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One of the most noticeable features in theTekkenseries is how much they enjoy mixing grounded realism with over-the-top fantasy. On one hand, we have martial artists who replicate their fighting styles with ultimate precision, and on the other hand, we have robots, bears, kangaroos, and dinosaurs, among others.
Among the more fantasy-like traits, we have the Devil Gene, a power passed through generations of fighters, allowing them to become demonic creatures, severely increasing their powers, as we see with Kazuya and his son, Jin, where both of their stories and the plot of the series as a whole revolves around this concept. Where does it all come from, though?
Mild spoilers from the series ahead, including Tekken 8 spoilers in the last two entries.
What Is The Devil?
Many Mysteries Here, Still
Sadly, there are still many details that remain unknown as to how the Devils inside each person work, but they’re usually treated as separate personalities who may be actual entities or just an alter inside the mind.
What is definitive is thatthese transformations are genetic; the user’s personality and desires bolster them, and their primary function is to protect the person they inhabit.
These transformations are often triggered during near-death situations,where the user loses control of themselves,but they can be controlledor reach a state of harmony between both human and Devil forms.
Still, the series has many mysteries about the inner workings of the Devil Gene, which can easily be topics for future games if the developers choose to do so.
Where Does It Come From?
Azazel, The First Devil
In Tekken 6, we meet the daunting figure, Azazel, who is the main boss encounter of the game.Azazel is an ancient demon known as the Devil Gene’s origin.
Details are once again scarce, but somehow,he spread demonic powers to his followersto make them more powerful,creating multiple Devil bloodlinesin ancient times.
From Tekken 8’s intro, it’s implied that Azazel is the source of demons from the world’s many cultures - whom the Mishima Clan fought against.
Azazel was defeated and sealed away in the past, only to return in Tekken 6, but his mark on the world has already spread.One family that was highly affected by this demonic bloodline was the Hachijo Clan.
The Hachijo Clan
Kazumi And Using The Devil For ‘Good’
Thousands of years after Azazel, we get toKazumi Hachijo,who becomes Kazumi Mishima andthe reason why the Devil Gene got into the Mishima familyin the first place.
Kazumi was part of the Hachijo family, who were well aware of their demonic blood and used said powers to end world threats - allegedly.
Her mission was to eliminate Heihachi Mishima,who was a potential world threat due to his strength, his position as the heir of Mishima Zaibatsu, and his ambitious goals.Kazumi and Heihachi got married and had a son, Kazuya.
Despite actually loving him, Kazumi still attempted to assassinate Heihachi, showing that her Devil form was more invested in the mission than her human self. Heihachi proved to be the superior fighter and killed her instead.
Devil Kazuya
There are many things that may have resulted inKazuyabeing such a terrible person. Sure, it can be the Devil’s power slowly corrupting him over the years, but his core personality has never been generous, and he did have a horrible childhood, with his father, Heihachi, killing his mother and then throwing him off a cliff.
ButKazuya is a perfect example of how one’s personality can influence the Devil within.Unlike Jin, whose Devil form strives for good, or even Kazumi, who had good intentions despite the assassination attempt (she wasn’t wrong about Heihachi either), Kazuya’s Devil never strove for any good cause.
Instead,Kazuya only desired revenge and power,defeating his father in the very first Tekken, throwing him off the same cliff he was thrown as a child, and taking the Mishima Zaibatsu for himself. Whenever Kazuya had a position of power, whether as the head of the Zaibatsu or their main rival, G Corporation,he used the Devil for power, going as far as wanting world domination.
Lastly,he’s the first example of a genuine, reciprocal relationship between the human and the Devil forms,where in Tekken 4, they finally unite for the same evil goals. Kazuya can swap between both forms whenever he wants to, even when we play as him, and they don’t act like two different personalities. Instead, there’s only Kazuya.
From this point onward, there are spoilers for Tekken 8 as well.
Jin And The Kazamas
Purifying The Devil
Kazuya had a child with Jun Kazama.The Kazama family is the sheer opposite of the Mishimas, having more mystical-like traditions and being pure-hearted. Jun was the only person who managed to have a close relationship with Kazuya, and her goal was, among other things, help him with his Devil within, as that was something Kazuya didn’t have much control back in Tekken 2.
Their relationship gave usJin Kazama,who also inherited the Devil Gene,but took a bit longer to find out about it. Unlike Kazuya,Jin’s first instinct was to see the Devil Gene as a curseand reject it, which made it more complicated for him to control the transformation.
Devil Jin works more as a separate persona within Jin, but he still has his core traits, as he never attacked innocent people or acted with malice.Devil Jin was mostly focused on protecting Jinwhenever things got too dire for his human counterpart to handle. Only by understanding his Devil’s true intentions, they manage to reconcile and become more powerful, together.
Even when Jin made evil choices, such as igniting a war for the sake of fighting Azazel in Tekken 6,that was a conscious choice rather than the Devil’s influence.In fact, he made this choice to kill Azazel and destroy the original source of the Devil Gene.
Honorable Mention: Jinpachi Mishima
His Appearance Is Deceptive
Despite being a demonic-like being,Jinpachi actually has nothing to do with the Devil Gene.Kazuya’s Devil comes from his mother’s side, and Jinpachi is his grandfather from his father’s side.
Aside from that,Heihachi even had illegitimate children to test whether he had the Devil Genein himself, with Lars being the known example. And thoughanother illegitimate child, Reina,shows the Devil Gene within her, we don’t know the cause yet, which will likely be a mystery until the next game.
In Tekken 5,Jinpachi is ‘simply’ possessed by a vengeful spiritdue to being locked by his son, Heihachi, in a successful attempt to take hold of the Mishima Zaibatsu for himself. So, the fact Heihachi’s father has a demonic form is more of a coincidence, if anything.
