Oni

Oni (鬼, Devil), also known as The Mad Demon (狂オシキ鬼, Kuruoshiki Oni) is a secret fighter in the Street Fighter series. He can be fought as a secret boss in Arcade Mode, as well as being a playable character. Oni is in fact Akuma, who has let the Satsui no Hadou fully engulf and consume him to the point where he has fully discarded all of humanity and has lost his prominent moral code as a warrior who will now kill anyone in a fight, and has taken the form of a full demon.

''Note: This character should not be mistaken as Shin Akuma, even though both have very close similarities to each other. ''

Appearance
Oni appears as a far more muscular and noticeably larger version of Akuma. He has dark blue skin, glowing yellow-red eyes and glowing, spiky shoulder-length hair. He also gains fangs and short protrusions on his forehead, resembling growing horns. The top half of his gi has been been blown off, showing off his stature and the prayer beads that were once around his neck now float about disconnected around his body and has claws on his fingers and toes. His voice also sounds much more demonic and harsher in both the English and Japanese versions of the Arcade Edition.

In his second alternate costume, his skins shows cracks like old plaster, which progressively falls away as he is hit with Focus Attacks, showing pure, swirling dark energy underneath.

Personality Oni, unlike Akuma, is more ferocious and gives up his moral code as a warrior, as well as becoming more brutal in nature. In addition, he now talks in the third person even more, as he says his own name after defeating or killing his opponents. He also becomes far more evil to the point of calling himself evil incarnate. As Oni, he completely despises humanity and says it is of no use to an evil incarnate.

Oni does not refrain from using the maximum potential of Akuma's Ansatsuken art or his yet unrefined attacks. His Goshoryuken is similar to the Shin Shoryuken. His overhead smash resembles an imperfect Misogi. Also, he uses a much smaller version of the Kongou Kokuretsu Zan as a start-up for his second ultra, the Tenchi Sokaigen. His stance is similar to Akuma's 'Isshun Sengeki' pose during the Wrath of the Raging Demon ultra. However he lacks the sheer focus of Akuma, not possessing the finer attacks such as the Hyakkishu, Tenma Kujin Kyaku and Ashura Senku and generally uses wayward one-handed Hadoukens which tend to fizzle out after travelling some distance.

Movelist

 * Oni's move list in Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition.


 * Oni's changes in Super Street Fighter 4: Arcade Edition Version 2012.

Analysis
Oni had a health and stun of 950/950 i.e slightly less than Ryu's 1000/1000 (which is considered the benchmark to gauge others health) in the Arcade Edition. It was increased to 1000/1000 (same as Ryu) in the 2012 patch.

Oni possesses an air dash attack, Zanku Hadosho, the direction of which is determined by the punch button pressed. He also possesses a dashing slash called Rakan Dantojin which allows him to pass the opponent by, similar to the Ashura Senku. The four possible variations of the slash have different invincible frames against projectile attacks. He also possesses a jumping overhead smash attack, the Sekisei Jiraiken which has been compared to E. Honda's Sumo Smash. His Forward + Heavy Punch command move has the ability to nullify projectiles or one hit from multiple hitting, EX, Super or Ultra projectiles.

His Super Combo is the Raging Demon. However, it can now be used in mid-air when using Oni, having priority over other attacks such as Shoryukens in the air. He is also able to cancel the Zanku Hadosho into the Air Raging Demon. Both variants of Oni's Raging Demon were given a slight damage increase in the 2012 patch. The kanji character that appears if Oni achieves a Super Combo victory is an amalgamation of the characters "King" and "Demon" and can be interpreted as Demon King; alternatively, it can mean "Altar" in the literal sense and "worship(ping) the demon" metaphorically.

His Ultra Combos are new and appear to be based on Akuma's Super Arts from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. His first Ultra Combo, Meido Gohado, is an advanced and more powerful Messatsu Gou Hadou. Oni needs to be close and on the ground in order to force his opponent right into the wall with the Meido Gohado to follow up with an orb of the Satsui No Hado, with the force of the orb emitting energy from behind the opponent shaping into the Kanji character 天. The full animation Meido Gohado is the second most damaging projectile Ultra after Gouken's (fully charged) Denjin Hadoken. The air-to-ground version is called Messatsu Go Zanku similar to Akuma's version, but executed with both hands, while the anti air version is the Messatsu Go Tenha.

His second Ultra Combo, Tenchi Sokaigen, appears to be a precursor to his Kongou Kokuretsu Zan attack, where he only forms an eruption of energy in front of him. Like the Meido Gohado, Oni needs to be close enough to launch his opponent up into the air in order to slam them with a left-handed Shoryuken to the opponent's exposed back. The background for this attack spells the 天 Kanji. From the 2012 patch onwards the Tenchi Sokaigen is the third most damaging Ultra with a damage of 525/1000 after Gouken's fully charged Denjin Hadoken (540/1000) and Hakan's Oil Coaster (530/1000).

Shin Oni
There is a non-selectable Shin or True version of Oni who can be fought in the arcade mode as a secret and the true final boss. The player must not lose a round, get two Perfects, five Super or Ultra combo finishes, ten first attacks and defeat Seth with an Super or Ultra combo to fight Oni's true form. He can be considered the true final boss since the requirements to fight him are higher than that of Shin Akuma's, Shin Gouken's, and even Shin Evil Ryu.

Storyline-wise, the playable version of Oni is held back by fragments of Akuma's conscious, not allowing the Onigami to unleash its true potential. This also triggers possible schizophrenia in the being torn between the will of Akuma and the whims of the Onigami. The Shin form of Oni is absolutely free of any hindrances by Akuma.

Gameplay-wise, Shin Oni is analogous to the relationship between Akuma and Shin Akuma. While on the surface, the two version operate similarly, Shin Oni's frame data is completely different. He has lesser recovery time between attacks and his special and command attacks have more invincible frames than the playable version. He floats rather than walk, allowing him to move around faster. Compared to the playable version, he has more stun and stamina. His Gohadoken is a two-hit projectile that neither needs to be charged nor fizzles out after a certain distance, unlike the playable version. The EX variant of the Gohadoken has three hits and inflicts even more damage. Shin Oni's Gorai Hadoken inflicts slightly more stun than the normal version but still is a three-hit projectile for the heavy and EX version. Due to this, it is pointless to get into a projectile war with him. His Goshoryuken, Rakan Dantojin (Slash) and Sekisei Jiraiken (Overhead Smash) have more invincibility at startup, against projectiles and lower body respectively than the regular version. He also possesses an EX version of the Zanku Hadosho (Back Dash) which is unavailable to the playable version. His regular and Air Raging Demon also travels slightly faster.

Trivia

 * Oni's second alternate costume is the only costume of any character in Arcade Edition which takes battle damage over the course of a fight.
 * Whenever Oni wins the fight, he physically interacts with the opponent's character. He picks them up by their heads, then (off-screen) supposedly deals a killing blow. This is the only fighter in the game that shows physical contact with the opponent after winning a match.
 * Oni also has a similar look to that of the Black Oni from Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams. The darkened skin, white hair, and blue flame-like aura are all main traits of the Onimusha form in general. In addition, his hair also looks very similar to that of the first two stages of Super Saiyan and his prayer beads look very similar to the Dragon Balls from the Dragon Ball Z series.
 * Oni's theme in Super Street Fighter IV is an alternate remix of Akuma's theme from Street Fighter II.
 * Oni's fighting stance resembles the artwork of Shin Akuma from SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos.
 * Oni has the power to cause a volcano to erupt by dealing a single blow to the volcano, but this is most likely a small piece of his power; in the beginning of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, he is so powerful that he was able to destroy a large tree with just his aura alone.
 * Oni's Ultra Combos are the only ones (aside from both of Akuma's Ultras) that show a black and white changing background.
 * Also, if either Ultra Combo is a finishing move, no "KO" sign will be shown on the screen. The opponent is not seen to physically fall over, but shown collapsed in the ground or midair, implying that Oni has actually killed the opponent.
 * Right after Oni hits the volcano in his ending of Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, he was seen floating in the air. He is also seen floating in one of his win poses, where he states "I am not human". It is possible that when Akuma is in this form, he gains the ability to defy gravity.
 * Implied by the quotes, Zangief is the only fighter to notice Oni's increased build mass. However, Zangief fails to notice any other changes in Akuma such as the blue skin, aura etc.
 * Akuma despises Oni for representing Akuma being enslaved by the Satsui No Hado and vice versa, as implied by their quotes to each other in the arcade mode.
 * It is possible to modify the PC version to override Oni's framedata with that of his Shin variant; however, his stamina and stun remain the same.
 * The reception to Oni has been mixed. Players who specialize in shotos generally have a positive opinion of him, while others oppose his inclusion due to the amount of shotos already available in the roster.