Raging Demon is a move unlike almost any other in Street Fighter history. From the lore behind it, to the way it functions, to its peculiar command input, Demon has always been meant to stand out from the rest of the pack.
Street Fighter 5 Evo 2022 champion, G8S|Kawano, has been faring well in Street Fighter 6, especially since his switch to Akuma earlier this year. During a recent stream, the Legend-ranked player used some of the most brilliant misdirection we’ve ever seen to land a Raging Demon for a brilliant comeback.
Demon is a command grab that glides forward and doles out ridiculous amounts of damage on hit. It’s also garnered a reputation for starting up instantly, which it does in Street Fighter 6, meaning if Akuma activates it up in your face, you’re getting hit unless you’ve preemptively jumped or maneuvered otherwise.
Unlike most previous versions of this attack, however, developers stripped it of any invincibility frames during start up in Street Fighter 6. This definitely dampens the utility as it can’t be used as a threat on wake up or in anti-air fashion as it was in back in Street Fighter 4.
We join Kawano’s bout nearly 50 seconds into a round against another Legend-ranked player using Guile. The opposition has the lead with about half their health in reserve, contrasting with Kawano’s Akuma’s 8% or so (remember that Demon only becomes available to Akuma when his health drops below 25%).
Kawano lands a crucial hit with his foe’s back to the corner and proceeds to go into a fairly standard Akuma sequence involving EX Adamant Fist, which gives the demonic fighter a wall bounce to work with. Kawano uses this opportunity and his remaining Drive Gauge to juggle his foe for some extra damage, but it’s not going to be enough to close the round out.
With less than a single bar of DG remaining, Kawano (seemingly erroneously) rifles off a Drive Impact. Not only does this attack whiff entirely, but it sends him into burnout and thus an insanely disadvantageous situation.
You might be able to guess what happens next, and we’ll let the clip do the rest of the talking (as well as the villainous laughing):
え〜彼女さん厳しい〜笑
でもスト6のが厳しいよ pic.twitter.com/bJ5MQk9rxD
— カワノ Hit Box｜Kawano (@kawanoChannn) November 8, 2024
Do you think Kawano figured this sequence out in the lab and did it on purpose, or just flubbed and got lucky with an especially effective recovery? Let us know in the comments, and for more on Raging Demon’s interesting history, be sure to check out our video detailing all the times Demon failed to do its job in terms of canonical lore.