Mitsuru vs. Kanji

[TheRealDMac]

Please use this thread to talk about the matchup!

I'm currently filling in the gaps for Mitsuru, and may contribute notes to the thread myself once I'm finished doing my personal matchup grind.

[AchedSphinx]

Kanji is the one who carries nearly all of the risk in that matchup. The majority of Kanji's you will fight online, especially if they use DP as much as you're implying, will get blown up if you just harass them with max range 5A pressure, occasionally stopping for a few seconds to see what he does. Chances are all of the bad Kanjis will just be mashing on DP and 214D (the slow, invul command grab), both of which are punishable and have fatal recovery.

 

Just be a little more passive during your pressure and let him kill himself. Good luck.

 

The way it works is that Kanji can't do anything to stop Mitsuru's gameplan. At the start of a round, Mitsuru will more than likely back dash away, to create space (though you shouldn't do this all the time. 5A at the start is a good way to be less predictable). Now Kanji's options are to either jump in and do j.B or j.C or do his lightning stuff/Persona charge. If he does the jump things, you can easily do 2D to catch him, in which case he will block. Now it's important to read what he does when he lands after blocking, since he has no air options here, and you're at the initiative. For instance, he can do DP when he lands, catching your 5A or he can do 214D which accomplishes the same thing. If you're not sure if he's going to do either of those options, back step is perhaps your safest option, because if he does DP or 214D he will eat a FC. This is part of conditioning your opponent. If he's afraid to DP or 214D, you can do stuff like 5A when he lands or throw, which gives you even more options. Things like these will take practice for sure. Lord Knight said it a few pages back, understanding the skill level of your opponent quickly is critical.

 

If Kanji decides to do the lightning thing or the charge, Mitsuru's option is droit B or 5D. After Kanji does a burst, she can safely do SB Tentarafoo as well to catch him doing either option. 5D is the greedy option, but it's slower so he can catch you with the lightning if you're late (though you can catch him if he's late). Droit B does less damage, but its quicker and has great corner carry and you do want Kanji in the corner.

 

Now then, how do you space Kanji if he has a DP? Easy answer, 5C and j.C. 5C works in the same way that j.C does, it will cause persona break, but Kanji will be in recovery for his DP, allowing you to get a FC. It's important to space 5C properly. For instance, if you're too close Kanji can do 214D and grab you. If you do 5C as a meaty, on his wake-up, he doesn't have this option, but he also won't be able to DP either so you can't really get the punish you want. Another important thing to note, which I mentioned with blockstrings, is 5C > back dash > 5C, which destroys Kanji's DP and roll options, however he can do something like sweep because there's a decent gab between back dash and 5C. So if he does that, you can do 5B for instance. Just goes to show you can't rely on 5C > back dash > 5C to win against good opponents. This is all apart of conditioning so that you can space with 5A.

 

On the defensive end, your options are block, DP, and jump. Blocking gets beat by 214C, DP gets beat by 214D, jump gets beat by 5A (the alternative being Mitsuru's DP beats 5A and 214C. Jump beats 214D). If you have 100 meter, you can eliminate the 214C and 5A options, making your guessing game more favorable. But if he does 214D, you'll lose 50 meter and eat a hefty combo. One thing you should refrain from at all times is trying to anti-air him with 2B. 2D is slower, but the better option. Kanji's j.C will more than likely get a fatal and it's really difficult to anti-air his j.C.Though I guess you can think of it like this. If he's high in the air and approaching, he will do j.C (punish this when he lands with droit A/SB or 5A), and if he's low and does a jump-in he will do j.B, which is a bit faster and a little easier to anti-air. If Kanji does the low-jump in route, he also risks j.C being anti-air'd, since Mitsuru's 2B can actually beat him there sometimes. And if you're not sure which option he's going to do, doing j.A is also an option to keep space.

 

Either way, this is a bit on the technical side of things and probably belongs in the Mitsuru v Kanji thread. I hope it helps. Also, I can attest to these methods above, because whenever I play without a care and haphazardly because I don't account for the Kanji player's skill level, I lose most of the time. However, if I'm patient, I win the majority.

 

Edit: Basically what Rath said, but longer!

In my opinion the match-up is 60/40. In Mitsuru's favor.