[P4A] Kanji vs. Yu: Ride the lightning.

[Circuitous]

Horizontal lightning is bullshit.

~AXIS edit~

Full screen: You don't got much outside of j.D to use, only use j.D on full screen zio or turtling.

Mid screen: A really hard fight to win but one you have to fight.

his 5B just out ranges you, you can sweep it or block it, one choice scores a knockdown and gives you momentum, the other doesn't.

Close range: If you have momentum then play your usual mix up game, I will note that AoA is pretty nice if you do it just out of grab range, it even autoguard Yu's DP without clashing in most cases.

If you are on the defensive then you are in a tough spot, block Yu's pressure and please don't get hit by anything on the ground, Yu's oki is ridiculous.

Things to note:

Yu's slide is a fast low and raging lion is a overhead.

A raging lion is really punishable but B raging lion is +3, IB it if you want to punish him.

Cross slash loses to our DP so if you are out of range for anything just DP it.

Speaking of Cross slash Yu can OMC it on block.

Yu's air combo ender gives him a free air throw regardless of tech so tech late or tech that grab.

If you block Yu's Ziodyne super and he OMC's then watch his feet to tell if he is in the air or not.

Yu's oki:

Ridiculous but blockable.

When blocking Yu always block in the direction that Yu is going so if he rolls behind you then the persona is probably gonna cross up, if he jumps then block high until just before he lands then switch low.

His AoA is safe during this unless he already used 5DD.

Yu has a fuzzy guard during his oki, he hits you with a j.A then he double jumps j.A again.

Yeah it's dirty.

Block his oki and you are in the clear.

There is no way to make this match easy, you just gotta beat the character.

[HurricaneDennis]

If there are any holes in Yu's oki, a well timed 5B will get you a counter on Yu in front of you & hit the persona... I feel like this is a fight where you especially want to knock out the persona if you can...

[zUkUu]

If there are any holes in Yu's oki, a well timed 5B will get you a counter on Yu in front of you & hit the persona... I feel like this is a fight where you especially want to knock out the persona if you can...

I can't think of a fight where that doesn't tremendously helps on the spot x)

[Omex]

Inevitably this matchup is going to involve a lot of patience and blocking due to Yu's safe pressure, but it's worth noting depending on how Yu is approaching you after a 2AB ---> 5D, it's possible to mash B+D as soon as you wake up, trade/kill the persona and cancel it into your awakening super to invinc through his falling b and grab him as soon as he falls. God knows, it'll make him think twice about doing braindead j.B followup pressure from 5D.

Punishing his lightning slide is going to be hard for Kanji, as most players won't do it without being ready to OMC afterwards, and even then, the spacing on it can make it safe (by spacing at least) and I had a hard time setting up some of the variations to have bad spacing. It'll definitely be a big problem if it comes down to last round last hit since it comes out so fast, i generally try to yomi shorthop to dodge it if possible, but that's not exactly reliable.

If you see Yu doing his raging lion (jump up and dive down sword strike, blue effect on the sword), if you're sure the spacing is going to hit you, you can prettymuch do 214D on reaction every time, especially for the bigger version, preventing him from OMCing and punishing easily. Careful though, as mentioned, if the spacing is off and he falls out of your grab range/goes over you, it'll be a free punish for Yu. 2B also works against the B variation on reaction quite easily. This doesn't work as well if the opponent is just dashing/jumping around to feint when he's going to do it however, as it can be hard to react to it from the air version's somewhat ambiguous startup animation. The easiest thing to do, whether it's after a 5C or a raw 214A/B is to just reaction B+D, though that's not always ideal due to the health reduction and the fact he'll be able to air tech afterwards.

If you block a Yu DP, roll it immediately, as he has two options--Canceling the first hit into Cross Slash (Kanji can't punish it on block afaik, just hold back and your roll won't happen) or cancel into Ziodyne on the way up or down. If you roll after blocking the DP, he can't hit you wtih ziodyne whatsoever, leaving you to punish with 5C air hit > whatever.

If you're certain Yu is going to throw a Zio fireball, then just j.D it or j.214B/AB it on reaction, as lightning will definitely catch and, (I could be wrong, but off memory) J.214AB catches on reaction quite easily. Lightning is definitely a good answer to it, as his Persona stays on screen for QUITE a while after throwing the fireball, letting you tag a persona card at the very least.

Be careful around that 2B. If the opponent times it badly or spaces it, you can J.C it for huge damage, but outside of that, respect it, as it'll beat everything else if he times it right. And be careful if he lets you air tech in the corner--he can 2B you for a free reset. Tech up and do an air move/dash or neutral and do it or you'll lose.

Watch for his grab when he's comboing/pressuring in the corner, as he's able to combo off of it similar to Mitsuru (But a bit less scary). Midscreen, it's annoying but not a huge threat as it is in the corner.

And... always be careful while Yu is paralyzed. He has 5B, 214A/B and 214C/D to either jump, slide, counterhit, whatever he wants to you as you approach him, so be careful if you catch him in the air and he techs away from you with paralyze. Try to throw some lightning on him before approaching at least.

[Omex]

double post for visibility.

I'm gonna write about yu's pressure because we haven't talked about it much and Kanji's DP sucks at dealing with most of it so LET'S EXPLAIN

once you're knocked down by yu and you have to deal with his pressure, or you're stuck blocking (it's gonna happen eventually.):

1. learn to IB the 2-3 hits of his 5D (depending on how he set it up.) It's a free ~6-9 meter, and I dunno about you, but I frickin' LOVE 6-9 meter.

2. He wants you to be stuck blocking, especially in the corner, for as much of the match as possible, so it's important to know how he can extend pressure. In particular, watch for these as extenders:

a. Raging lion A/B - Probably what you'll see the most at lower levels. Yu can cancel sweep, 5b, 5C, 2C... just about anything he hits you with into raging lion to move back in on you and keep pressuring. The trick is, raging lion A (the faster one) is prettymuch always going to be negative on block, so you can pressure him or punish him after blocking it (ex grab will usually punish, 5A will not but it will beat out his 5A/2A/2B/etc and catch him if he tries to jump.) Raging Lion B is a different matter, however, as it's positive on block with good spacing, so once you block it, narukami gets to continue his pressure. therefore; don't block it. outside of 5D setups, both can be beaten by DPing on reaction, 214D if there's enough of a gap, and 214214C/D will almost always work as well.

b. Lightning Slide. While it's not very good for 'extending pressure' per se, if he catches you with it, he can OMC or OMB for huge damage on you, so be careful. The D version (multihit) is mad unsafe, but the C version can actually be spaced well (probably off of a 2C) to be safe on block, so be careful. OMCing the multihit slide to get in on you and pressure is also plausible. If he's going for this, try to either DP the slide, hop j.c it if there's a gap in time to do it, or plausibly supergrab. Just make sure you don't get -hit-.

c. 236C/D - Ending his pressure in 236C (Fireball) is generally done just to cancel unsafe normals more safely. As far as I know, you can't relaly punish it, but his persona is left standing there at neutral after, so make sure to snag the card punish. 236D, on the other hand, can be very tricky if he pressures you with it close up-it has a slow startup, but it's positive on block (+9!!) and it fatals if it CHs you. I haven't particularly tested beating it, but I'm fairly sure a quick 5A will CH it and leave Yu open for a moment. (this is depending on what normal he cancels into it off of/whether it's a meaty or not/etc, of course). tl;dr try not to block it because +9 lets him reset his pressure plenty lol.

d. Sweep - Just worth mentioning as Yu can go for a late sweep to try and get a low knockdown you wern't expecting. Special cancelable, so look at the above to see what he can do to make it safe. Most blockstrings into sweep (not involving 5D) actually have gaps in them, so you can either 214214C/D it or IB and 214214C/D him through it. It's a risk tho!

e. 5C cancels - Once you block a 5C, Yu has a bunch of options to extend pressure. first and foremost, canceling 5C into 2C is a 3 frame frametrap, and it can lead to huge damage in the corner, so watch out for that-Kanji's roll is too slow to roll through it and get a guaranteed punish, but it's there. (if he jumps back every time after you roll, you can 236CD him however!) Outside of that, the move is also special cancelable and jump cancelable. JCing gives him quite a few options-in the corner, just neutral jumping and baiting kanji to do things with his double jump or just straight j.bing can be hard to answer to, and if Yu lands a j.b close enough, he can 5A to make it a true blockstring and reset his pressure properly. 2B is good if he double jumps at you, otherwise 236C and airgrab are probably your best options. Additionally, he can just IAD forward and j.B 5a you to reset it as well-in that case, just 2B it or DP if you reacted a little too late. He can also jump cancel, airturn backdash to you for a 2A low/throw, jump backwards, airdash backwards away from you... it's a tricky little situation every time he lands it.

f. 2C cancels. So, Yu went for 5C -> 2C to trap you, hoping for a fatal in the corner or whatever else-thankfully, he can't jump cancel 2C. Yu's options are reduced to dash canceling forward, backward, or special canceling off of 2C-If he dashes forward, 214C will punish cleanly him before he can do anything, but 5A/214214C are too slow. Backdashing puts him back at neutral at a slight disadvantage, though I don't know if Kanji can punish it. You're not out of the park if that happens though, since he's probably doing it in the corner and still able to trap you in the corner with a dash 5B, 2C, god knows what.

g. 5B hit - Special note, if he actually hits you with a 5B, (not on block) he can jump cancel it, letting him do the same jump cancel mixups as he can off of 5C. Mostly an honorable mention if he wants to nab a quick throw for ~3kish?, since he could just... continue the hit into a knockdown combo if he really wants lol.

as far as I know those are the majority of the ways Yu's gonna try and extend pressure on you with, and counters for each (if I didn't derp and forget to put the punish as well as the actual way he extends lol.) Watch out for it, because being able to stop Yu from extending his pressure on you is pretty much the only way you can win the matchup in the long run!

Special note, if he ends an air combo with j.2a (dive kick)? I'm pretty sure that sets up mixups with j.D once you tech on the ground. Not a lot of yu players actually have bothered learning to use the normal too much so I haven't tested much against it but I know SKD wrote a big thing on it over in the narukami forum (I WAS TOTALLY GOING TO LINK IT BUT I GOT FRUSTRATED TRYING TO FIND IT AND THEN DECIDED NOT TO. SORRY). So, special mention, although but I'm not sure what to do to beat it yet, tho I remember hearing roll is good? Sorry!