Headline: Harada on Jun - "... I'll think about it." (Harada Discusses Jun Kazama on Tekkn Nation)
In response to a recent cry from a number of TN's Jun Kazama fans, Harada San was kind enough to drop by and post on our very own forum! The following is the exact message he posted, which can be found by clicking here, regarding Jun Kazama...
Ok my reply here.
There are some interesting topics from the past lately. I guess I could shed some light on this since it happened quite a while ago.
It is true that data for 'SAKE' and 'JUN' is actually contained in the Arcade TEKKEN 3 version(Also Kazuya. But T3 Kazuya is just TEXT DATA only. Cuz He is a prototype of Jin).
I was the one who put it in there so I'm sure of it.
About JUN, there seem to be a lot of fans that think that Jun has died in the official storyline. That isn't exactly true.
From Jin's perspective in the story, he believes his mother, Jun, has died. This is the correct interpretation.
After the release of TEKKEN 3, I have officially stated to the press that objectively, and officially, Jun's whereabouts are unknown.
So this is the official stance that has been stated repeatedly. Even so, the belief that she has died is spread and some "official storylines" have also mistakenly incorporated this myth so I guess it can't be helped.
Anyways, to get back to the story, Jun's data was included in TEKKEN 3 because there was still a possibility she might appear at that time.
Just to clear this up, the only characters that have officially been declared dead are the first King and first Armor King.
In real-life, wrestling is heavier on entertainment but in the Tekken world, they can really die in their profession.
In the Tekken world, pro-wrestlers are some of the only fighters that are always on edge during a fight, as they are in constant danger of losing their life. As such, they are tragic and alone but their existence shines bright.
Regarding 'SAKE', this was included when we planned to implement a new animal character. But there were a few problems...
It was really a salmon so, no matter if you press punch or kick, the character just flops around making a flapping noise...
At the time, one play was 100 yen (a little over a dollar) so that is the quality bar to keep in mind for customer satisfaction.
So we thought players would get quite angry if they had to pay that much to play such a character, and we gave up on that character. That kind of character might be OK in a console version, but not for the arcade.
There's also 'INSECT' data buried deep in the ROM. That's another idea we had at the time. The idea was for an insect... a giant praying mantis! The idea resulted from a bug in the program in which all the characters arms, legs, and waists were extremely thin and they looked like a praying mantis.
It was actually quite interesting so we thought of maybe basing a character on that and calling it 'INSECT'. However, we had a lot of new characters like Jin, Xiaoyu, Eddy, and Hwoarang to work on so we didn't have the resources and had to give up on the idea.
So ....
do you guys like this kind of background story? There are so many stories like this. Maybe we should go drinking or On Twitter (@Harada_TEKKEN) and I could tell you more(or I’ll Tweets).
Oh one more thing.
About 13~14 years ago(After releasing tekken3).
I heard "Bringback kunimitsu" from several people.
and I revived her with Tekken Tag Tournament( A lot of opinions "I need more new character" were not adopted).
But...
Her(kunimitsu) usage rate and popularity were the lowest (Investigated in world wide).
"Everyone say: bring back jun".
I heard it from the same person millions of times.
However, "Everyone" .... is it true??
If my follower (of twitter) increases , if a lot of opinions of the person were able to be heard, i'll think about it (However, please do not do spam lol).
It is easy to understand that the opinion is short and simple.
I will learn a lot of opinions there.
and I will share your opinions and comments with my tekken project team.
PLEASE do not forget. I love all characters.
All the characters are as important for me as the son and the daughter.
(Similarly, time and budget are limited)
Thanks !!
(Twitter)
http://twitter.com/Harada_TEKKEN
(Facebook)
http://www.facebook.com/people/Katsuhiro-Harada/100000832424468
So there you have it Jun Kazama fans! Jun Kazama is not dead, and is being considered to return by Namco.
Hopefully Namco will get the required amount comments (or if it is indeed 5000 followers on twitter) to bring her back for good.
LordDeebo