I know that the light tatsu is not safe in any case, but are the m and h tatsus safe at all? Perhaps at a certain distance? My question is specifically in the cases of Ryu and Ken
Ken can do reversal SA3 against any blocked Tatsu. Ryu can do reversal SA2. If neither have meter then I think Akuma doesn’t have to worry too much about getting punished from blocked Tatsu, but the opponent still recovers from blockstun first(just barely, by like 2-3 frames) so they could possibly mash a Shoryu if you get predictable with a followup.
I don’t know if you can ever make tatsu’s completely safe against Ken because of reversal Jinrai. Against Ryu, maybe if you cancel a far low forward into tatsu its safe.
Tbh tho you kinda need to get used to doing some things that are unsafe in theory with Gouki, especially against Ken. Ken can punsih all the following on block…
Tatsumaki (all strengths)
low forward
far stand forward
far stand fierce
Shouldn’t stop you from using those tools, just have to use them intelligently.