Tekken: Bloodline proves yet again that Tekken should only be a video game

polygon.com:

The first sign that the anime Tekken: Bloodline probably won’t break the long chain of failed adaptations of the popular fighting-game series is the fact that it’s nearly impossible to enjoy at normal speed. The six-episode miniseries, streaming on Netflix, has its characters moving so slowly and in such cumbersome ways that the show only looks “right” at 1.25x playback speed, with some fights needing to be cranked up to 1.5x. This probably wasn’t done intentionally to make the show more interactive, like the video game that spawned it.

That said, Bloodline actually does try to re-create many familiar elements from the Tekkengames in anime form. They just aren’t the right elements. Among all the big fighting games out there, the Tekken gameshave always been some of the slowest ones. Tekken’s core gameplayinvolves controlling a character’s individual limbs with different buttons, so one button is for right-hand punches, the other for left-leg kicks, and so forth. This forces players to move beyond button-mashing and master the process of stringing together the simple movements to unlock each individual character’s full potential and unique fighting style. That’s why Tekkenmatches may look slow and simple, even though they require a lot of skill. That’s all fine and good in a video game, where the audience controls the action. Passively watchingcharacters move slowly in an anime series is much less rewarding.

The slower animation might not be an issue if Bloodline featured fascinating characters. The anime is loosely based on the plot of Tekken 3. It involves young fighter Jin Kazama being trained by his grandfather, Heihachi Mishima, to win a fighting tournament, which will lure out an immortal, green god of fighting.

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