This show is a loose adaptation of Tekken 3 but it follows the same basic storyline, so if you have played or are familiar with that game, you will know how this will end. However, they did make changes here and there, some alright and some questionable. The characters are not fleshed out at all and their relationships are completely skipped through. The show kind of expects you to be familiar with the pre-existing lore. A newcomer to the Tekken franchise will have no context on why Jin and Xiaoyu and Hwoarang are suddenly friends, or why any of the characters are even competing in the tournament in the first place. In fact, what the King of Iron Fist Tournament is isn't even explained properly.
Now the animation and music. This is an adaptation of a fighting game after all so these are the main focus. Unfortunately, both are pretty disappointing overall. The art style looks off and does not match well with the backgrounds. The sharp triangle shadows, once you notice them, are very distracting. The fight animations look stiff and very low intensity, and the fights themselves are way too short. The music is also not very exciting and sounds incredibly generic. However, props to them for including real combos and the flashy hit markers from the games. Those looked very good.
And here are some nitpickings. There is a huge lack of character interactions. For example, Nina and Anna. Their whole story in the game revolves around each other but for some reason, Anna appears just in a character portrait and never even shows up in person. Paul also mentions Marshall Law but Law's son, Forest, is in the tournament but they never meet. Many iconic characters are used as filler material and never show up. The inclusion of anachronistic characters, Leroy in particular, also makes no sense and they make no effort to show why they are even there. And I hate how they did King. He's a guy who wears a jaguar mask but makes real jaguar noises. Instead, they made him like he has a real jaguar head but makes human growls. How the hell do you mess that up?? Oh and couldn't they have used the original announcer or even the Tekken 7 one? That would've been so much better.
After Netflix's massive success with Arcane, I was expecting something even half as good but I guess Arcane will always be the exception, not the norm. I hope, if this ever gets a second season, that they expand more on not only the Mishima trio but the entire rest of the cast as well.
