Akira Fighting Style

What is the exact name of Akira's fighting style?

 

the name is Hakkyouken, or Eight Poles (or gates) Fist. This is the japanese name, the original name is Ba Gua Zhang (I've also heard Pa Quai Chang, probably the difference is between mandarin and cantonese); it's actually kung fu, which is why his hobby and job are listed as kung fu and kung fu teacher.

As I understand it the idea is tp allign yourself with one of 8 possible positions (based on the 8 signs of the I Ching), then you can act accordingly to the situation. The japanese version (which akira uses) was supposedly developed by the japanese military during the 2nd world war, and is not as "soft" as the chinese version. The writing on his 2P color gi in vf3 says something like "eight lights, eight shadows", and in vf2 he had exactly 8 reversal animations (now it's 10); I believe the dojo in shen mu has this same writing, and Ryo's housemate has some of akira's throw commands written on a piece of paper at his desk.

I read most of this a long time ago, so sorry if any of it's incorrect. The tb mook has a couple of paragraphs on Hakkyouken in akira's section if you can find someone to translate it for you. Yu Suzuki is also friendly with a Hakkyouken Sensei, who has worked extensively as a consultant (and maybe motion caputure model) for the vf series as well as Shen Mu.

spotlite

 

To dear you,

What fighting skill Akira mastered is called Ba Ji Chuan (in madarine) and Ba Gai kui (cantonese)in which in chinese is ¤K·¥®±(if you can read chinese).

" ba-ji " have several legendary meaning and not actually means the eight poles of " I-ching ":

" Ba " means " Eight " while "Ji" means "Ultimate ", "Extreme". The meaning of Ba-ji means the fist power can reach the eight side of the body and extended to the eight direction, One said " Ba-ji " is actually the tool where a farmer used(same sound with Ba-ji) but later, someone who had been in school learnt the fist and think the word is too "cheap" so change the word (but not how to pronounce) to "Eight -Extreme".

It was found in Chong-chau in ascent China. Sorry to tell the truth is, the Chinese actually is who used the fist to fight the Janpanese in the WW II. And one of the general as a guard of the President (not the community side) is a destinction Ba-ji master.

This is where the real history of the Ba-ji. If you have any questions on the Chinese style (Kung-fu) in VF, I may qive you some info(as far as I could). And you may find the prove in the web also.

Yours

Hugo.

 

afiak, no motion capture has ever been used in any of the vf games. pretty certain about this but i could be wrong.

 

Bua-qua-zian is a internal...semi fast {faster than Tai-chi styles, but slower than most hard styles such as Mantis}...it focuses on moving in a circle with your legs and using your hands in large and small circular motions...what Akira does bares little resemblence to the Chinese art.

 

Hugo,

I heard that the name ba-ji changed from "eight hoes" (farmer's tool) to "eight ultimates" after the style was adopted by the emperor's palace guard during the Qing dynasty. do you know anthing more about that?

-Peter

 

According to the research on Ba-ji-chuan in the "Wu-lin" martial art magazine recently, the Ba-ji refers to the tools of farmer is true. However when the name was changed is not confirmed. but it said that the name is used before/near the beginning of Ming dynasty.

So, for your reference, some one also call Ba-ji in a longer name as " Kai-mon-Ba-Ji " where " Kai-Mon " means to "open the door", in which to describe the motion of Ba-ji, to stagger the opp by "open" his stance ( like akira's f+P+G and d+P+G move)

Hugo.

 

hello,

yes it's true that as Shadowdean said, Ba-qua-zhang is sth rather soft and the main characteristic is the one who play steps in a circle. For ur ref it's just like what Ling-Xiao-yu in Tekken3 done while doing her b+lp+rp, but in a continuous circle.
the fist focus on " run-circle " and to surround the opp to find the opp's weakpoints. Nothing is related to Akira's "straight" and "direct" fighting style. however, it's the Sega AM2 to say what Akira used is Ba-Qua-Zhang......

For ur interest, the Pai-qua-zhang used by Ling in Tekken and Helena in DOA2 is what some Ba-ji master also learn and master, as Ba-ji is "short-ranged" while Pai-qua is " longer ".
The most important point to clarified is, Pai-qua have NO what so called phoenix stance in fact hehe....

Hugo

 

Hugo,

what are the characters (Big5) for ba-ji as in the farmer's tool?

 

it should be " Üj¤l "....in which a farmer used to make the soil soft and loose.

 

It's disappointing to learn that Akira's moves don't actually resemble the real martial art.
Are any of the martial arts in VF realistic? What about Lion's mantis style?

 

Hello,

Unfortunately, according to my knowledge, 80% + his move is freak(wrong spelling?) and what I notice his move is match the real one are:

1) his b+P+G throw
2) his d/b+k double-leg
3) his pre-fighting setup
4) his punch (the first one only)

and....nothing I can notice la....

Hugo

 

Motion capturing has been used. I remember reading how a team from Sega went to China to motion capture fighters for Shun and Lion in VF2. AM2 tweaks the motion captured footage by hand to a certain extent, but I believe they are working from a motion captured framework for the characters in the games.

 

In terms of Lion...some of his d/f pk, f+pk, and some of those movies..but he does not do any of the trapping motions, or pull in moves aside from his ff throw move.