‘Tekken: Bloodline’ Anime Series Coming to Netflix in 2022

Tekken: Bloodline is bringing Namco’s legendary fighting game franchise to Netflix later this year.

 

With a brief announcement that came out of the blue, Netflix stated last night on social media that an anime series adaptation of Tekken was debuting on the platform in 2022. Here’s the exciting teaser trailer that accompanied the reveal:

 

 

Long-time Tekken aficionados will instantly recognize the story being presented here as a direct adaptation of the events of the third game in the series, arguably the installment that launched the franchise into mainstream success. It’s a sensible decision, as it allows the screenwriters to explore the beginning of the core conflict in these games: the feud between Jin Kazama and Heihachi Mishima, his grandfather, and eventually his father, Kazuya Mishima, who at the same time also has his issues with Heihachi. This became the backbone of the games’ narrative for around two decades, with 2017’s Tekken 7 seemingly putting an end to at least the quarrel between Kazuya and Heihachi. Then again, the franchise has used comic-booky “well, actually…” shenanigans before, so nothing’s set on stone.

 

Of course, most players don’t care that much about fighting games’ storylines, especially when they’re filled with alternate endings for each character in the roster, but it’s nice to have canon events which can inform future entries and potentially be brought to other media. If Tekken: Bloodline is a reasonable success, we should expect more seasons that cover Tekken 4 and so on.

 

A teaser poster also dropped alongside the first preview. Check it out below:

 

 

Netflix is currently in full expansion mode with video game properties, with tons of them getting the animation treatment. So far, Castlevania and Arcane: League of Legends have been their biggest animated hits based on games, but their output is quickly widening as they lock down collaborations with animation studios all over the world. Moreover, live-action adaptations are coming as well — the BioShock film has recently been resurrected and is being fast-tracked by the streamer as we speak.