Identify the Demon Raid ending instead of guarding the jump alone
Akuma combines grounded fireballs with airborne routes, but a Demon Raid after a knockdown deserves its own defensive plan. The source lists several attacks and an empty landing into throw. Recognizing the leap is only the beginning; the ending and the preceding knockdown determine what you must defend.
What to watch for
Demon Raid after a prepared knockdown
The guide distinguishes these setplays from a raw leap in neutral. A low-contact attack can leave a different situation from the same move arriving higher, so record the timing as well as the branch.
Heavy Gou Shoryuken into a timing kick
The source uses a whiffed standing medium kick before jab, crouching medium punch, throw, or shimmy. That deliberately missed kick should not be mistaken for a free approach.
How to deal with common situations
He lands without a Demon Raid attack
An empty landing into throw is a documented alternative. Holding parry solely for the expected airborne hit exposes that choice. Practice identifying the landing rather than committing to one defense for the whole leap.
Crouching medium kick brings a Drive Rush
The block route in the combo page continues into crouching light punch and a strike, throw, or shimmy. Keep watching after the low is guarded; treating the contact as finished misses the close decision.
Distance-specific responses
Across the fireball space
Distinguish grounded Gou Hadoken from airborne Zanku Hadoken when recording an approach. A jump response to one does not test the trajectory of the other.
At low-kick contact
Stay alert to the cancel into Drive Rush. Your defensive problem shifts from the initial low to the jab and subsequent close choice.
Under a knockdown leap
Check which combo allowed the Demon Raid timing. Do not apply a raw-jump anti-air test to a setup that began while you were still recovering.
Common mistakes
- Parrying every Demon Raid and being thrown on the empty landing.
- Chasing the deliberate medium-kick whiff after heavy Shoryuken.
- Practicing one airborne branch and assuming it covers the entire leap.
Training mode practice steps
Use your own character as the defender. Turn on the frame meter and input history so you can distinguish a real answer from a mistimed recording.
Build a Demon Raid branch test
Copy a knockdown setup from the guide. Record the attack that beat you and an empty landing into throw with matching takeoff timing. Compare guarding the hit with defending the landing before adding another branch.
Defend the heavy-Shoryuken setup
Record heavy Gou Shoryuken and the whiffed medium kick, then jab, throw, and backward walk. Randomize verified timings. Note when your reversal loses to the wait rather than assuming you entered it late.
Uses Akuma’s heavy-Shoryuken timing, low-kick Rush, and Demon Raid setplay sections. Grounded and airborne projectile names follow the existing move reference. For current numerical values, use the linked Frame Data page and confirm important situations in Training Mode.