Julia Chang

Julia Chang (ジュリア・チャン) is a fictional character in the Tekken series of fighting games, first introduced in Tekken 3 in 1997. Julia is an adopted daughter of a Native American fighter named Michelle Chang and her storyline typically involves saving her tribe's forest.

An alternative version of the character is known as Jaycee (ジェイシー) also known as J.C., a masked female lucha libre wrestler.

In video games
Julia studies archeology in Michelle Chang's tribal lands. As a baby, Julia was deserted in the ruins of ancient Native American settlements, where Michelle found her. Michelle rescued Julia and brought her up with love. Julia loved Michelle and her adopted tribe, training with Michelle to protect her beloved homeland. Ganryu has fallen in love with her since Tekken 5.

When Julia was 18, stories of sudden disappearances of famous martial artists all over the world began to reach the tribe. The tribe knew the cause, which was contained in the tribal legends, the legend of The God of Fighters. People in the tribe feared that Michelle's pendant, the key to their sacred treasure, had something to do with the disappearances. With apprehension spreading through the tribe, Michelle left for Japan to ask Heihachi Mishima why he had sought to take the pendant during The King of Iron Fist Tournament 2. Michelle hoped to learn about the origin of The God of Fighting's power, but did not return. Julia suspected Heihachi and now seeks him out to discover the truth. One day, she discovered that her native homeland was in danger of being covered by an encroaching desert; this was brought on by today's rapidly changing global ecosystem. Julia wanted to save her home, and she began her studies on ecosystem restoration. Julia joined an advanced genetic research group led by Professor T that studied the biological mechanism of reforestation. Professor T's research grant came almost exclusively from G Corporation. In fact, G Corporation's supercomputers located at their high security research center were used for computationally intensive biogenetic analysis and ecosystem modeling. All their project data was stored on G Corporation's file servers as well. Julia was absorbed in her daily research, waiting for the day when her work on ecosystem restoration would be complete. When her project was completed, she would save her home.

A few years after The King of Iron Fist Tournament 3, Michelle had gone missing, leaving Julia (now 20) to continue where she left off. One day, Julia learned from Professor T that their project was on hold indefinitely. The Mishima Zaibatsu attacked G Corporation's high security research center and stole all their project data. Julia did not know a thing about G Corporation's secret research projects, only that she had to retrieve the data from the Mishima Zaibatsu in order to save her home from becoming a desert in a few years time. She searched the net to gather information regarding the Mishima Zaibatsu, finding a web page announcing The King of Iron Fist Tournament 4, and entered in order to recover her data. Disappointed that she was unable to recover the reforestation data during the fourth tournament, Julia returned home and resumed her research. One day she received a letter addressed to her in a foreign language, with an announcement of The King of Iron Fist Tournament 5. In order to fulfill her hopes for forest rejuvenation, Julia decides to enter the fifth tournament. Along the way, she comes face to face with her friend, King, whom she attempts to talk out of taking revenge against Craig Marduk, but King does not listen. Julia was able to recover the lost forest rejuvenation data needed to turn the wasteland back into its original form.

When Julia returned to her homeland of Arizona a year later, she was met by the chief of their tribe and an old woman capable of hearing the voice of the Great Spirit. The old woman told Julia of a premonition, "If Jin Kazama and Kazuya Mishima were to engage in combat, it would bring about the resurrection of a demon from Hell." Julia doubted the old woman's story, but on her way to The King of Iron Fist Tournament 6 due to it being sponsored by the Mishima Zaibatsu, she suddenly realized what the premonition means and accepted it as true. Julia (now 21) decided to personally enter the tournament to prevent it from happening.

Julia also appears as a playable character in the uncanonical games Tekken Tag Tournament and Tekken Tag Tournament 2, as well as in Tekken Card Challenge, and makes a cameo appearance in the spin-off game Death by Degrees. Julia also appears as a playable character in the crossover game Street Fighter X Tekken, where her official partner is Bob.

Jaycee


In Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Julia Chang appears under the alias Jaycee or J.C., who is a luchadora (female lucha libre wrestler). She is seen on the trailer as a wrestler who team tags with Armor King, and has donned a lucha mask to take the place of a friend of hers who was injured in a fighting accident. In Michelle's TTT2 ending cutscene, she dons a lucha libre mask to team-up with Jaycee against King and Armor King.

Design and gameplay
Julia Chang's fighting style is Xing Yi based kung fu. In Tekken Tag Tournament 2, Julia gains some luchador moves, while still keeping some of the moves she had in Tekken 6 (some of the attacks removed from Julia in the game are given to Michelle). The Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada confirmed that "Jaycee" is actually a pun on the name Julia Chang (removing her mask in the games customization feature changes her name back to Julia in-game).

Because of her "relatively small moves list and her need to juggle to inflict real damage", Julia requires "the right amount of patience" in order to master her in Tekken 4. In Tekken 6, Julia is considered by IGN to have many powerful mid-level attacks and to be one of the swiftest characters. PlayStation Official Magazine listed her Cross Assault team-up with Nina Williams in Street Fighter X Tekken as one of the eight best ones in the game.

Other appearances
Julia's dossier is briefly seen in the CGI film Tekken: Blood Vengeance when Anna Williams opens a file containing dossiers on various persons of interest. Julia also appears in the manga Tekken: Tatakai no Kanatani and in the comic book Tekken Forever.

In merchandising, a resin garage kit figure of Julia from Tekken 4 was released by Heihachi Zazen in 2003. A prepainted 1/7 scale PVC figure of Julia as Jaycee from Tekken Tag Tournament 2, designed by the graphic artist Yamashita Shunya, was released by Kotobukiya in February 2013.

Reception
In 2006, the Polish edition of GameStar had Julia voted at 11th place in the poll for the title of "Miss of the Video Game World". In 2009, GameDaily listed her among "chicks that will kick your ass" along with three other Tekken 5 characters and featured her among the "Babes of Tekken", stating that "if all environmentalists looked like Julia Chang, we would have gone green ages ago" and "all we know is that we still think her shorts aren't short enough," and also listing her among the "All-American Girls". In 2011, UGO Networks featured Julia as one of the fighting games' "finest female fighters", adding that she is also their favorite Native American fighting game character. In 2012, Entertainment Focus ranked Julia as the eighth best video game heroine, stating that "her hippy style and toned midriff – combined with lethal moves and passion for the planet make her one uniquely attractive package."

In 2013, Complex ranked Julia as the 18th best Tekken character, commenting that "armed with one of the most punishing command throws on the roster, she'll be breaking nerds' hearts for years to come." In the official poll by Namco, Julia is currently the 22nd most requested Tekken character to be added to the roster of Tekken X Street Fighter, racking up 6.35% of votes; additional 4.21% votes were also cast on Jaycee, counted separately.

There was also some negative criticism. In 2011, Dorkly listed her as one of the most stereotypical Native American characters in fighting game history, ranking her at seventh place, tying with Michelle Chang, even as Beth Aileen Dillon of AbTeC (Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace) called Julia "an interesting case" and appreciated "that she is educated and kicks ass." Jeff Marchiafava of Game Informer included Jaycee among the "most ridiculous" characters of Tekken Tag Tournament 2, writing only "Seriously, ???".