User:Tintor2/sandbox: Difference between revisions – Wikipedia

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In “The Virtua Fighter of the Day: Akira”, Akira Mark Fujita from [[IGN]] said that buttonsmashing as Akira is not useful and instead players need timing and skills to perform combos as him. He went to call him “your typical no nonsense character” due to his lack of alternate stances or outsanding flashy moves. Instead, he remarks that Akira player need to practise enough perform well combos and juggles. Fujita praised the “”The Stun Palm of Doom” as is the “craziest move” he has but it demands several trainings to properly execute it. The popularity of the The Stun Palm of Doom led to Sega create two alternate takes which are easier to master. Nevertheless, Fujita claimed that by the time of writing his article, he still has not mastered Akira’s skills.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/03/12/the-virtua-fighter-of-the-day-akira|title=The Virtua Fighter of the Day: Akira|author=Fujita, Akira Mark|work=IGN|access-date=October 31, 2025}}</ref>

In “The Virtua Fighter of the Day: Akira”, Akira Mark Fujita from [[IGN]] said that buttonsmashing as Akira is not useful and instead players need timing and skills to perform combos as him. He went to call him “your typical no nonsense character” due to his lack of alternate stances or outsanding flashy moves. Instead, he remarks that Akira player need to practise enough perform well combos and juggles. Fujita praised the “”The Stun Palm of Doom” as is the “craziest move” he has but it demands several trainings to properly execute it. The popularity of the The Stun Palm of Doom led to Sega create two alternate takes which are easier to master. Nevertheless, Fujita claimed that by the time of writing his article, he still has not mastered Akira’s skills.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.ign.com/articles/2002/03/12/the-virtua-fighter-of-the-day-akira|title=The Virtua Fighter of the Day: Akira|author=Fujita, Akira Mark|work=IGN|access-date=October 31, 2025}}</ref>

In 1996, AM2 began developing a 3D Saturn RPG with the working title ”Guppy”.<ref name=”Eurogamer-2014″>{{cite web|date=March 19, 2014|title=””Shenmue” once featured cats that walk on two legs|url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-19-shenmue-once-featured-cats-that-walk-on-two-legs|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001191709/http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-19-shenmue-once-featured-cats-that-walk-on-two-legs|archive-date=October 1, 2015|access-date=June 29, 2015|website=[[Eurogamer]]}}</ref> This became ”Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira’s Story”, an RPG starring Akira. AM2 planned a “cinematic” approach, including voice acting and elaborate combat sequences.<ref name=”Corriea-2014″>{{cite web|last=Corriea|first=Alexa Ray|date=March 19, 2014|title=Creator Yu Suzuki shares the story of Shenmue’s development|url=http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5527120/yu-suzuki-shenmue-gdc-2014-classic-game-postmortem|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150628071042/http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5527120/yu-suzuki-shenmue-gdc-2014-classic-game-postmortem|archive-date=June 28, 2015|access-date=June 29, 2015|website=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]]}}</ref> Suzuki researched locations in China, and constructed four acts with the themes “sadness”, “fight”,{{Sic|}} “departure” and “starting afresh”. In this version of the story, Akira would overcome his grief following his father’s death, travel to China, defeat an antagonist, and begin a journey with a new friend. Suzuki recruited a screenwriter, a playwright and film directors to write the multi-part story,<ref name=”Corriea-2014″/><ref name=”Polygon-2015″/> which ”IGN” described as a “revenge epic in the tradition of [[Chinese cinema]]”.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/04/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-sega?page=8 |title=””IGN” presents the history of Sega|website=[[IGN]] |date=April 21, 2009|access-date=November 18, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106173810/http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/04/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-sega?page=8 |archive-date=November 6, 2015 }}</ref> In 1997, development moved to Sega’s upcoming console, the [[Dreamcast]],<ref name=”:7″>{{Cite web|title = Shenmue, the History – IGN| date=July 14, 1999 |url = http://uk.ign.com/articles/1999/07/14/shenmue-the-history|access-date = July 3, 2015}}</ref> and the ”Virtua Fighter” connection was dropped.<ref name=”:0″>{{Cite web|title=Creator Yu Suzuki shares the story of Shenmue’s development |url=http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5527120/yu-suzuki-shenmue-gdc-2014-classic-game-postmortem |website=Polygon |date=March 19, 2014 |access-date=June 29, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150628071042/http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5527120/yu-suzuki-shenmue-gdc-2014-classic-game-postmortem |archive-date=June 28, 2015 }}</ref> Akira’s parallels with Ryo were brought up by Thomas Bowen of [[Game Rant]] who regarded the former as one of the best martial artists in gaming due to his parallels with the ”Shenmue” lead as both are expert martial artists with the desire of revenge and posses appealing techniques.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gamerant.com/best-martial-artists-in-video-games/|title=The 10 Best Martial Artists In Video Game History|first=Thomas|last=Bowen|date=November 7, 2020|website=Game Rant}}</ref>

In 1996, AM2 began developing a 3D Saturn RPG with the working title ”Guppy”.<ref name=”Eurogamer-2014″>{{cite web|date=March 19, 2014|title=””Shenmue” once featured cats that walk on two legs|url=http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-19-shenmue-once-featured-cats-that-walk-on-two-legs|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151001191709/http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-03-19-shenmue-once-featured-cats-that-walk-on-two-legs|archive-date=October 1, 2015|access-date=June 29, 2015|website=[[Eurogamer]]}}</ref> This became ”Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira’s Story”, an RPG starring Akira. AM2 planned a “cinematic” approach, including voice acting and elaborate combat sequences.<ref name=”Corriea-2014″>{{cite web|last=Corriea|first=Alexa Ray|date=March 19, 2014|title=Creator Yu Suzuki shares the story of Shenmue’s development|url=http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5527120/yu-suzuki-shenmue-gdc-2014-classic-game-postmortem|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150628071042/http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5527120/yu-suzuki-shenmue-gdc-2014-classic-game-postmortem|archive-date=June 28, 2015|access-date=June 29, 2015|website=[[Polygon (website)|Polygon]]}}</ref> Suzuki researched locations in China, and constructed four acts with the themes “sadness”, “fight”,{{Sic|}} “departure” and “starting afresh”. In this version of the story, Akira would overcome his grief following his father’s death, travel to China, defeat an antagonist, and begin a journey with a new friend. Suzuki recruited a screenwriter, a playwright and film directors to write the multi-part story,<ref name=”Corriea-2014″/><ref name=”Polygon-2015″/> which ”IGN” described as a “revenge epic in the tradition of [[Chinese cinema]]”.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/04/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-sega?page=8 |title=””IGN” presents the history of Sega|website=[[IGN]] |date=April 21, 2009|access-date=November 18, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151106173810/http://www.ign.com/articles/2009/04/21/ign-presents-the-history-of-sega?page=8 |archive-date=November 6, 2015 }}</ref> In 1997, development moved to Sega’s upcoming console, the [[Dreamcast]],<ref name=”:7″>{{Cite web|title = Shenmue, the History – IGN| date=July 14, 1999 |url = http://uk.ign.com/articles/1999/07/14/shenmue-the-history|access-date = July 3, 2015}}</ref> and the ”Virtua Fighter” connection was dropped.<ref name=”:0″>{{Cite web|title=Creator Yu Suzuki shares the story of Shenmue’s development |url=http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5527120/yu-suzuki-shenmue-gdc-2014-classic-game-postmortem |website=Polygon |date=March 19, 2014 |access-date=June 29, 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150628071042/http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/19/5527120/yu-suzuki-shenmue-gdc-2014-classic-game-postmortem |archive-date=June 28, 2015 }}</ref> Akira’s parallels with Ryo were brought up by Thomas Bowen of [[Game Rant]] who regarded the former as one of the best martial artists in gaming due to his parallels with the ”Shenmue” lead as both are expert martial artists with the desire of revenge and posses appealing techniques.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gamerant.com/best-martial-artists-in-video-games/|title=The 10 Best Martial Artists In Video Game History|first=Thomas|last=Bowen|date=November 7, 2020|website=Game Rant}}</ref>

{Short description|Virtua Fighter character}}

Akira Yuki is a fictional character in the Virtua Fighter fighting game franchise by Sega. As the series’ mascot,^[3] Akira appears in every Virtua Fighter game as a playable character, and is usually shown on the games’ box arts. His fighting style is Bajiquan.^[4] Akira strives for perfection and will drive himself relentlessly to master his techniques. He seeks worthy opponents to fight in order to find flaws in his skills to further attain mastery.

Besides Virtua Fighter series, Akira also appears as a guest character in Dead or Alive 5, the crossover fighting game Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, and Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing.

Concept and creation

Despite being the signature character of Virtua Fighter, Akira was actually the final addition to the game prior to release, being added late into development.^[5] Co-creator Yu Suzuki‘s growing interest in Bajiquan lead to the creation of the character.^[5] The addition of Akira replaced Siba, an Arab character originally intended for the game, but was cut out.^[6] The model for Akira was Masaaki Satake, who was active at the time of its development.^[7]

Bajiquan is the Chinese martial art that Kenji’s protagonist, Go Kenji, learns. Kenji was Suzuki’s favorite manga, and he was particularly impressed by the episode about Li Shuwen that was depicted in the spin-off. After creating Virtua Fighter, he met the disciple of this character, and was deeply moved. He also explained to Suzukui how the motions he created for ‘Ferocious Tiger Gobazan’ differ from the actual techniques.” Many of the characters other than Akira were inspired by manga and martial artist.^[8] When developing the game, he went to a Chinese Kenpo temple to do research. The grandmaster taught him Hakkyokuken which helped to further develop Akira.^[9] Akira went to become Suzuki’s favorite character due to his fighting style and philosophy.^[10]

Appearances

Virtua Fighter games

Akira Yuki is the grandson of one of the men from the Japanese army who fought in World War II. Akira is known to be hot-blooded and impulsive, and went on a quest to test his abilities after being trained by his grandfather, eventually joining the 1st World Fighting Tournament.

In the 2nd World Fighting Tournament, Akira sets to fix the mistakes he made last time, and won the tournament. As he celebrates his victory, his grandfather told him “Don’t flatter yourself. You haven’t mastered anything yet.” This inspires Akira to enter the 3rd World Fighting Tournament.

This time, he does not win the tournament, but after encouragement from his grandfather, he decides to continue training. During the training, Akira receives an invitation to the 4th World Fighting Tournament, which he enters to test out the new skills he had learned.

Akira loses to Kage-Maru; because of this loss, Akira trains harder than ever before. One day, he caught sight of a leaf floating downstream, and held his breath while it spun around the nearby boulder. Avoiding it, and continuing on in the flow, Akira came to understand that he had been resisting the flow, and resumes his training with this newfound confidence. He decides to enter the 5th World Tournament as a result.

Akira also appears in the spin-offs Virtua Fighter Animation, Virtua Fighter Kids and Virtua Quest.

Other games, crossovers and media

Akira appears in several games outside the Virtua Fighter universe, including Fighters Megamix, Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing, Dead or Alive 5, Project X Zone, Project X Zone 2, Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The former five games feature him as a playable character, while Smash Ultimate features him as an Assist Trophy, and as a Mii costume. The child version of Akira from Virtua Fighter Kids also appears in Fighters Megamix.

On December 8, 2021 a skin of Kazuma Kiryu from the action-adventure series Yakuza was released for Akira in Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown as downloadable content.^[11] Akira also received a skin for Kazuya Mishima from fellow fighting game series Tekken in VF5US, which was released as DLC on June 1, 2022.^[12]

Akira appears in the anime of the same name as the franchise, where he serves as the protagonist. Unlike the games, this version of Akira tends to overeat and slack off. But he goes on a quest to seek the eight stars of heaven, after being overconfident with his Bajiquan skills. During the series, Akira and Pai Chan develop feelings for each other.

In 2016, an action figure of Akira was released by Max Factory.^[13] This release was based on the literal appearance of his character model from earlier Virtua Fighter games which has a low polygon count. Another action figure of Akira is scheduled to be released in September 2022, based on his Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown design.^[3]

Reception

Akira Yuki appealed to retired fighter Rickson Gracie (left) and game designer Tomonobu Itagaki resulting in crossovers.

In “The Virtua Fighter of the Day: Akira”, Akira Mark Fujita from IGN said that buttonsmashing as Akira is not useful and instead players need timing and skills to perform combos as him. He went to call him “your typical no nonsense character” due to his lack of alternate stances or outsanding flashy moves. Instead, he remarks that Akira player need to practise enough perform well combos and juggles. Fujita praised the “”The Stun Palm of Doom” as is the “craziest move” he has but it demands several trainings to properly execute it. The popularity of the The Stun Palm of Doom led to Sega create two alternate takes which are easier to master. Nevertheless, Fujita claimed that by the time of writing his article, he still has not mastered Akira’s skills.^[14] In a 1995 issue of Mean Machines Sega, they considered him a “bit of a turkey” in the original Virtua Fighter, but felt he was the best character in Virtua Fighter 2.^[15]

Davi Nonato Braid at TheGamer said Akira was the very best character in Virtua Fighter 5 Ultimate Showdown despite being hard to master.^[16] Time Extension noticed that Akira’s likeness appeal to the fans to create “Automo 08”, a robot similar to early Virtua Fighter takes of Akira that plays a fighting game.^[17] Sega worked on a commercial with martial artist Rickson Gracie. The concept for the commercial was that no one had ever defeated him, but then he finally meets his match in the form of Akira Yuki. When they talked, Gracie was humble and was the perfect “samurai” type. That situation is a strong memory to Suzuki.^[18] Tecmo producer Tomonobu Itagaki based Dead or Alive character Kokoro on Akira Yuki, as both characters practise Hakkyokuken. In retrospect, he considered the Akira from Virtua Fighter the “origin of 3D fighting games” and thus wanted to recreate his style realistically in with his own character, Kokoro.^[19]

Early into Akira’s creation, the book The Sega Arcade Revolution noted he bore more of a resemblance to Kazuya Mishima from the Tekken series, creating the speculation that Kazuya’s design was based on him.^[20] Meanwhile, because Akira is a Japanese man whose primary outfit consists of a white karate gi, he was also compared to that of Ryu from the Street Fighter series, while Jacky Bryant, who has blonde hair, and originally sported a red gi, was compared to Ken, friend and rival of Ryu in the book Japanese Culture Through Videogames.^[21] GamesRadar found Akira to be very similar to Ryu but found his gameplay to be too complicated while being “dedicated to honing his technique while relegating the rest of the world to mere distractions.”^[22]

In 1996, AM2 began developing a 3D Saturn RPG with the working title Guppy.^[23] This became Virtua Fighter RPG: Akira’s Story, an RPG starring Akira. AM2 planned a “cinematic” approach, including voice acting and elaborate combat sequences.^[24] Suzuki researched locations in China, and constructed four acts with the themes “sadness”, “fight”, [sic] “departure” and “starting afresh”. In this version of the story, Akira would overcome his grief following his father’s death, travel to China, defeat an antagonist, and begin a journey with a new friend. Suzuki recruited a screenwriter, a playwright and film directors to write the multi-part story,^[24][25] which IGN described as a “revenge epic in the tradition of Chinese cinema“.^[26] In 1997, development moved to Sega’s upcoming console, the Dreamcast,^[27] and the Virtua Fighter connection was dropped.^[28] Akira’s parallels with Ryo were brought up by Thomas Bowen of Game Rant who regarded the former as one of the best martial artists in gaming due to his parallels with the Shenmue lead as both are expert martial artists with the desire of revenge and posses appealing techniques.^[29]

Akira’s inclusion in Dead or Alive 5 was met with positive reception. The Escapist observed it as one of the best crossovers since Capcom vs SNK as find Akira looks suited for Dead or Alive, especially considering how similar are both Virtua Fighter and Dead or Alive.^[30] Toshi Nakamura from Kotaku observed that his appearance in DOA 5 “held a great deal of meaning not just in terms of homage.”^[31] Producer Yosuke Hayashi felt honored to have Akira and Sarah in their game since they have been playable in Viruta Fighter since the first installment so they hold a major impact to their roles as guest.^[32] Despite calling him the series’ mascot, Destructoid had mixed thoughts about if longtime fans were specifically looking to play as him in Dead or Alive 5.^[33] Ash Gates, writing for Cultured Vultures, likewise listed Akira as a DLC character they wanted to see for Tekken 7, opining he could be an interesting defensive character in contrast to his juggle moves.^[34]

In the same article, Akira’s appearance in Dengeki Bunko: Fighting Climax was also mentioned as one of the best guests in fighting games.^[35] In another article by Jones of One37pm listed him as a guest character he wanted to see in Tekken 7, partly due to the fact that Akira did not return for Dead or Alive 6; Jones added “We may never get a full-fledged Tekken vs. Virtua Fighter game, but the arrival of Akira in Tekken 7 is the closest we’ll ever get to that far-off dream.”^[36]

Response to Akira’s characterization in the Virtua Fighter anime series was mixed. HardcoreGaming101 criticized his goofy traits, his accidental perverted actions and the motto he repeats in every episode before he fights a rival.^[37] Ex was more positive, citing how his hunger as an actuacal plot point, as well as how Akira is searching to be worthy of seeing the stars rather than causing problems. His love-hate relationship with Pai Chan was noted to be entertaining nevertheless.^[38][39] Asian Stuff was more positive, finding Akira likable despite finding his gags too repeated.^[40] Despite finding his journey ridiculous, UK Anime Network felt that Akira turns into a fitting hero in the anime series for most of his actions.^[41] While comparing him with Ryu from Street Fighter, Anime News Network praised the performance of English voice actor Tony Schnur for fitting Akira’s personality.^[42]

References