Netflix It has already been at full throttle for a few years in terms of video game adaptations, but this year it has taken the turbo very hard. This same month the third season of ‘DOTA: Blood of the Dragon’ and the second of ‘The Cuphead Show!’ have just been released, but in between a new combatant has arrived on the track: ‘Tekken: Bloodlines’.
Own Katsuhiro Harada has been very involved in the production of the anime and at the time he wanted to reassure fans of the iconic video game franchise about how faithful the adaptation is going to be. Now, how has it worked as an anime series?
Maintaining the foundations and covering gaps
Somewhere you have to start adapting and those responsible for ‘Tekken: Bloodline’ have decided to start with the events of ‘Tekken 3‘ researching the family history of Jin Kazama.
Jin has lived his whole life with his mother. Jun Kazama, who has trained him as a martial artist. When an ancient demon known as ogre destroys his home and kills Jun, Jin begins training with his grandfather Heihachi Mishima hoping to get stronger.
After years of preparation, Jin competes in the king of iron fist tournament to defend the legacy of his family to avenge the death of his mother.
On the one hand, adapting ‘Tekken’ is already complicated by the limitation of the plot, so it has been a wise move to start with the third installment and focus on a character with more history and with whom we can empathize a little better. Although in general it has remained quite faithful to the spirit of the video games, some changes have been made that have mainly served to fill in the gaps in the plot.
The first part of the series focuses mainly on Jin’s training with Heihachi (and all his teenage angst), with a very good pace that brings us above all the family tension and the exhaustive preparation for the tournament. Which leaves us practically the second half of the anime to fully explore the fighting and all the participants, which is where we really got to the good chicha.
Usually, ‘Tekken: Bloodline’ stays fairly true to the original story, with some minor changes that are necessary for the plot but work well within the anime.. The bad news is that you should not expect a great parade of characters from the franchise, since many of the fighters appear as quick cameos and others have lost a lot of prominence along the way.
Because the anime is true to its name of “Lineage” and focuses mainly on Jin and his family, with the rest of the characters being in the background and even a little blurred. Leroy Smith or King come out pretty well and have a little more background, but unfortunately the six episodes of the series don’t give much more time.
Even so, and as we said above ‘Tekken: Bloodline‘ has a very good rhythm and It lasts as long as it has to last so as not to cloy and go straight to giving us a lot of action. It almost feels like it was planned as a two-hour movie, but the serial format with the appropriate cuts has served it well to maintain the tension between fights and it doesn’t seem to have affected the quality of the animation.
start the fight
Studio Hibari and Larx Entertainment They have been in charge of the production of the anime, which despite its limitations has left us several moments with very powerful CGI animation.
As expected, animation is a bit limited in less intense scenes like dialogues and quieter moments. Unfortunately, the modeling and the type of animation also limits the expressiveness of the characters a bit, but the good dubbing more than compensates (and be careful, Isshin Chiba repeats with Jin’s voice in the anime).
The good part is that precisely this type of animation allows us to come up with some impressive sequences and shines especially during combat. Duels are superbly choreographed with hits straight out of the games and also pay homage to attack combos and even the effects of each hit.
Precisely having opted for CGI animation allows us to enter into camera turns and very dynamic angles that make combat the highlight of the anime. Perhaps the angular style and the cell-shading finish is not for everyone, but it works perfectly for this type of series and the fight scenes in the last part are really spectacular.
‘Tekken: Bloodline’ proves that a video game can be adapted, and more of a wrestling one, staying perfectly true to the spirit of the source material. Now, if you’re not too much of a fan of ‘Tekken’, you can still get into the rag because the Netflix anime gives us enough of a plot bug to get interested in Jin’s story, but of course it’s perfect for younger viewers. gamers.