Katsuhiro Harada ( 原田 勝弘 , Harada Katsuhiro , born June 10, 1970) is a Japanese game director and producer for Bandai Namco Entertainment . He is best known for his work with the fighting game series Tekken .
103-736: Akuma ( Japanese : 悪魔 , meaning "Devil", "Demon") , known in Japan as Gouki ( 豪鬼 , lit. "Great Demon") , is a fictional character from the Street Fighter series of fighting games created by Capcom . Akuma made his debut in Super Street Fighter II Turbo as a secret character and an alternative boss to the villain M. Bison . In the storyline, he is the younger brother of Gouken , Ryu 's and Ken 's master. After defeating his brother, Akuma gains interest in several fighters, most notably Ryu as he senses that
206-790: A "spirit"; a type of collectible item that can be used to enhance the abilities of playable characters. Akuma also appears in Capcom's collaboration in Monster Hunter Rise . Akuma also appears as a "crossover" character in Brawlhalla with mirrored abilities of Val. Akuma made cameo appearances in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie and in the Japanese TV series Street Fighter II V . Actor and martial artist Joey Ansah played Akuma in
309-637: A benefit from the in-group to the out-group) means "[I/we] explained [it] to [him/her/them]". Such beneficiary auxiliary verbs thus serve a function comparable to that of pronouns and prepositions in Indo-European languages to indicate the actor and the recipient of an action. Japanese "pronouns" also function differently from most modern Indo-European pronouns (and more like nouns) in that they can take modifiers as any other noun may. For instance, one does not say in English: The amazed he ran down
412-418: A better design despite enjoying the concept of Oni being the original character having obtained more power at the cost of his own humanity.he website also praised such form for giving the origins of Ryu a major twist and having a major part in the narrative as Akuma is interested in the protagonist reaching this form. Japanese language Japanese ( 日本語 , Nihongo , [ɲihoŋɡo] )
515-428: A bonus fight between Devil Kazuya and Akuma could be unlocked. Calling Devil Kazuya a difficult opponent, Shacknews and Hobby Consolas said that Akuma offered players a challenge; gamers needed to learn Devil Kazuya's moves to defeat him, resulting in the game's most difficult fight. Despite the character's popularity, Akuma has often been criticized for his perceived status as an excessively powerful character in
618-547: A demon and murdering Goutetsu with the power of the Dark Hadou; he fights against Gouken ten years later, as they fight, Gouken eventually wins against Akuma as he falls off a cliff; Gouken tries to save him, but Akuma willingly drops himself into a river, only for him to survive the drop. In 2012, band MegaDriver released a song about Akuma's character, called "Wrath of the Raging Demon". In 2014, band Skelator released
721-414: A distinct language of its own that has absorbed various aspects from neighboring languages. Japanese has five vowels, and vowel length is phonemic, with each having both a short and a long version. Elongated vowels are usually denoted with a line over the vowel (a macron ) in rōmaji , a repeated vowel character in hiragana , or a chōonpu succeeding the vowel in katakana . /u/ ( listen )
824-516: A downloadable character, and again appears as a downloadable character in Street Fighter 6 . Akuma has appeared in some form or another through many Capcom games outside the Street Fighter franchise. The first of these appearances was in the fighting game X-Men: Children of the Atom , where Akuma (in his Super Turbo incarnation) appears as a nameless hidden character. He would appear in
927-419: A glide /j/ and either the first part of a geminate consonant ( っ / ッ , represented as Q) or a moraic nasal in the coda ( ん / ン , represented as N). The nasal is sensitive to its phonetic environment and assimilates to the following phoneme, with pronunciations including [ɴ, m, n, ɲ, ŋ, ɰ̃] . Onset-glide clusters only occur at the start of syllables but clusters across syllables are allowed as long as
1030-491: A guest character in other franchises, most notably as a guest in the Namco Bandai Games ' Tekken 7 . Akuma has also appeared in printed and animated adaptations of the Street Fighter series which explore his relationship with Ryu. Since his debut, Akuma has appeared in several subsequent titles and has been praised by both fans and critics. The character has often been praised for his dark personality contrasting
1133-484: A listener depending on the listener's relative social position and the degree of familiarity between the speaker and the listener. When used in different social relationships, the same word may have positive (intimate or respectful) or negative (distant or disrespectful) connotations. Japanese often use titles of the person referred to where pronouns would be used in English. For example, when speaking to one's teacher, it
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#17327720749391236-411: A little bit of taekwondo in the past. He attended Waseda University along with Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki and holds a degree in psychology . During his university studies, he took a few Chinese language courses, albeit finding it very difficult. After graduating from university, he joined Namco to become a promoter. His parents were initially unhappy with his pursuit in a career with
1339-520: A major contrast between the regular boss, M. Bison, and Akuma. Akuma first appears in Super Street Fighter II Turbo defeating the final boss with his Shun Goku Satsu ( 瞬獄殺 , Shun Goku Satsu , lit. "Instant Prison Murder") technique which acts in fast fashion. The same move has been shown in other games like in Street Fighter IV where Akuma is seen defeating Gouken in the intro whereas Ryu's evil alter egos have performed it influeced by
1442-436: A rival since the first Street Fighter , and over time he would meet more 'shotos' who had an affinity for karate gis , fireballs, and uppercuts." GamesRadar's David Houghton rated Akuma's Street Fighter 3: 3rd Strike stage among the "27 most amazing fighting game backgrounds": "Gloomily ethereal, black-skied woodland setting with subliminally oppressive fisheye-lens effect? You are definitely going to die." In Tekken 7 ,
1545-408: A sentence need not be stated and pronouns may be omitted if they can be inferred from context. In the example above, hana ga nagai would mean "[their] noses are long", while nagai by itself would mean "[they] are long." A single verb can be a complete sentence: Yatta! ( やった! ) "[I / we / they / etc] did [it]!". In addition, since adjectives can form the predicate in a Japanese sentence (below),
1648-428: A single adjective can be a complete sentence: Urayamashii! ( 羨ましい! ) "[I'm] jealous [about it]!". While the language has some words that are typically translated as pronouns, these are not used as frequently as pronouns in some Indo-European languages, and function differently. In some cases, Japanese relies on special verb forms and auxiliary verbs to indicate the direction of benefit of an action: "down" to indicate
1751-505: A song about Akuma, called "Raging Demon". In 2015, rapper Tauz released a tribute song to Akuma, called "Rap do Akuma". In 2021, band RAVENOUS E.H. released a song about Akuma, called "Die 1,000 Deaths". Akuma forms a substantial part of the Rensuke Oshikiri manga and Netflix TV series Hi Score Girl ; Akuma is discovered (as a hidden character) by the female lead Oono (who typically plays Zangief), and Akuma subsequently becomes
1854-539: A three-way tie for 37th. Rich Knight of Complex , in 2012, placed Akuma's SSFII Turbo appearance runner-up to Shao Kahn in Mortal Kombat II as the "coolest boss battle ever": "Akuma rushed into our lives and onto the screen ... and then demolish[ed] you in seconds." He placed first in Game Informer 's 2009 list of their "Top Ten Best Fighting Game Characters". Ryan Clements of IGN prefer him over
1957-680: Is compressed rather than protruded , or simply unrounded. Some Japanese consonants have several allophones , which may give the impression of a larger inventory of sounds. However, some of these allophones have since become phonemic. For example, in the Japanese language up to and including the first half of the 20th century, the phonemic sequence /ti/ was palatalized and realized phonetically as [tɕi] , approximately chi ( listen ) ; however, now [ti] and [tɕi] are distinct, as evidenced by words like tī [tiː] "Western-style tea" and chii [tɕii] "social status". The "r" of
2060-421: Is topic–comment . Sentence-final particles are used to add emotional or emphatic impact, or form questions. Nouns have no grammatical number or gender , and there are no articles . Verbs are conjugated , primarily for tense and voice , but not person . Japanese adjectives are also conjugated. Japanese has a complex system of honorifics , with verb forms and vocabulary to indicate the relative status of
2163-528: Is Evil Ryu's final boss in the console versions of Street Fighter Alpha 3 . Akuma and Shin Akuma are featured in Street Fighter EX as hidden boss characters, where he is one of the few characters able to move out of the 2D playing field, during his teleport. Akuma also appears in the arcade and home video game console adaption of Street Fighter: The Movie despite not appearing in the movie. In
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#17327720749392266-745: Is a regular character in Street Fighter III 3rd Strike . Akuma reappears in Street Fighter IV , being one of the main antagonists and once again a secret boss in the Arcade Mode as well as an unlockable character in both console versions. A new form of Akuma, known as Oni ( 狂オシキ鬼 , Kuruoshiki Oni , lit. The Mad Demon) , was confirmed in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition by leaked videos. Akuma returns in Street Fighter V as
2369-448: Is also seen in o-medetō "congratulations", from medetaku ). Late Middle Japanese has the first loanwords from European languages – now-common words borrowed into Japanese in this period include pan ("bread") and tabako ("tobacco", now "cigarette"), both from Portuguese . Modern Japanese is considered to begin with the Edo period (which spanned from 1603 to 1867). Since Old Japanese,
2472-527: Is also used in a limited fashion (such as for imported acronyms) in Japanese writing. The numeral system uses mostly Arabic numerals , but also traditional Chinese numerals . Proto-Japonic , the common ancestor of the Japanese and Ryukyuan languages , is thought to have been brought to Japan by settlers coming from the Korean peninsula sometime in the early- to mid-4th century BC (the Yayoi period ), replacing
2575-440: Is appropriate to use sensei ( 先生 , "teacher"), but inappropriate to use anata . This is because anata is used to refer to people of equal or lower status, and one's teacher has higher status. Japanese nouns have no grammatical number, gender or article aspect. The noun hon ( 本 ) may refer to a single book or several books; hito ( 人 ) can mean "person" or "people", and ki ( 木 ) can be "tree" or "trees". Where number
2678-701: Is associated with comedy (see Kansai dialect ). Dialects of Tōhoku and North Kantō are associated with typical farmers. The Ryūkyūan languages, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands (administratively part of Kagoshima ), are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family; not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryūkyūan languages. However, in contrast to linguists, many ordinary Japanese people tend to consider
2781-466: Is better documentation of Late Middle Japanese phonology than for previous forms (for instance, the Arte da Lingoa de Iapam ). Among other sound changes, the sequence /au/ merges to /ɔː/ , in contrast with /oː/ ; /p/ is reintroduced from Chinese; and /we/ merges with /je/ . Some forms rather more familiar to Modern Japanese speakers begin to appear – the continuative ending - te begins to reduce onto
2884-509: Is correlated with the sex of the speaker and the social situation in which they are spoken: men and women alike in a formal situation generally refer to themselves as watashi ( 私 , literally "private") or watakushi (also 私 , hyper-polite form), while men in rougher or intimate conversation are much more likely to use the word ore ( 俺 "oneself", "myself") or boku . Similarly, different words such as anata , kimi , and omae ( お前 , more formally 御前 "the one before me") may refer to
2987-478: Is finally dead for good at the hands of Kazuya, he is Akuma's only target left. Similar to his appearances in the Street Fighter series, Akuma replaces Kazumi as a secret arcade mode final boss if certain conditions are met. He also appears in Namco × Capcom . He appears as both a playable character and one of the final boss characters in the crossover fighting game Street Fighter X Tekken . Akuma also appears in
3090-417: Is important, it can be indicated by providing a quantity (often with a counter word ) or (rarely) by adding a suffix, or sometimes by duplication (e.g. 人人 , hitobito , usually written with an iteration mark as 人々 ). Words for people are usually understood as singular. Thus Tanaka-san usually means Mx Tanaka . Words that refer to people and animals can be made to indicate a group of individuals through
3193-755: Is less common. In terms of mutual intelligibility , a survey in 1967 found that the four most unintelligible dialects (excluding Ryūkyūan languages and Tōhoku dialects ) to students from Greater Tokyo were the Kiso dialect (in the deep mountains of Nagano Prefecture ), the Himi dialect (in Toyama Prefecture ), the Kagoshima dialect and the Maniwa dialect (in Okayama Prefecture ). The survey
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3296-420: Is often called a topic-prominent language , which means it has a strong tendency to indicate the topic separately from the subject, and that the two do not always coincide. The sentence Zō wa hana ga nagai ( 象は鼻が長い ) literally means, "As for elephant(s), (the) nose(s) (is/are) long". The topic is zō "elephant", and the subject is hana "nose". Japanese grammar tends toward brevity; the subject or object of
3399-498: Is preserved in words such as matsuge ("eyelash", lit. "hair of the eye"); modern mieru ("to be visible") and kikoeru ("to be audible") retain a mediopassive suffix - yu(ru) ( kikoyu → kikoyuru (the attributive form, which slowly replaced the plain form starting in the late Heian period) → kikoeru (all verbs with the shimo-nidan conjugation pattern underwent this same shift in Early Modern Japanese )); and
3502-586: Is spelled in Japanese as 神・豪鬼 , with the "Shin" character meaning "God" instead of the usual "True". Also, various version of Akuma have appeared in the SNK vs. Capcom: Card Fighters Clash series. Akuma appears as a special guest character in Tekken 7 . In the game's story, he seeks to repay a debt to Kazumi Mishima for saving his life from an unknown critical situation, who asks him to kill her husband Heihachi and his son Kazuya for her if she dies. When Heihachi
3605-665: Is the principal language of the Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people . It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan , the only country where it is the national language , and within the Japanese diaspora worldwide. The Japonic family also includes the Ryukyuan languages and the variously classified Hachijō language . There have been many attempts to group the Japonic languages with other families such as
3708-402: Is the version of Japanese discussed in this article. Formerly, standard Japanese in writing ( 文語 , bungo , "literary language") was different from colloquial language ( 口語 , kōgo ) . The two systems have different rules of grammar and some variance in vocabulary. Bungo was the main method of writing Japanese until about 1900; since then kōgo gradually extended its influence and
3811-471: Is used for the present and the future. For verbs that represent an ongoing process, the -te iru form indicates a continuous (or progressive) aspect , similar to the suffix ing in English. For others that represent a change of state, the -te iru form indicates a perfect aspect. For example, kite iru means "They have come (and are still here)", but tabete iru means "They are eating". Questions (both with an interrogative pronoun and yes/no questions) have
3914-593: Is very similar to Akuma's; for example, in the Street Fighter Alpha series, Shin Akuma had a purple karate gi instead of a dark gray one and marginally darker skin tone. Akuma's introduction in Super Street Fighter II Turbo stemmed from the development team's desire to introduce a "mysterious and really powerful" character, with his status as a hidden character within the game resulting from later discussions. When asked regarding
4017-405: Is why some linguists do not classify Japanese "pronouns" as pronouns, but rather as referential nouns, much like Spanish usted (contracted from vuestra merced , "your ( majestic plural ) grace") or Portuguese você (from vossa mercê ). Japanese personal pronouns are generally used only in situations requiring special emphasis as to who is doing what to whom. The choice of words used as pronouns
4120-563: The Ainu , Austronesian , Koreanic , and the now-discredited Altaic , but none of these proposals have gained any widespread acceptance. Little is known of the language's prehistory, or when it first appeared in Japan. Chinese documents from the 3rd century AD recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial Old Japanese texts did not appear until the 8th century. From the Heian period (794–1185), extensive waves of Sino-Japanese vocabulary entered
4223-462: The Japonic language family, which also includes the Ryukyuan languages spoken in the Ryukyu Islands . As these closely related languages are commonly treated as dialects of the same language, Japanese is sometimes called a language isolate . According to Martine Irma Robbeets , Japanese has been subject to more attempts to show its relation to other languages than any other language in
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4326-514: The Philippines , and various Pacific islands, locals in those countries learned Japanese as the language of the empire. As a result, many elderly people in these countries can still speak Japanese. Japanese emigrant communities (the largest of which are to be found in Brazil , with 1.4 million to 1.5 million Japanese immigrants and descendants, according to Brazilian IBGE data, more than
4429-579: The Street Fighter series. GamePro considered Akuma one of the "Most Broken Characters in Videogame History", for his "ridiculously powerful" moves that were "the bane of newbies and veterans alike," a sentiment that was echoed by Christopher Hooton of Metro . Lucas Sullivan of GamesRadar ranked Akuma eleventh in his list of "12 unfair fighting game bosses that (almost) made us rage quit" in 2014. "Even if you ever do manage to finally defeat Akuma, it somehow doesn't feel earned. It's more like
4532-738: The United States (notably in Hawaii , where 16.7% of the population has Japanese ancestry, and California ), and the Philippines (particularly in Davao Region and the Province of Laguna ). Japanese has no official status in Japan, but is the de facto national language of the country. There is a form of the language considered standard : hyōjungo ( 標準語 ) , meaning "standard Japanese", or kyōtsūgo ( 共通語 ) , "common language", or even "Tokyo dialect" at times. The meanings of
4635-547: The computer felt sorry for you." Akuma's Oni incarnation has received a mixed reception. Imran Khan of Paste rated Oni as one of the "all-time worst" series characters, lamenting the redesign that made Akuma interesting and instead making him look like a rejected Dragon Ball Z character. Randolph Ramsay of GameSpot considered Oni "one of the least interesting additions" to Super Street Fighter IV , as he utilized moves similar to those of other characters. Den of Geek had mixed feelings about Oni, having considered Akuma to sport
4738-806: The de facto standard Japanese had been the Kansai dialect , especially that of Kyoto . However, during the Edo period, Edo (now Tokyo) developed into the largest city in Japan, and the Edo-area dialect became standard Japanese. Since the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853, the flow of loanwords from European languages has increased significantly. The period since 1945 has seen many words borrowed from other languages—such as German, Portuguese and English. Many English loan words especially relate to technology—for example, pasokon (short for "personal computer"), intānetto ("internet"), and kamera ("camera"). Due to
4841-551: The "Dark Hadou" in Ryu. Akuma is also the central focus in the OVA Street Fighter Alpha: Generations , which explores his past and ties the character's past with Ryu's. He appears in the beginning of the movie Street Fighter 4: The Ties That Bind , where he enters Ryu's mind and torments him. UDON Entertainment 's line of Street Fighter comics sets Akuma in his origin story on how he became
4944-404: The "most diabolical" fighting-game boss citing the large impact of his debut where he defeats M. Bison while replacing him as the final boss of his video game. Such impact let to Bryan Dawson of Prima Games calling him "irreplaceable". The character was also praised for his fighting techniques and has appeared in several polls. Ben Lee of Digital Spy named him the sixth-best series character on
5047-527: The 1.2 million of the United States ) sometimes employ Japanese as their primary language. Approximately 12% of Hawaii residents speak Japanese, with an estimated 12.6% of the population of Japanese ancestry in 2008. Japanese emigrants can also be found in Peru , Argentina , Australia (especially in the eastern states), Canada (especially in Vancouver , where 1.4% of the population has Japanese ancestry),
5150-529: The Atom as the top fighting-game guest character. While Jason Fanelli of Arcade Sushi considered it "the best guest turn he's ever done," he simultaneously criticized his cameo in Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness : "Akuma doesn't need to be a giant mech for extra exposure." Chris Hoadley of VentureBeat labeled Akuma one of the "best fighting game clones" in 2014: "Capcom is no stranger to reusing [character] models. Ryu has had Ken as
5253-791: The English localization of Super Turbo Revival for the Game Boy Advance . Shin Akuma is, however, an unlockable playable character in the Game Boy Advance version of the game, Super Street Fighter II Turbo Revival , as well as the Japan-only Dreamcast version of the game, Super Street Fighter II X for Matching Service . In the latter version, another version of Akuma referred to as Tien Gouki can also be selected. Akuma appears in Street Fighter Alpha: Warriors' Dreams , where he
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#17327720749395356-486: The Japanese language is of particular interest, ranging between an apical central tap and a lateral approximant . The "g" is also notable; unless it starts a sentence, it may be pronounced [ ŋ ] , in the Kanto prestige dialect and in other eastern dialects. The phonotactics of Japanese are relatively simple. The syllable structure is (C)(G)V(C), that is, a core vowel surrounded by an optional onset consonant,
5459-525: The Millennium as an unlockable character and in Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000 as a Ratio 4 character. He also appears in Capcom vs. SNK 2 and SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos as both regular Akuma and Shin Akuma. In Capcom vs. SNK 2 , a different form of Shin Akuma appears. This form of Akuma achieves a new level of power when a dying Rugal Bernstein pours his Orochi power into him. His name
5562-736: The Old Japanese sections are written in Man'yōgana , which uses kanji for their phonetic as well as semantic values. Based on the Man'yōgana system, Old Japanese can be reconstructed as having 88 distinct morae . Texts written with Man'yōgana use two different sets of kanji for each of the morae now pronounced き (ki), ひ (hi), み (mi), け (ke), へ (he), め (me), こ (ko), そ (so), と (to), の (no), も (mo), よ (yo) and ろ (ro). (The Kojiki has 88, but all later texts have 87. The distinction between mo 1 and mo 2 apparently
5665-488: The Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. The imperial court also seems to have spoken an unusual variant of the Japanese of the time, most likely the spoken form of Classical Japanese , a writing style that was prevalent during the Heian period , but began to decline during the late Meiji period . The Ryūkyūan languages are classified by UNESCO as 'endangered', as young people mostly use Japanese and cannot understand
5768-458: The Satsui no Hadou that Akuma controls and masters like Oni. Akuma has dark red hair, dark skin tone, glowing red eyes with black sclera , wears prayer beads around his neck, a dark gray karate gi and a piece of twine around his waist in lieu of an obi . The kanji "ten" ( 天 ) — meaning "Heaven" — can be seen on his back when it appears during certain win animations. Shin Akuma's appearance
5871-543: The addition of a collective suffix (a noun suffix that indicates a group), such as -tachi , but this is not a true plural: the meaning is closer to the English phrase "and company". A group described as Tanaka-san-tachi may include people not named Tanaka. Some Japanese nouns are effectively plural, such as hitobito "people" and wareware "we/us", while the word tomodachi "friend" is considered singular, although plural in form. Verbs are conjugated to show tenses, of which there are two: past and present (or non-past) which
5974-481: The character Leo Kliesen in Tekken 6 because of their ambiguous gender, and for attending EVO 2017 in a shirt that read "Don't Ask Me for Shit". Harada is also a member of Project Soul (the team behind the Soulcalibur franchise) and makes an appearance in Soulcalibur V as a bonus character. By 2019, Harada had been promoted to lead the fighting game esports division of Bandai Namco, as well as to being
6077-578: The effect of changing Japanese into a mora-timed language. Late Middle Japanese covers the years from 1185 to 1600, and is normally divided into two sections, roughly equivalent to the Kamakura period and the Muromachi period , respectively. The later forms of Late Middle Japanese are the first to be described by non-native sources, in this case the Jesuit and Franciscan missionaries; and thus there
6180-606: The fighter and alter-ego of Hidaka, Oono's rival. The animated show contains long sequences of actual gameplay (that is, recorded video of actual gameplay) intercut with the animation. The bulk of episode 20 is the long battle between Hidaka playing Akuma and Oono playing Zangief. Akuma has received much critical acclaim from various gaming media outlets. Paste rated Akuma 23rd in their 2016 ranking of Street Fighter's 97 total playable characters, describing him as "a great anti-hero to offset Ryu and Ken." Japanese magazine Gamest named him one of their "Top 50 Characters of 1996", in
6283-642: The fighting video game Street Fighter X Mega Man , as a hidden boss. Akuma also appears in Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo as the final boss, Super Gem Fighter Mini Mix (known as Pocket Fighter in Japan) as an unlockable character, and in the Japanese console version of Cyberbots: Full Metal Madness as a mecha named "Zero Gouki". He is featured in a DLC episode of the action video game Asura's Wrath , alongside Ryu as an opponent. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate , Akuma appears as
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#17327720749396386-539: The first year at Namco, they gave him a position on the first Tekken title. He voiced Forest Law in Tekken 3 and Tekken Tag Tournament , Marshall Law from Tekken until Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection , Yoshimitsu from Tekken until Tekken Tag Tournament and Kunimitsu in Tekken . He is known within the fanbase for his sense of humor, such as his comical rivalry with former Street Fighter producer (producer from 2008-2020), Yoshinori Ono , jokes around
6489-455: The flow of loanwords from European languages increased significantly, and words from English roots have proliferated. Japanese is an agglutinative , mora -timed language with relatively simple phonotactics , a pure vowel system, phonemic vowel and consonant length, and a lexically significant pitch-accent . Word order is normally subject–object–verb with particles marking the grammatical function of words, and sentence structure
6592-599: The game it is said that he is the brother of Sheng Long and not Gouken. Akuma is featured in the Street Fighter III series beginning with Street Fighter III 2nd Impact: Giant Attack . Like in his debut in Super Turbo , Akuma is both a secret opponent who serves as an alternate final boss and an unlockable character, with the CPU-controlled version being the "Shin Akuma" incarnation introduced in Alpha 2 . He
6695-609: The genitive particle ga remains in intentionally archaic speech. Early Middle Japanese is the Japanese of the Heian period , from 794 to 1185. It formed the basis for the literary standard of Classical Japanese , which remained in common use until the early 20th century. During this time, Japanese underwent numerous phonological developments, in many cases instigated by an influx of Chinese loanwords . These included phonemic length distinction for both consonants and vowels , palatal consonants (e.g. kya ) and labial consonant clusters (e.g. kwa ), and closed syllables . This had
6798-532: The grounds that he was "truly exciting to fight against" in Super Street Fighter II Turbo , "and his cold, emotionless personality was utterly terrifying." Nicholas Wave said that Akuma represents Ryu's potential darkness as the protagonist struggles to become more unique with every installment. Chad Hunter of Complex ranked Akuma's "Raging Demon" among the "25 Most Revolutionary Kill Moves in Video Games" at third: "Akuma radiates flames, grabs his opponent and
6901-468: The horseman of Death and the final boss. He is absent from Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes ; in his stead, Ryu has a Hyper Combo that changes his fighting style to incorporate Akuma's moveset. He reappears as a playable character in the sequels: Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes , Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds and Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 . In the SNK vs. Capcom series, Akuma appears in SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of
7004-430: The language, affecting the phonology of Early Middle Japanese . Late Middle Japanese (1185–1600) saw extensive grammatical changes and the first appearance of European loanwords . The basis of the standard dialect moved from the Kansai region to the Edo region (modern Tokyo ) in the Early Modern Japanese period (early 17th century–mid 19th century). Following the end of Japan's self-imposed isolation in 1853,
7107-458: The languages of the original Jōmon inhabitants, including the ancestor of the modern Ainu language . Because writing had yet to be introduced from China, there is no direct evidence, and anything that can be discerned about this period must be based on internal reconstruction from Old Japanese , or comparison with the Ryukyuan languages and Japanese dialects . The Chinese writing system
7210-449: The languages. Okinawan Japanese is a variant of Standard Japanese influenced by the Ryūkyūan languages, and is the primary dialect spoken among young people in the Ryukyu Islands . Modern Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryūkyū islands) due to education , mass media , and an increase in mobility within Japan, as well as economic integration. Japanese is a member of
7313-427: The large quantity of English loanwords, modern Japanese has developed a distinction between [tɕi] and [ti] , and [dʑi] and [di] , with the latter in each pair only found in loanwords. Although Japanese is spoken almost exclusively in Japan, it has also been spoken outside of the country. Before and during World War II , through Japanese annexation of Taiwan and Korea , as well as partial occupation of China ,
7416-419: The later Marvel -licensed fighting games (see Marvel vs. Capcom series). In X-Men vs. Street Fighter , he is a regular character but–in a nod to his hidden character status in other games–his select box is hidden. In Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter , he appears both as a selectable character and as " Cyber Akuma " (" Mech Gouki " in Japan), a mechanized version enhanced by Apocalypse acting as
7519-491: The latter had struck a close friendship with Harada leading to the collaboration of the two franchises. Akuma made his debut in Super Street Fighter II Turbo , the fifth arcade iteration of the Street Fighter II games, where he appears as a hidden and unnamed character. After meeting certain requirements, Akuma appears prior to the player's final match with M. Bison and obliterates M. Bison before challenging
7622-425: The only strict rule of word order is that the verb must be placed at the end of a sentence (possibly followed by sentence-end particles). This is because Japanese sentence elements are marked with particles that identify their grammatical functions. The basic sentence structure is topic–comment . For example, Kochira wa Tanaka-san desu ( こちらは田中さんです ). kochira ("this") is the topic of the sentence, indicated by
7725-470: The out-group gives a benefit to the in-group, and "up" to indicate the in-group gives a benefit to the out-group. Here, the in-group includes the speaker and the out-group does not, and their boundary depends on context. For example, oshiete moratta ( 教えてもらった ) (literally, "explaining got" with a benefit from the out-group to the in-group) means "[he/she/they] explained [it] to [me/us]". Similarly, oshiete ageta ( 教えてあげた ) (literally, "explaining gave" with
7828-415: The particle wa . The verb desu is a copula , commonly translated as "to be" or "it is" (though there are other verbs that can be translated as "to be"), though technically it holds no meaning and is used to give a sentence 'politeness'. As a phrase, Tanaka-san desu is the comment. This sentence literally translates to "As for this person, (it) is Mx Tanaka." Thus Japanese, like many other Asian languages,
7931-510: The player. In the Japanese arcade version of the game, Akuma would introduce himself to the player before the match, proclaiming himself to be the "Master of the Fist" ( 拳を極めし者 , Ken o Kiwameshi Mono ) . He also has two endings in the game as well: one for defeating M. Bison and another against himself. While the dialogue in these endings was omitted from the international releases of the arcade game, they were edited into one ending and included in
8034-431: The presence of Akuma as a secret character in several of Capcom's fighting games, Capcom 's Noritaka Funamizu stated that, while he did not personally support the concept, he said, "Akuma is a character that can fit in any game design nicely". Akuma's appearance remained consistent until Street Fighter V where his hair reaches far longer and has grown around his face, like a lion's mane. Takayuki Nakayama explained that
8137-481: The proposed larger Altaic family, or to various Southeast Asian languages , especially Austronesian . None of these proposals have gained wide acceptance (and the Altaic family itself is now considered controversial). As it stands, only the link to Ryukyuan has wide support. Other theories view the Japanese language as an early creole language formed through inputs from at least two distinct language groups, or as
8240-553: The protagonist has a similar power to him known as the Satsui no Hadou. In some games, he also has an alternate version named Shin Akuma or Shin Gouki ( 真・豪鬼 , the "True Great Demon") in Japanese and Oni Akuma in Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition . Born out of a request between developers from the franchise, Akuma was developed to contrast both M. Bison and Ryu. He often appeared as
8343-474: The recurring M. Bison as well as how overpowered he is. Akuma was created by request of Noritaka Funamizu to Akira Yasuda when creating a new Street Fighter character. Akuma was designed in order to please fans who were victims of April's Fools in the claims from journalists that there was a hidden character named Sheng Long . Funamizu wanted the character, Akuma, to be based on Ryu's design. While still being an evil character, Yasuda still wanted to create
8446-592: The rest. There was no model from Capcom so Akuma's entire character in Tekken 7 was completely created by Namco. However, they were careful with not making him authentic to his original persona. Kazuya Mishima fights Akuma during the end of story mode; explained that the outcome of the fight was intentionally ambiguous, saying: "It's still a work in progress." He joked that a scene with Akuma being killed could negatively affect Namco's relationship with Capcom, particularly Capcom COO Kenzo Tsujimoto who would get back at Harada and Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono, after
8549-459: The same structure as affirmative sentences, but with intonation rising at the end. In the formal register, the question particle -ka is added. For example, ii desu ( いいです ) "It is OK" becomes ii desu-ka ( いいですか。 ) "Is it OK?". In a more informal tone sometimes the particle -no ( の ) is added instead to show a personal interest of the speaker: Dōshite konai-no? "Why aren't (you) coming?". Some simple queries are formed simply by mentioning
8652-545: The screen goes black and all you [hear] is a flurry of hits." Prima Games named it the seventh-"greatest fighting move in video game history" out of fifty in 2014, and Arcade Sushi's Angelo Dargenio considered it "one of the most well-known super moves in videogame history, spawning several parody moves in multiple fighting games over the years." Gavin Jasper of Den of Geek , in 2016, named Akuma in X-Men: Children of
8755-677: The second season titled Street Fighter: World Warrior . Akuma's first speaking appearance in animation was in an episode of the American Street Fighter animated series titled "Strange Bedfellows". He reappears in another episode, "The World's Greatest Warrior", in which he defeats Ryu and Ken's master Gouken and challenges Gouken's two students to a duel. Akuma also figures in the Japanese OVA Street Fighter Alpha: The Animation , where Ryu's encounters with Akuma triggers
8858-506: The short film Street Fighter: Legacy . Akuma also appears in Street Fighter: Assassin's Fist , an online series by Capcom and the creators of Street Fighter: Legacy with Ansah reprised his role from Legacy and Gaku Space as Young Gouki. In Assassin's Fist , both of Akuma's names are used; Akuma being the moniker Gouki had assumed after the Satsui no Hado took him over completely. Both Ansah and Space will return for
8961-439: The speaker, the listener, and persons mentioned. The Japanese writing system combines Chinese characters , known as kanji ( 漢字 , ' Han characters') , with two unique syllabaries (or moraic scripts) derived by the Japanese from the more complex Chinese characters: hiragana ( ひらがな or 平仮名 , 'simple characters') and katakana ( カタカナ or 片仮名 , 'partial characters'). Latin script ( rōmaji ローマ字 )
9064-517: The staff considered multiple designs that were scrapped such as a shirtless look, multiple scars within the body, one with a broken shirt and one where he carried a baby. Akuma appears as a character in Namco's Tekken 7 . He was specifically chosen by staff member Katsuhiro Harada who believed he would easily fit into the Tekken world. In regards to his transition from Street Fighter character to Tekken , Namco worked properly to balance him with
9167-817: The state as at the time the constitution was written, many of the elders participating in the process had been educated in Japanese during the South Seas Mandate over the island shown by the 1958 census of the Trust Territory of the Pacific that found that 89% of Palauans born between 1914 and 1933 could speak and read Japanese, but as of the 2005 Palau census there were no residents of Angaur that spoke Japanese at home. Japanese dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent , inflectional morphology , vocabulary , and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this
9270-481: The street. (grammatically incorrect insertion of a pronoun) But one can grammatically say essentially the same thing in Japanese: 驚いた彼は道を走っていった。 Transliteration: Odoroita kare wa michi o hashitte itta. (grammatically correct) This is partly because these words evolved from regular nouns, such as kimi "you" ( 君 "lord"), anata "you" ( あなた "that side, yonder"), and boku "I" ( 僕 "servant"). This
9373-545: The topic with an interrogative intonation to call for the hearer's attention: Kore wa? "(What about) this?"; O-namae wa? ( お名前は？ ) "(What's your) name?". Negatives are formed by inflecting the verb. For example, Pan o taberu ( パンを食べる。 ) "I will eat bread" or "I eat bread" becomes Pan o tabenai ( パンを食べない。 ) "I will not eat bread" or "I do not eat bread". Plain negative forms are i -adjectives (see below) and inflect as such, e.g. Pan o tabenakatta ( パンを食べなかった。 ) "I did not eat bread". Katsuhiro Harada Harada
9476-419: The two consonants are the moraic nasal followed by a homorganic consonant. Japanese also includes a pitch accent , which is not represented in moraic writing; for example [haꜜ.ɕi] ("chopsticks") and [ha.ɕiꜜ] ("bridge") are both spelled はし ( hashi ) , and are only differentiated by the tone contour. Japanese word order is classified as subject–object–verb . Unlike many Indo-European languages ,
9579-577: The two methods were both used in writing until the 1940s. Bungo still has some relevance for historians, literary scholars, and lawyers (many Japanese laws that survived World War II are still written in bungo , although there are ongoing efforts to modernize their language). Kōgo is the dominant method of both speaking and writing Japanese today, although bungo grammar and vocabulary are occasionally used in modern Japanese for effect. The 1982 state constitution of Angaur , Palau , names Japanese along with Palauan and English as an official language of
9682-480: The two terms (''hyōjungo'' and ''kyōtsūgo'') are almost the same. Hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration ( 明治維新 , meiji ishin , 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo (see Yamanote ). Hyōjungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications. It
9785-407: The verb (e.g. yonde for earlier yomite ), the -k- in the final mora of adjectives drops out ( shiroi for earlier shiroki ); and some forms exist where modern standard Japanese has retained the earlier form (e.g. hayaku > hayau > hayɔɔ , where modern Japanese just has hayaku , though the alternative form is preserved in the standard greeting o-hayō gozaimasu "good morning"; this ending
9888-401: The video game industry, but have since accepted him in his work. During his first year working in the Namco arcade, Harada surpassed the sales record two months in a row, and subsequently received an award of commendation from the president of Namco. Thanks to the award, Harada now had a platform to approach the management and request that they move him into game development. Towards the end of
9991-402: The villain M. Bison thanks to his personality. Elton Jones of Complex deemed Akuma agreed while calling him the "most dominant fighting game character". On a different note, GamesRadar claimed that Akuma is different from other antagonists seen in gaming as while cannot be called evil, his methods and actions are forbidden. On the other hand, Alex Eckman-Lawn of Topless Robot deemed him
10094-548: The world. Since Japanese first gained the consideration of linguists in the late 19th century, attempts have been made to show its genealogical relation to languages or language families such as Ainu , Korean , Chinese , Tibeto-Burman , Uralic , Altaic (or Ural-Altaic ), Austroasiatic , Austronesian and Dravidian . At the fringe, some linguists have even suggested a link to Indo-European languages , including Greek , or to Sumerian . Main modern theories try to link Japanese either to northern Asian languages, like Korean or
10197-539: Was based on 12- to 20-second-long recordings of 135 to 244 phonemes , which 42 students listened to and translated word-for-word. The listeners were all Keio University students who grew up in the Kanto region . There are some language islands in mountain villages or isolated islands such as Hachijō-jima island , whose dialects are descended from Eastern Old Japanese . Dialects of the Kansai region are spoken or known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular
10300-574: Was born in Osaka , Japan, and grew up within the Nara Prefecture region. He later moved to Tokyo , Japan. During his childhood, video games were viewed with a great deal of suspicion in Japan. His parents would not buy him a home console, and as a result often sneaked into arcade centres, where he would occasionally be discovered and dragged out. He worked hard and ended up securing a place at Waseda University . He has studied judo , karate and
10403-584: Was given his name, once again as a hidden opponent and unlockable character. His backstory remains the same as in Super Turbo . Akuma was added to the immediate roster in Street Fighter Alpha 2 and Street Fighter Alpha 3 , with a powered-up version of the character named "Shin Akuma" appearing as a hidden opponent. The character's relation with other Street Fighter characters begins to be fleshed out, establishing rivalries with Guy , Adon , Gen and Ryu . Shin Akuma, rather than "Final Bison",
10506-735: Was imported to Japan from Baekje around the start of the fifth century, alongside Buddhism. The earliest texts were written in Classical Chinese , although some of these were likely intended to be read as Japanese using the kanbun method, and show influences of Japanese grammar such as Japanese word order. The earliest text, the Kojiki , dates to the early eighth century, and was written entirely in Chinese characters, which are used to represent, at different times, Chinese, kanbun , and Old Japanese. As in other texts from this period,
10609-474: Was lost immediately following its composition.) This set of morae shrank to 67 in Early Middle Japanese , though some were added through Chinese influence. Man'yōgana also has a symbol for /je/ , which merges with /e/ before the end of the period. Several fossilizations of Old Japanese grammatical elements remain in the modern language – the genitive particle tsu (superseded by modern no )
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