Death Battle Predictions: Akuma VS Raoh

 

(Djangor)

(EpicLinkSam)

(Joshski)

(Time)

( Shadowrayhaan )

Akuma, Master of the Fist. Raoh, the King of Fists.

When it comes to martial artists, few are as iconic, or as powerful as these two. Through a childhood full of strife, they sought power above all else. Instructed in the ways of their deadly martial art alongside their good-natured brother, these two wished to be the successor to their master, and when denied, got their way by force. Killing their former master, they went off on their own, forging their future the only way they knew how. With pure, unadulterated power.

Reaching the pinnacle of strength their lethal martial art allows, they seek to battle the most powerful foes alive, all whilst furthering their own goals and coming into conflict with the willful, idealistic successors of their craft. Both have had their fair share of combat experience, but their skill, strength and determination will be put to the ultimate test to see who will face their end in a Death Battle!

In Case You’re Wondering…

Of course the primary sources being used here are the games for Akuma and the manga for Raoh, however we will also be taking into account other media such as the Street Fighter UDON comics and the Fist of the North Star anime as secondary sources. Now then...

Let’s begin!

Background

Akuma

“I am Akuma, and I will teach you the meaning of pain!”

The blood-soaked history of the Ansatsuken fighting style has lead to the creation of many heroic martial artists, such as Ryu, Ken Masters, Sakura Kasugano and Gouken, but despite the many good-natured practitioners in the modern day, the Ansatsuken was always a martial art meant to leave nothing but death in its wake. Literally meaning the “Assassination Fist”, the masters of this style taught their pupils of its true, violent nature. The Satsui no Hado, or “Surge of Murderous Intent”. The previous master, Goutetsu, trained two brothers, Gouken and Akuma, in the way of Ansatsuken, but upon the truth of the martial art being revealed to them, Gouken rejected it entirely.

Akuma revelled in it. This drove a rift between the two brothers, one refusing the martial art’s true nature, continuing on to form a non-lethal version he’d teach to his pupils, and the other embracing it for everything it was. Needless to say, Goutetsu was proud of Akuma’s achievements, and taught him everything he knew. Once Akuma reached the peak of mastery, he challenged Goutetsu to a death battle fight to the death, and he won. With his final breath, Goutetsu affirmed that Akuma had surpassed him, facing death with pride in his student’s achievements.

Taking his master’s prayer beads, Akuma was now the true successor of Goutetsu, having reached the pinnacle of the Ansatsuken’s teachings. Though he didn’t stick around to find students to teach. No, Akuma started his own personal journey, seeking to fight the strongest opponents alive. Moving like a force of nature, Akuma would wander for years, while his brother back home decided to try and remove the Ansatsuken’s dark presence on martial arts, only teaching his non-lethal version. Taking in two students, the young Ken and Ryu, the latter would hold within him the potential to tap into the Satsui no Hado, and this surge of power drew Akuma back in, seeking those with the dark power of the Ansatsuken.

Sending his students away, Gouken awaited Akuma’s arrival, and the two brothers fought once more, Gouken left as a bloody smear on the wall in the wake of Akuma’s overwhelming might. While Gouken ultimately survived, Akuma was unaware of this and kept searching for the one who held the same dark power as him. He and Ryu would clash many times over the years, the elder master pushing for Ryu to walk the path of the demon with him, but the World Warrior remained stalwart, refusing to give in. Throughout it all, Akuma has forged his own path with naught but his fists and pure might, proving time and time again why he is worthy of the title: Master of the Fist. But beware should you challenge him in combat, for he is Akuma, and he will teach you the meaning of pain!

Raoh

“Even the gods quake in fear before the power of my fists.”

The year is 199X. The lands have been devastated by nuclear war, leaving only chaos and destruction in its wake. Humanity is now forced to survive under these hellish conditions, with numerous factions being formed just to get a foothold in the post-apocalyptic wastes. Someone needed to bring order to this madness. Someone needed to stand up and serve as a guide to the masses. Someone had to rule the end of days. And that someone… was Raoh.

Originally born on the island continent Shura, Raoh’s mother died saving the baby Kenshiro, leaving him and his brother Toki as orphans. Sent to the mainland by his caretaker, Jukei, Raoh and his siblings met with Ryuken, the master of Hokuto Shinken. However, upon meeting him, Ryuken took the baby Kenshiro before tossing both Raoh and Toki down a steep canyon. The old master said that he would only take in one of the two brothers. Whoever would find the will to climb up the canyon would be taken in as his adoptive son. The other would be doomed to the wastelands.

However, Raoh had an indomitable will, even at such a young age, and he defied Ryuken's orders. Taking his younger brother in his arms, Raoh climbed up the canyon whilst carrying Toki and outright demanded that Ryuken take both of them in as his sons. His heart moved by Raoh's sheer determination and selflessness, Ryuken agreed. The children were then raised as fearsome martial artists, growing stronger and stronger with each passing day. And as Raoh's body grew stronger, so did his ambitions. Leading up to one fateful day.

Soon, nuclear armageddon ravaged the world, plunging the planet into madness. Raoh recognized that in the age of the apocalypse, order was no more. Man slaughtered man without remorse, and the chaotic world was drenched in shadow. Armed with his new martial arts mastery, Raoh chose his path. He knew that there was only one way to rule over the weak and confused masses: All that he would see, he would conquer, and soon the world would return to order, all bent at the knee to Raoh himself.

As Raoh developed a fierce and terrifying fighting style, Ryuken came to fear Raoh’s power and potential, and instead chose Kenshiro to be his successor in Hokuto Shinken. This decision didn’t quite fly well with Raoh, who broke the 1800 year law of Hokuto by refusing to give up his power. Ryuken tried to stop him from misusing the Hokuto style, but Raoh killed him and left the temple to further his ambition. After murdering Ryuken, Raoh took on the name Ken-Oh, or King of Fists, before setting out into the world to enact his destiny.

During his quest, Raoh would amass an army, drawing in the likes of Jagi, Amiba, Yuda and Ryuga under his banner. To further become the conqueror he was destined to be, Raoh even created his own form of martial art as an offshoot of Hokuto Shinken: Gō no Ken; The Fist of Strength. With power unequaled and an indomitable spirit, Raoh quickly made a name for himself as one of the most terrifying warlords in this post-apocalyptic world.

And for a while, it would remain that way. That is, until Raoh came to face off against the Last Nanto General, who had risen up to challenge Raoh's conquest. However, the General’s true identity would be revealed to be Yuria, Raoh’s unrequited love and Kenshiro’s fiancèe. Going on to attempt to claim her for himself, Raoh once more came to blows with Kenshiro, who had learned the ultimate technique of Hokuto Shinken, Musō Tensei. And for the first time in his life, Raoh felt something new in his heart: fear.

Understanding that if he was ever going to realize his true ambitions to bring order to the chaotic century's end, he needed to conquer this fear, Raoh went on a quest, honing his mind, body, and soul to try and unlock the same powers that Kenshiro had unlocked. Through grueling battles and self-discovery, he found the true secret of Musō Tensei.

The power of Musō Tensei lied not within one's own strength or other's fear. It lay within the sorrow deep within one's heart. Raoh himself finally managed to unlock this sorrow's power after realizing that Yuria, Ken's fiance, held a resolve equal to and greater than his own, being willing to give up her life to bring peace to the world. This vast well of empathy opened Raoh's heart, allowing him to feel true sorrow.

Faking Yuria’s death in order to provoke Kenshiro into a final battle, Raoh realized he could not overcome his opponent, whose soul was strengthened by the blood and tears shed against his great rivals, and he ultimately conceded defeat to his younger brother. But Raoh still kept his noble spirit, even in his last moments. Before his passing, Raoh chose to make one final action in order to help bring light to the world. Channeling the last of his life force into his fists, Raoh split the heavens themselves, finally bringing light to the darkest hour of the century's end. The Ken-Oh may not have succeeded in his goals of uniting the world under his rule, but no one can deny that his life was well-spent.

Equipment

Akuma

Gun

This was the last thing Gouken saw....Wait what do you mean this is just a mod and isn’t rea-

Raoh

Kokuoh

Said to be roughly the size of an elephant, Kokuoh (Black King in English) is an immense steed, who would be used by Raoh to trample those he did not consider worthy of dying by his own hands. After Raoh’s death, Kokuoh would be inherited by Kenshiro.

Abilities

Akuma

Ansatsuken 

Ansatsuken is an art unique to the world of Street Fighter, rooted in assassination techniques. It is practiced by many members of the Street Fighter cast, including Ryu and Ken, and in-game manifests as focusing on strong fundamentals and footsies to gain an advantage at all ranges.

Akuma takes this same style and ramps it up tenfold. Every blow he makes is designed to kill, capable of striking with a variety of Hadokens from a much greater number of positions compared to other practitioners. It is Akuma’s mastery of it which gives him access to cool, iconic moves like the aforementioned Hadouken, Shoryuken, and Tatsumaki Senpukyaku. Akuma has also used this fighting style to survive and counter the ki-based pressure point attacks of Gen.

Early English translations of the Street Fighter games described the fighting style used by Ryu and Akuma as Shotokan, a real life martial art. Shotokan Karate revolves in many ways around stopping the attacks of an opponent with powerful punches and kicks, while avoiding as much damage to the user as possible. It emphasises strikes and stable stances, developing from an initially power-based style to a much more fluid and dynamic style over the course of one’s learning. As you can tell, this doesn’t really reflect Akuma at all, but hey, it’s why they’re called shotos!

Satsui no Hado

Literally translating to “Killing Intent”, the Satsui no Hado is a dark, murderous, and above all corrupting power in the Street Fighter universe. Little is known about it directly, but it’s seen to be a form of spiritual energy - the overwhelming desire to win manifesting as an unknowable aura which drives the user mad. Even to those experienced with it, the power of the Hado lurking within them can drive them into a superpowered rage state if they lose focus, where all they can think about is the urge to fight with no regard for the lives of anybody around them. The Hado’s power can take many forms, but it most commonly manifests when a fighter is driven into a corner and becomes overtaken by their drive to win. Those using it gain natural access to many distinct techniques, including teleportation, limited telekinesis and hovering, the ability to sense and absorb the Hado in others, and the power to use the Shun Goku Satsu.

Akuma in particular is a master of the Satsui no Hado, having fully indulged in its power over the course of the years. Unlike many who succumb to it, he retains full sanity while using it, retaining all of his intelligence and skill, and having practice with the various unique powers it grants. The Satsui no Hado may not be inherently evil, however - Akuma’s own master was able to tap into portions of its power while retaining his morality, and in the UDON continuity, Ryu was able to master it and combine it with the natural light within to reach a higher state than even Akuma himself.

Techniques

Akuma’s training and dark power gives him access to a wide variety of special moves and attacks, many of which are stronger versions of Ryu and Ken’s arsenals. Some of his special techniques can be enhanced into EX variations.

• Zugaihasatsu - An overhead chop.

• Sekiseiken - A leaping overhead palm chop.

• Tenha - A rising palm strike.

• Kikoku Rentotsu - A palm strike where Akuma thrusts forward.

• Kongoken - A straight gut-punch transitioning to a stomp.

• Tenmakujinkyaku - A leaping dive kick.

• Kikokurenzan - A series of forward-moving high kicks.

• Seoi Nage - A judo throw to either Akuma’s front or behind.

• Tomoe Nage - A rolling judo throw to behind Akuma.

• Goshoha -  A grappling strike.

• Shuretto - A grapple where Akuma elbows the opponent to the floor.

• Shuretsuzan - Akuma grabs the opponent and kicks them to his side.

Specials

• Gohadoken - An enhanced version of Ryu’s signature move, Akuma launches a fireball enhanced by Satsui no Hado energy. Versions like the Zanku Hadoken fire at a 45 degree angle downwards, while the Shakunetsu Hadoken is imbued with fire. The EX variations hit up to 4 times.

• Goshoryuken - A powerful uppercut, typically used to counter opponents approaching from above. The EX variation attacks twice and hits multiple times, while the V-Trigger enhanced version allows Akuma to slam the opponent down at the apex of his height.

• Kimonkai - Akuma begins with a Goshoryuken, before cancelling into a punch and causing a damaging surge of energy to erupt.

• Tatsumaki Zankukyaku - Akuma launches a spinning kick towards the opponent, useful for cross-ups. The EX variation has Akuma remain stationary in exchange for hitting the opponent up to 5 times.

• Zenpou Tenshin - Akuma rolls across the ground. That’s it.

• Ashura Senku - A signature technique unique to Hado users, Akuma glides along the ground like a ghost, completely immune to attacks and essentially functioning like a teleport.

• Shura Rengoku - Akuma dashes forward with an Ashura Senku, before striking any opponent in his path with flaming punches.

• Hyakkishu - Akuma flips into the air and can follow up with a number of different moves, with the EX variation either homing in on the target or causing damage as he rises. The follow-up moves include: the Hyakki Gozan sweep, the Hyakki Gosho palm, the Hyakki Gosai throw, the Hyakki Goho, Hyakki Goha, and Hyakki Gozanku  fireballs, the Hyakki Gosen and Hyakki Gojin kicks, the Hyakki Gorasen tatsu, and the Hyakki Goheki block. Blocking is so special it needs its own technique name apparently. The EX versions of these follow ups generally either travel farther or do more damage, and Akuma can also follow-up with an EX Zanku Hadoken or an EX Tatsumaki Zankukyaku.

• Focus Attack - A cast-wide technique from Street Fighter IV, Akuma focuses his body, blocking any attacks in this state, before punching forward and causing a hit opponent to crumple.

• Kongou Kokuretsuzan - One of Akuma’s devastatingly powerful super moves, where he charges up his fist with dark energy and smashes the ground, creating a hugely damaging shockwave all around him. It’s strong enough in canon to smash islands!

• Messatsu Gohado -  A super art debuting in X-Men Children of the Atom, Akuma fires an enhanced Gohadoken, hitting up to 8 times in the main Street Fighter games.

• Tenma Gou Zankuu - A super art version of the Zanku Hadoken, Akuma launches a huge airborne energy blast downwards, hitting up to 8 times.

• Messatsu Goshoryu - A super art version of the Goshoryuken, Akuma unleashes a series of uppercuts which send the opponent flying upwards.

• Messatsu Gorasen - A super art version of, you guessed it, the Tatsumaki Zankukyaku, where Akuma performs a powerful tornado kick which rises directly off of the ground.

• Sekia Kuretsuha - A critical art where Akuma slams the ground with a Hado-enhanced strike, causing a geyser of energy to erupt from it. 

• Tenshou Kaireki Jin - One of Akuma’s two Ultra Combos, where he launches the opponent high off the ground with a roundhouse before kicking straight through their body.

Shun Goku Satsu

By far Akuma’s most iconic, and likely most ruthless, technique. A forbidden super combo/critical art Akuma learned of from his master, its power is so vile that it is said to take the very life of those who wield it, unable to control its maddening darkness. Akuma, of course, completely ignored the ban on learning it, striving to use all of its power in his twisted belief of what a true fighter should be.

The Shun Goku Satsu’s (or Raging Demon’s in English) hype is well-warranted. Through the power of the Hado, the wielder attacks the very “life-force” of the target with the weight of their past sins, instantly killing them with a series of blindingly fast vital jabs, so terrible the viewer doesn’t even get to see it. It also has a stronger Ultra Combo variation known as the Shin Shun Goku Satsu, dealing greater damage.

It was this very move that Akuma used to take the life of his own master, a performance he would attempt to replicate against Gouken many years later. However, this instance would end up demonstrating the limitations of the forbidden technique. Through the use of Mu No Ken (the Power Of Nothingness), one can “empty their soul”, free from earthly desires and sins, allowing you to survive even the life-ending powers of the Shun Goku Satsu. Masters like Gen are suggested to frequently employ this power to survive against Akuma, and Gouken himself used it to survive Akuma’s attempted attack on his life. Despite that though, Gouken’s improper usage of it when he blocked the move meant he had to spend 30 years hibernating and attempting to repair the damage to his body, so like, the move is still pretty good.

V-System

A mechanic introduced in Street Fighter V, involving a number of additional moves which compliment the character’s standard moveset.

• V-Skill 1: Rakan - With the right timing, Akuma parries an oncoming attack, which he can follow-up with the Rakan Gosho palm strike or the Rakan Gokyaku upwards kick.

• V-Skill 2: Kiai - Akuma unleashes a shockwave around him as he charges up energy (in-game translating as building the V-Gauge).

• V-Trigger 1: Dohatsu Shoten - Akuma charges up his body with energy from the V-Gauge, powering up his attacks and giving some special moves new properties, such as the Zanku Hadoken now unleashing two fireballs simultaneously.

• V-Trigger 2: Shiretsu Hasshi - Allows Akuma to string and cancel special moves into each other.

• V-Reversal: Gosenkyaku - Using meter from the V-Gauge, Akuma turns out of the way of any attack that hits him while guarding, before countering with a roundhouse.

• V-Shift Break: Rasen Shuto Uchi - Akuma uses meter from the V-Gauge to perform a V-Shift, dodging away from an oncoming attack, before countering with a forward-moving strike.

Teleportation

Through the power of the Satsui No Hado, Akuma can teleport at will, which he’s 

used to great effect to dodge blows before they land. Fellow evil intent users like Ryu have even used this to teleport between entire continents!

Loosely related but in the same vein, with the proper gateways, Akuma can ferry himself and others through entire separate dimensions.

Ki Sensing

Akuma has the latent ability to sense the power of other beings, including detecting the presence of surges in the Satsui no Hado. Users like Ryu have also shown the ability to absorb the Satsui no Hado of other people into themselves.

Transformations

By further tapping into the Satsui No Hado and throwing away more of his humanity, Akuma can achieve several higher transformations, multiplying his already monstrous power to unfathomable degrees.

Shin Akuma

As Shin Akuma, the martial artist drives deeper into the inner well of the Hado’s power. While unchanged in demeanour, he gains notably enhanced strength and speed, allowing him to pull off devastatingly cheap hard-hitting combos. This form is also known to give him access to the special super move Misogi and the counter Tenma Shurettou in non-canon media such as the VS series. In the UDON comics, this form is depicted as Akuma’s outright most powerful state, even above Oni.

Oni

Speaking of Oni, here’s Oni. This is Akuma at his absolute most demonic, essentially no longer really human in any way. As you may expect, his strength rises even further at this point, outright replacing some of his moves with more powerful versions alongside gaining access to entirely unique techniques, such as hovering or the ability to heat up his limbs for extra damage.
While implied to be essentially a possible permanent transformation Akuma may undergo in the future in the games, in the UDON comics it is depicted as being a form Akuma can take at will should the situation call for it.

The attacks unique to Oni include:

• Ragou Souha - A grab followed by a palm strike to the stomach

• Gankauchi - A quick heated gut punch

• Gokumonsyo - Oni steps forward and unleashes a heated palm to the opponent’s face

• Mizo Ochi Ugachi - A superheated punch to the stomach

• Target Combo III - Oni rapidly strikes the opponent with a series of two palm hits, moving him forward

• Gorai Hadoken - Replacing the Shakunetsu Hadoken, this move functions similarly but has an electrical effect as opposed to a burning one.

• Zanku Hadosho - Replacing the Zanku Hadoken, Oni launches himself in a number of different directions with a burst of energy from his palm. 

• Rakan Dantojin - Replacing the Ashura Senku, Oni slides across the ground and attacks with a swipe of his palm. The EX version allows Oni to slide past the opponent and attack on the second hit for cross-ups.

• Kyoseijin - Replacing the Hyakkishu, Oni leaps into the air, which can be followed up with the Tenmarakuseikyaku divekick.

• Sekisei Jiraiken - Oni leaps upwards and crashes down on the opponent with his palm, with the EX version hitting twice.

• Fukuma Gohado - Oni steps forward to punch the opponent in the gut before blasting their face with a fireball

• Mu - Oni strikes the opponent in the chest and uppercuts them before slamming them back down to the ground

• Meido Gohado - One of Oni’s Ultra Combos, where he fires a large fireball, hitting the opponent up to 8 times.

• Tenchi Sokaigen - Oni’s unique Ultra Combo, where he launches the opponent into the air with a surge of energy before unleashing a murderous Goshoryuken.

Also he fought Asura so that’s cool.   

Raoh

Hokuto Shinken

Hokuto Shinken is an 1,800 year old Chinese assassination martial art developed during the Han dynasty as a combination of Hokuto Sōke no Ken and Seito Gekken. Practitioners of the art are well versed in striking 708 pressure points across the body and channel their ki into the point to cause a variety of effects, most notably making the target explode from within.  

Keiraku Hiko

(This man knew what series he was in right?)

“Omae wa mou shindeiru,” is usually the last thing many unfortunate souls hear before meeting a gruesome fate after having their pressure points struck and thanks to Raoh’s training in Hokuto Shinken he became skilled in striking the “Keiraku Hikō” of the human body. Aside from making their victims explode, certain pressure points can cause more unique effects such as…

• Anbakukō: Used to increase one’s resistance to poisons and eliminate it from their body

• Daikyōkin: Makes the target’s body soft and more vulnerable 

• Dōmei: Takes away the target’s eyesight

• Gekishinkō: Rapidly speeds up one’s heartbeat causing blood vessels and the heart to burst

• Jikyūkyō: Removes one’s depth perception

• Jinchūkyoku: Destroys an opponent’s body in three seconds 

• Jōketsukai: Disables the target’s right leg

• Kaiamon Tenchō: Forces the target to talk against their will while also destroying their body should they try to resist

• Kenmei: Restores eyesight 

• Kisha: Freezes body

• Kyōmei: Causes the opponent's hand to explode

• Kyōnai: Permanently locks the target’s jaws open

• Kyosetsu: Causes any weapon held in the affected hand to turn towards the attacker, and prevents the attacker from opening the affected hand.

• Meimon: Contracts muscles into snapping the opponent’s spine

• Ryūgan: Causes the opponent’s nerves to become hypersensitive meaning even the slightest touches are extremely painful

• Sekkatsukō: Increases one’s strength at the cost of shortening their lifespan 

• Sen-yō: paralyzes opponent's body with their arms outstretched.

• Shihōrin: Allows one to read Sanskrit 

• Shinfukumen: Causes the opponent to instantly explode should they make any movement

• Shinkesshū: Causes the target’s body to hemorrhage all of its blood for three days until their death

• Shin-ichi: Forces the target to speak without the whole murdering them if they resist part

• Shitsugen: Forces the opponent to walk backwards...and then blow up

• Zenha: Stops the target’s breathing

• Zusetsu: Erases memory

Gō no Ken

Raoh was not content with simply learning the standard form of Hokuto. With his great ambition and taking the secrets of various martial arts, he formed his own preferred variant known as Gō no Ken. Literally translating to Fist of Strength, Raoh’s fighting style focuses on overpowering his enemies with raw strength and violence. This style also specializes in weaponizing one’s own fighting aura, or tōki, to fire various energy projectiles.

• Enshō Ha: A technique that sends a circular energy wave through the opponent’s body that Raoh can fire from his hands. It is said that this attack can drain the blood from the target’s pores

• Gōshō Ha: Raoh’s signature attack; in this technique Raoh sends out a powerful wave of tōki from the palm of his hand allowing him to kill his opponent without making physical contact

• Gōten Shō: Raoh powers up tōki within his body and raises his fist towards the heavens, which unleashes an explosive shockwave beam that can severely injure or kill anyone in its radius  

• Itten Shō: A powerful uppercut that can strike the opponent’s pressure points through the sheer force of the airflow even when blocked

• Musō Insatsu: An instinctive counter-attack that Raoh is able to perform subconsciously 

• Shinten Rai: Raoh powers up and forms a dome of tōki around him that can blow opponents away from him or even burn and disintegrate them

• Shū Renda: A good ol’ fashioned rapid-fire punch attack that can cause blood to shoot out of the victim’s pores

• Tenshō Honretsu: Raoh’s ultimate technique; a rotating hand charge that unleashes a powerful wave of tōki at the enemy, this can either be fired as a beam or as a ball

• Tenshō Raigeki: A fast and powerful chop capable of leaving a crater 

• Zenrei no Ken: An immensely powerful strike where Raoh channels all of his tōki into a single punch

Musō Tensei 

The ultimate technique of Hokuto Shinken, Musō Tensei, is a state of being only achievable by a Hokuto master who understands true sadness. By realizing his love for Yuria, Raoh learned to tap into its power and turn his body into a “nothingness” which most attacks harmlessly pass through. Furthermore, Musō Tensei seemingly allows its users to make illusions of themselves to disorient enemies. Although Raoh has never shown to do so, he could potentially call upon and use the abilities of fallen allies and rivals while using Musō Tensei.

Precognition

Raoh can instantly analyse and predict a fighter’s attacks just from their preliminary movements. He essentially gains a premonition of what actions both he, and his opponent will take. 

Feats

Akuma

Overall

• Has defeated Ryu with ease several times

• Defeated his brother, Gouken

• Killed Gen

• Defeated Necalli

• Struck down Gill

• Manhandled M. Bison

• As Oni, was capable of fighting evenly with Evil Ryu

• Seth noted him as “the greatest store of fighting techniques” he’s encountered

• Tore through the demons of the Makai singlehandedly

Power

• Destroyed an entire island in one punch (400 Megatons of TNT)

• Split Ayers Rock (50 Kilotons of TNT)

• Created a huge, forest destroying energy beam which reached into the sky and pushed out a large wave of debris (18.325 gigatons-241 teratons of TNT)

• Totalled a whole submarine

• Kicked the head off of a giant rock demon

• As Shin Akuma, blew off an entire mountain top

• As Oni, erupted a volcano (24.9 Gigatons of TNT)

• Stronger than Ryu, whose Satsui no Hado could nuke Bangkok (1,285 Gigatons)

• Superior to E. Honda, who destroyed a large meteor (1.12-11.77 Gigatons of TNT)

• Upscales from Mike Haggar’s piledriver, which created an explosion visible from the curvature of the Earth (353.7 teratons of TNT)

Speed

• Dodged several attacks from Gen, who noted that he had never seen such speed before

• Clashed with Gen so fast the fight was a blur

• Jumped from the bottom of the ocean to the surface

• Struck down M. Bison faster than he could react

• M. Bison could outrace the Psycho Drive satellite laser (Mach 5633)

• Dodged a combined attack from Ryu and Ken faster than eyesight

• Phased past Ken’s Shoryuken just before it would have landed

• His Hadokens can reach space in seconds (Mach 1216.1)

• As Oni, teleported out of Evil Ryu’s attack before it could land

• Faster than the Final Fight cast, who scale to Haggar’s lightspeed charge. 

Durability

• Survived Gen’s Zanei

• Tanked Ryu’s chi attack

• As Oni, survived being launched through a mountain

• Held out against an attack from Oro, which smashed him into a volcano and triggered an eruption

• As Shin Akuma, withstood re-entering the Earth from space, impacting with enough force to blow a hole in a mountain

Raoh

Overall

• Killed his master Ryuken

• Amassed an army of loyal followers

• Earned the respect of and tamed Kokuoh

• Fought on par with Kenshiro

• Killed the Nanto Goshasei

• Learned Musō Tensei

• Restored light back to the world

• Mans basically forced himself into heaven

Power

• Punched a giant hole in a skyscraper through a person’s chest

• Equal to Kasumi Kenshiro, who was able to split a storm (340 Gigatons of TNT)

• Forms a small crater from just the air pressure of his punch

• Managed to break Kenshiro’s bones

• Chops several soldiers in half with one strike

• Knocks Kenshiro down into the ground

• His ki blast destroys an entire building

• His fight with Kenshiro tears apart the ground, causes buildings to collapse, creates craters, and causes lightning to strike down

• Split apart a tiger’s head

• Caused a big Cloud split in a fight with Kenshiro (2.178 Gigatons of TNT)

Speed

• His blast was able to reach the sky and split the clouds (Mach 178)

• Scales to Liu Zongwu, who dodged a strike which was 'a hair's breadth away' (Mach 856)

• Managed to react to and deflect a shot from a crossbow

• Scales to Kenshiro, who can easily move FTE

• Kenshiro also blocked Hyoh’s attack of striking 1109 pressure points at once

• Comparable to characters with various Lightspeed statements, including statements about Han saying his fist doesn’t have a shadow.

• Consistently fodderizes many of these people with said statements, making him superior to them in speed.

Durability

• Physically superior to Jagi, who survived a nuke comparable to the curvature of the Earth (1.68 Gigatons of TNT)

• Falls through a large building and gets back up moments later

• Survives a beatdown from Kenshiro

• Can continue fighting even with losing a large amount of blood

• Barely hurt from an attack by Kenshiro

• Stabbed his sword through his own foot without even flinching

• Is so tough, an axe outright shatters on direct contact with his body

Weaknesses

Akuma

While there is little doubt that Akuma has earned the hype he's received, that doesn't mean he's flawless. Akuma is quick to anger and tends to go easy on his opponents, rarely showing off his full power unless it's a foe he finds worthy. Akuma also desires to battle an opponent actually strong enough to surpass him and even prefers to have a fair fight with them. After all, what satisfaction is there in a victory that wasn’t truly earned?

Also his SFV design suuuuuuuuuucks

Raoh

Even with all of the immense power Raoh has even he is still not without his faults. For one he suffers from the classic villain case of arrogance and ruthlessness and while he might have the strength and skill to back it up, one thing he still suffers from greatly is his ambition and deeply loving nature conflicting with each other. While Musō Tensei is almost invincible against the average fighter, Kenshiro was forced out of the technique by Kaioh using the technique Anryu Tenha, which distorts space around an opponent to disorient them. Although Ken was able to overcome Anryu Tenha, Raoh never lived long enough to achieve the same level of mastery with Musō Tensei, meaning he should be susceptible to this as well.

Summary

Akuma

“Ridiculous! I chose the path of the demon. At the end of my path, should I shed my humanity, I care not. Your pure fist of humanity, Mu no Ken, and my demon god fist... Now heaven and earth, light and dark will clash! Let nothing disturb our battle!” Advantages: Stronger, and can increase the strength gap further with his transformations  Faster without lightspeed statements, equal with them Likely more experienced Likely matches Raoh in skill Can resist some of Raoh’s pressure points Would never smack a baby Is in Tekken 7  Disadvantages: Inferior pain tolerance Precognition can let Raoh predict Akuma’s attacks, lessening the speed gap Has no way to affect Musō Tensei May have no counter to memory erasure, paralysis, or blindness inducement SFV’s sunflower Akuma

Raoh

“I, Raoh, have no regrets for the life I have lived!”

Advantages:

• Likely matches Akuma in skill

• Is comparable in speed with light speed statements

• Keiraku Hiko, which can let him induce blindness, paralysis, and memory erasure, may work

• Greater pain tolerance 

• Precognition can let him predict Akuma’s attacks

• Akuma has no way to harm Raoh while he’s in Musō Tensei

• Died in one of the most badass and iconic ways in anime and manga history

• Has a giant horse

Disadvantages:

• Weaker

• Methods of increasing strength aren’t as great as Akuma’s

• Slower without lightspeed statements

• Likely not as experienced

• At least some of his pressure point attacks are resisted

Verdicts

SoMaShadow

(MESSATSU 天)

First off, this is one of my most wanted Death Battles ever. Both Akuma and Raoh are characters I adore immensely and who mean a lot to me, and the fact that one of them has to lose kinda hurts, but I’d be lying if I said that I didn’t love the matchup regardless. It offers amazing thematic connections for both, and they parallel and contrast each other in so many interesting and unique ways that I really hope it happens soon. Akuma is well overdue for another episode, especially considering Batman’s getting his fourth soon, and Fist of the North Star was… not super well handled in Jotaro VS Kenshiro, so a more up to date look at the series would be amazing.

As for the actual debate side of things, for the longest time it looked like Raoh would be taking the win, and it’s not hard to see why. Hokuto Shinken is an extremely versatile art, and its ability to target pressure points is extremely lethal. Plus, his use of Muso Tensei presented a large issue for Akuma to work around, but with time comes a new perspective, and a lot more stuff has been found for Street Fighter in recent years that helps them immensely in debates such as these.

Raoh is a bit simpler to cover, so I’ll start with him. Upscaling from characters like Jagi and Kasumi Kenshiro are very reasonable, as he’s considered outright superior to them in Jagi’s case, and virtually an equal in Kasumi Kenshiro’s case. Jagi was able to survive a 1.68 Gigaton nuke, and that scales to both Raoh’s AP and durability. Kasumi Kenshiro was able to split a storm worth 340 Gigatons of TNT, which further supports Raoh scaling to the Island level stuff. Furthermore, he normally only uses around 30 or so percent of his power, and he can access the full 100%, thus meaning he can get to over 1 teraton in pure strength.

As for speed, he upscales from Liu Zongwu, who can react at speeds of Mach 856. When using 100% of his strength, that should be around Mach 2850. Now, there is some scaling for lightspeed feats, but they’re a bit contentious. Assuming he does get the scaling, he’d be in the faster than light range due to taking out these kinds of people with relative ease. He’s also got his steed, Kokuoh, who is the size of an elephant. It’s a big freaking horse, god damn.

Now, I won’t go into excessive detail with all of his Hokuto Shinken and Go No Ken techniques because we’d be here all day talking about them all, but they’re listed above, so I’ll just be mentioning some of the most important ones. By using pressure points, Raoh can make people do stuff like walk backwards, weaken defences, induce paralysis, erase memories or the classic exploding people from the inside out ala “Owae We Mou Shinderu”. He can also read an opponent’s fighting style to predict their movements, and Musō Tensei is just insanely broken. With it, he can essentially become intangible and destroy his opponent’s molecules. Rather difficult to get around.

As for Akuma, this is where things start to get really interesting. Obviously, there’s the famous island smash (400 Megatons) and splitting Ayers Rock (50 Kilotons), but there’s also Bison harnessing our beloved comfort character Ryu’s innate energy to nuke a city, there’s Ryu’s Satsui no Hado nuking Bangkok (1.285 Gigatons), Akuma dispersing air with a massive explosion (241 Teratons) and upscaling from Mike Haggar, who performed a Pile Driver which could be seen from outer space (353.7 Teratons). And Akuma is consistently shown to be one of, if not the strongest character in the verse, being able to take down M. Bison without much trouble, and he’s a formidable opponent in his own right.

Akuma’s consistently shown to be able to shock opponents with his speed, if not outright blitz them at times. Gen, Ryu, Ken and especially Bison have been on the receiving end of his blazing speed enough to verify that. Not only can his Gohadokens reach space in the span of a few seconds (Mach 1200), but being able to take out Bison before he could even react is especially impressive considering that he was able to outpace the speed of his Psycho Drive laser (Mach 5600). And like Raoh, Akuma has been shown to be superior to those who can attack at lightspeed, namely Mike Haggar, who can punch at the speed of light.

And like Raoh, Akuma is stacked with a lot of abilities and hax listed above, so his most notable ones will be mentioned. He can teleport, be it across short distances or across continents (and with the proper gateways, travel between dimensions), and has access to limited telekinesis. Plus, he can hover off of the ground lightly. Akuma can enhance his physicality and abilities with the V Trigger, and is able to sense the ki of others, and even absorb the Satsui no Hado of others. But his most potent ability is the Shun Goku Satsu, or the Raging Demon. With it, Akuma can directly attack the life force and soul of others, calling upon their sins to crush their soul, instantly killing the foe.

Last, but certainly not least, Akuma has two latent forms he can tap into should his opponent prove worthy enough to warrant their use. Shin Akuma is immensely powerful, and Akuma’s physical abilities skyrocket, alongside his use of the Hado’s power. In the UDON comics, it’s portrayed as his most powerful form. Secondly, Akuma has his Oni form, where he gives in to the Hado fulling, throwing away his humanity to become a true demon. Gaining enhanced strength on an absurd level, Akuma can also heat up his limbs to cause extra damage.

Now, for how these two compare. From the feats above, it’s evident that Akuma has a solid lead in terms of power, being at 353 Teratons compared to Raoh being at 340 Gigatons, and at over 1 Teraton when at full strength. Additionally, when it comes to speed, Akuma blitzing the Mach 5699 Bison takes the lead over Liu Zongwu’s Mach 856 reactions, and Raoh upscaling + his 100% power reaching Mach 2850. So does Akuma just blitz and one-shot? Well, he could, but it’s highly unlikely that he would, at first. Akuma purposely holds himself back to test his opponent’s capabilities, and he’d likely give Raoh the opportunity to get himself up to full strength. Plus, Raoh’s precognition may help to close the speed gap. Also, being reasonable with the scaling for both in regards to lightspeed feats would put them at equal speeds, as they’ve both been able to handily defeat foes capable of those kinds of speeds before.

Both should be rather equal in terms of skill and intelligence, but Akuma has more training, and while both the Ansatsuken and Hokuto Shinken are extremely lethal arts, Raoh tends to use his Gō no Ken techniques more often, which don’t have that same one-shot kill potential. Though he can still fall back on them if he needs to. And though Hokuto Shinken’s use of pressure point attacks would be an instant win against most opponents, Akuma has resisted attacks on his pressure points before, so they likely won’t prove as effective. Akuma’s better long-range options also help him to keep a distance should he need to.

We can all pretty much agree that Raoh is definitely the type of person who could push Akuma to his upper limits and cause him to bring out Shin Akuma or Oni, and when it comes to that, Akuma would have to deal with the big bad Musō Tensei. Admittedly, it does prove a problem for him at first, as it turns his body into “nothingness”, similar to Mu no Ken, which is a direct counter to the Satsui no Hado. Thus, it’s not implausible to suggest that it could protect Raoh from Akuma’s attacks whilst he’s in this state. However, Raoh has to constantly keep up his focus to activate the technique, and attacks faster than he can react can hit him before he has the chance to use it.

There is also another drawback to it, though. As shown with Kaioh’s Matōki no Aura during his fight with Kenshiro, where it caused him to lose focus and drop the technique. The Matōki no Aura is evil in nature, and Akuma’s Satsui no Hado functions in a similar way. Giving Musō Tensei the benefit of the doubt in comparing it to Mu no Ken, it’s also fair to compare the Satsui no Hado to the Matōki no Aura. So while Raoh may be able to defend himself against Akuma while he is using Musō Tensei, Akuma should be able to disrupt his concentration enough to cause him to lose focus on the technique.

In conclusion, while Raoh may be able to match Akuma’s speed and skill, end the fight swiftly with Hokuto Shinken and protect himself from the Raging Demon with Musō Tensei, Akuma’s overwhelming raw power, resistances to pressure point attacks, better experience and ability to attack Raoh’s soul and disrupt Musō Tensei means he has all the necessary tools he needs to take out the Conqueror of Century’s End. In a fight of fists which would surely split the stars, Akuma proves to the Ken-Oh why he’s worthy of dethroning the King of Fists.

  MomoUra       

This is a match that has slowly grown on me. Akuma vs Raoh definitely seems to be one of the more hype SF ideas to do nowadays, and it also seems to be a cool return for FOTNS. This fight can have a lot of neat potential for an episode with its choreography and aesthetic, both Raoh and Akuma have a ton of parallels and it overall sounds like a fitting match for the two. 

But who do I think wins? Well, it’s a little tricky. SF stats have been going through changes in the past few months as more people are starting to accept higher ends. I was hesitant on these ends but I do think they are overall safe to use now.

So, starting off with Akuma, he definitely seems to have AP locked down. E Honda destroyed a meteor in SFV, which would get Small Island - Island level. The infamous Akuma island bust is also around the high end megatons end. Akuma has a feat of his energy creating a beam that shoots upward into the sky, this has an argument for Island level based off the curvature of the earth, though this is a little dubious because of how obscured and dark the shot is. Regardless, there’s also Ryu’s Small Island feat, and Mike Haggar’s Country feat with the piledriver super move. 

Now I do think this feat is kindaaaa debatable. It’s made out to be a super joke-y super move, as well as it being weirdly the highest feat in the series from a very low tier such as Haggar. That said i think it’s easier to argue for it as opposed to against it, especially since the game actually has canon detail in it to my surprise. 

So what about Raoh? Well, Raoh scales to Kenshiro, who’d scale above Jagi. Jagi has this small island feat (it was small country in VSBW but that’s inflated), and he also has a direct small island level feat. Small island stuff is fairly consistent for Raoh, and you could argue some larger island stuff

So from this, it seems that Raoh can match Akuma’s lower ends, but Akuma’s mid and high ends are definitely superior to Raoh’s. Haggar’s pile drive in particular is above even the inflated Jagi calc that got small country. Meanwhile, Akuma and Ryu’s direct feats are above Raoh’s direct feats. This is also ignoring the fact that Akuma can enter Shin Akuma or Oni, which would make him even stronger. Akuma should pretty much safely one shot. 

Speed is a little more interesting. Both upscale from MHS/MHS+. Akuma being swifter than Bison who outraced the psycho drive laser which gets Mach 5k. Raoh upscales from both Mach 100 and Mach 800. This means that Akuma does blitz if we use their lower ends. 

However, both have higher speed arguments. Raoh upscales from lower to middle tiers who have various light speed statements for their techniques, attacks, and fighting style. Raoh would obviously scale via being on par with Kenshiro. I don’t buy the whole not having a shadow argument, but it wouldn’t matter because these statements are numerous for people either using light in their fighting style or being stated to fight at the speed of light. For Akuma, he has a very similar argument via being far superior to Haggar, who has a statement of being able to charge at people, with the speed of light. You can support this by Haggar flying out the planet’s orbit with the previously mentioned pile drive which gets around Rela - FTL range. Both Akuma and Raoh’s FTL arguments are strengthened by the fact that they have a blitzing chain. Akuma can insta Raging Demon Bison before he can react and fodderizes characters that are around Haggar’s tier, same with Raoh. 

So we know they’re roughly around comparable in speed, with both being superior to LS characters. So with that settled, stats goes something like this:

Akuma - Island to Country, FTL 

Raoh - Mountain to Small Island, FTL 

AP/Durability wise Raoh basically stands no chance, however that’s when his trump card comes into play. 

Hax and Abilities:

Akuma isn’t completely lacking in this regard. He has a slight form of intangibility, with his quick dash. This can let him phase through projectiles and people to avoid getting hit. Akuma has teleportation which has a pretty wide range, though that wouldn’t be too useful in this fight, and he has shockwave/fire manipulation and overall good AoE. Finally, Akuma has his signature technique, the Shun Goku Satsu. This is a technique that is sin based, as Akuma explains, it is the weight of one's own sins that kills you, and that the eviler one is, the more they suffer in death. It’s explicitly been mistranslated as the English version has mention of destroying ones soul, despite no mention of that in the original translation. 

There is a piece of evidence that could suggest its soul destruction, but it’s very vague. The guidebook states that Gouken had survived Akuma’s attack by using Mu (Power of Nothingness) to protect his life form. People take this as the Raging Demon being soul destruction but I don’t really agree with this notion at all honestly.

The Raging Demon is even shown in SFV, to be more so Akuma using some kind of pressure points/martial arts beat down on the opponent. While this doesn’t debunk the fact that it might be soul destruction, it still very much doesn’t seem to be potrayed that way.

Circling back to the life force point, life force is a vague term on its own. It doesn’t necessarily have to equate the soul, just ones vitality. At most, I can see this being argued as death manipulation. It’s still being implied destroy the force empowering one's life, which in some way is useful. However I don’t think this matters for two reasons:

1. Raging Demon at its core is still sin/pain manipulation. Going off it’s original explanation from the ending that was mistranslated, it would still be very effective against Raoh due to Raoh living a life of sin/overall being pretty evil. 

2. Raoh could potentially resist this technique anyways. Notice how Ryu and Gouken use the Power of Nothingness in order to counter the Shun Goku Satsu, and seal the Satsui No Hado. Muso Tensei, which Raoh later learns to utilize, is described as achieving a state of nothingness through letting go of physical restraints. 

So either the raging demon would absolutely work on Raoh if Akuma finds a way to land it, due to its sin based aspect, or Raoh could completely bypass it with Muso Tensei. I actually, funnily enough think that the raging demon is detrimental for Akuma to use here due to the fact that his normal attacks can one tap Raoh, and he has wider range and AoE with them as opposed to the raging demon, which is fairly predictable, Raoh can just anticipate with precognition, and can’t do much if Raoh activates Muso Tensei 

Speaking of Precognition, we move onto Raoh’s abilities. Precognition is without a doubt one of the biggest advantages for him here. He can perfectly anticipate and predict someone’s future movements, since well, he literally receives a premonition of how said attack is going to play out. He basically can get a short glimpse into the future to see what he and his opponent would’ve done, and can them properly counter said attack. Since they’re comparable in speed, it means he’d be able to use this for pretty much the entire fight, and be one step ahead of Akuma. He’d know exactly how Akuma is going to attack, and what techniques he’d use, and can formulate a plan to counter them. 

As for other techniques, Raoh is an expert on pressure points. He can perform techniques that can make Akuma’s body parts explode/his heart explode, erase his memories, or cause paralysis. Now this working on Akuma is a bit….debatable. While they are at base, pressure points, they’re also not inherently the same as erasing memories or blowing up someone’s heart, which is more akin to bio manip. 

That said, I do think Akuma could probably resist some of the pressure point attacks, as shown in UDON, he can counter Gen’s. But this doesn’t mean Akuma can resist everything in Raoh’s arsenal. 

Muso Tensei is the final nail in the coffin here. It allows Raoh to turn completely intangible and phase through attacks. It makes practically all of Akuma’s attacks, as Dio would say, useless. His AoE attacks can’t physically harm Raoh, his martial arts isn’t too helpful, and there’s nothing suggesting he can attack someone who is intangible. Muso Tensei also grants existence erasure/molecular hax, and would let Raoh use the techniques of fallen rivals. 

While Raoh hasn’t used these before, he still has the capacity to, and his precog would guide him to use them, since he’d see that it’s the only way to fully kill Akuma. 

As for skill and training, they should be pretty evenly matched on that front. Now before my conclusion, I want to go over two things real quick:

-Fate Manipulation argument 

To put it simply, I think this is kinda bs. It’s just a fortune teller telling Kenshiro that his future can’t be read, and that he has the ability to choose his own path and control his fate. How this applies in combat is completely unexplained though

Like, yeah technically fate manipulation can make someone unkillable via fate alteration, but applications of fate manipulation like that, are never suggested from what I’ve seen. It’s literally just this fortune teller scan and that’s about it

-Akuma and Raoh starting off easy 

This argument exists for both of them which is why I think it cancels out. Basically Akuma doesn’t immediately try to kill someone, he tests them and wants a fair fight. Raoh doesn’t immediately erase people from existence or destroy them, he starts off with his weaker fighting style/techniques before moving onto the other ones. Because of this, they’ll likely both reach their most serious state/use their most powerful options around the climax of the fight, and not at the beginning of it. 

So in conclusion: Akuma takes AP by quite a wide margin, Both are in a comparable league of speed, with Raoh being able to stay multiple steps ahead due to his premonitions/precognition of events playing out, Akuma has resisted some pressure point attacks that are similar to the ones Kenshiro is capable of performing, but others, like the ones that inflict blindness, paralysis, memory erasure, and heart explosion, could possibly still work, and give him an edge. 

Raoh has a perfect reason to use said techniques due to premonitions giving him a warning of Akuma’s attacks, and as a last resort, Muso Tensei can make sure Akuma can’t physically hurt him, and can allow Raoh to erase Akuma. So with that, I think Raoh should emerge victorious in this fight. It is truly a debatable one, but I think Raoh holds enough advantages to outlast Akuma and take the win with his hax. 

Agent

(Iori, my homie, my KOF main)

Time to set the mood... 

...With a blessed image 

The fantastic world of Yes, something that embodies this matchup beautifully.

Ah yes, Akuma vs Raoh, a matchup that I think I fucking love. It’s the best matchup for both, especially Akuma who himself has a lot of alts, some of which are fucking amazing, like Garou, and Yujiro, and are amazing alts to this, while others like Shao Kahn, are kinda forcing the rivalry a bit in a way that feels excessive, when things like Vega vs Baraka better do it. I for one, love martial arts, and a lot of martial arts series heavy on fighting, training, or whatever, as they bring me a lot of energy, and make me wanna be a strong motherfucker. Street Fighter and Fist of the North Star are no exceptions to this. Plus, I fucking love fighting games too, my favorite FG series being Guilty Gear, only rivaled by King of Fighters, hence that image I chose for this of my homie Iori. Also about Martial Arts, can we see Po and Iron Fist team up and be homies for life? That’d be badass.

This matchup can just bring so much great fun to Death Battle, from how amazingly the connections line up, to the very fight dynamic that can go ham on great build up, intense choreography, both just finding a very strong opponent for each other, and the very fun techniques they can throw at each other, from barrages of punches flying around, them starting off by testing the waters of their limits, only to go further into their sheer insane martial arts styles later on, with Akuma going Shin Akuma, and Oni, while Raoh gets off his horse, and takes off more armor as the fight goes on, going further with his Hokuto Shinken arts. Anyways, lets get it on now, with who in the fucking name of Hell wins in a fight…

For starters, let's knock out a few basic questions. Is Raging Demon soul hax? Cause imo, it depends. Game version is based on mistranslations, and in reality the Japanese version is about hitting really fucking hard, and gets stronger via sins, I recall at least, idk man I’m in a hurry to finish this fucker lmao. Either way, Udon has more support for soul hax. Like, I think someone was gonna use that shit to steal Chun Li’s soul or smth, I didn’t read Udon lol. 

Next question, do I agree with Country level Street Fighter? To answer that, I’m mostly neutral on it. But I do wanna address, many Country calcs for feats are inflated.

https://www.deviantart.com/kirito352/art/E-Honda-destroys-a-meteor-Street-Fighter-887221359 https://www.deviantart.com/kirito352/art/Shadaloo-HQ-explosion-Remade-Street-Fighter-886433615

The first one makes many wild assumptions, and the second ditches surface area, massively lowering the results. More accurate versions of the first calc have gotten to the low Gigatons, around Mountain/Island level, and the second, I think like City level. Either way, Akuma having enough City-Island feats, as well as Oni having a Large Island feat himself means he’s prepped enough to fight off Raoh. In the meantime, the Large Country Haggar feat in Final Fight Revenge, while technically not having anything wrong with it, lacks concrete supporting feats in canon, as such I imagine a lot of others don’t vibe with using it when it lacks concrete support, and was done by a Mid tier character too. Either way, I won’t be mentioning it in my verdict. 

As for Raoh, I don’t think he’s Country either. His Country calcs rely on massive assumptions, and get cucked by things like Surface Area, but Imma just, get this over with quick as I can. Anyways, for who wins, let’s dive in real quick……

Akuma and Raoh are potentially equal in strength in base, with Akuma edging out a lil’ bit, and Akuma can block Raoh’s pressure points due to resisting Gen’s in the Udon comics, but Akuma can’t get around the Muso Tensei due to lacking ways to get around intangibility. Raoh meanwhile has Atom hax to negate durability if all else fails, and Akuma can go into his stronger forms to close the AP gap between him and Raoh, and make it so Raoh’s chances of hurting him through raw AP are dead. Muso Tensei having EE is also debatable, but it’s also potentially Atom splitting hax, but I’ll go with the latter for reasons to not be too controversial in my verdict. Either way, speed is the main deciding factor. Akuma himself has blitzed Bison, who is comparable to lightspeed Haggar, and his stronger forms make the scaling chain bigger. Raoh himself has fodderized many Mid tiers who have lightspeed statements similar to Haggar’s, meaning it’s kinda similar arguments all around, so I’m counting for both. Either way, speed is mostly even, both have ways to amp themselves through their different power up states, and both can kill each other via many means. Overall, I’m siding Raoh in the end in this shitty little verdict, via Akuma not countering Muso Tensei, meaning he’ll have trouble touching him, Akuma has no way to interrupt it, and Raoh can go in for the kill with some other durability negation in a pinch if he needs too. Oh yeah, did I mention Raoh’s precognition can help him predict and see what Akuma may do next, allowing him to have extra ways to change the tides of battle when he needs? Just a way to discover new win conditions, and see what Akuma may do next. Another note, without the lightspeed stuff for both, Akuma outspeeds due to being Quad digit mach scaling to Eagle, while Raoh only gets triple digit mach at most. But I buy LS for both, so yeah.

While I’m not gonna argue it unironically, this is a neat argument brought up by King of Five/Kingsly when discussing the similar concepts in both series. In Street Fighter, the power of nothingness is what's used to counter to raging demon and seal the Satsui no Hado, and it's concept is that it's abandoning one's emotions to achieve a state of nothingness. In FOTNS, Muso Tensei is a state also representing nothingness, with the user letting go of their physical restraints. While you can argue them being similar concepts, you can’t prove they function the same, but it’s a neat thing to note, and a cool parallel for the match. So if you wanna argue just suppressing your emotions like that, into a state of nothingness, arguing Raging Demon survival is kinda arguable that way, even if you take it as soul hax.

Anyways uh, I’d say the winner for this, is Raoh. Even if my explanation and verdict are a lil’ on the shitty side, idk man. Lets just embrace the power of Yujiro or something.

Bye!

Oh yeah actually, can you give me Akuma vs Meta Knight instead? They’re both fast and make bad jokes.

Shadowrayhaan

 ( This is hell and I am the devil )

Hey lads, My name is Shadowrayhaan and I am new to the G1 blog and this is my First verdict. *Sweat heavily* Anyways , this matchup is so cool and one of my favourites, also god damn close as well. You can argue for both but it depends on the scaling you use for both. In terms of Attack potency, I would give it to Akuma due to Large country calcs for Akuma and raoh only got small country stuff so leading Akuma here. For Speed , I'd say it's rather equal both have lightspeed arguments (Raoh upscales to various Lightspeed statements and Akuma upscale from Mike haggar lightspeed punch). A recap before we continue on their hax. Akuma has Ap and dura in his bag and equal speed for both. Now for the crazy part is the hax. Both have some ridiculous hax but only one can land their hax with success to be victor of this matchup so who would likely do so. Well, let’s look at what Akuma has in his bag. He has his raging demon, which is honestly a good win condition for him. He can also access forms like Oni and Shin akuma, he has teleportation, and can sense ki in some way. Now we look at Raoh’s hax. He has pressure points which could kill a normal human instantly,  he can fire energy beams, and Muso tensei offers great hax (Intangibility, illusions, precognition). It's not a lot but still good nonetheless . Now lets see who has the better counter and who could outhax the other. Akuma counters pressure points since he fought Gen, who uses pressure points techniques. There is the Satsui no Hado, which is a counter to Musō Tensei since Musō tensei is vulnerable to dark/evil energies, but here’s is the catch about it. Akuma wouldn't be able to fully counter it. Okay, maybe to an extent but I don't think he had ways for full countering it, and Raoh will likely be able to land a killing blow before Akuma. And the one who was able to disrupt the Musō Tensei was defeated anyways. Despite Akuma’s greater AP, Raoh’s Musō Tensei is ridiculous due to precognition, which would help him to predict Akuma”s attacks and intangible state just make him able to no sold akuma attacks, and have a way to land his wincon on Akuma faster. And I forgot to mention his molecular hax which just crushes akuma. I feel like the winner is Raoh, due to his Musō Tensei state, which means he can land his killing blow first and also be able to resist Akuma’s attack in this state and also has comparable speed + precognition. But that's my opinion on how it would go. Yours will likely be more different from my opinion. I hope I gave my verdict the way I am supposed to. 

Da Lunge Fish

Hey, Da Lunge Fish here for the Akuma vs Raoh blog. While I wasn’t too excited about the match at first, it has grown on me over time, especially with the characters being such chads, and now it’s my most wanted for both Street Fighter and FoTNS, so I really hope this becomes an actual death battle soon. 

Anyway, onto the verdict. AP wise, Akuma should hold a significant edge. Country FoTNS is a big no, considering the nuke calc completely ditches surface area, which makes Jago surviving those nukes sadly much weaker. Akuma, meanwhile, upscales a lot from Mike Haggar, who has performed a feat worth over 300 tenatons, easily country level. So Akuma is easily in one shot range, as the best Raoh scales to is island via Kenshiro Kasumi cloud split. Speed wise, they should be comparable, both scaling to lightspeed statements. Both lightspeed feats were performed by mid tiers, however, Akuma should scale slightly higher into it considering he has more blatant examples of blitzing those character, like Bison, who’s much faster than Mike. Skill wise, both should be pretty close to each other, having trained for a lot of years  and being a dreaded opponent for anyone. Akuma does resist pressure points, the lead hax in FoTNS, but to be honest, pressure points in street fighter are far less advanced than those in FoTNS, so it may still work. What truly makes this so debatable is Musou Tensei. With that, Raoh can become intangible completely and can simply erase Akuma. Very useful indeed. But, as underwhelming as that may sound, Akuma would likely just kill Raoh prior to that. He should have a speed edge still and can one shot Raoh with almost any kind of attack. If he does resist pressure points as advanced as those in FoTNS, Raoh is pretty much doomed, as that would give Akuma an opening necessary. And even if Raoh does go Musō Tensei, it’s not game over yet, as Raoh needs to be very focused, and Akuma’s dark energy may disrupt that concentration enough for Akuma to get a hit.

Finally, people may say that Akuma holds back to rest his opponents, but I doubt he will punch 100x times weaker for that, which is still enough to one shot.

In the end, Akuma’s strength, speed and discipline will give him an edge in this hard fought battle

Phantom Falcon

Sorry for being a Voltron fan lol

Akuma vs Raoh is definitely my favorite match for Akuma. While Garou and Yujiro certainly have potential, I believe Raoh can not only provide a fight dynamic and choreography as well as those two, but I feel like it’s by far the best idea for Akuma in terms of relating to his actual character. I love this matchup and I sincerely hope we get it someday

Starting off with AP and durability, Akuma should have a solid edge. Even using lower end feats for Street Fighter, E. Honda’s meteor hits single to double digit gigatons, and Akuma’s ending in SF4 has a feat on the island to even large country level ranges of power (though the latter is pretty debatable). On the highest end we have Mike Haggar’s piledrive through Earth, creating an explosion visible from space. I’ve seen some question the validity of using Final Fight Revenge, but nothing I’ve seen points to it being non canon. In fact, given how this is the only game in the series to detail Cody’s arrest, an important story event, that gives it a bit more credence to it being canon. Given how Akuma has routinely fought and even defeated SF big tiers like Bison, Ryu, etc., it’s safe to say he gets all that scaling. Raoh is certainly a beast, but not many feats in FOTNS reach the level of power Akuma is packing. Raoh splitting the sky is cool and all, but that’s not even 2x stronger than the low end of Honda, and Akuma has higher feats as well. Kasumi Kenshiro splitting clouds is neat and all, but Haggar’s explosion is higher anyways. Jagi’s nuke got small country on VSBW, but the fact that they’re measuring explosions closer to the camera, and therefore farther from the curvature of the planet, inflates it to a pretty decent degree. Even then, it doesn’t account for surface area, and the highest it gets even using VSB’s size is only 36 gigatons, which Akuma can match and even surpass. No matter how you look at it, Akuma is in the one tapping range

Funny enough though, Raoh is too. Pressure point attacks won’t work due to the fact that Gen’s attacks are pretty similar to the basic pressure points Raoh can do, as in UDON, they’re said to to attack the weak spots of the enemy by expanding and blowing up their negative ki, and an early Akuma has survived those same attacks in UDON, as well as in canon. But Musō Tensei is what makes this fight interesting. Muso Tensei basically turns the body into "nothingness" and destroys things it comes into contact with. It's been able to break down their bodies upon contact, which is decently in line with atomization/molecular hax, something Akuma has no definitive counter to. With both of them capable of one-shotting each other, it pretty much comes down to speed. On the low ends, Akuma has it pretty easily. The Psycho Drive laser, which Bison moves in tandem with, is Mach 5.6k, and Akuma has blitzed Bison before, and is consistently one of the fastest characters in the series. Compared to Raoh, who’d only be Mach 800+, Akuma would blitz pretty easily. Thing is, that’s far from their highest arguments. Fist of the North Star has multiple LS statements which seem fairly legitimate, and Raoh has consistently matched and even defeated those users. Akuma however, upscales from Mike Haggar’s piledrive through Earth, which can get sub-relativistic, and it’s consistent with Haggar’s statement of moving LS. With this in mind, speed is actually pretty even between the two, given how far they upscale. At that point it’s pretty much a toss up. However, in the end, I’d side with Akuma. He’s consistently way too strong for Raoh. Even if he holds back at the start, he’d still be strong enough to essentially one shot Raoh (we’re looking at a 100-10000x AP gap here), and nothing is stopping him from one shotting Raoh the moment he gets serious, which can likely happen before Musō Tensei comes out. Combine that with his greater experience, comparable skill, and the Raging Demon’s soul hax, and Akuma will prove himself to be the superior warrior

And of course, I couldn’t forget his biggest advantage. For his neutral special, he wields a gun. Raoh got nothing on that.