazuya, Daisuke Gouri (Bass in Dead or Alive, Mr. Satan in Dragon Ball Z) as Heihachi, Yumi Touma (Najica Blitz Tactics, Urd in Ah! My Goddess) as Jun, Tomokazu Seki (Van in Escaflowne, Sagara in Full Metal Panic!) as Lei, Minami Takayama (Conan in Case Closed, Nabiki in Ranma 1/2) as Nina, Kaori Yamagata as Anna, Shinichiro Miki (Allen in Escaflowne, Kurz in Full Metal Panic!) as Lee, and Akio Ohtsuka (Gato in Mobile Suit Gundam 0083, Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 1-2) as Jack-2.

Horrible English dub. The French dub on the DVD sounds much better.

DVD Extras: D+

Just a slideshow and character bios. Nothing else.

The Bottom Line

What a total waste. Go rent Street Fighter II or Virtua Fighter instead.

Reference

Anime News Network

Edited October 5, 2005 by areaseven