The Game Awards 2022 showcase featured an action-packed trailer for the upcoming fighting game Tekken 8, and while it showed off several beloved characters in action, fans' attention was mostly drawn to the return of a character that hadn't appeared in Tekken since Tekken 2 in 1995, Jun Kazama.
Jun is protagonist Jin Kazama's mother, and it appears she will play an important role in the upcoming title's story, which will seemingly continue to focus on the conflict between Jin and his father Kazuya Mishima.
Towards the end of the trailer we see Jin pushing Kazuya down onto a building, while his voiceover says, "Mother, I still can't protect anybody." Then, we see a shot of Jun Kazama placing a hand on his heart in some non-descript ethereal location, stating, "We will cleanse this world of its evil and corruption."
Jun Kazama was a wildlife conservation activist who entered the second King of Iron Fist Tournament in an attempt to meet Kazuya Mishima, stop his illegal smuggling of protected animals and free him from whatever evil power had taken hold of him. At some point during this tournament, Jun became pregnant with Kazuya's child, who would eventually become Jin. Though Jun was able to make Kazuya doubt his reliance on the Devil's power, Kazuya still tried to fight Heihachi, who went on to defeat him and throw him into a volcano.
Jun later exiled to the mountains, where she gave birth to Jin Kazama and raised him in the Kazama style of martial arts she grew up with. When Jin was fifteen, Tekken antagonist Ogre attacked Jun in order to absorb her abilities. Jin tried to help but was knocked out, and woke to find his home destroyed and his mother gone. Jin presumed her dead since then, but it's now clear that Jun lives, and she's to help Jin in some way to defeat his father Kazuya.
Tekken is one of the most iconic and celebrated fighting game series of all time. The franchise's last mainline entry was Tekken 7, which, even though it released in 2015, is still played consistently and is always present in the lineup of the year's biggest fighting game tournament, the Evolution Championship Series, also known as EVO. Tekken 8 is likely to be a blockbuster success once it releases, though still, no info has been relayed about its launch window.