#sf6 lore

In old concept art, A.K.I. was going to be similar to F.A.N.G where her hair is black, her skin has some color, and her hands stained with poison. But the difference was she had to dip her hands in poison constantly because her hands do not produce poison in the same way like FANG’s. Because a poison pot near her belly is going to obscure her slender figure, the designers opted for poison-laced claws instead.

The idea of AKI not producing her own poison from her hands is actually shown in-game. AKI soaks her claws in a giant pot of poison on the character select screen. That poison belongs to FANG as noted from AKI’s taunt (“The Master’s prized poison”) and her World Tour description.

Even though AKI has to restock on poisons, she actually has poison in her body. Her Pockest quotes stated as such. Albeit she has to put away her claws when traveling by plane lol. It’s not clear whether she actually produces her own poison this way, or she ingests FANG’s before going into battle.

Also from her Nightshade Pulse, she exhales poison in gaseous state from her mouth. When her poison breath blows through her claws, which are laced in FANG’s poison in liquid state, it forms a poison bubble. Basically she’s using a combination of her own poison with FANG’s. Isn’t that neat? Oh, considering she has poison in her mouth, it’s best not to kiss her there unless you’ve built a strong tolerance to poison!

And must I add, her favorite poisons are neurotoxins 💜💜

And a little tidbit regarding about FANG’s poison, at least the early concept of it. Initially, the devs were going to have FANG being naturally born with poison hands, but he uses poison that is environmentally friendly (?!?!?!??!!!). Lol um whut 😂😂. This early aspect of FANG ended up seeping into his 20 minute speech bubble lol. Even evil bad guys care about the earth 😜😜.

According to official lore, Nakayama said FANG’s poison can melt almost anything, except for gold. Makes sense because his Shadaloo cell phone and the hilt of his Nguuhao dagger is made of gold.

“How old do you think A.K.I. is?”

I made a post about it a long time ago here, though it might be slightly outdated:

https://www.tumblr.com/remy2fang/749566260290912256/hi-im-getting-back-into-sf-after-six-years-of

Short answer: A.K.I. is probably between 20 to 23 years old. Officially it’s said that she is quite young compared to other characters in the SF6 roster. The only character she’s older than are Lily (officially 19 years old) and Ed (he’s probably younger than Lily lol).

I also made a twitter post about it some time ago:

And I remember ryo_redcyclone made an age chart, though it’s just their estimation. This was before Ed’s birthday message when he thinks he’s still only 12 or 13 years old…Japan SF6 twitter had a meltdown when they saw that message lol.

Now people might be confused about Chun-Li’s age in that chart. I’ll keep this short, the lore setting between SF2 to SF6 is about 13 to 15 years apart. And yes, even director Nakayama confirmed that Chun-Li, Juri Han, and Mai Shiranui are close in age.

Ahh it’s Ed’s birthday! The stamp on the left was from 2024 and the one on the right is this year’s. Should be size 512 x 512 px with background transparency. Extracted by me 💜💜. Also his birthday messages from 2024 and today as well.

I don’t really say this often because my mind is always on F.A.N.G and A.K.I. 💜💜, but I’ve always liked Ed ever since watching his Character Story mode in SFV (I was already aware of his existence in SF4). Yes, a lot of it was because I thought he was hot lol (I like those Bengus illustrations), but at the same time I thought his bond with Balrog had a lot of heart to it. And his story on how he wanted to break away from Shadaloo and formed a group that’s dedicated in saving individuals like himself and Falke.

For those who got into Ed because of SF6, lemme tell you that he was a “hated” character back in the SFV era. A shocker, right? Especially with the amount of fans, fanart, and fanfics that’s made to celebrate him in this day and age. A lot of people didn’t like his design, they thought his voice was annoying, his buttons were too simple, etc. Sure, his usage rate was on the moderate side so people actually did mained him, but most of the time I just saw negativity towards his character. Ngl, even though he was never my #1 fave (that’s FANG), I was somewhat taken aback on how the community treated Ed during those times. But then again, I probably feel this way for every under-appreciated character. So of course on rare occasions, I’ll drop a “I love Ed!” comment to show that he’s got some supporters.

Fast forward to June 2022, the SF6 Season 1 roster was leaked and Ed was part of it. I remember hearing people complained about his inclusion, saying characters like Dudley, Menat, Makoto, Sean, Sakura, or another highly requested character should’ve been part of the roster—not “Ed.” For me, Ed’s inclusion made sense because his lore had a lot of relevancy, being connected to Shadaloo and all. I even defended this stance from time to time when people thought Ed shouldn’t have been brought back. The community mindset was basically like this until his gameplay reveal dropped in February 2024. At that point, things were starting to turn around for him.

Nowadays, Ed is one of the most beloved characters in SF6, and I’m so happy for that. I’ve always liked him and he’s finally getting the love that he deserves. Also, the devs love him too as Ed was the driving inspiration for the creation of Street Fighter 6.

For someone like me who saw Ed negativity for years, official content like these make me happy. This could be said for any under-appreciated character too.

Since today is Ed’s birthday, Nakayama dropped some neat lore and art on him and his teammates. There’s auto-translators if you go to the actual link for Twitter.

Amrita the Dolphin is said to have a mind greater than humans’ and has telepathic powers. Either I forgot about this lore bit or it was never said until today.

Also, if Falke were to come back, it would be fun if the other team mates show up with some of her specials and supers lol. I’m serious! I would love to see that!

It’s something I’ve been wondering myself for some time. There was also a Reddit post about it where people had their own theories, some speculating that A.K.I. might’ve started the poison training at an older age than when F.A.N.G started.

I have a few theories of my own:

THEORY 1: Poison affects each person differently. AKI lost her melanin whereas FANG lost his libido and his hands leak poison permanently. FANG also can’t get drunk because of his poison tolerance, so I’d probably assume that could be the same for AKI…? I don’t know lol.

THEORY 2: AKI is now at the point where her poison tolerance levels are higher than that of FANG’s (?). In “Toxicity,” FANG saw that AKI has a strength that he had never seen before, neither from himself nor from his “brothers.” Maybe the reason why FANG still has his melanin is because he’s already at his threshold and that he can’t go any further with the poison dosage or he’d die from it? Hence, he can’t reach to the point where his hair and skin turn white.

But then AKI already had streaks of white hair as a kid after doing some poison training, and there’s no way she’s at FANG’s level at that point. Which leads to—

THEORY 3: The poison that AKI was trained with was much more potent than what FANG trained with. From his SFV Character story, it is said that FANG is the strongest poison user of any generation before him. He must’ve been training with the previous generations’ poison whereas AKI trained from FANG’s which is more corrosive, and that’s probably why AKI’s hair and skin bleached.

That being said, if it was any other person that’s not AKI, they’d probably die under FANG’s poison training. FANG’s training days was full of kids dying around him and that affected his perception of survival. So of course, if he knows a kid that’s just as strong or even stronger than he was (that be AKI), he would accept them as his student.

THEORY 4: AKI overdid the poison training, going beyond the dosage that FANG had recommended. In her World Tour and also in FANG’s SFV story mode, poison immunity is built through controlled exposure, with non-lethal doses. AKI warned the WT avatar not to mimic her methods unless they want to die in the process. This may imply that AKI overexposed herself with poison, putting a toll on her body and health. Knowing AKI, she probably did this because she wanted FANG to praise her along with her own fascination with poisons (no matter how painful it was).

But looking back at AKI’s old concept art, she initially had dark hair and some color in her skin. She also had poison stained hands similar to FANG too. AKI was going to be the same as FANG in a visual and symptomatic sense.

Of course, sometime later the designers decided to have AKI’s hair and skin bleached, which goes in-line with the white snake motif. No official lore reason why the poison turned AKI this way while FANG’s hands permanently leak poison and his libido is gone (I think AKI still has hers with the way she talks about FANG).

Another lore drop from Street Fighter director Takayuki Nakayama:

【A.K.I.と演技】

暗殺者の常として、彼女もその素顔、素の自分を隠している。仕事のためどこにでも潜入し、何者にも自分を偽ることができなければならないため、「これが自分」だというアイデンティティに固執しない。着ている服やメイクについてもそうで、彼女の見た目の何一つとして彼女自身の好みや指向を反映したものではない。言動も同じく、「にししし」などと笑ったりするのも一種の芝居であり、素の自分をつかませないためのカモフラージュ。グーハウの首領であったF.A.N.Gはおとなしい格好をしていたことから…このポリシーはベガに与したことで心境の変化があったものと考えられる。

[A.K.I. and acting]

As is common among assassins, she hides her true face and true self. Because she must infiltrate anywhere for her job and be able to disguise herself to everyone, she does not cling to an identity that says "this is who I am." This goes for the clothes she wears and the makeup she uses; nothing about her appearance reflects her own preferences or inclinations. Her words and actions are the same; laughing and saying "nishi-shi-shi" is a kind of acting, a camouflage to prevent people from seeing her true self. F.A.N.G, the leader of Nguuhao, dressed in a modest manner... so this policy is thought to be a change of heart after siding with Vega (Bison/Dictator).

Well, AKI has been acting since the Toxicity story, and FANG took note of that. AKI is very much like FANG, because FANG’s goofy persona was also an act. He also has different identities without having a real one. In other words, both FANG and AKI should never be trusted lol.

And her “Nishishi” laugh was learned from FANG who started it from the first place.

It was already hinted in-game that however A.K.I. dresses or acts doesn’t reflect who she is, as she doesn’t care what she looks like. AKI purposely wants to keep to herself and she often say she doesn’t care what people think of her. We can say that she likes going to parties or play videogames and she’ll probably play along with that and we won’t know if she’s honest about it.

If what AKI says and does is just an act, does that mean her love for FANG was all a lie? Well, FANG told AKI not to form any emotional attachments towards him because they might kill each other someday due to being assassins…and yet AKI still show a lot of affection towards him, even though there’s no reason to do so because FANG forbid such emotions in the first place. Interestingly enough, a lot of people thought FANG’s loyalty to M. Bison was also an act during the SFV era, but at this point FANG is still loyal to the former Shadaloo boss.

Also, a good way to know AKI’s deepest sentiments is to play her arcade mode where she’s often alone in her thoughts. She obviously respects FANG and wants him to praise her. But just because she loves him, it doesn’t mean she always agrees with him. For one, FANG ordered AKI not to kill anyone in her mission. AKI followed through, but deep down she wanted to kill her targets.

But also, there’s these other tweets from both official Street Fighter accounts and from Nakayama.

Regarding about what AKI does during her free time:

So I think AKI’s love and reverence towards FANG is genuine. Also the official tweets about AKI’s favorite and least favorite food could possibly be truthful because it’s Nakayama speaking about her character instead of AKI lying to the World Tour avatar, if that makes sense.

I know the latest information about AKI sounds contradictory against what has already been officially stated in the past. But thinking about it, it makes sense. AKI would not show her true self when she’s on the job, nor does she want anyone to know her true identity because assassins are supposed to be secretive. Even when talking with the avatar in World Tour mode, she never outright revealed herself as an assassin, although she made lots of implications about it.

Also, most of her win quotes sounded like she never revealed her identity: she just ambush every fighter. Whereas when she lose, some legacy characters figured out she’s FANG’s student. Though, she seems a bit more honest when JP knew who her master is.

Because of Nakayama’s post, this does leave room for interpretation. AKI may or may not enjoy the company of others other than FANG, but it’s hard to tell since she won’t let anyone know her true feelings. This could also be a parallel to FANG. FANG also doesn’t allow himself to have “friends.”

What A.K.I. can call F.A.N.G: 先生 = Xiansheng (Chinese) = Sensei (Japanese) = Teacher/Master

What A.K.I. cannot call F.A.N.G： 師父 = Shifu = Fatherly Master

What you cannot call A.K.I. = 師匠 = Shishou (Japanese) = Master/Mentor

In the Japanese dialogue when the World Tour protagonist calls AKI “Master,” they use the term 師匠 (Shishou), which means Master/Mentor. This title has a more personal meaning, something like a role model and indicates a close and long-term relationship with teacher and student. All World Tour Masters in SF6 are referred as 師匠, hence the “Bonding” points.

Of course, AKI does not want the WT avatar to call her “Shishou” in the same way that FANG doesn’t allow AKI to call him 師父 (Shifu = Fatherly Master) because the titles indicate emotional bonds. As assassins they can’t have that. Calling AKI “Shishou” probably hits too close to home 🥺. By that definition, AKI can’t call FANG “Shishou” either.

When AKI calls FANG “Master,” she uses 先生 (Xiansheng (Chinese) = Sensei (Japanese) = Teacher/Master (English)), so it’s a different word than what the WT protagonist wanted to use. FANG is fine with this term because it’s more formal and doesn’t necessarily carry a personal meaning. But AKI is sneaky and has another meaning in mind when using Xiansheng, which is “husband”. At least FANG doesn’t know that. He should’ve settle for “Shifu” lol.

But to be fair, calling FANG “Shifu” might’ve struck a nerve in him, considering he was pitted against his “brothers” and was tasked by the Nguuhao to kill them. It “robbed him of his emotions,” so that implies a traumatic event. Calling FANG “fatherly master” or anything like “family” might’ve brought him bad memories…

Oddly enough, AKI’s name is spelled 阿鬼 in Chinese, which means “Ghost-Chan” where the 阿 (a) is used as an endearment for someone who’s close, especially within family. When AKI first met FANG, FANG gave her the name Phantom (鬼 = ゆうれい = Yuurei = Ghost), and then she became AKI (阿鬼) after she survived her first poison training.

If FANG calls AKI 阿鬼, wouldn’t that mean he’s breaking his own rules? Why is it OK for FANG to call AKI akin to “daughter” while it’s not OK for AKI to call FANG “father?” Either he wants AKI to become the perfect weapon and doesn’t want her to make the same mistake he did in forming emotional bonds with his “brothers”…or being called “father” brings him bad memories and unpleasant feelings about his traumatic past? Who knows.

I guess the saying goes, how can FANG allow AKI to call him “Fatherly Master” when he killed his “brothers,” people he actually cared about? And that goes the same for AKI. How can AKI allow anyone to call her “Master” when she can’t even call FANG “Fatherly Master?”

Lately there’s been misinterpretations and misinformation that “F.A.N.G doesn’t care about A.K.I. and thinks she’s worthless” when there’s official signs that imply something more complicated and nuanced between the two characters. I’ve been thinking for the longest time that if F.A.N.G invested years of his life raising, teaching, and training A.K.I., he must’ve at least care for her in “some” capacity. He also taught her how to dress. Heck, he even taught A.K.I. how to read because she couldn’t read difficult words when she first met him. And now AKI is a genius that speaks with sophistication and elevated diction! Also, based on AKI’s dialogue and win quotes, it’s implied that FANG spent a great deal talking to her (or ranting lol), especially about poisons, Shadaloo, and the people he encountered in the past.

Also whenever FANG talks about AKI in SF6, he usually say positive things about her like how she could be the 2nd best poison user in the world or how her cypher usage isn’t bad at all (also critiquing it like how a teacher or parent would). FANG also named AKI 阿鬼. The 阿 (a) has an endearment meaning, usually towards family. It’s almost as if FANG sees AKI as a daughter.

In Toxicity, the passages where FANG thought AKI reminded him of himself and his brothers was already indicative that he felt some sort of connection with her. FANG didn’t see AKI as just a tool or a pawn; he saw her as the same as him. He compared AKI to himself and his brothers, not to some Shadaloo grunt or Doll to exploit. And then FANG realized that AKI could be even greater than himself. AKI’s strength was what convinced FANG to take her in as his disciple after AKI pleaded him to teach her. Poison training can be fatal, but FANG already knew AKI could handle it. I read this story years prior before SF6 was announced and already noticed that FANG was portrayed with nuance and AKI was fearless.

I can see some people projecting the overused cold master and clueless victim trope onto FANG and AKI, but I guarantee that this is not the case in official lore. AKI is definitely not a manipulated victim nor prisoner of FANG’s. She was the one who adamantly insisted on going with FANG in the first place because she WANTED him to teach her the meaning of the words engraved on his dagger. She was naturally drawn to it. Because it never crossed FANG’s mind to take AKI in as a student, he threatened her with his dagger, seeing if she’s sincere with her words. AKI did not flinch when death was right in front of her. She did not runaway. She still wanted to learn from him. This impoverished little girl from the streets was not afraid of him. AKI is a lot stronger, braver, and smarter than what people give her credit for.

Despite being poverty stricken, AKI said she could not have FANG’s dagger nor does she need his money. She did not ask FANG to save her because she knew he was dangerous. What AKI wanted was for FANG to teach her as she knew it will empower her. By meeting FANG, she found something more valuable than money and this was something that she chose for herself.

Another reason why AKI went with FANG was because she was genuinely interested in him as mentioned from her World Tour dialogue. It was the first time she was truly interested in anything. And despite after years of reading so many books and going around the world as an assassin where she most likely saw a lot of new and intriguing things, nothing else could compare to FANG.

Even though AKI loves FANG, she actually has a mind of her own and has different personal priorities from her Master. For one, FANG ordered AKI NOT to kill anyone in Arcade Mode. AKI abided, but deep down she WANTED to kill everyone. Basically, AKI can be wicked on her own without FANG.

Secondly, AKI doesn’t really care about Shadaloo nor M. Bison based on her win quote.

She investigates Shadaloo Remnants only because FANG cares about it and that she loves him. She also wants him to praise her good work. To AKI, she cares much more about FANG than Shadaloo 100%.

Third, she also goes out on her own without FANG telling her what to do. Like in this UDON comic panel where she decides to kill Rashid on her own accord (plan failed lol). Although an UDON comic, the story was actually written by Capcom, so it does have some canon:

Fourth, if FANG doesn’t say “No,” then AKI will do as she will, like how she taught the Avatar in becoming a poison fighter. Heck, even if FANG says “No,” AKI will still find a way to go around it and be sneaky about it, like having a different meaning in mind whenever she calls FANG “teacher.”

Yes, there is a possibility of FANG abandoning AKI if she’s deemed “useless” (she’s not useless because he knew she’ll surpass him), but he had already told AKI that he doesn’t want her to be attached to him because someday they might be pitted against each other in a death battle. FANG knows firsthand from his own tragic past with his brothers, an event where he had no control over. Between the two, FANG already knew AKI would win because he foresaw that she will surpass him as a poison user in the Toxicity story. For AKI to not feel however FANG felt after killing his “brothers,” that’s why he told AKI not to be attached to him. He told AKI not to call him “Shifu” 師父 (Fatherly Master). He does not want AKI to be attached to him in the same way he does not want anyone to be friends with him. His cold demeanor towards AKI was rooted from his own tragedy.

If AKI was truly manipulated by FANG, she would have been glazing Bison and Shadaloo, which she does not. Also, she would’ve obeyed FANG’s orders not to form any emotional attachments towards him. Clearly it’s the opposite as she loves him anyway. FANG wants to keep his distance from AKI while AKI wants to get closer to him. AKI cannot help her emotions and loves FANG whether he likes it or not! FANG can’t control how AKI feels or who she loves. The official AKI Fighting Pass showed that dynamic:

What AKI wants for herself is to get closer to FANG, wanting him to praise her brilliant work, to get lots of attention from him, and to have him all for herself because she is (dangerously) possessive of him! AKI said she doesn’t want anyone to get too close to her Master. She’ll get jealous!

Yes, FANG is evil. But if Capcom wanted to make him into an irredeemable POS that doesn’t deserve AKI’s love, they wouldn’t be making a 3-part story where he’s the main character and detailing his tragic past, they wouldn’t be making cute art of him with AKI, they wouldn’t have him cooing over cute animal photos, and they wouldn’t have him be supportive and collaborative with the World Tour Avatar. Heck, he didn’t cause any trouble for the Avatar—JP and Juri were more antagonistic towards the protagonist. Slowly but surely Capcom is giving FANG some justice, despite odds are overwhelmingly against him in the fandom.

For years fans have hated certain characters just to be proven wrong years later. It was like this for Luke and Ed. I’m sure someday it would be the same for FANG and he’ll have his moment to shine. Nakayama said the team created FANG with love and still mentions about FANG on his Bluesky whenever AKI is the topic.