Akira Yuki

**Akira Yuki** is the main protagonist from the *Virtua Fighter* series.

## **Charactah Account**

Akira is the grandson of a Bajiquan master. Trained in the art by his grandfather himself, Akira sought to (not surprisingly) test his skill in the first World Fighting Tournament. He was beaten in the first tournament by Kage-Maru and went through rigorous training to win the second. After his victory in the second tournament, Akira's grandfather said he hasn't yet mastered anything and must learn what "true strength" really is.

Akira strives for perfection and will drive himself relentlessly to master his techniques. He seeks worthy opponents to fight in order to find flaws in his skills to further attain mastery. While hot-blooded and impulsive, he can also be naive and intemperate. Akira is also quite passionate when fighting, often telling his opponents give him their best and always expressing his enthusiasm for a bout. Despite his hot-headed personality, Akira does appear to have some good friendships with most fighters such as Wolf Hawkfield, Pai, Jacky, Sarah, and Aoi Umenokoji (his childhood friend and sparring partner).

## **Appearance**

### **Anime**

* Virtua Fighter
* Virtua Fighter: Costomize Clip

### **Video Games**

* Dead or Alive 5
* Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax
* Fighters Megamix
* Project X Zone
* Project X Zone 2
* SEGA Heroes
* Sonic & SEGA All-Stars Racing
* Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
* Virtua Fighter
* Virtua Fighter 2
* Virtua Fighter 3
* Virtua Fighter 4
* Virtua Fighter 5
* Virtua Fighter Kids

## **Trivia**

* Akira's design was inspired by martial artist Masaaki Satake.
* An early version of Akira was discovered in November of 2016 in the first *Virtua Fighter* game. According to his bio, Akira's last name was going to be Ryuzaki.
* Akira is one of the three fighters to win a Virtua Fighter tournament. The others being Lau Chan and Kage-Maru.
* Akira shares his given name and fighting style with Akira Kazama from the *Rival Schools*/*Street Fighter*series.
* Akira's catchphrase is 十年早いんだよ！(*Jūnen hayainda yo!*) which roughly translated to "You're ten years too early." Akira has used this phrase in every game since *Virtua Fighter 1* and even in an *Virtua Fighter 3tb*Japanese Commercial. Eileen and Pai Chan both use variations of this phrase. Akira also uses this catchphrase in his reveal trailer from *Dead or Alive 5*.
* *Dead or Alive* creator and former Tecmo employee, Tomonobu Itagaki, has stated the character Akira being the inspiration for the *Dead or Alive* character Kokoro who debuted in *Dead or Alive 4*, released in 2005, over a decade after Akira's debut in the original *Virtua Fighter*. Kokoro also uses Bājíquán as her fighting discipline, but is much like Aoi Umenokoji as well on the fact that she appears innocent and demure. In the E3 2012 trailer for *Dead or Alive 5*, Akira challenges Kokoro to a duel, which Kokoro accepts.
* Akira is generally known to be one of the harder characters to master in the *Virtua Fighter* series.
	+ Although in *Dead or Alive 5* and its expansion updates, made him a bit easier.
* Akira is commonly known being a sub-boss in all *Virtua Fighter* games (not counting *Virtua Quest*), with the exception of *Virtua Fighter 3*.