Chibi-esque art styles are really having a moment. Variations on the Japanese caricature technique used in anime and manga have been used to make over everything from Looney Tunes to... Tekken?
With its brutal martial arts and a dark story around the toxic Mishima bloodline's Shakespearean multi-generational feud, the iconic fighting game isn't an obvious choice for a cute animation adaptation. Many fans have been left scratching their heads trying to figure out who the target audience is for the cartoon series after Bandai Namco dropped the trailer below.
Some 22 years after making its debut in arcades, Tekken remains one of the most emblematic fighting game franchises of all time. It became synonymous with the original Sony PlayStation and served as a proof-of-concept the the 3D game home console era. It also holds the Guinness World Record for the longest-running continuous storyline in video games, so there's plenty for adaptations to draw on.
This isn't the first time that Tekken has been adapted as an animation. There have been movies, and there was Netflix’s Tekken: Bloodline a 2022 series that was notoriously memed for the distracting triangular shadows on character's face.
The new cartoon takes a very different approach with its playful character designs, pastel hues and upbeat music. Supervised by Tekken Project, Sohta Ozawa (NERD) is directing, while character designer and animator Amehiro is behind the vibrant art style.
Fans have settled into distinct camps. A vocal portion of the fanbase on Reddit has drawn comparisons to polarising Western cartoon reboots like Teen Titans Go!, Thundercats Roar, and OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes. Some have branded the visual direction as ":CalArts slop" and fear that Bandai Namco may be chasing trends rather than respecting Tekken’s legacy.
“Ah yes, just as Harada intended,” one fan quips in reference to former Bandai Namco producer Katsuhiro Harada, who left the company in December. "I saw [the] thumbnail and assumed it was a fan parody," someone else writes. "... watched video. Extremely confused".
Some fans assume the cartoon is an attempt to bring in younger gamers to Tekken 8 and wonder if that can work when fighting franchises often struggle to pick up new players. Others are hopeful that the apparently cute art style might be a cover for a subversive, adult-oriented comedy along the lines of HBO Max's Harley Quinn series, with some arguing that the stylised 2D animation looks better in motion than the previous 3D anime attempt for Netflix.
"At Least There are No Triangle Shadows", one person writes.
Perhaps we just have to embrace the chaos. Tekken has always been inherently campy and ridiculous. After all, this is a franchise that features genetically engineered boxing kangaroos as playable characters. Seeing Kazuya Mishima dealing with petty, everyday sitcom-style annoyances could perfectly match the game's unhinged spirit.
