oversaw the
Tekken movie. Development of the movie started in January 2010.
Namco's
Tekken team had wanted to do a 3D movie after the creation of the CG opening for
Tekken 6s scenario campaign.
Katsuhiro Harada explained the success of
Tekken 3 by saying that by that installment, the team was able to create CGI scenes for every character as well as how fans demanded to know more of the cast. Namco could have made a CGI movie 15 years before the release because the studio already had the technology and the skills to do it, but it needed a lot of computing power and above all a lot of time and financial resources, so Namco preferred to focus on video games. It is the association with the
Digital Frontier famous for developing the film
Resident Evil Degeneration. That allowed Namco film and continue to work on our games. Mōri requested Takayuki Takeya, who is famous designing
Devilman and
Kamen Rider, to redesign the Devils featured in the game to give a more "sinister yet beautiful" design the audience give a different impression from the game in order to attract more people to watch the movie. The role producer was given to Yoshinari Mizushima (水島能成) who has worked in the franchise since
Tekken 2, while storyboard artists include
Tensai Okamura,
Shinji Higuchi,
Masayuki Miyaji, Soichi Masui, and
Kazuyoshi Katayama. The film was envisioned as an alternative story that happens between the events of
Tekken 5 and
Tekken 6. The role of Ling Xiaoyu was given to veteran voice actress,
Maaya Sakamoto. Mōri enjoyed Sakamoto's performance, believing her work turned Xiaoyu into a beautiful woman while also noting how
Mamoru Miyano gave Shin an air of mystery. In the film adaptation process, the staff imagined the opening movie for the scenario campaign mode included in the consumer version of
Tekken 6 released in 2009. With the new character
Lars Alexanderson as the main character, the game version staff including Katsuhiro Harada, the project director of the Tekken series, worked on the video that combines intense action and deep storytelling. Mizushima, who worked on the production, said, "When I saw the finish of that video, I was convinced that it would be a movie. Rather, I wanted to see a feature-length movie by this staff." Satō read the plot created by the game version staff, but while referring to them, he wrote a completely new original story to attrat a new audience. The film also heavily uses motion actors for the fight scenes which surprised Harada. Kensuke Sonomura was in charge of all fight scenes with Satō wanting the fights to be exclusive to the franchise. There was a heavy focus in the film encounter between Jin, Kazuya and Heihachi as it was more challenging than common one-on-one battles. The setting was intentionally made to be enjoyed across the multiple fanbases
Tekken has worldwide. Satō said in 2011 that he had chosen her as one of the two lead characters because he felt Alisa is "the face of the franchise's future". Meanwhile, Xiaoyu "symbolize[d] the older Tekken games". Alisa and Xiaoyu were inspired by heroines movies in common in Hollywood. The family drama between the Mishimas and the Williams was noted to be the highlight of the franchise who the heroines explore. Satō always wanted the story to be set around the conflict between the Mishimas though explored from another point of view. In order to make it more unique, the story was given a school feeling based on Satō's preferences as well as how relatable it can be. Satō had been a fan of the
Tekken games and played the arcade version of the third installment as part of research. As he discussed the handling of these leads with Harada, Satō claims he wanted to use these characters since they come across as weak, something which he believes films require in order to undergo a character arc, common in
coming-of-age story stories. Alisa in particular appealed to him because of how different she made the franchise from other fighting game series. A new character named Shin Kamiya appears in the movie in order to provide a reason to feature Heihachi Mishima and further explore the lore behind the Devil Gene. Shin was written to die early in the movie on purpose to show the dangers of the Gene as it could only be used by Jin and Kazuya. Heihachi's transformation into a giant monster was also an idea written by Satō to produce something unique. The Williams sisters and Kazuya and Jin were added more in the fashion of eye-candy in contrast to the main characters. Mizushima says that he also wanted to give the story a suspense tone through Shin's side. ==Release==