From Devil May Cry to Ace Attorney, there are a slew of terrible anime based on video games. Tekken: Bloodline is not an addition to that list.
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| Tekken Bloodline Breaks Anime Losing Streak of Video Game Adaptations |
It’s no secret that anime adaptations of video games don’t tend to do particularly well. This isn’t to say it’s impossible -- there are of course the absolute classics such as Pokémon, and while visual novels can be hit-or-miss, plenty have seen significant critical and fan success in the past, such as Steins;Gate and Phantom: Requiem for the Phantom. However, for the most part, when it comes to game-based adaptations, their anime counterparts have been lackluster at best and complete disasters at worst, with Devil May Cry and Ace Attorney being just two especially notable examples.
However, that losing streak finally looks to be broken once again with the recent release of Tekken: Bloodline on Netflix. Based on the Tekken arcade and fighting game franchise, and directed by Miyao Yoshikazu (Special A, Inazuma Eleven the Movie, Magi: Adventure of Sinbad), Bloodline is a six-episode ONA that loosely adapts 1997/98’s Tekken 3. The anime follows Jin Kazama, a young martial artist who lives with his mother on Yakushima. However, when she is killed by an ancient demon, Jin tracks down his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima, who begins training Jin so that he can avenge his mother’s death.
While there is a myriad of reasons for the abject failure of many game-based anime adaptations, Tekken: Bloodline manages to avoid most of the usual pitfalls. It owes a large part of its success to the fact that it neither attempts to remain slavishly devoted to its source material nor takes any extreme liberties that would likely outrage fans of the Tekken franchise. In other words, it’s faithful to the original story and its characters where it counts, yet it also manages to be an anime that can stand as a solid production in its own right. Tekken aficionados will immediately recognize the highly distinct character designs and specific martial arts combos, but the story is perfectly accessible and enjoyable to those who have never played a round of Tekken in their lives.
Moreover, the story is paced fairly well throughout its six episodes; it’s relatively slow-burn at times but not dialogue- or exposition-driven enough to slow things down too badly, and neither is it so frenetic that it makes things difficult to follow or sacrifices integral character development. It’s not just Tekken fans who will be able to appreciate the anime itself for what it is, but also viewers who are into action and martial arts-based anime, from old-school favorites like 1995’s Street Fighter II V to more contemporary titles such as The God of High School. Meanwhile, the overall tone and atmosphere are just as even, with a serious take on the plot, but not so self-serious as to drown the proceedings in an unnecessarily grimdark mood or pure shock-value antics. Bloodline isn’t a lighthearted watch per se, but it’s still definitely a fun one.
Also of note is the anime’s visual flair. Not all anime fans welcome entirely CG affairs, perhaps in part because historically, such titles have been seen as awkwardly animated or just downright ugly, like 2016’s Berserk or the infamously awful Ex-Arm. Happily, this is not the case for Tekken: Bloodline. True, the animation isn’t perfect -- for instance, the lip flaps never seem to quite match up with the dialogue in terms of timing, no matter what language the viewer is watching in, and whenever the camera pans down to show the characters walking, their steps look oddly short and stilted. However, in general, Bloodline’s animation is closer to something like Land of the Lustrous or Dorohedoro than Ex-Arm as far as quality is concerned.
Tekken: Bloodline isn’t by any means a flawless anime. Those who are looking for real depth or subtlety won’t find it here -- as a fighting game-based title, audiences shouldn’t expect much in the way of complex characterization or intricate storytelling, and even for those who don’t know a thing about the franchise going into it, the foreshadowing is about as understated as Heihachi’s muscle mass. This takes away a lot of the potential emotional impact, and there are no attempts to give the show any particular sense of nuance, so it may well come across as somewhat generic at times. Nonetheless, it does an admirable job of adapting a game for both franchise fans and complete newcomers to enjoy. Whatever its lack of ambition, it makes up for in sheer entertainment value.
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