Canon-wise:
There is no “regular” Gouki, it’s always “Shin” Gouki…
so does that mean that:
-Gouki doesn’t really have a “Ten” character on his back, but really a “Messatsu” character?
-Gouki’s gi isn’t orginally black, but a wierd purple colour, and his hair isn’t red, but fiery-orange?
-His Air fireball shoots out 2 instead of the toned down in-game 1?
-His special moves would really “take off” half life bar from a Street Fighter? (This is moreso related to his first incarnation from ST)
Think of it like Goku. Goku isn’t always in SSJ mode. He doesn’t need to be at full power 24/7. Neither does Akuma (and yeah I call him Akuma, get over it!). Shin Akuma is just Akuma when he’s at full power. I assume that like Goku, his hair changes color too, hehe. Now the clothes and the symbol I can’t explain, except for the fact that Akuma is a hardass and his clothes know it. So they get with the fucking program and change whenever the hell he wants.
i think the hair and uniform color change along with the different symbol was only CVS2 Shin Akuma which wasn’t really akuma at full power or anything. That was Akuma when he was fused with Rugal. Shin Akuma in SFA2 definitely looks just like normal akuma.
Doesnt he get White hair now?
That’s not the SF games, only the Vs. games. They aren’t merged into Canon.
Is it true in Super SF II Turbo, it’s Shin Akuma who appears and kills M.Bison.?Chronologically if Alpha is set before SF II, wouldn’t that make Akuma morph into Shin by Super SF II Turbo? But why is Akuma by Third Strike just known as Akuma? Is he no longer Shin Akuma?
So the only person who has fought and seen “regular” Gouki is Ryu?
Because all of the other times Gouki fought in canon, he fought really strong opponents, so he must of been Shin Gouki
And in SFA2, Shin Gouki has a purple gi and orange hair, so he doesn’t look like “normal” Gouki
I think this whole shin akuma thing is pretty self explainatory. It can easily be inferred that the shin akuma appearance (white hair and purple gi) is what he would most likely look like these days. It represents his current incarnation and if they ever go ahead with Street Fighter 4, Akuma would resemble the “shin akuma” character model.
For those of you, (everyone) who have played third strike you’d know that akuma was going grey by the 3 series (on the sides ala Mr Fantastic). Whether this is due to old age, as he was getting up there by 3 - possibly in his 50s or 60s, or due to an increase in “power” isn’t particularly important. Clearly by this stage he now most likely has white hair and has traded in his old gi for a shiny new purple one.
As for the alpha 2 shin akuma, who really cares - its like asking whether chun li wore her alpha costume or her traditional sf2 gear during the alpha series.
Putting the Rugal fusion aside and without getting into a major debate about cannon or anything like that, Akuma’s latest appearances as produced by capcom - snk v capcom 2 and capcom fighting jam, depict him as the “shin” character model.
Whether they call him akuma, shin akuma or charlie chan is of little to no importance. I’m sorry but some of the reponses on this thread have been borderline moronic.
no. there are people who actually care about the specifics of every little thing.
sure there will be some people who just play the game, read the comic for a quick laugh and then forget about it.
but there are others who actually take notice of the little details. they care about the characters and their background storylines.
Just a little tidbit to tack onto mbthomas, well explained post.
Akuma does NOT “morph” He merely stops fucking around and uses his true power. The gi/hair color change is merely to differentiate him from the other akuma in the game, as they can’t just tack on the exact same color palette, people would be too confused, so as far as storyline goes, his hair/gi colors have no importance.
This explanation definitely fits my current understanding. Canon-wise, there is no real distinction between Gouki/Akuma and Shin Gouki/Akuma. Just “Gouki/Akuma”. The game concepts are simply two different representations of his fighting style, one more reserved, and one all-out, using his abilities to the fullest. The coloration differences are just to make the two separate “characters” look more distinct in-game. I doubt that canon-wise Gouki actually starts changing colors mid-fight when he quits fooling around. 
As for what this means about his abilities canon-wise, (as was brought up in the opening post), it simply means that sometimes he fights while holding back (if he isn’t sure that his opponent is a true match for him), but in an all-out fight, he can use abilities like those Shin Gouki uses in-game.
It’s “Ten” on his back canonwise. “Metsu” would be on Ryu’s back if he ever destroyed Gouki by giving in to SnH.
I cannot believe that this thread happened.
Wikipedia for SF isn’t knowledgeable.
FYI the “Shin” in CvS2 Shin Gouki’s name is a different kanji (means “new”) than the one in the SF games, which means “true”.
You make a thread asking ten-year old questions and then you up and say wikipedia isn’t knowledgeable? Christ…just…ugh…gimme a break…
^ emo ftmfl
You’ve jumped from impressively stupid questions to impossible irony…and now this. You’d probably be better off not posting.
RaishinX wins
Not quite. That one’s made up of the two kanji for “divine” and “being” with the “Shin” intended to “godly”, similar to how Rugal’s upgrade is called God Rugal.