Heihachi Coming Back From the Dead

Submission 3,421

Part of a series on Tekken. [View Related Entries]

About

Heihachi Coming Back From the Dead refers to a series of memes about Tekken character Hehicahi Mishima, who cheated death multiple times and was presumed to have been definitively killed in Tekken 7 before coming back as a DLC character in the next installment of the series. The memes saw virality on social media in mid-July 2024 after a trailer for the DLC premiered.

Origin

In the 2015 fighting video game Tekken 7, the major antagonist Heihachi Mishima is defeated by the character Jin Kazuya, who throws his body into an active volcano, presumably killing him (video shown below).^[1]

While the character was not featured in the main story of Tekken 8, the next installment of the series, on July 21st, 2024, a trailer introducing Heihachi as a DLC fighter premiered, gaining over 1.1 million views on YouTube^[2] in one day (shown below).

Spread

On July 21st, 2024, X^[3] user @Wario64 shared the news of Heihachi returning to Tekken 8, with the post gaining over 3,000 reposts and 14,000 likes in one day.

The post was followed by multiple quote posts in which users joked about the character's seemingly miraculous comeback. For example, on July 21st, X^[4] user @TarZangief posted an I Lived Bitch meme that gained over 4,200 reposts and 24,000 likes in one day (shown below, left).

Later that day, X^[5] user @MS06ZAKU_II posted an IShowSpeed Trying Not to Laugh meme that received over 970 reposts and 6,400 likes in one day (shown below, right).

Later on July 21st, 2024, X^[6] user @onobyte posted a video caption meme about Heihachi's return that received over 5,500 reposts and 36,000 likes in one day (shown below).