Tekken 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.
