Akuma is outerversal in the comics that is canon and also his high end levels go be in marvel vs capcom 3 when he slam galactus that same galactus embodies death and eternity itself so he can scale to high outerversal as he is beyond death i can even put him at boundless as he slamms the phoenix this same phoenix is boundless
Let me give you the meanings of the idiom as an asian guy. 1. 1000 strikes means die horribly. 2. Pulling mountains means to have incredible strength/destructive power. It also means he has dedicated himself to achieve such power. He has no time to do anything else. 3. Sounds of ghouls crying means a lot people have died in his hands. Gouki hears the dead crying for vengeance. 4. Demon I am. Sounds simple right? Nope. What Gouki is saying is that he has gone against heaven’s will and chooses to fight against his fate. He has forsaken he dao/tao. He is against heaven and has become a demon. Edit: in asian culture, throwing away your humanity is one of the greatest sins. You cannot reincarnate. Gouki’s kanji in his back doesn’t say “heaven” the first stroke is not straight. His kanji with the slanted stroke means destruction. “天” means heaven. “夭” = destruction/calamity .
As I am also an Asian. Also, I used to study old Chinese literature. It doesn’t mean that. When using 蓋世, it means very good. 蓋世豪傑 means a great man. 武功蓋世means great kung-fu, etc. 啾啾 it is just the wind noise. Old Chinese literature always use words to describe the sounds. 故豪鬼成, it is more like to mean, 故此，”therefore”, 鬼 means him(豪鬼),成means “become” or “achieve”.
@@hungcarl Some findings about “啾”. I dig a bit over TW / HKCU web and find this: 揚雲霓之晻藹兮，鳴玉鸞之啾啾 Maybe 鬼哭啾啾means “lots of ghosts weeping” ? Other than that, I agree with everything you mentioned.
Hate to disagree on the kanji either meaning "Calamity" or "Heaven" but according to the Japanese Wikipedia page for Akuma/Gouki (and I do mean Japanese as I selected that language for it) it links to a mention that in the SF X Tekken artbook that the kanji was added by the staff after the initial design for Akuma/Gouki was done back in the day. In fact on the entire Wikipedia page for Akuma/Gouki in Japanese no instance of the kanji for "Calamity/夭" appears at any time.
Fun fact: Akuma's kanji on his back is not the Heaven kanji (天) it's actually this kanji (夭) which means "devastation" or "premature death" but i think the people at Capcom decided to make that misunderstanding a part of his character later with him wanting to be beyond the Heavens with his destructive force.
Now that we know what happens in the Raging Demon, I hope Death Battle changes the outcome of their Akuma vs Shao Khan fight. There's no way he could have blocked all of that.
Even with just that, I still think Akuma should have won. Shoa Khan doesn't come anywhere close to Asura in terms of strength, and Akuma was fighting that guy blow for blow.
Akuma couldn't truly kill M. Bison or Gill, though. And Heihachi (barely) survived the Shin Shun Goku Satsu, too (although half of it's from plot armor BS). So I can understand why Shao Kahn winning kinda makes sense.
@@Ebb-2000 Bison did die, but he had part of his soul stored away to revive with. Gill died too, but he has a resurrection ability. Shao Khan would have died from a whole in his chest if his subordinates had not saved him. Apparently, Heihachi needed to be killed by his son for the plot. Akuma may be cannon, but he's still a guest character.
Akuma at this point is becoming more mythical than being real for himself. Those multiple Akumas in the raging demon is an awesome upgrade now as if I want to put him in the Naruto Verse.
The kanji “拔山蓋世” comes from the poem allegedly written by Xiang Yu himself during his last and final defeat. The poem says “力拔山兮，氣蓋世”. The kanji “鬼哭啾啾” comes from two poems during Chinese Tang Dynasty. One written by Du Fu, it says “新鬼煩冤舊鬼哭，天陰雨濕聲啾啾” and one by Wang Han, it says “黃昏塞北無人煙，鬼哭啾啾聲沸天”
Awesome explanation dude, I never knew Capcom really put a lot of thought into Akuma’s raging demon with the kanji’s and their meanings including Akuma’s comment during the move itself.
When I first heard it I thought he said, “Be sent to Heavens, Reach the Summit, Become the Demon!” Funny how almost all of us got the last bit right at least
the moment when he summons 1000 Akumers to pile up on you like he's Agent Smith or something felt "goofy ahh" (in a good way) to me and made me crack up, ngl 🤣 5 is still my probably my favorite though, exactly because it had the right balance between giving you a sneak peek of him smoking your character while still keeping it vague enough for your imagination to run rampant, and nothing beats imagination.
They kinda showed us what it looked like back during 4 as well. In the ashura DLC, oni does raging demon as well as asura and multiple times they show us them punching each other.
the 1000 deaths is not referring to 1000 Akumas beating you to death, the 1000 deaths is referring to a cowards fate to die 1000 deaths as opposed to a warrior only dying once. you still have time to correct this.
amazing analysis, I absolutely love the evolution of the Raging Demon, SFV was already peek.....but man this one blow all expectations out of the water. great work finding so many details and references here
The Chinese comic is by an artist named "Xu Jingchen". He did multiple Hong Kong Street Fighter comics back in the 90's. His first works were unlicensed by Capcom and I'm not sure if they did acquire one by the time SFIII released. There were numerous art panels that were featured in that comic that were copied from the Nakahira manga. The one featured in this video is a direct copy from the Ryu Final manga and is not the original.
The thing is... According to Udon Comics (Which in my head is cannon) Akuma's RD loooks more like his Lvl3 Critical art in this game. Basically, he grabs you by the throat with both hands and builds up a Hadouken inside your throat.
In Capcom vs SNK 2, Shin Akuma's raging demon I think is also the first complete demon rage we see. As if all the other versions where he just grabs them and does 15 (initially) hits was Demon Rage Lite. Then we see the full move in Cap vs SNK2 with Shin Akuma, its just over 30 hits, and it has a slower start up at the beginning of it. It almost aligns with what they did in both SFV and SF6, that being, he first hits the opponent several times from the shadows "ramping up" the attacks, and then goes full bezerk and unleashes the "1000 deaths" Visually I would say this is so awesome and such a call back. Even SFV in this case seems to be aligned precisely with this evolution and call back. Looking at the visual evolution of the demon rages, I would say this is the order. 1) All the Demon Rages from normal Akuma in SF4 and before are his normal Demon Rage. A quick instant 15hit or more flash of hits. 2) The second evolution to this and look we get at it in its more complete form is Capcom vs SNK 2. Grabs the opponent and there are several slower hits at the start that ramp up into the demon rage. 3) In SFV we see those hits mildly in the shadows as Akuma "dances" in the shadows before it becomes too fast and fades out to black with the complete demon rage. 4) Now in SF6, we see it completely. His shadows are attacking the enemy, as this happens Akuma primes for the 1000 deaths attack and we see at last in complete form the Demon Rage in all its glory. I also love how they kept this evolution in the move and his power. He starts from normal. In SF4 it seems more powerful. In SFV is the first Normal Akuma, outside of Shin Akuma in CvSNK2, that begins to portray a more complete rendition of the move, as if he is slowly moving towards the Shin Akuma state more and more, along with his first more feral look. And in SF6, this journey seems complete. After this point honestly I think the next step would be to just make him Shin Akuma. Which, again it could simply be normal Akuma, since Shin Akuma indicates he is not on that level yet, is a what if in some cases, or a state he might be able to access? Perhaps. So if this becomes his normal state, I assume it will still just be Akuma at that point. Such an awesome and interesting find with your video. Thank you for this :)
I actually love this New Addition, we know Akuma is a Force of Violent Nature than a Threat like Bison, so this gives new Layers to this Warrior that has evolved into a more than a Shadow Demon.
Raging Demon was already one of the coldest finishers in FG history, and SF6 somehow made it even better with showing what actually happens during it all while Akuma is dropping some of the hardest lines ever. Legit got chills when I first saw it
personally i prefer the idea of akuma just going fast asf or teleporting around the enemy like in sf5 cuz that's way cooler than just summoning a bunch of random clones in an alternate dimension for some reason HOWEVER it could be that what we see as the super is what the victim sees, being that the raging demon destroys not just body but soul via the sins one has committed- the different dimension and the extra akumas could be explained as it just being a vision/representation of the raging demon, while them getting pummeled to kingdom come (by a singular akuma this time) is in the physical world
Really like this video, the amount of depth and work you put into it is really good. Def got a new sub. Lookin forward to more vids in the future regarding Akuma 🤝❤️
I’ve only started the video so if you talk about it my bad but Isshun Sengeki means 1000 strikes in an instant not die a thousand deaths. Edit: You did lmao.
If I recall right, in eastern cultures the number 1,000 is often used as a way of describing something as endless or infinite. "Die 1,000 deaths" thus may be Akuma actually condemning his enemy to experience death endlessly - and given the lore of Shun Goku Satsu, which canonically aims not just to destroy the body but also the soul, I'd say that description fits. How could one experience death on a more infinite level than by having their soul shattered?
i wish they said the poem in english, i would make it: "pulling mountains off the ground the sound of ghouls cry akuma is the raging demon you are going to die" ik the poem is 3 lines but it flows better as 4 and i think it sounds way better overall i think become the demon is a stupid line akuma literally means demon so him becoming the demon doesn't make any sense
Second fun fact:Capcom itself has stated that the kanji ten means "inmortality", you can search and you will find it, and no its not like the pinned comment, the Akuma's symbol its the ancient way of writing the "ten" kanji, after a lot of search i found that out, i even searched for the whole japanese alphabet and the "premature death/die young" kanji doesnt seem to exist or at least i didnt find it, but what i did find its the ancient way to write that kanji(天).
I know it will never happen, but I think it would be dope, to have Gouken as a DLC character and give him a similar button sequence, to activate while Shun Goku Satsu animation is happening and if timed correctly allows him to empty his soul and emotions to survive and counter the move, putting him in a "empty state" OD state. That animation sequence would be sick.
When I saw the kanji in the trailer for the first time I ripped through my Ryu:Final manga since I have both volumes, found the picture you mentioned and lost it. When it comes to the Ansatsuken Users I always considered Ryu: Final cannon. So having a direct reference in a game like this makes me excited to use Akuma in SF6, I use Ken and the reason why I’ve been using him for so long is because of his depiction in Ryu:Final as well. The Ryu final manga is worth a read! It’s one of my favorites
6:07 I am able to track down the whereabouts that Manga is. It's published by an artist which is one of the students from Tony Wong, a famous Hong Kong artist with his famous for publishing well-known manga like Oriental Heros.
That title i got bunch of them when street fighter 2 came out there chinese comics. I got one were Ken leads a mob to a U.N building then releases a posion mist and kills everyone. I've had mine since 1994 damn so long ago would been 16 or so.
Yes it loses its mystique but that's not a bad thing...most of us who played sf2 30 years ago always wondered what happened during demon black screen..and now we finally know and it's awesome....however I wish the demon in sf6 was a little longer..showing more brutality...but nevertheless the demon is amazing in sf6
Akuma's Raging Demon in SF6 is absolutely sick and unlike anything seen before But I think i prefer the one in SF5 the most, it fleshed out the move while still being faithful to how the move used to be shown.
They had to give it a animation for gamplay reasons every supper in sf6 last 9 seconds and during that time the characters recover 1.5 bars of drive gage
Watch the movie " Exuma" there's a 15 foot brutal samari demon in it that will really give you some insight on this characters rage and the religious cultural beliefs behind origins of characters like this . Very good movie as well !
Hi, I first just wanna say, I appreciate the video and glad someone looked into this as well. I didn't know about the history of why they went with these phrases. Secondly, I translate 1000 year old Japanese folktales and I wrote a whole kanji by kanji breakdown of these phrases a couple of weeks ago that I'll just copy and paste here for anyone interested in a bit more of a detailed analysis So, the first set of kanji. 一瞬千撃 isshun sengeki 一 one; ichi 瞬 instant; shun 千 thousand; sen 撃 strike/attack; geki Pretty straightforward; one instant 1000 strikes. The second 抜山蓋世 batsuzan gaisei 抜 pull out i.e. a sword, hair etc; batsu 山 mountain; san/zan 蓋 lid/cover over/contain; gai 世 worl; sei Pull out mountains, cover over the world. This one requires a little more explanation. My dictionary says “Herculean strength” but more literally it means being so powerful that you can uproot mountains and “cover over” the world, e.g. containing/controlling the world. Essentially, Akuma is claiming that he has achieved a power that can dominate the world. The third 鬼哭啾啾 kikoku shushu 鬼 demon; ki 哭 weep; koku 啾 wail; shu Demons weep and wail. This one you can mostly understand at a glance but to fully appreciate it it requires some explanation. The last kanji is repeated to emphasize the fact that the demons are wailing like mad. Specifically what I picked up is that it’s supposed to be the wailing of those who died violently and tragically, the “spine chilling” (is what my dictionary says) screams of the damned. The fourth and final 故豪鬼成 I had a hard time hearing how he actually pronounced this but I believe it was; yue Goki nari, 故 therefore/thus/such; yue 豪 powerful/terrible/grand; go 鬼 demon; ki 成 to be/to become; nari Thus, I am/have become Goki or I am/have become a/the great demon. This one also deserves some explanation. I’m sure some of you know that Akuma’s Japanese name is Goki/Gouki, which is a combination of the kanji for powerful/grand/terrible and demon. So here he’s either explaining why his name is Gouki or just straight up claiming to be a Gouki or even THE Gouki. Given the nature of Japanese and Chinese (because the first three sets of kanji are basically Chinese just with Japanese pronunciation while this one and the ending refrain are Japanese), and given Akuma’s mad confidence and belief in his supremacy, it’s safe to think that he’s claiming to be not just a powerful demon, but THE powerful demon. And then he goes into the 我、拳を極めし者 “I am he who hath mastered the fist” which is neither Chinese nor a yojijukugo but just a sentence in very old, Classical Japanese. So basically, to reiterate what our boy said, the creators put some detail into this super and it's absolutely awe inspiring. Hope that helps.
I know in Chinese martial arts has this sentence of ghosts cry and Gods howl for someone very powerful. It is actually used in a martial arts style fraise that describe someone who combines bajiquan and pigua where to be invincible.
@Skuxxed You probably know this by now, but the Hong Kong manga is a manhua called Street Fighter III, n. 1: New Generation by Lee Chung Hing and Hui King Sum. They worked on other action manhuas like RE: Code Veronica and the King of Fighters.
As some one who has been playing Akuma since the 90's, Alpha Days, Ex plus alpha, etc. This RAGING demon in SF6, IS THE Best iteration, hands down. Enough with the debate. It gives real deep depth of how devastating the Super is!.
Raven (T8): Witness the results of my training!! [executes rage art on Akuma] Akuma: WEAK [Counters every shadow clone and unleashes 999 clones for the beatdown]
Now hold on, just what the fuck do you mean by "even came back in Japanese for tekken 7" at 0:55 when STREET FIGHTER is a game franchise made in JAPAN with STREET FIGHTER IV having original JAPANESE dialogue before getting TRANSLATED into English. Well anyway that was just a nitpick lol, besides that I'm very impressed on the research you've done, truly amazing work!
I honestly think raging demon looked cooler in SF5. I loved the lighting and the way he’d appear from the shadows, it was animated beautifully. Still looks good in SF6 though
oh they are saying usurp the heavens i thought they were saying "we'll shoot to heaven" also thought it was "embrace the sovereign" rather than "embrace the sorrow" these phrases make a lot more sense
