Cobra Kai season 3 could bring back The Karate Kid Part II's Chozen Toguchi, but this time to work with Johnny Lawrence against John Kreese. The second season of YouTube Premium smash hit Cobra Kai saw disgraced karate teacher Kreese (Martin Cove) return to the frontlines as co-sensei of the Cobra Kai dojo, seemingly humbled and claiming to be a changed man. Unfortunately, what seemed to Lawrence (William Zabka) like another man’s redemptive arc proved the exact opposite.
Like an old black mamba covertly poised to strike, Kreese employed an impressive pastiche of guerrilla tactics and social engineering to corrupt both the Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do dojos from within — by toying with Johnny’s empathy, stoking Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio)’s fears of a Cobra-led social uprising, and fostering the beginnings of a gang war between teenagers just looking for a place to belong. Cobra Kai season 2 ended on a cliffhanger, with Miguel Diaz desperately clinging on to life and Kreese turning Johnny’s own students against him. Anything to wrench Cobra Kai from Johnny Lawrence’s percipient control. Sensei Kreese had won... for now.
It's been reported that Cobra Kai season 3 will visit Okinawa, where Daniel hopes to rekindle his roots and rediscover his reasons for choosing karate. Showrunners Jon Hurwitz, Hayden Schlossberg, and Josh Heald started work on season 3 early this year, but have remained emphatically coy on the specifics of Daniel’s trip. Are we expecting a history lesson, or something explicitly more long haul, like the return of an original series baddie? Season 2 marked the return of Johnny’s ideological nemesis; so perhaps season 3 will herald the reappearance of one of Daniel’s: Chozen.
Okinawan bad boy Chozen Toguchi was the central antagonist of 1986’s The Karate Kid Part 2. Played by third-generation Japanese-American Yuji Okumoto, Chozen is businessman Sato Toguchi’s nephew and star student; Sato owned his own dojo and had trained with Miyagi in the same Gōjū-ryū karate style as the latter’s father. Despite having the same master, however, both men practiced karate differently, with Miyagi opting for self-defense and Sato choosing a more aggressive approach. Chozen demonstrably took after his uncle, effectively turning Miyagi-Do’s chief protégés against each other. Sato was inevitably convinced to come to his senses, but Chozen’s path was deliberately left unclear.
Cobra Kai witnessed the serendipitous redemption of former Karate Kid baddie Johnny Lawrence; what if Chozen had experienced the same soul-searching release? During Sato’s moments of crippling indecision, Miyagi came to Okinawa to assist him. It wouldn’t be entirely far-fetched to imagine the tables turning, and a reformed Chozen inevitably becoming Daniel’s requisite (and long overdue) voice of reason. Daniel’s needed one since the first season and with Miyagi no longer around to provide spiritual awakening, perhaps Chozen could assume responsibility.
Miyagi-Do arguably suffered the most losses toward the end of Cobra Kai season 2. Johnny may have lost his dojo and fortuitously crippled his best student, but Daniel unwittingly bred a murderer — something Chozen (through Sato) might relate to. With that said, Chozen could easily come on board in Cobra Kai season 3 as Daniel’s co-teacher, to help center the dojo in its greatest time of need. His ability to sympathize with redeemed baddies — including his rough-and-tumble brand of discipline — might attract the respect of a now-adrift Sensei Lawrence, making a (temporary) alliance between Johnny and Miyagi-Do less unlikely.
Johnny and Daniel are two hotheads embitteredly stuck on the past. Their story has played almost like a sports dramedy gone wrong, precisely because they could never see past their own pain to empathize with each other. In many ways, Kreese only facilitated their war; taking it beyond all moral decency was their choice entirely, whether they are fully conscious of it or not. Having been on both sides of the war once, Chozen could be the bridge to finally unite both senseis, and end all hostilities in favor of simply removing Kreese from power. Of course, one can’t rule out collateral damage — fans saw the worst example of it last season — but with someone akin to Miyagi on board, the situation has less chances of once more spiralling out of control. Chozen’s presence could finally turn the tide in favor of not only Miyagi-Do, but Johnny Lawrence’s wisened brand of karate as well in Cobra Kai season 3.