Anime adaptations of video games have a long, checkered history, but fighting game anime is particularly hit-or-miss. As an avid anime fan since the early 90s, I've been around to experience both the explosive popularity of fighting games and the absolute roulette wheel of quality that is the various animated works that have come alongside it. Some were good, but many more were colossal messes, with very few in-between. Tekken: Bloodline is the latest challenger to step into the ring, and it faces not only the potential curse of prior adaptations but also a very different anime landscape than that of prior years. While I think it lands solidly in the winners' bracket as far as fighting game anime go, I don't think it will be taking home the title belt just yet.

The hardest part of adapting any fighting game is crafting an understandable narrative out of the inherently disjointed nature of the source material. Sure, there are plenty of cues that can be taken from immensely popular shonen fighting works which often feature one or more lengthy tournament arcs. But those works often have a singular protagonist who provides the primary perspective through which the story's events are experienced. In contrast, many fighting games have mascot characters (such as Street Fighter's Ryu or Fatal Fury's Terry Bogard), but the other cast members carry some expectation of agency and being the lead in their own right. These characters have motivations for why they're at the tournament, what they hope to gain by winning, and their own personal rivalries and histories. Sometimes the games being adapted have contradictory outcomes in the wrap-up cinematics which have to be parsed for what the “true” ending is. Not to mention that many fighting game fans take great pride in the characters they "main" for a given entry, and therefore the presumed target audience for fighting game anime is often very divided on who they would prefer to see as the main character in an adaptation.

Tekken: Bloodline makes what is likely the safest bet and decides to follow Jin Kazama, the youthful face of the Mishima family (and the central figure of the cover art in games 3-5). The story adapts most of the events of the third game, albeit with some modifications. Many of the canon events are either not addressed or massaged to fit a smaller, tighter narrative, and there are some anime-original additions, such as Leroy's presence at the tournament though he is a brand-new character in the latest game. But Bloodline by and large hits all of the expected high notes, chronicling Jin's rise from scared young boy to full Mishima powerhouse.

This is a wise decision, as Jin most closely resembles the young shonen protagonist warrior, which makes for easy viewing. He's a bit gruff and grim, but otherwise he's your typical young fighter out to avenge a fallen family member. Most of the series has him wrestling with his inner demons – a trademark Mishima conflict – but otherwise his character beats should be very familiar if you have ever seen an anime about fighters with strange powers battling one another. He is learning to control himself, is loyal to his friends, and despite his missteps he is genuine in wanting to do what's right.

There's a heavy focus on Jin's grandfather Heihachi and the Mishima family. The drama amongst the Mishimas is the most well-known story thread in the Tekken franchise, and it is largely well-represented here. It's also easy to sell to most audiences – who doesn't love a solid crime family business drama where hostile takeovers and shocking betrayals are executed via lightning-charged uppercuts? But a lot of the more ridiculous and outrageous moments from the games are either ignored or excised due to time constraints, which, combined with some solid writing, makes for a very grounded look at the Tekken universe.

This grounded focus is both Tekken: Bloodline's strength and its weakness. It delivers on all the fundamentals without taking many risks. Fighting game plots are known for being outrageous and Tekken has more than its fair share of wild happenings, but the show largely shies away from those elements. This does make it more approachable, but I think a lot of Tekken's unique texture is lost in the process. Yes, Jun's tragic death is a relatable motivating factor for Jin and general audiences, but we never explore why she got involved with the Mishimas in the first place – namely the animal experimentation that produced characters like Roger the boxing kangaroo. I understand why they would not bring up the boxing kangaroos in what is supposed to be a serious crime drama, but without the ridiculous whimsy of boxing kangaroos, living wooden practice dummies, and Mishima-style-wielding bears, what's left is a rather pedestrian story that feels downright muted and generic for their absence.

The animation of Bloodline is also noteworthy. The show uses CG models with effects like cel-shading to give the characters and environments a more "anime" look, for lack of a better term. Character colors are bright and vibrant, popping off the moody backgrounds. The line between CG and traditional animation grows increasingly blurry, and though it's not indistinguishable just yet, I have to say the show's visuals are mostly fine (if not quite stellar) throughout. The fights are well-choreographed (if somewhat short) and the blows feel impactful. It is nice seeing characters deliver some of their signature moves, but I found myself wanting a bit more out of the action more often than not. The workmanlike direction doesn't help matters either.

Sadly, the tables have turned on animation and what is expected in the modern landscape. When I was a young man, even a run-of-the-mill anime looked far better than what video games (console or arcade) could render at the time. There was an understanding that these shows and films were bringing the simplified visuals of the games to life. But modern games are now able to achieve incredible levels of graphic fidelity whether they're going for a more exaggerated style (in the vein of Street Fighter or Dragon Ball FighterZ) or a more realistic one (like Tekken 7). By adopting a more anime-adjacent look where characters stay on-model but with few cinematic flourishes otherwise, Tekken: Bloodline looks worse than the game it is trying to emulate. If you want to see a cool fight between Tekken characters, you would be better served looking up a random three-minute match on Youtube – and that hurts to say.

The most noticeable visual hangup for me was the shadow effects. I know it sounds outrageous, but the way lighting is handled in Tekken: Bloodline is bizarre to the point of distraction. Any time there is significant lighting (say, characters in the ring with spotlights above) there is this very harsh shadow applied to the front of the characters that just… doesn't look like a shadow at all. It is just a harsh ninety-degree angle, like a big grayish block is sitting on the character. It's also very hard to ignore, since it is in every scene. I wish this weren't so obvious, but it seriously detracts from the show to the point where I'm not sure where they didn't simply ignore lighting altogether.

Tekken: Bloodline is a fine show that does a decent job delivering a focused, albeit limited, Tekken narrative. Solid fundamentals make it better than many, many other fighting game anime that have come before it, and in another era simply being a competent story told seriously would be enough. But it lacks much of the outrageous antics that give Tekken its charm, and it fails to deliver on much more than the fundamentals in the ring. It's not a bad watch, but I hope the next outing takes more risks across the board.