Boomstick: And Geese Howard, karate kingpin behind the King of Fighters.
Wiz: These two ruthless businessmen are as talented at martial arts...
Boomstick: As they are terrible at being dads! But whose fury will prove the most fatal?
To find out, enter season eight, episode four, where iconic fighting game villains combining martial arts and big business are called to do battle. Having sacrificed their families in the pursuit of power, these men are known and feared the world over for their brutality, and now, they turn that brutality against each other. Two different kinds of discipline and unrelenting force meet, for Heihachi Mishima and Geese Howard, both of whom embody this great strength, are being made to unleash it in a death battle.
First to be covered is Heihachi Mishima, son of the Mishima Zaibatsu's founder, Jinpachi. With a focus on military technology, the Mishima Zaibatsu is one of the largest corporate enterprises in the world; so great is the zaibatsu's influence that they have the income to field standing armies. Heihachi became consumed by a thirst for power that began when he usurped control of the zaibatsu from his father and left Jinpachi in an underground Mishima shrine to starve to death. While Jinpachi was eventually resurrected by a mysterious demonic entity, Heihachi took control of the Mishima Zaibatsu and ruled it alongside his wife, Kazumi. Together, they raised a son and led a seemingly happy life together, but Kazumi had darker intentions. Possessed by the Devil Gene, an abnormality of her bloodline, Kazumi attempted to kill Heihachi, only to be killed by him in turn; Heihachi then set his sights on his son Kazuya, fearing that his mother's Devil Gene spread to him. Heihachi cast Kazuya off a mountainside cliff, reasoning that the fall would deal with the dilemma regardless of if Kazuya survived. Decades would pass with Heihachi controlling the Mishima Zaibatsu before, to further his own grip and desire for control over the world, he hosted the inaugural King of Iron Fist martial arts tournament. It would be in this tournament that Heihachi learned Kazuya survived being thrown off the cliff and had been training in the pursuit of revenge. Since then, Heihachi, Kazuya, and grandson Jin have used the King of Iron Fist as an outlet to further the Mishima family's cycle of self-perpetuating vengeance.
As host to the King of Iron Fist, there are expectations Heihachi lives up to as a martial artist. The Mishima grandfather specializes in the Mishima family's variant of goju-ryu karate; translated as "hard-soft", this martial art combines blunt force strikes with more precise circular motions for grappling and takedowns. While Heihachi lacks the Devil Gene his descendants bear, he makes up for it through his inner ki and how he utilizes this life force. Heihachi, mastered the art of channeling this ki, uses it augment his attacks: by manipulating this ki into lightning, his martial arts become more formidable. Some parts of his fighting style can go so far as to be called dependent on it, as Heihachi has created attacks specialized around the usage of ki. The usage of ki also extends to his own body, not just Heihachi's fighting style. Channeling this ki strengthens his physique enough to deflect projectiles from bullets to tomahawks, using nothing but his teeth. Even explosions that blast Heihachi several miles can be survived through his usage of ki. This usage of Heihachi's honed fighting style and his own inner strength come together in the form of a highly aggressive approach, centering around constant pressure to keep his foes open for attack after attack.
A man like Heihachi has had numerous ordeals in his life, and he demonstrates his worth when facing them. Members of the android Jack line are able to destroy meteors and survive lasers fired from low-orbit satellites. Having defeated several Jack-7s while outnumbered, 7s being the strongest of the Jack models, Heihachi is theoretically capable of matching the feats performed by earlier Jacks. Heihachi, logically, is also comparable to Kazuya, whom he has fought against numerous times. Kazuya's own Devil Gene lasers can reach into orbit and destroy the aforementioned satellites; by intercepting these lasers, Heihachi's top movement speed is at least one-percent that of light. All this strength and skill would prove vital when Heihachi's past sins returned to confront him. For many years and across many tournaments, Heihachi and Kazuya carried on their conflict, finally settling their vendetta by facing each other one last time. The two men gave everything they had, but Heihachi proved to be outmatched. Tossed by his victorious son in the heart of an active volcano, Heihachi died as he lived, refusing to embrace the weakness of himself or those around him.
- Heihachi Mishima: (laughs while surrounded by felled Tekken Force soldiers; translated from Japanese) That felt good. Next!
Having finished Heihachi's study, the episode moves on to Geese Howard, crime lord of the tropical American sprawl that is South Town. The son of Austrian terrorist Rudolph Krauser, Geese and his mother were deported to South Town; Geese lost his mother to illness that, separated from Rudolph, they were too poor to treat. Geese sought to play a role in Rudolph's death just as he had played a role in his mother's. He was only 15 when he tracked down Rudolph and attempted to assassinate him, only to be soundly thrashed by his younger half-brother Wolfgang. Humiliated further, Geese sought to attain power to exact revenge. Geese's journeys to attain this power led him to the Chinese temples that housed the ancient master Tung Fu Rue. Alongside South Town native Jeff Bogard, Geese trained under Tung to learn the secrets of Hakkyokuseiken, but Tung saw the malice Geese held within him; losing the position as Tung's successor to Jeff, Geese abandoned his training to travel to South Town. There, he upended the criminal underworld of the town and put himself as its new head. Geese also established the Howard Connection protection agency as a legitimate front for his operations; between the South Town mafia and the Howard Connection, Geese effectively had control over the city. However, even with the city in his pocket and a successful hit laid out on Jeff, this was not enough to feed Geese's ego, leading him to found the King of Fighters tournament to establish his dominance. A decade would pass after Geese took over South Town when Jeff's adopted sons, Terry and Andy, and Geese's own abandoned son Rock, returned to enter the King of Fighters tournament to exact revenge on Geese.
The desire for revenge that fuels Geese is backed up by a great many martial arts. From Tung Fu Rue, Geese learned a number of martial arts; aggressive styles of karate and kickboxing's mobility and precision are part of that training. The true calling card of his martial arts, however, are aiki-jutsu and the Hakkyokuseiken. Like its successor in aikido, "soft-hard" aiki-jutsu turns an opponent's weight against them, specializing in grappling and locks. Hakkyokuseiken, meanwhile, is a more fantastic martial art, drawing on energy from the earth itself. With this ki, Geese has a surplus of energy at his disposal; energy blasts, ground-based waves, localized tornadoes, and redirecting the ki into thunderbolts are all staples of Geese's Hakkyokuseiken techniques. A skill that Geese shares with his upcoming foe is that he can also draw this ki into himself, amplifying his body and its traits. Such is its explosive power that Geese can destroy entire thickets of forest through channeling it. This training and the Hakkyokuseiken come together to produce an aggressive fighting style, that, combined with the earth's ki, can see Geese unleash dozens of brutal attacks in a single combo.
In his quest to assert his position over South Town, Geese has also established his formidability as a fighter; several other characters in the setting lend credence to this idea. Takuma Sakazaki, one of Geese's henchmen and thus inferior to Geese himself, could redirect a blast from the city-destroying Zero Cannon satellite. An even greater showing can be fought in his fight with the reality-warping entity Verse, capable of creating storms that engulf the entire King of Fighters stadium. With ki capable of surviving Verse's soul-destroying attacks and defeating him, Geese proves his worth as a fighter by any metric. However, in spite of Geese's self-confidence, he is far from invincible, as proven during his long-awaited brutal battle with Terry Bogard that ended with Geese being hurled out of his own Howard Connection building seemingly to his death. Yet it is also a testament to Geese's tenacity that he survived and returned for a rematch despite suffering the same fate yet again. As a fighter and a crime lord, Geese Howard keeps pushing himself to his extreme, and any challenger would be well-advised to do the same.
- Geese Howard: (stomps on a defeated Akuma) Stay down, maggot.
With both great businessmen and greater fighters fully covered, today's combatants are clear to engage. One advertisement for the Adam & Eve sex shop later, and now, it's time for a death battle!
In the wide expanses of a mountain range lie a volcano; here stands the finals of the joint tournament between the King of Iron Fist and the King of Fighters. As a series of drones descend upon the arena, a familiar commentator lays the scene: as the stakes for this battle between finalists, the winner gains sole ownership of both the Mishima Zaibatsu and the Howard Connection. Fitting for one finalist to be Heihachi Mishima, meditating atop a mountain peak. From the sliding fusuma doors behind Heihachi arrives his opponent; one Geese Howard. The two fighters take a stance and trade barbs before Ringmaster gives them the single command both have been waiting for.
"FIGHT!"
At his word, the martial artists rush towards one another, Geese making the first move; with an upwards swing does the crime lord launch a Reppuken through the ground. Heihachi, leaping over the ki wave, dives towards Geese, but the South Town fighter catches his kick and slams him into the rocks. The Mishima patriarch recovers and, from his position, drives a second kick directly into Geese's abdomen. Heihachi presses the attack with a series of punches and elbow strikes until Geese catches a straight punch in one hand. Infuriated, Heihachi adapts to the setback, knocking his enemy back further with a headbutt. As Geese mops up the blood from his broken nose, Heihachi invites him to further battle. Geese, with a boast of his own, takes Heihachi up on his offer; a stream of Reppuken close in on the Mishima. The surges of earthly ki disorient the zaibatsu owner long enough for the competition to grab Heihachi and launch him into a boulder.
The Mishima wastes no time rushing back into action, but for his efforts, Geese grabs him and once again tosses him down. Another prone kick proves ineffective this time, as the Hakkyokuseiken master takes hold of Heihachi and repeatedly smashes him against the outcrop. In a series of spinning punches, Heihachi breaks free of the South Town villain's grasp; he grabs onto the rock, and with a strained effort, hurtles the boulder at Geese. The rock shatters on impact and Heihachi follows after, slamming fist after fist into Geese's chest. A dodged uppercut gives Geese the opportunity to grab the wrist of Heihachi; despite his foe's pleading, Geese continues to taunt him before tossing Heihachi into the air. As he descends, Heihachi bears witness to a fist slamming into him with such force that it knocks the air from his lungs. The master of Hakkyokuseiken fires bolts of ki that hammer into Heihachi, culminating in a diving slam and a Raging Storm that erupts from impact; so intense is the surge of ki from Geese that the volcano begins to crack apart. The Austrian rolls out the way and prepares to revel in his victory when a second blast of ki blows away the smoke.
Geese, in shock, charges towards his foe, only for his incoming kick to be parried effortlessly. Heihachi mocks Geese's own predictability and launches him away with a Demon Uppercut. Inundated with ki, the Mishima Zaibatsu's boss blocks every single blow that comes his way before punching Geese back yet again. Geese pulls himself out and rushes back in. What ensues is a violent melee of both men trading blows with each other that seem to shake the very earth, where even the volcano swirls with magma. After this display of action, both martial artists cling to one another, catching their breath. They break their embrace and wind back for a final exchange of fists, each landing squarely in the other's face. The Japanese fighter stands tall after the impact, whereas Geese is finally felled. Grabbing Geese by the leg of his hakama, Heihachi takes the crime lord and tosses him into the volcano. It seems it's his victory, but Geese has one final attempt to win in wait.
Drawing from the earth around him, Geese fires a blast of ki at the edge of the cliff where Heihachi stands, sending the surprised Mishima falling in after him. Both fighters continue to plummet when Geese creates a clearing in the volcano, using more ki to blast away a swathe of magma; this blast also propels Geese back towards the Mishima, roaring defiantly that Heihachi will not escape death. Heihachi, expecting the approach of his foe, shouts for Geese to go to hell and throws a punch that sends him back into the volcano just as quickly. Geese becomes impaled on a spire and struggles to break himself free, but not quickly enough when the displaced magma recedes into the earth. Enveloped by the magma tsunami, Geese's screams of horror are soon cut short as the molten rock melts the flesh from his bones and those bones into nothingness. Heihachi, meanwhile, crawls his way to the lip of the volcano, where a recording drone waits for him; Heihachi, in no further mood for fighting, cuts the feed and the battle short with a punch aimed at its camera.
KO!
With the Howard Connection CEO rendered into nothing comes the retrospective. Geese's mastery of Hakkyokuseiken gave him projectile options to keep Heihachi at range, and by drawing that ki from the earth, he had plenty of energy to use those options. However, Heihachi has faced greater ranged attacks, such as Kazuya's Devil Beams, reaching distances that far exceed that of Geese's ki. Similarly, Geese's mastery of aiki-jutsu is something Heihachi has familiarity with; his decades of experience have given him time to adapt to and defeat aikido experts like Nina Williams. The greater debate in this fight comes down not to their fighting styles, but their physicality, and even here is Geese outclassed. The satellite feats both can be compared to, a Jack-6 absorbing a blast from the Mishima satellite and the Zero Cannon being deflected by Takuma, put Heihachi as twice as fast as Geese. Regarding the upper extent of their strength, Geese can be scaled to Verse's hurricane, which would require nearly two gigatons of energy to create. In comparison, another Jack-6 unit destroying a six-mile wide meteor is a force quadruple that. Heihachi, by regularly and effortlessly defeating Jack bots, is stronger than anything Geese can be compared to. Both business-minded martial artists had strength and skill in droves, but Heihachi's experience was what gave him the overall win.
- Boomstick: Man, this fight was so intense, it almost made Mi-shit-ma pants.
Wiz: The winner is Heihachi Mishima!
Heihachi Mishima vs. Geese Howard contains examples of:
- Alternate Character Interpretation: This time, Boomstick assumes Heihachi and Elon Musk to be the same person due to their immense wealth, affinity for rockets, and with Musk's son named X AE A-12, children out for their fathers' blood. Wiz refutes this by noting that at least Musk isn't a martial artist, only for a podcast with Musk to start playing revealing he has in fact practiced taekwondo, karate, and other styles in his youth.
- Artistic License – Economics: Played for Laughs in regards to the fight's Framing Device, as Ringmaster notes that a fight to the death for the right to ownership of two business conglomerates is a blatant violation of antitrust laws.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Hearing Geese spouting his "predictabo" cry again and again, Heihachi fires one of his own after parrying an attack.
- Breaking Old Trends: Heihachi marks the first time in the show a Fatal Fury character appears against a character not from Street Fighter.
- Brick Joke: During Geese's analysis, a clip plays of Tekken 7 footage where he launches Heihachi into the air and hits him with a Shippuken as he falls. This exact sequence of events happens later on in the actual fight.
- Broken Win/Loss Streak: Geese is the third SNK character to be featured after Mai Shiranui and Terry Bogard. His loss ends their winning streak. Meanwhile, Heihachi is the first Bandai Namco character to win after Tai and Agumon did back in Season 2.
- The Bus Came Back: A double example at that; this episode marks a return of both Tekken and Fatal Fury after these series' last appearances three and five years ago, respectively.
- The Cameo: Ringmaster appears in voice as the announcer for the collaborative Iron Fist/King of Fighters tournament that serves as this battle's Framing Device.
- Camera Abuse: The fight ends when Heihachi punches out a drone recording the match; shown from the drone's perspective, it looks like Heihachi punching out the real camera.
- Continuity Nod: Wiz shows off the mini-mecha goose from Dragonzord vs. Mechagodzilla. In the same sequence, his attendance at a university of evil science is also brought up.
- Evil vs. Evil: A fight between two ruthless crime lords and Abusive Parents, though Heihachi at least manages to be A Lighter Shade of Black thanks to a few Pet the Dog moments and hints of a far-too-late-to-fix-anything Heel Realization.
- Fan Disservice: Wiz is audibly squicked out by the sight of Heihachi in a speedo.
- Groin Attack: How Boomstick describes how Rashoumon works, with Geese patty caking his unfortunate victim in the nuts with a vicious ki blast. It comes up in the fight itself, with Heihachi audibly wheezing in pain.
- Musical Nod: The episode's fight music closely resembles "Heat Haze Shadow" from Tekken 7. The opening also has a similar riff to Geese's leitmotif in various SNK titles.
- Mythology Gag:
- Heihachi speaking in translated Japanese instead of adhering to Translation Convention; starting in earlier games, but especially pronounced by the time of TTT2, every character in the series speaks their mother tongue.
- One of Geese's lines towards Heihachi is "I will stain my hands with your blood, old man".
- Boomstick, watching Geese's remains frying in the volcano, comments it's time to bring out the soy sauce for Geese.
- The fight takes place in a volcano, like Heihachi and Kazuya's final battle in Tekken 7, both fights also feature a Cross Counter that leaves the characters momentarily stunned.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: A nice pair when the fighters are sizing each other up at the beginning.Heihachi: Foolish whelp, come to die?
Geese: Mishima, your nightmare begins! - Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Both fighters trade these as they're falling into the volcano. Only Heihachi is able to live up to his, while Geese's doubles as very ironic last words.Geese: (after sending Heihachi falling in after him with a lightning ki blast and as he fires another ki blast at the magma to rocket back out) You cannot escape from death!
Heihachi: (right before spiking Geese back down to the magma with one last punch) Back to Hell with you! - You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Wiz's exasperated reaction to how badly Boomstick butchers the name of Hakkyokuseiken:Boomstick: But what Geese was really there to learn was Hippopotamus!
Wiz: (under his breath) Jesus...
