Did Jinpachi have Dementia?
Pre-emptive warning - I am aware that dementia affects people and their family members deeply. There are different online dementia-related websites that you can check out depending on the country that you live in. This is made for entertainment purposes only, I am not making any actual diagnoses but just some fun and entertaining brainstorms. Please consult your local GP/family doctor or community-related health centres for more actual information on the related topic. Now please enjoy my fun take on marrying FGC with real life.
Hey beautiful people, how’s it going? My name is Murse, I am your guide through this secret tech on how to destroy your childhood.
To my fellow Tekken head and FGC (fighting game community) as a whole, you would probably remember Jinpachi for *insert cheesy moves* [Insert TOD] … But for those who aren’t familiar with the Tekken franchise and clicked on the video for the second half of the title. I would like to welcome you to my take on informing the general public in a relatable meme way. Hope you guys enjoy the ride by exploring the question, “did Jinpachi has Dementia?”
Jinpachi Mishima
Jinpachi Mishima is ...*imagine researching Jinpachi and realising that he is already dead and is possed by an evil spirit* Well then, that completely throw away my original idea but I am going to go ahead with it anyway. Jinpachi Mishima was an honourable and righteous man that we don’t know anything about his past besides that he has a son at some stage, who soon will be his downfall. He is a very close friend with Wang and has a special bond with his Grandson Kazuya
Tekken 1 was released to the public in 1994 and since then we have multiple other Tekken games. In Tekken 1 and 2, Jinpachi had been mentioned via Wang’s gameplay, this had aided in building up a presence for Jinpachi to debut in Tekken 5 and Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection. This is where you really get to see his boss like appearance.
In Tekken 5 storyline, he invited a cast of fighters to the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5 that included his own family. The Mishima family of course has a special intro and dialogue with Jinpachi during his fight, the same treatment was also done for Lei, Paul and Wang. During Lei’s interaction, he keeps referring to the D gene as “thing” which makes him fall out of consciousness. Falling out of consciousness can be used to describe odd behaviours from people who suffers from Dementia.
What is Dementia?
Dementia is an umbrella term for a collection of symptoms related to the illness. Dementia is a progressive chronic illness that affects the normal brain functions of a human. It affects thoughts, behaviour/emotional regulations and the ability of a person to perform ADLs (Activity of Daily Living) like self-hygiene, grooming and eating. These symptoms might appear to be quite minute in the early stages and get progressively more difficult as the illness worsens. It commonly affects people of the geriatric population (65 years old and above) but it can happen on rare occasions in the 40s and 50s years old population.
Now, let's try to guess how old Jinpachi is. When we first met Jinpachi he appeared to have a lot of grey hair, with some facial skin sag, his company Mishima Zaibatsu started a little before or during World War 2 time. He was at least an adult during the time of WW2 so if we match it up to the time of Tekken 5, which was released in 2005, the set-up of Tekken world looks very futuristic and rustic at the same time. I am unsure of the progression of technology in the Tekken world, if we are still using FLOPPY DISK then I’m sure, I can safely guess we are in the mid-2000s. By conservative calculations, this makes Jinpachi older than 65, which he falls perfectly into the category of the geriatric population.
There are different causes of dementia and each person needs to be assessed thoroughly to determine the cause. HOMEOSTASIS - a state of the self-regulating process in any system of the body so you can survive optimally. An example of homeostasis would be when you are hot, you will start to sweat and when you are cold you will start to shiver. Causes of dementia are all related to the imbalances of the brain and body hence it is not in homeostasis. Some causes of dementia could be medication-related, trauma-related like surviving a plane accident or lifestyle-related. This is a related article that talks about homeostasis and a type of dementia for any who is wanting a science full reading
Jinpachi’s relationship to his offspring and Wang
Jinpachi and his son Heihachi's relationship are very well documented in Tekken 5 and Tekken Tag 2. “Mishimas are destined to fight each other”. Jinpachi was teaching his son and his daughter-in-law Kazumi Mishima martial art in the Zaibashu. When Kazuya was born, Jinpachi has a soft spot for him and was very caring toward Kazuya while Jinpachi was quite distanced to his own son, Heihachi. Jinpachi was completely against continuing the tradition of *show footage of throwing Mishima off cliff* I am not sure when Jinpachi had a bad turn with his son Heihachi but throwing your grandkid down a cliff would do it for sure.
Wang and Jinpachi however are a great duo of friends. Wang had been seen showing respect to his dear friend since Tekken 2 with the ceremonial drink. In Tekken 5 Wang was very surprised to see Jinpachi is alive and received a very special letter from him for the King of Iron Fist Tournament 5. When they met, it was not so rosy and Wang did not want to hurt his friend. Jinpachi's parting words to his dear friend was “If only I can drink with you again....” then faded. *slight sob* Then Tekken Tag 2 went about their relationship like it meant nothing.
Dementia like behaviour
Earlier I mentioned that the D gene makes him fall out of consciousness, this means that most of the game Jinpachi was not in control of his body, a prisoner to his own body. Lets use some artistic interpretation, during Lei’s ending, Jinapachi said when he died, lets use that as his mind metaphorically had passed on and his body is being kept alive by the D gene.
So when Jinpachi does *TOD death traps* and makes you *rage quit memes* he isnt really doing all these things willingly and while being conscious. We can compare this to when asking a Dementia affected person on why they, for example, showering the toilet chair while telling you that they are having shower, when you asked them why, they seem to freeze and be confused, not being able to give you answer. These actions can be compared to each other as prove that Jinpachi has some dementia-like behaviour.
This is why it is important for you, as a sweat lord, to exercise some patience when learning how to verse Jinpachi as he is an very powerful, cheap yes, but forgetful old man. Patience is a key resource for the sound mind, while experiencing a dementia world view. It is tough out there beautiful people, be proud when you have any little achievement with the dementia affected person, celebrate when you win that boss fight on ULTRA HARD without dying.
The importance of social support for the dementia population
Initially I wanted to tackle this segment with, oh dementia is tough for the person suffering it and this is how to support them. There are a lot of great services and resources to help the dementia population out like Behaviour Therapy, dementia friendly parks build in aged care facilities, training for medical officers on how to care for patient with dementia. The well is quite full on that one so I want to have this segment to shed light on giving support to the carers of dementia affected people.
Yes, that mean you, if you made it this far, thank you, your experience with this illness is very unique and you deserve as much support as what you give to your affected loved ones. Don’t give up yet, remember that they might not remember what you did but they understand and appreciate how you make them feel in that moment. There are carer support out there, I will link to the Australian, USA and UK carer support pages and you can check it down in the description box with all the other resources I’ve used down there.
Hope
There's always hope at the end of each journey, each Jinpachi fights are different and they all have their highs and lows, same for caring for a dementia affected person. Never stop trying to see the good side of each struggle, getting grandma to have a shower might take you 2 hours but she will love you at the end of it and you get to do her hair to remind her of youth. Jinpachi might have TOD your Weng 20 times and at the end you get to learn how much they value each other's friendship. Don’t let dementia be the end of your journey with grandparents or parents, let it be a new chapter with new challenges to embrace and enjoy. Lets hope for a great balanced Jinpachi in Tekken 8, lets hope that all we do for our loved ones, will make them and us feel closer rekindling our childhood.
Murse, signing out
References:
https://tekken.fandom.com/wiki/Jinpachi_Mishima
https://www.dementia.org.au/about-dementia/what-is-dementia
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/what-dementia-symptoms-types-and-diagnosis
https://www.britannica.com/science/homeostasis
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s13041-020-00658-6
https://tekken.fandom.com/wiki/Mishima_Zaibatsu
https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/getting-help-alzheimers-caregiving