Jun Kazama

Jun Kazama (風間 準, Kazama Jun) is a fictional character from the Tekken fighting game series, who has made her debut in Tekken 2, her first and only canonical appearance to date. Following an ambiguous relationship with Kazuya Mishima, she became the mother of Jin Kazama, both Asuka Kazama .

A nature lover and the mother of Jin Kazama, Jun plays an important role in the story despite of her absence for most of the series. While she was cut from the main series after her debut, Jun has continued to appear in the series' spin-offs, including the Tekken Tag Tournament series, where her alter-ego, Unknown serves as the final boss in all Tag Tournament entries so far. Despite her relatively few appearances, the character has gained a considerable popularity among the fans of the series.

Appearances

In video games

Jun is an officer of the wildlife protection organization WWWC. She is called "The Chosen One" by her relatives. She is highly psychic, being able to sense that Kazuya Mishima's power stemmed from Devil. At the WWWC's orders, she sets out to arrest Kazuya, who smuggles environmentally-protected animals. When the King of Iron Fist Tournament 2 was coming to an end, Jun comes to the stunning realization that Kazuya's supernatural strength stems from Devil. But she cannot help being drawn to him by a mystic force beyond her control. She then became pregnant by Kazuya Mishima. After Kazuya was thrown to the volcano by Heihachi Mishima in the conclusion of the tournament, parts of Devil left him and attempted to possess Jun's unborn child. However, she was able to defeat him and fled to the forests of Yakushima, where she intended to raise her child away from evil and danger. She later gave birth to a baby by, whom she named Jin. Fifteen years later, before the events of Tekken 3, Jun sensed the approaching of Ogre and warned Jin to seek out his grandfather Heihachi should anything happen to her. One night, Ogre did indeed attack. Jun screamed for Jin to run away, but he wished to protect his beloved mother from Ogre and charged at him, but was well outmatched and was quickly knocked unconscious. When Jin woke up, the Kazamas' house had burned to the ground and Jun was missing. Jin searched frantically through the rubble, but could not find his mother anywhere. Jin was devastated and swore revenge on Ogre.

Although Jun did not appear in subsequent canonical games in the series, she is still mentioned throughout. She appears as a soul or vision in Jin Kazama's Tekken 4 ending, which persuades Jin to spare Heihachi's life in honor of herself. She is also mentioned numerous times by Jin and Kazuya during the prologue of the Scenario Campaign mode of Tekken 6, which retells the main events of previous games. Outside of the main series, Jun appears as a playable character in the non-canonical Tekken Tag Tournament as well as its sequel, Tekken Tag Tournament 2, where she is fought as a boss and transforms into Unknown in the final stage after defeating her. She is also playable in the free-to-play spin-off Tekken Revolution.

Character design

Jun is a young Japanese woman with fair skin and short black hair. Her given name, Jun, is written as 準 which, while literally means "to conform", can also mean "pure", if written as 純. True to this, she is associated with the color white, which symbolizes purity and innocence. She is mainly seen wearing a sleeveless white shirt with black cropped trousers, white socks and black shoes, which is her main outfit in Tekken 2. Her alternate outfit consists of a light blue safari-themed outfit, which models her occupation as a member of WWWC organization. Tekken Tag Tournament adds a martial arts-themed outfit based on karate gi. That game's promotional images also has her wearing a simple, sleeveless white dress, which also appears in the game's opening. With the exception of the martial arts outfit, she wears a white hairband in all of her outfits. In her Tekken Tag Tournament 2 design, while her outfit still has a white theme, her left leg has a motif similar to Jin's karate gi, only with crows instead of flames, which may or may not symbolize her change in personality.

Gameplay

Jun practices "Kazama Style Traditional Martial Arts", which is a mixed martial arts based on other famous martial arts. It mainly based on aiki-jutsu and jujutsu and aikido. Her attacks generally deal low damage and is geared to a more defensive style as she has many parries and counter-attacks. Some of her attacks were used by Jin in his Tekken 3 appearance and most were given to her relative Asuka as her main attacks.^[1] When she returns in the series on Tekken Tag Tournament 2, she is given a greatly updated moveset that, while still shares similarities with her old moveset, has a movelist geared to a more offensive style of attacking, and is made to differentiate more from Asuka's moveset. However, some moves from the previous game are removed.

Unknown (character)

Unknown in Tekken Tag Tournament 2

Unknown (アンノウン, Announ) made her debut in the non-canonical Tekken Tag Tournament, where she serves as the final boss. Unknown appears to be a tortured soul which has been enslaved by the "Forest Demon" (which takes the form of a wolf-like appearance and appears behind her in fights, controlling and mimicking her actions). She has many demonic traits, such as glowing yellow eyes and a devil symbol tattooed on her upper right arm which resembles that of Jin Kazama's. Her default "costume" appears to have her otherwise nude body mostly covered in purple with a short, dark brown hair, shiny body paint or oil, as if she had been submerged in it to her chest. Her second, alternate costume shows her dressed in the burnt, ripped remains of a dark brown dress, with bandages wrapped around her arms, shins and instep.

She did not have a story as Tag Tournament was non-canonical, though her ending shows her finally defeating the Forest Demon and therefore freeing herself. Her appearance as the final boss in Tekken Tag Tournament 2 apparently revealed her identity as Jun's alternate form (black hair with a similar fashion like Jun, though her eyes have a demon-like pupils). An artbook included in the Tekken 6 Arcade Stick Bundle revealed that she was meant to be Jun's sister enslaved by the "Forest Demon" before the scenario was ultimately dropped.^[1]

Similar to Mokujin, Unknown does not have an original moveset. Instead, she mimics other character's fighting styles (with some exceptions), though her fighting style defaults to that of Jun Kazama. In Tag Tournament 2, she instead uses Jun's moveset with added boss-like moves such as summoning spikes and giant hands. In both her incarnations of the first Tag Tournament and its sequel, Unknown has originally appeared as an unplayable final boss in the arcade versions. She was later made a playable character in the console version of both games, with the former giving her the ability to freely switch her fighting styles using analog stick and the latter toning down her boss moves.^[2]

Unknown also appears as a rival unit in the tactical role-playing game Project X Zone 2.

In other media and merchandise

Jun appears as one of the main characters of Tekken: The Motion Picture, which focused on Jun as she tries to free Kazuya from evil and stop him from killing his father, Heihachi. She is portrayed by Japanese actress Tamlyn Tomita in the 2010 live-action film Tekken, where unlike in the video game series, Jun still lives with Jin well into his adulthood and is killed in a planned bombing by Tekken Corporation, leading Jin to participate in the Tekken Tournament to take revenge. She also appears as a main character in both the Tekken Forever comic and the ASPECT Comics' Tekken series.

In merchandising, Jun is featured as a plush toy based on her appearance in Tekken 2 and an action figure based on her appearance in Tekken Tag Tournament. Along with Kazuya, is featured in a Play Arts Kai series action figure based on her appearance in Tekken Tag Tournament 2,^[3] created by Square Enix and launched at the 2012 San Diego Comic-Con. A "Tekken Bishoujo" series statue of Jun was released by Kotobukiya in 2014.^[4] A mix of hers and Asuka's outfit from TTT2 was released in the "Sexy" series costumes DLC for Soulcalibur V.^[5]

Reception

The character was well received. Common Sense Media said of Jun in Tekken: The Motion Picture that her character and morals give the film its only "shred of redeeming social value".^[6] According to GamesRadar, "despite a relatively minor role, [Jun] is kind of the linchpin for the whole series' continued plot."^[1] In 2013, Complex ranked Jun as the 12th best Tekken character of all time, stating that "even though she hasn't been playable in the main series since Tekken 2, Jun's influence continues to affect the other characters."^[7] As of July 2014, Jun was voted eighth out of 59 in an ongoing poll by Digital Spy to find gamers' favorite Tekken character.^[8] In 2015, Jun was named as one of the "honorable mention" characters in WatchMojo list "Top 10 Tekken Characters".^[9]

GamesRadar listed Jun as one of the top ten gaming "MILFS" in 2008.^[10] Her in-game model in Tekken 2 was listed by GamesRadar as one of the "ugly polygon 'babes' of yesteryear" in an article about attractive video game characters from older games whose low rate graphical in-game models belied their good looks, adding, "Jun always projected a sort of soft, nurturing femininity that contrasted sharply with her chosen career of punching people in the teeth."^[11] Jeff Perlin of the punk metal band Breakdown said that if he could be any game character it would be "Jun cause then I could feel my tits and ass all day and kick butt."^[12] In 2013, Unknown was listed as the tenth "fiercest female in today's fighting games" by Gamenguide.^[13]

GameSpot was pleased to see Jun back in the franchise, saying she "makes a welcome return".^[14] In the official poll by Namco, Jun was the most requested Tekken character to be added to the roster of Tekken X Street Fighter, raking up 16.41% of votes.^[15] Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono stated that Jun is the character he most wants to be included in the game, in addition to his desire for her to return to the main Tekken series.^[16] Tekken series' director Katsuhiro Harada acknowledged the high number of requests for Jun's return, stating that Jun was "missing", not dead like many believed and that he would consider her return to the series if he reached 5000 followers on Twitter and continued to receive requests for her from fans;^[17] this was greatly succeeded and surpassed, leading to her inclusion in Tekken Tag Tournament 2. As of May 2012, Jun was the 21st (out of 44) most used character in the online arcade version of Tag Tournament 2 up to that point.^[18]

References