Asuka Kazama

**Asuka Kazama** is a character from the *Tekken* franchise.

Jin Kazama's Osakan cousin. Asuka's first reason to enter the tourney in *5* was to take out the person who put her father in the hospital (that would be Feng). Lei Wulong gave her the info, and even though she's unable to find Feng, she just stays in the tournament for "fun". She doesn't win, though manages to make a Rival out of Lili in Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. In *Tekken 6*, Asuka finds out that her cousin Jin is trying to take over the world, so she gets ready to kick his ass like any other loving family member would. Seeing as they're part of the Mishimas, that isn't surprising.

In the AWA fics, Asuka is set to appear in a future AWA storyline.

## **Appearance**

Asuka Kazama is a fair-skinned, beautiful Japanese teenage girl with brown eyes, brown hair with bangs on the right side of her head, and speaks in a kansai accent, she has worn different outfits in every game she appears in.

Her most notable outfit is her light blue collared, sleeveless zip-up jumpsuit (with black side paneling and black swallow design on the back) which is unzipped down to her torso, exposing her blue sports bra underneath. The jumpsuit is adorned with a black, two-pronged belt with green stars. On her feet, she is wearing black, blue and purple armored boots with three green stars around the cuff over dark blue and light blue ribbed, striped socks. She also wears elbow-length armored blue, light blue and gray sleeve-like gauntlets with puffy, black banded, white cuffs above her white fingerless gloves. She also equipped herself with blue knuckle guards, elbow guards as well as leg guards.

## **Personality**

Asuka is surprisingly brash and arrogant. Although her profile states that she breaks up fights regularly, she seems to have no qualms about fighting and seemingly revels in it despite being beautiful. In her story mode, after defeating her target, Feng Wei, she decides to remain in the tournament in order to "have fun". Her pre and post-match quotes also demonstrate her confidence. As stated in her *Tekken 5 / Dark Resurrection* prologue, Asuka is also known as being a "nosy kid" who likes to solve other people's problems, "usually by knockout".

Asuka speaks in Kansai dialect (Kansai is a region of western Japan encompassing major cities such as Kyoto, Osaka, and Kobe).

Asuka is somehow related to Jun Kazama (Jin's mother) and is the rival of Emilie "Lili" De Rochefort.

## **Abilities**

Asuka is mostly a defensive character. She has one of the best keep-out games thanks to moves like ss2, d3+4 and many more, and her f2 is one of the best whiff punishers in Tekken. She also has the best reversal (arguably) that can reverse everything except lows, elbows, knees, heads, shoulders and 'jumping attacks' (such as a fff3).

Her Rage Art has her performing both White Heron Dance and a Windmill Kick to knock her opponent in mid-air as Asuka rolls her right arm and immediately knocks her airborne opponent with a powerful punch before she puts both her hands on her hips afterwards.

## **Trivia**

* The kanji for Asuka's name individually mean: "wind" (*kaze*); "interval" (*ma*); "fly" (*asu*); "bird" (*ka*).
* Asuka was named after the Asuka river in Nara prefecture of Japan. This is because Katsuhiro Harada'sparents live near there.
* 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 martial arts master named Feng Wei, and a mysterious ninja named Raven. Immediately afterward, speculation began to spread about Asuka's role in the story and her possible relation to Jin Kazama.
* One bit of fan speculation addresses a potential romantic relationship between Jin and Asuka, which several fans have formulated after viewing the circumstances of the two relatives' first encounter. However, there so far is little to suggest that such a pairing may actually occur, despite the conditions of their meeting were often used as a setup for many romantic couples in several popular forms of Japanese media. There is also the belief that Asuka's special powers of subduing the Devil may lead to another encounter with Jin, friendly or not.
* Asuka's appearance bears a resemblance to Rena Hayami from *R: Racing Evolution* (a *Ridge Racer* spin off also created by Namco).
* Asuka and Jun's ability to dispel the Devil Gene could be a reference to Japanese priestesses, this was reinforced as Asuka can be customized as a Miko warrior.
* Asuka is voiced by Ryoko Shiraishi.
* She speaks with an Osakan Kansai dialect. When she is annoyed she commonly uses the words (*Do-aho* meaning "super idiot") and (*shibaitaru* which in kansai dialect means "to beat-up").
* Until *Tekken 7*, Asuka was featured in the opening intro of every *Tekken* game since her debut and wore a different costume in all three openings.
* Asuka is similar and often compared to Sakura from the *Street Fighter* series.
	+ Sakura has also Asuka's school outfit as her Swap Costume in *Street Fighter X Tekken*.
	+ The two also have rivals very similar to each other; Asuka's rival Lili, and Sakura's rival Karin.
* It was revealed in Alisa's journal that she is a substitute teacher at her father's dojo.
* Asuka's anger mood resembles Tsubaki Yayoi from the *BlazBlue* series.
* In the Scenario Campaign mode, if playing as Alisa on Asuka's stage in said mode, Alisa will theorize that Jin and Asuka might be brother and sister.
	+ It is commonly said that Asuka is Jin's cousin especially in games such as *Tekken 6/Bloodline Rebellion* and *Street Fighter X Tekken;* however, according to Harada-san, "it's not that simple." [2]
* Asuka is also similar to Midori Himeno from the game *Evil Zone*.
	+ Both girls are Japanese Fighters.
	+ Both girls are trained by their fathers with their respective fighting styles. In Midori's case, her fighting style is Fuin Ancient Martial Arts.
	+ Both girls have a personality of being brash and arrogant although the latter is confident in fighting her opponents during her story.
	+ Both girls' primary outfit are light blue as the color of their top are different (Asuka's top is blue while Midori's midriff is purple).
	+ Both girls are wearing white headbands. In Asuka's case, she wears a white headband while wearing her Player 1 outfit.
	+ Asuka's primary outfit in *Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection* resembles Midori's alternate appearance as the color of her outfit is red and black.
* Asuka is the fourth character to appear as a student, and is the first one that isn't a student at Mishima High (though there is some debate over this).
	+ In *Tekken the Pachislot 2nd*, however, she and Lili are in Mishima High along with Ling Xiaoyu, this isn't canon, however.

* Asuka is said to resemble actress Airi Taira.