Not sure if the Anti-Ken guide was helpful at all in its grossly incomplete state. I do understand that many of the details in there are boring, but they’ll help if you take it in :bgrin:
So instead of typing up MORE boring details, I thought I’d post a few cool things you can do with Akuma, or any other character in the same context. Just remember that these are GOOD tricks which usually work the first time round against even top players, so use these in moderation.
Empty jump demon works very well if you’ve conditioned your opponent. I saw PaulT (Melbourne) land a demon after a whiffed jump mk. Even I wasn’t expecting that one to come out. The way he set it up was after knocking Ken down, he jumped straight up (which suggests an air fireball - typical thing to use on grounded opponents), but instead of the fireball, he landed, then jumped forward, mk which JUST missed Ken’s head, landed into Demon. I’m saving that setup for a tournament!
Empty jump or whiffed attack jump, then dragon on landing works quite well too as some of you might have seen - obviously if the opponent tries grabbing you when you land. Try doing the dragon using lp+lk - if they time a throw perfectly, then instead of it beating your dragon - you’ll end up teching the throw - nice!
Jump over your opponents head, so that it looks like you’re attempting a cross up - and since Akuma’s cross is so shit, they’ll most likely position themselves to grab or hit you without them being hit themselves. Anyways - cancel your jump with the latest dive kick you can - then do a nice attack when you land because they will most probably whiff throw since you landed out of throw range. This is something that the twins use a lot, and Akuma can punish whiffs better. If you think the opponent wont try anything after your clever dive cross up - go straight into mk demon flip and grab them. You’ll see this in co-op 4 as well.
Do the lk version of the demon flip just outside sweep range and let the move go into the sweep version - the extra range can sometimes get them, and even when it doesn’t - a sweep attempt from them will end up getting stuffed by your flip sweep. If they block and try to punish, they wont be able to - so be ready to punish their failed punishment attempt!
After a knockdown, do lk version of demon flip in front of them, but go into divekick before they wakeup so that you land on the other side, but still next to them. Looks ambigious and therefore hard to block. The point though is that they dont have to block as the kick finishes on the other side by the time they get up. Try a standing mk. If it hits, confirm with SA1. Uraken does this against AFM in the co-op 4 tourney. AFM manages to block though. Next time round just leave the flip to cancel into the sweep in their face - a lot of people get hit by this.
Something else to try on their wakeup is sit right next to them as they are waking up. Lets suppose you are holding db on the stick/pad. Go into a demon flip by doing df,db,df. Do the flip just after they wakeup (to make sure you dont get hit by any special wakeup move). Go for the grab off this flip. Kool thing here is that the flip just comes out while you are crouching, so the opponent might think its a normal jump. Let me explain that again - there’s always a bit of ‘jerky motion’ before you try a dragon or demon flip and good players can actually see it. But in this case you were just sitting down doing nothing then all of a sudden you go into demon flip. You’ll see this from good Akuma players a lot when they play against tall characters like Q, Hugo and Urien. I’ve even seen Match (best Jap Akuma in my opinion apart from Uraken) land this 3 times in a row on TK (Jap Q player).
Another nice thing to do with demon flips is just cancel them. Press kick just before you hit the ground and hopefully you will have done nothing making it look like an empty jump. This is a very confusing thing to do in mixups when you’re having a hard time approaching someone like Chun.
Kara throw placements:
From right next to the opponent: dash back, walk up slightly, kara throw - this one is good on the opponents wakeup, or after they block a divekick.
standing mp, kara throw
standing or crouching lk, kara throw
cr.lk, cr.lp, slight walk up, kara throw. If you’re quick, be ready to do this one if they block the lk and lp. If not, go into SA1. You should think about this the other way round i.e. aim to land lk,lp,lk super, but if they block, stop after lp and go for kara throw. FYI - if you make them block the cr.lk,lp,lk - you can still do a standing HP which will hit them at the perfect range. Good for catching people out who try a low parry or dash in or any other poke.
st.mk, slight walk up, kara throw. Use this one for mixups - if mk hits, confirm SA1. If blocked, walk up then wait for their attempt to tech your kara throw, punish with a MASSIVE combo. Or just kara throw!
After a whiff throw (people always go for the low parry game after whiff throw. Surprise them with a kara throw).
On your OWN wakeup (specially after rolling) when the opponent stays slightly out of range fearing a wakeup grab or special. Kara demon works in the same way in this situation.
Use demons as an anti parry trap. Learn to spot peoples parry traps. I’m sure most of you become much more cautious with your poke game after falling to a few parry traps. I can bet that you even know WHEN someone is trying a parry trap. Well, use it to your advantage instead of just “I wont give them that poke to parry”. Go kara throw them. Or attack high if the trap was low e.g. after whiff throw.
But try this - give them the perfect poke to parry and cancel it as fast as you can into a demon!
Take this concept further - ANY normal poke can be cancelled into demon, so in theory, you can abuse any poke you want and they can’t punish or parry you cos you can cancel a demon out of any one of those.
MAKE PEOPLE FEAR YOU WHEN YOU HAVE TWO BARS!!! If you can use demons properly, then people will rarely jump in at you. But they will also jump around like mad when you are near them to avoid falling to the instant grab demons (when it starts right next to them). And that gives you the perfect opportunity to fuck them in the air. They will think twice before pressuring you further after knocking you down. They’ll think thrice before punishing your whiffed or blocked pokes. Need I go on?
Plus I can tell you from experience that the only boring aspect of learning and training on 3s is watching a vid of your character losing 
The one vid against Raju is my first ever win against him in a tournament setting, so its kinda useful knowing that I somehow figured out tactics that day to break through his Justin Wong style defence. But then again, he took me out in the semis :sad: I met him again two RBs later and beat him 2-0, which was in a way me trying to prove that I was UK’s best candidate for the second SBO qualifier the following week - long story so nevermind. I had to meet him in the semi finals of that very qualifier and lost to him. Raju is one of my strongest rivals in UK, and knowing that he plays an easy matchup for Akuma really shows how well he can struggle for that win.