Smash Players Saying "Kazuya Mishima"

About

Smash Players Saying "Kazuya Mishima" refers to a joking practice among some in the Super Smash Brothers Ultimate community to imitate the win-screen dialogue for the fighter Kazuya, originally from the Tekken series of fighting games, upon taking a stock, even if they are not fighting as Kazuya. After being popularized by members of the Japanese competitive community, it became a common catchphrase in the Smash community to spam the words "Kazuya Mishima" regardless of context.

Origin

In Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, Kazuya is the only character whose win-screen dialogue is not voiced by the regular Smash announcer. Instead, it borrows the Tekken win-screen dialogue: a deep-voiced man saying "Kazuya Mishima … wins" (shown below).

The practice appears to have started among the Japanese competitive community before being popularized during the Summit IV invitational tournament that featured two Japanese competitors. On March 2nd, 2022, the day players arrived at Summit, player @AaronFGC^[1] reported that whenever Japanese competitor Tea took a stock from him, he would say "Kazuya Mishima" (shown below).

Spread

Throughout Summit, competitors and commentators reported that Tea and Japanese competitor Protobanham would imitate the win-screen dialogue for Kazuya whenever they took a stock. On March 6th, 2022, commentator @TKBreezy^[2] tweeted, "I have been informed that the Japanese players here are just saying KAZUYA MISHIMA while playing with no provocation and if this is true that is the funniest shit and I love them lmaoooo" (shown below, left). Commentator Coney^[3] confirmed the statement, noting that Protobanham jokingly uttered "Kazuya Mishima" upon taking a stock from fellow competitor Light, even though Protobanham was playing Min Min (shown below, right).

The joke became a running gag throughout Summit. After Protobanham upset MKLeo at the tournament using Min Min and Lucina, the commentary team called "Kazuya Mishima" to Proto, who responded by saying "Kazuya Mishima" (shown below, left). Tea posted a video of himself playing friendlies with MKLeo and saying "Kazuya Mishima" through the games (shown below, right).

The popularity of the joke at Summit led other Smash players to begin making memes based around saying "Kazuya Mishima." On March 10th, 2022, Twitter user @willy_crescent showcased a Smash mod created by @Dimichi1 that turned all of Kazuya's vocal cues into "Kazuya Mishima … wins," gaining over 770 retweets and 4,200 likes (shown below, top). On March 6th, Twitter user @NUTradewar^[4] posted a riff on the Flying Lotus Copypasta using Tea and the "Kazuya Mishima" meme (shown below, bottom).

Various Examples

Search Interest

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External References