Elbow Assault

Abridged move description that I paraphrased from the Passport (via Suka Pass):

The Elbow Assault targets the center of the opponent's body with a full-body rush. This area is targeted because this inner area contains many pressure points. The central cord, which runs straight through the center of the body, is especially vulnerable, containing numerous pressure points that are vulnerable to fatal blows*.

However, because this move involves breaking through an opponent's stance and getting inside of his defense, compared to moves used to attack an opponent from the outside, it involves extra risk to the practitioner in that it creates an opening for the opponent to attack. To avoid this risk, the Elbow Assault is executed by raising the hand of the attacking opponent, aiming at the exposed torso and delivering a sharp elbow thrust while stepping inside the opponent's defense. At that time, although the practitioner's body is turned sideways, he must turn his face in the direction of the opponent and observe him carefully.

It seems that Ryo's father Iwao adopted this move from another martial art, but the details of this are unclear.

The "other" martial art that Iwao adopted this move from is Bajiquan, where it is referred to as Liang Yi Zhuang (两仪桩 Yin and Yang/Heaven and Earth Standing) or alternatively Liang Yi Ding (两仪顶 Yin and Yang/Heaven and Earth Elbow). During a trip to China to conduct research for Virtua Fighter, Yu Suzuki visited Bajiquan master Wu Lian-Zhi who showed Yu some moves. You can read more about Yu's research trip through PhantomRiverStone and/or watch a short interview with Yu Suzuki and Wu Lian-Zhi here.

Wu Lian-Zhi demonstrating the Liang Yi Zhuang

You might also recognize it as one of the signature moves of Akira Yuki from the Virtua Fighter series (who practices Hakkyoku-ken--the Japanese name for Bajiquan). As Shenmue was originally developed as a Virtua Fighter RPG starring Akira, this was likely included as part of Ryo's moveset as a holdover. They even have the same input commands in both games. -> -> P

While the Elbow Assault uses a classical form that is a bit too exaggerated to pull off in real life, there have been some applications of it in modern combat sports. It's common for boxers to project their elbows out as a guard and rush through punches in order to get into a close range punching distance or a clinch. In Muay Thai, the vertical elbow can be used in a similar fashion as well as a blatant strike as elbows are legal (Sylvie von Duuglas-Ittu has a good video on it). Former HW/LHW UFC Champion Randy Couture had plenty of success in his fights with raising his elbows and rushing through punches to get to the inside position where he excelled.

Randy demonstrates an elbow counter as an entry into the clinch in his excellent book Wrestling for Fighting.

There are also some examples of committed offensive uses that are more in the spirit of the Elbow Assault. Here is an application of the classical Liang Yi Ding demonstrated by Japanese Bajiquan master Tamotsu Miyahira.

 Clip taken from Tatsuya Naka's Great Journey of Karate 2

Now compare it with this clip of Paul Felder vs Alessandro Ricci. As Ricci throws out the jab, Felder simultaneously avoids the punch and closes the distance while throwing the vertical elbow. Felder's elbow collides with Ricci's face, which stuns Ricci enough for Felder to followup and finish the fight with a flurry of strikes.
 

The Elbow Assault isn't the only move in Ryo's repertoire that's based on moves from Bajiquan and we'll visit the others in a future installment.

*I didn't touch upon the pressure point stuff and don't intend to. Many traditional martial arts incorporate pressure points into their training. As the Hazuki style is a traditional style in-universe with many classical influences, many of Ryo's moves mention pressure points in their descriptions. It'd get too repetitive addressing them each time they're brought up, so I'll only mention pressure points if the description does something different with them other than "hit this and they could die."

Dark Moon

Abridged move description:

This is a so-called bombardment kick move, with the kick delivered while flipping forward in mid-air. This is one of the more unusual moves in the Hazuki style, considered heretical in ancient Jujitsu... The reason this type of move was developed is found in the training system of the Hazuki Style. Among the throwing moves to be mentioned later is one called the Darkside Hazuki which involves spinning the opponent 180 degrees and dropping him head first. ...the person on whom the move is being practiced adopts a defense of spinning in mid-air before landing. That move, with a kick added, is the Dark Moon.

Because the practitioner himself falls after executing the move it is easy to leave an opening for the opponent, but those who have mastered the move can quickly mount a defense to solve this problem.

This move does exist in real life and is known Do Mawashi Kaiten Geri in Japanese or
as the rolling thunder or Kyokushin wheel kick. This move is typically seen in Kyokushin Karate and kickboxing competitions (typically thrown by kickboxers with a Kyokushin background). It is a very powerful kick as the user is throwing their entire body into the move and usually stuns or knocks out the opponent even it connects.

Peter Graham knocking out Badr Hari with the rolling thunder in the last minute of a fight he was clearly losing.

In Kyokushin Karate and kickboxing competitions, there is little risk as strikes to a grounded opponent are illegal. This can even be gamed for an advantage. Young kickboxing phenom Tenshin Nasukawa rarely lands the rolling thunder in his professional kickboxing matches (most of his knockdowns with them have been against outclassed MMA fighters). However, as the referee halts the action to let Tenshin get back up after flopping on the ground from a missed kick, he can run out the clock and buy a few seconds as a breather before he stands back up

Tenshin knocking down the overmatched Yusaku Nakamura during a Rizin match

In MMA, missed or botched connections are much riskier as you are grounded while your opponent can easily score a free strike or can engage in grappling and secure top position. There are also few Kyokushin strikers who transition to MMA in comparison to the amount that end up competing in kickboxing, which may also explain the move's rareness in MMA competition.

Though it does still happen on occasion in MMA as former UFC veteran Ross Pearson found out the hard way

The description mentions the move being considered heretical in jiujitsu. Traditional Japanese jiujitsu is designed with the use of weapons and armored opponents in mind. In modern grappling competitions, not all positions on your back are considered bad--many submission grapplers even prefer to engage from their back rather than top position. However, in traditional Japanese Jiujitsu, being on the ground on your back is terrible as you're one step away from getting a knife shoved through your eye. It's logical that the move would be considered heretical in that context as you're purposely tossing yourself to the ground for little reward as the other guy is probably wearing armor, making most unarmed strikes ineffectual.

This picture courtesy of historical German fencing master Talhoffer depicts the concept of why being on the bottom = bad when weapons are involved.

I'm skeptical of the in-game logic of the Dark Moon originating as a by-product of safe practicing of the Darkside Hazuki move. If the kick was developed from the motion of the uke when thrown, then the Dark Moon should resemble the forward roll version of the rolling thunder rather the side roll version that Ryo uses (going off the in-game depiction of the Darkside Hazuki). Of course this could just be a simple continuity error between the description and the animation and not a lore problem or whatever. The connection between "roll-through to not get spiked on the head" to "hey what if I kick somebody really hard with this" is a bit dubious as well, but hey it wouldn't be the first move to be discovered via accident or messing around.

Darkside Hazuki, footage by Damp Macaroni

Forward roll variation of the rolling thunder demonstrated by Harold Howard during an early UFC match.

Big thanks to Suka Pass for allowing me to make a video of the move and get the description without having to download an emulator or buy a screen recorder.

Why I made this blog

Shenmue 1 and 2 are some of my favorite games ever. When they were released, I was young and just getting into martial arts. The martial arts aspect to the series was part of why I was so drawn to it.

When Shenmue 3 was announced after some 15 years of waiting, I was hyped. I was purposely avoiding reading any news about to keep the experience fresh when I finally got to play it. Then the game got delayed a bunch of times and I ended up forgetting about it until a few months after it had already come out. I bought it, but I have zero desire to play it (especially given some of my fellow Shenmue fans' experiences with the game).

I haven't consistently trained in martial arts for a few years now. It was way easier to be consistent at it when I was younger and had no real responsibilities, but work, life, and laziness got in the way. I've fallen on and off the martial arts wagon as many times as Shenmue 3 got delayed. 2020 was the year when I was going to commit to training regularly, but the COVID-19 happened and all the gyms closed down.

In this blog I'll examine the fighting moves from the Shenmue series and compare how the in-game version stacks up against the moves' real-life equivalent. I hope to accomplish two things with this blog: to keep my mind active in studying martial arts even if I can't physically train with anybody and to hopefully reignite my passion for Shenmue. If anybody reads this and enjoys it, that's just a bonus.

The name of this blog is a stupid pun because I couldn't think of a better name.

Cheers.