Asuka Kazama
Asuka Kazama is a character in the videogame series Tekken. She is voiced by Shiraishi Ryoko.
Introduced in the videogame Tekken 5, Asuka Kazama is more famously known as the cousin of the series' protagonist, Jin Kazama.
Before releasing the game in the Arcades, franchise developer Namco released images of three new characters as part of their Tekken 5 promotions back in 2004. Amongst the new characters were Asuka, a Chinese kenpo-user named Feng Wei and a mysterious Black man dressed in ninja gear named Raven. Immediately afterward, speculation began to spread about Asuka's role in the story and her possible relation to Jin Kazama.
Main Story
Asuka's official story states that she was taught Kazama-style Traditional Martial Arts by her father, a dojo-master near Osaka, ever since she was a small girl. (As a side note, it's unknown whether or not her father is a sibling or cousin to Jun, as their exact relation is unknown.) By nature, Asuka believes very strongly in justice and devotes much of her free time to being a vigilante of sorts, breaking up fights nearby and saving kittens (as seen in the Playstation 2 version of the Tekken 5 opening). At the time in which the game takes place, Asuka is seventeen years old and is a high school student.
Asuka returned home from school one day to find that her dojo was in shambles. The students there had been beaten severely and her father was so badly hurt that he had to be taken to the hospital. In the next several days, an Interpol agent Lei Wulong came to her and explained that the culprit would likely be entering the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5. In order to get her personal revenge and redeem her dojo, Asuka enters the tournament as well.
General Description
In appearance, Asuka dresses in a blue halter top, blue overalls that are cut off far above the knee, as well as matching gauntlets and lightly armored boots that are undoubtedly used as fighting gear. Her secondary costumes include a traditional Aikido (or Miko) uniform, a Japanese parochial schoolgirl uniform with a yellow sweater vest and pleated skirt, as well as a very alluring geisha-like outfit with Japanese kanji written on her exposed leg. The latter two costumes are only available on the Playstation 2 version of the game. Some fans have noted that Asuka physical build (and chest size) are a bit more mature than one would expect from the typical 17-year-old Asian female.
In personality, Asuka is surprisingly brash and somewhat arrogant. Though her profile states that she breaks up fights regularly ("by knockout", as added in the game's prologue), she seems to have no qualms about fighting herself and even seemingly revels in it. In her story mode, after defeating her target (Feng Wei), she decides to remain at the tournament in order to "have fun". Her pre- and post-match quotes also demonstrate her confidence.
It is also worth noting that Asuka speaks with a very heavy Kansai Japanese dialect (Kansai is a region of western Japan encompassing the cities of Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe).
One awkward bit of fan speculation addresses a potential romantic relationship between Jin and Asuka Kazama, which several fans have formulated after viewing the circumstances of the two cousins' first encounter. However, there is little to suggest that such a pairing may actually occur, despite the conditions of their meeting is often used as a setup for many romantic couples in several popular forms of Japanese media.
Parallelism to Jun Kazama
Another interesting fact is that Asuka seems to be the complete successor to a possibly deceased Tekken character named Jun Kazama (mother of Jin Kazama), both in terms of gameplay (they pretty much share the exact same moves) and in spiritual power. In previous Tekken games, Jun Kazama possessed strange angelic powers that allowed her to temporarily quell evil entities (such as the Devils which possess Jin Kazama and, possibly, Kazuya Mishima). Similarly, in her ending within Tekken 5, Asuka manages to reverse Jin Kazama's Devil transformation simply by touching him. She did not seem to be aware of this power, however, nor did she seem to notice Jin's transformed state at all. At the end of their encounter, Jin accidentally fell face-first onto Asuka's breasts and, after a momentary look of embarassment, Asuka retaliated by punching him into a wall of rock and stomping away angrily, never finding out about their relation.
What's interesting is that, if Asuka does not know about her power (or her relation to Jin), then it's possible that not everyone with Kazama blood has this ability. Jun seemed to able to sense the Devil within Kazuya Mishima (Jin's father), but Asuka apparently has no such extraordinary sense, despite there being three individuals within the King Of Iron Fist Tournament 5 who possessed a Devil Gene (Jinpachi Mishima, Kazuya Mishima and Jin Kazama in total).
This may be attributed to several factors:
- Asuka's age, as she is several years younger than Jun was when she appeared in Tekken 2.
- Jun's title of "Chosen One" (which made her special even amongst other Kazamas, as stated in her Tekken 2 profile)
- Asuka's "less-than-pure" behavior. While Jun was peace-loving and mostly pacifistic, Asuka is eager to get into a fight.