Akuma

"The true fighter can stare death in the face and lash out in rage against it!"

- Akuma

Akuma is a powerful dark fighter, as well as the brother of Ryu’s master and adoptive father, Gouken, and a villain from the Street Figher games.

Past
Akuma and Gouken studied martial arts under the master, Goutetsu, who taught them an unnamed martial arts style that had elements of karate, judo, and kempo and threatened the user’s life. However as time went by, Gouken began to dispute with Goutetsu about the violent nature of his style, eventually leaving to form his own dojo. Goutetsu allowed him to go while Akuma remained under his tutelage, vowing to use his style how it was intended. To learn the Shun Goku Satsu, a powerful killing move that endangered the user, Akuma took on the principle of “Satsui no Hado” or “Surge of the Intent to Kill.” Thus he gave up any compassion he had towards others and developed a desire to kill his opponents, unlike Goutetsu who did not give in to the dark side of Satsui no Hado. Akuma realized he could increase his limits as a fighter and left Goutetsu so as to train his power, finally returning to kill his master with the Shun Goku Satsu. Deciding that he was the true master of their style, Akuma took Goutetsu’s prayer beads. Gouken arrived at that moment, having come to visit his master, and, seeing what his brother had become, chastised him for his actions. Akuma said nothing and left, returning many years later to fight Gouken while a young Ryu and Ken watched. He said that his brother was not strong enough to fight him without giving in to the killing intent of Satsui no Hado. Gouken said that the style they had been taught was about more than destruction, saying that Akuma disgraced their master. He replied that Goutetsu had not truly understood their style and was foolish not to give into the Satsui no Hado completely. Gouken managed to defeat Akuma, who told his brother to kill him and when Gouken refused, he called him weak, saying he’d return. A few years later, Akuma returned and fought his brother again, striking him down with the Shun Goku Satsu. He believed that Gouken was dead, however he’d survived by emptying his soul and had instead been put in a coma. Ken found the defeated Gouken and confronted Akuma, but he was beaten and Akuma disappeared.

Street Fighter Alpha 2
Akuma began a search for worthy opponents, keeping to the shadows where he watched small tournaments and street fights. He became desperate to find someone able to match him and eventually received a challenge from a fighter called Gen. He proved to be a powerful opponent for Akuma and even managed to survive his Shun Goku Satsu by emptying his soul. Akuma started to think Gen was the challenger he’d been seeking, but suddenly sensed something was off. After Gen started to bleed from the mouth, Akuma realized he was sick and the fight wasn’t evenly matched. He eventually managed to knock Gen down and the old fighter asked him to kill him. However Akuma refused and left, not wanting to continue the fight, much to Gen’s anger. Akuma became obsessed with making Ryu embrace the Satsui no Hado to make him the opponent he sought. Eventually Ryu found his way to Akuma’s island home and challenged him to a fight. Though Ryu won, Akuma had only been testing him and told him to find him again once he’d given in to Satsui no Hado. He unleashed a powerful strike on the ground, causing the island to start falling apart, and disappeared. Akuma’s drive to find an opponent strong enough to kill him in a fight remained and he began his training again in an isolated cave, waiting for his next fight against Ryu. On one occasion, Akuma fought and killed a fighter that was about to challenge Adon. Seeing this as a challenge, Adon became determined to find and battle Akuma so as to prove himself stronger. In Akuma’s ending, he realized that he had fought worthy opponents and decided to stay alive for the moment, so as to perfect his power, knowing that there would eventually be someone able to kill him.

Street Fighter Alpha 3
Akuma continued to wait for Ryu to embrace Satsui no Hado while still seeking other worthy foes. Eventually Adon confronted him so as to demonstrate the supremacy of his Muay Thai style. However Akuma easily beat him, but chose not to kill him, apparently deciding he wasn’t worthy. Later, Akuma was challenged by M. Bison and thought it would be an easy win, since he was unable to sense Bison’s enormous amount of chi due to it being channeled through the Psycho Drive. Akuma attacked with the Shun Goku Satsu, but it had no effect on Bison due to his lack of a soul. He was able to catch Akuma off guard and easily defeat him. After this, Akuma fought against Gen again, but it is unknown what the result of their fight was.

Super Street Fighter II Turbo
Though Akuma was not an official competitor in the second World Warrior Tournament, he observed the tournament seeking a worthy challenge. Akuma eventually ambushed M. Bison at the beginning of the final fight, easily taking him down with his Shun Goku Satsu. Bison had been forced to merge with part of his expelled soul previously and this time was destroyed by the attack. Akuma proceeded to take on Bison’s opponent, but the details of this battle are unknown.

Super Street Fighter IV
As Akuma continued his training, he sensed the Satsui no Hado starting to re-emerge in Ryu. He headed out to fight him and make him give in to it so that he could become the opponent he wanted. After watching from the shadows for a time, Akuma found Ryu under the care of Gouken. The two brothers engaged each other with Ryu as the prize to the winner, but both survived the battle. Gouken freed Ryu of the Stasui no Hado and Akuma went back to his training and hunt for a worthy opponent.

Street Fighter III
Akuma’s training pushed his power to new heights, resulting in him developing new techniques, ones that could even unleash cataclysmic effects. Akuma did not officially compete in the next World Warrior Tournament, but again watched from the shadows. In the final match, he appeared and used his Shun Goku Satsu on Gill, sponsor of the tournament, and fought the other finalist himself (though Gill managed to resurrect himself later). Akuma eventually battled against Oro, after the two sensed each other’s massive amount of chi. The two were mutually impressed at each other’s strength, but held slight contempt for each other. Akuma and Oro’s battle ended without any real conclusion.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3
After the Marvel and Capcom universes began fusing together, Akuma became drawn into the conflict. In his ending, Akuma, having defeated Galactus and many other opponents from the Marvel universe, decided that he would no longer wait for strong opponents to appear to him and instead seek them out himself.

Street Fighter X Tekken
Akuma began hearing voices from within that became clearer after the meteorite containing Pandora crashed into the Earth. He decided that Pandora had brought a new era of chaos as fighters from all over the world tried to obtain it. When Akuma reached Pandora, he encountered another fighter; Ancient Ogre. Akuma could immediately tell that Ogre was a much more powerful fighter than any of the others he'd encountered. They challenged each other to see who was the superior fighter and in the end, Akuma managed to defeat Ogre.

In his ending, Akuma approached Pandora, but when it opened, a manifestation of Oni, Akuma completely consumed by the Satsui no Hado, came out. Recognizing that this being was an enraged shadow of himself, Akuma engaged it.

Asura's Wrath
Akuma makes an appearance in in the DLC of Asura's Wrath. Akuma has the opportunity to fight Asura after witnessing the latter's match with Ryu. In order to prevent distractions Akuma immediately executes the Demon Armegeddon on Ryu, knocking him so hard he flies back to his home dimension. When Akuma learns of Asura's name he seems to be very familiar with Asura's background and challenges him to a fight. Asura gains the upperhand and punches Akuma so hard he flies straight into a wall and the Onigami takes over transforming into Oni. This prompts Asura to transform into his second second strongest form, Mantra Asura, and Oni goes toe-to-toe with wrath emodieded god. Oni initiates all of his Ultras but prove to be useless when Asura counters all of them, the battle escalates to the point where the very moon splits apart to the core and breaks from the force of their blows. Asura and Oni start to fight in the moon, among the asteroids, and then in space. The two crash land into the Earth's atmosphere in a struggling, Asura and Akuma continue to fight with fight apparently lasting for 500 years. The two fighters turn into statues and finally begin to move to end the battle ending in a cliffhanger.

Personality
Akuma is a cold and emotionless, rarely displaying any emotion besides anger and never smiling. He is completely focused on bringing his fighting skills to their highest limit by fighting and defeating strong foes. Akuma focuses intensely on his training, attacking anyone who tries to interrupt it and enjoys testing himself against worthy rivals. He rarely ever uses his full strength since he has yet to meet an opponent who could deal with his true power. Akuma hates Gouken for not embracing the darker side of their fighting style, since he believes that it was intended to be used that way. Akuma’s also despises Gouken for sealing off the Satsui no Hado in Ryu, making him give up his plans to fight Ryu since he believes only one who has given into Satsui no Hado as he has can defeat him. Akuma refers to himself as the “denizen of hell” and “evil incarnate”, despite the fact that most of the time he does demonstrate a sense of honor. While he did kill Goutetsu and seemingly killed Gouken, he did so in a one on one fight, and only fights opponents he believes to be worthy or who have great potential. Akuma also refuses to fight any opponent who has some sort of handicap, though he does show a habit of using sneak attacks.

Powers and Abilities
Akuma is an extremely powerful fighter, having become a master in his fighting style and being empowered by the Satsui no Hado. Akuma is knowledgeable in many powerful techniques, some of which are said to be able to cause tsunamis, split Ayers Rock in two, and kill in one hit. He also uses a number of variations on the moves often used by Ryu or Ken, though stronger and faster than theirs. The techniques Akuma uses include his Gou Hadouken, a powerful fire ball he fires from his hands, Gou Shoryuken, a powerful rising uppercut, the Hurricane Scythe Kick, a series of spinning kicks, Ashura Senku, where he glows red then “glides” around, immune to attack, (essentially teleporting), and Kongou Kokuretsu Zan, where he holds up his fist, charges energy into it, and slams his fist into the ground, generating a shockwave of energy around him. However Akuma’s most well known technique is probably his Shun Goku Satsu, where he glides at the opponent then grabs them and unleashes the sixteen hells upon their souls. But if Akuma fails to maintain a zen state of mind while performing this technique, it will backfire and turn the power of the hells on him instead. Akuma can also transform into a form called Shin Akuma, where he undergoes a drastic change in appearance and uses the full amount of his power.

Trivia

 * In the anime movie, Street Fighter Alpha: Generations, Akuma is implied to be Ryu’s father. However this is considered non-canon.
 * Akuma may actually believe himself to be some sort of demon since the Satsui no Hado can have a toll on the user’s sanity after long usage of it.
 * Akuma and Fei Long were the only characters to not appear in the Street Fighter live action movie, though Akuma did appear in the game based on the movie.
 * He appears in the background in many episodes of the Street Fighter anime series.
 * The kanji on Akuma’s back (which is the symbol for “ten”) differs slightly between Street Fighter IV and Super Street Fighter IV.
 * Originally, Capcom USA said that Akuma made a deal with a demon to gain the power to defeat Gouken, but this was later decided to be non-canon.
 * When Akuma finishes an opponent with an Ultra Combo in Street Fighter IV, the announcer does not say “K.O.!”, implying he actually killed them.
 * Akuma’s name translates to “devil” and his Japanese name, Gouki, translates to “Great Devil”.
 * He may have been inspired by Zodd the Immortal from the manga, Berserk. They have a similar design and often fight worthy opponents to the death.