Tekken director seeks feedback from Native American community on Michelle and Julia designs
eurogamer.netTekken director Katsuhiro Harada has asked Native American fans of the series for their thoughts on the designs of fighters Michelle and Julia, and what advice they'd give to him if he created a new Native American character for the series.
Michelle, a woman of Chinese and Native American descent, appeared in the first Tekken game. Michelle was included in the next games until Tekken 3, which introduced her adoptive daughter Julia. Since then, Julia has appeared in the main series instead, with both making appearances in various Tekken spin-offs.
Since their first appearances, Michelle and Julia have frequently been brought up in discussions of Indigenous representation in video games. Harada took to X (née Twitter) last week to acknowledge the characters' importance within the topic, explain the history of their designs, and ask for the opinions of Native American Tekken fans.
Tekken was initially released for arcade machines, before being ported to the PlayStation. Arcade games and «fighting games in particular needed to convey the 'character's personality and charm' within a limited amount of time,» Harada stated on X. The time constraint and polygon limit for games in the 90s restricted creativity in character designs, he continued, but it was still important to «express individuality».
For Michelle and Julia, Harada revealed Namco took inspiration from war bonnets, the feathered headgear associated with Plains Indians, and added «feather accents» to «reflect their Native American heritage» in an effective manner.
Between the release of Tekken 6 and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Harada said he received feedback from a Native American fan who disliked the feather headband given to Julia because it promoted stereotypes. «I
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