Anji Mito: A Beginner's Guide to Anji Mito: Part 1

[TheSlyMoogle]

TheSlyMoogle's Basic Guide to Anji-Mito:

Ok guys, It's been a long time coming but here is the start of my ever continuing Anji-Mito guide.

First off let me tell you a bit about me:

My name is John, I'm 21, and I live in Morehead, KY. I like long walks on the beach... Just kidding.

Anyway I've been playing Anji for about 3 years now. I started in Reload but didn't fully understand Guilty Gear, or really Anji up until the end of Slash.

Uhm if you asked people I figure they would probably tell you that I'm probably one of the top Anji players in the Nation. Maybe even second only to Kenji.

Speaking of Kenji, he was pretty much the guy who taught me all about Anji, and was the one who gave me the most help when I first started. I think it's because of Kenji that I probably do so well now.

Also if you ever meet me in person and want to know about Anji, get some matches in, maybe a long set or whatever, just say the word. More than happy to help you out and teach you things.

I play with Jais the mod of the Bridget forums, and unquestionably the best U.S. Bridget, WUT/Ryan-Bill who plays HOS and is probably the flashiest HOS I know, and I play with Kyle recently added May mod and one of the top May players in the nation.

So I hope that gives me some street cred. No I've never won a tournament, and I haven't really placed that high in one either. Eh well at least a major tournament that is, some little stuff here and there I've played in and won/placed high in, but that shit don't count.

So anyway a few things about Anji:

Anji has probably changed more in combos and play style than any character in Guilty Gear since his time in the game.

He went from low tier hero in Reload, to mid tier god in Slash, then back to shit tier in Accent core.

Let me express this once again "Anji is quite possibly the worst character in Accent Core"

What does this mean really?

Well it means that you shouldn't expect to be constantly winning with Anji. He has too many weaknesses in this game to constantly lockdown your opponent in a 20 gazillion win streak (Heh Eddie).

Does that mean you can't do well with him?

No. Not at all. In fact I think it makes it more epic to win with him. It takes a true knowledge of Anji's match-up against every character. I think aspiring to win with Anji makes you a much better player, and I can say that Accent Core really set me straight when it came to playing Guilty Gear in general.

And for all purposes Kenji Bliss, A.K.A. KBNova, A.K.A. The fucking man, took Anji in Reload to top place in tournaments all the time. It can be done ladies and gents.

Anji's Playstyle:

First a little Anji history for you new kids:

#Reload Anji:

Reload Anji was perhaps the most gimicky character in Guilty Gear. His shitsu(butterfly) was always an overhead on block, so it set up a lot of traps and gimmicks, including perfect unblockable setups from throws and certain knockdowns, so he got a guranteed 120 damage or so from that. He was probably the most fun to play in terms of looking sweeeeeeeeeeet with tech traps, and general mind games, but he was terrible. I repeat terrible.

Slash Anji:

Slash Anji was an entirely different beast. He was low B tier, which in the right hands could destroy a man. His pressure was tight, and his combos were always a guranteed 200+ damage depending on guard bar, which an opponent in the corner with anji always had cranked bar. His combos also always ended in knockdown. Which was amazing. Apparently too amazing.

Accent Core Anji:

Accent Core anji is a strange mix of the two Anji. He has a much better pressure than Reload Anji, but not as good as Slash. He got back the overhead butterfly back, that is now two hits, but requires tension to use. His combo system has changed pretty hardcore though. He now has a ground based combo that requires tension to do damage and get the knockdown. No more awesome aerial damage for no tension. So overall he now gets the damage he did in slash for tension really, but not the extreme control he used to have.

Starting out:

Ok if you're new to Guilty Gear, like as in "HEY I JUST GOT THIS GAME OMG ANJI LOOKS SWEET!!!" and after reading the above, you're going to want to check out another thread first so you know what I'm talking about in this guide.

Start Here

That will give you a good idea of the game and how it works, make sure you check out like every page.

So without further ado:

The Beginner's Anji Guide:

Normals:

First let me explain a strange mechanic special to Anji: Guardpoints/auto-guarding. Basically some of Anji's moves have a special property where they guard and attack at the same time. He used to have a lot of them, but most of them have been nerfed, or taken away.

Let me say this about Anji, it's probably a good thing he lost the majority of his guardpoints. He used to be a character you could pick and do decent with just by spamming his guardpoint attacks.

Not Anymore.

Anji is a character with some pretty decent normals. Learn them, live them, breathe them, eat them and make them the main focus of your game.

From any ground normal in this game Anji can normally lead into his combo, and that combo is pretty much half life.

I'm not going to go into great detail about the frame data here.

Here is the link to the frame data:

Anji Frame Data

So check that out, it will help you learn many things about how good Anji's normals are.

Standing normals:

5P:

Anji's 5P is a staple of his game. At the right spacing it's a great Anti-air. It gatlings into a few other moves, including his command throw for setup. It also leads into air combos and resets. Learning the proper range and timing for 5P is a must for any anji player, as lots of air normals from other characters will beat it at the right range.

5K:

5K is really a pretty basic move. Fast start-up, fast recovery. Great for frame traps and if you score a hit with it you can gatling into 5HS for a FB(Force Break) Rin combo.

5S:

5S is a pretty good poke. Fast activation, and at the right range it can be used to anti-air, though 5P is much better. 5S is something that causes damage and will be part of your combo, on guard you also have some advantage, so you should throw a 5k after perhaps or a 5P. Creates frame traps, and that's important for anji these days.

5HS:

5HS is the first of Anji's normals to get nerfed. It no longer has an autoguard, but it is now part of your main combo. It causes a forced crouch state now, and this allows you to combo into HS Fujinn. Occasionally it can be used as a long range poke to score HS fujinn combo. A valuable tool, but not a spammable normal.

5D:

5D is Anji's Dust. It is an overhead, just like everyone's Dust, and it gives the special launch property like everyone else's dust. Anji has a few awesome Dust combos, including a very useful impossible dust.

6P:

Anji's 6P, like everyone's in this game, has upper body invincibility. Anji's 6P is a little hard to use as an Anti-air. It's most effective against people who like to IAD. You can score a nice little aeriel CH combo from it. On ground a CH 6P nets a stagger, which should lead to a nice little combo. So it's sometimes a good move against certain characters on ground too.

6K:

This normal is FRC-able, and it has auto-guard on start-up. This is one of the only moves they left with auto-guard capabilities. Which is good as you can use it to autoguard on wake-up. Be careful with this as any low poke will beat it, so you have to feel for what your opponent will do. Definitely can be used as an anti-air and anti-poke. On CH in the air it causes a quick float, and on ground causes a quick stagger. In order to combo from a CH 6K in this game you must FRC it for air combo, and a 5K will net you a ground combo during the stagger.

6S:

One of Anji's best zoning tools. Still has auto-guard, but has a strange whiff property now that makes it slightly harder to use. Use it to stuff IADs, as an anti-jump in the corner, as an anti-poke on ground, and on CH you can actually start Anji's combo from it because 6S CH gatlings to 5HS > HS Fujinn.

6HS:

This normal is FRC-able, and has a late autoguard. This is perhaps the most nerfed move in Accent Core for any character. 6HS is garbage, and in fact I suggest you get familiar with never ever pressing 6 and HS at the same time. It hits late, auto-guards extremely late, and FRCs even later. It's only good property is it lifts on normal and Counter hit. On counterhit you get a tension free combo, and on normal hit you can FRC and do the same combo for 25% tension. This went from being Anji's best normal to his worst. Simply garbage.

3P:

They added this to anji's game in Slash. A normal hitting overhead, it starts out slow and is easily guarded. Best use during abstract block strings and butterfly pressure. If it hits during a butterfly you get a free combo. On CH you get a nice ground bounce so that you can combo into command throw and butterfly setup.

3K:

A move added in Accent Core. It's a move that has low autoguard on startup. Extremely useful because of this, make sure if you use it you cancel to one of his autoguard specials. Good at stuffing backdashes and it special cancels. Other than that it's ok to throw it in during pressure occasionally, but not really a good poke.

3S:

This move would be complete garbage if it wasn't for its special property. For a few frames you can whiff cancel 3S to either 5S or 5HS. You can do this during pressure or gatlings for added damage or to chunk up guard bar a bit. Kinda useless because if you fuck up, you're fucked as 3S has an extremely late hit and late autoguard. It does special cancel though.

Crouching Normals:

2P:

Anji's 2P is a fast move and can be used in a lot of different ways, including pretty useful in butterfly pressure, as a tick before a throw, and a great fast poke to hit out people out of certain pressure strings

2K:

Gives great frame advantage at +6 on guard. Use it during pressure and frame trap pressure please. Prorates damage so not a preferred combo starter, but if you get the hit might as well combo right?

2S:

A great low. Meaty on wake-up, so hard to throw (I think it might even be throw invincible if timed right?). It doesn't pro-rate, so it's great to start a combo with this move. Please!!! Will stuff certain moves from a lot of chracters, so it's good to use it, spam it sometimes even.

2HS:

This is Anji's other low auto-guard. Slow start up and late autoguard frames, so not completely useless, but not that great either. Sometimes you can use it to autoguard very predictable lows. Gatling cancels to 2D which is nice.

2D:

Anji's sweep is kinda good. Pretty long range sweep, and puts him in a very low profile, so you can do things like sweep under certain moves, like Baiken's sakura. Slowish start-up and kinda slowish recovery, but not bad. At the right range it's definitely a good poke.

Jumping Normals:

j.P:

A pretty quick jumping normal, starts pretty fast, but has a small hitbox. Can be used to win some air battles though, and you can pick up a small combo from the counter-hit.

j.K:

Also very quick, and very good for stuffing air pokes when used to predict them. Can pick up a small combo from this as well.

j.S:

Very large hitbox that is away from Anji's body. This is a very good aerial poke, and it's active for a long time. Good at stuffing a lot of ground normals even. I like to use it when airdashing back.

j.HS:

Slow move, but if it hits it has a pretty lengthy untechable time, and on certain air B&Bs you can actually end your combo in j.HS for the knockdown.

j.D:

This is a very big move, starts pretty quick, and has a great counterhit if close to the wall. It's great to use this as an anti jump, and as a tech trap in the air. You can input another move after the air recovery as well, and it stops your air momentum, so you can create some awesome mix-ups with this and a butterfly.

Normals Summary:

Ok guys, Anji's normals are his strongest point. None of them are particularily godly, but he has a good all around package, and using them effectively is what will make you a great Anji player. Learning to use them all together and learning what they are all good for is something that takes a lot of time, but is well worth it. Nothing in Anji's game is more important than this, and I can't stress his normals enough.

Throws:

Ground Throw:

Anji has a great ground throw. Why might you ask?

Well with it he can get the perfect butterfly oki. Throwing will be a big part of your game. Trying to land that throw when possible, creating situations where you can get that throw, are all important things to learn. This butterfly oki that you get is very important to create the mind games that Anji plays.

Other than that, you can't combo from his throw, or anything cool like that, but it's still a great throw.

Air Throw:

Anji's Air throw is a great Anti-Air first of all.

You can combo from it with a small bread and butter, but this nets you no knockdown and only a small bit of damage.

So what do you do with it?

You combo it into Anji's command throw: On, which is covered in the next section.

This nets you about the same amount of damage as the combo you can do, and it gets you a great butterfly oki.

MMM... Butterfly Oki.

Specials:

236P or Shitsu (Butterfly):

This is the move that makes Anji. It's his signiture move, and it's the meat of his game. It's the reason I started playing Anji.

This move basically sets up everything in his game. It can be used in a lot of ways, zoning, anti-projectile, but it's most effective as a pressure tool for okizime. A butterfly timed right, must be guarded on the opponents wake-up, this gives you time to run in and create pressure, mix-up, or to bait the few ways each character has to escape butterfly. Once the opponent is hit by or guards the butterfly it transforms into a falcon that descends to the ground and if you time it right you can for your opponent to guard both hits of this as well, and create awesome mix-up. Every butterfly is important to you, and every chance you can get to set this up, you take. DELICIOUS!

214P or Kai (p version), (p stomp):

This move is both an overhead, and used right creates a cross-up. Fairly useful as a throw bait and shoryuken bait as okizime, when you couldn't get that butterfly set. Close to the opponent Anji will actually jump over the sprite and cross them up. If you score a hit with this, you get a free launch into a decently damaging combo. On guard you are at advantage and can normally score a counterhit or more pressure, unless they IB or SB, in which case you can either guard, or try to jump out. Fear throws after this move once your opponent learns to deal with this. Can be used to create some gimmicky cross up action during butterfly pressure as well.

214K or Kai (k version), (k stomp):

Same as p stomp, only this move is a bit faster to start, but takes anji further horizontally and raises him up slightly. Has an FRC point that is during the time he stalls in the air right before he starts his descent onto the ground. Fairly useful to cross-up opponent in certain situations. Also leaves you in advantage on guard, but not as much as P stomp. Useful during butterfly pressure sometimes as well.

236S or Fuujin (Fuujin Slash):

forward advancing, and has 5 options after the initial move by pressing either P,K,S,HS or D. Causes slide property on an air hit. This slide allows Anji to do corner fuujin loops on some characters.

236HS or Fuujin HS (Hard Slash Fuujin):

This is the more useful Fuujin, it is invincible on start-up until frame 12, wall bounces on hit, and is the meat inside Anji's combo sandwich. Also on Counterhit it scores a free knockdown, but you can always combo after the counterhit, so why not do that instead?

After Fuujin S or HS:

Shin:Isshiki(P):

Anji jumps up and rains down several fans onto the opponent. You can jump again or airdash after this. Useful in escaping after a blocked fuujin during pressure. If the fans hit it's possible to airdash forward for a combo.

Hitoashitobi(K):

Anji Hops forward. Several uses, including as a crossup throw on guard, and certain characters after a hit from HS fuujin can be combo'd after the hop if the timing is right. This is also part of the fuujin loop.

Nagiha(S):

Anji sweeps his glowing fan at the opponents feet, this is a low. Has a late FRC point that can help you combo. Creates a knockdown in itself though, so you can combo into it in certain situations to get the knockdown.

Rin(HS):

This is a slow starting big ass move with lengthy autoguard high. It's ok to throw it sometimes to continue pressure when your opponent doesn't expect it. It will knockdown, so it's good to combo into it in certain situations. If you do score a counterhit you get a nice little ground bounce.

Kou (Hit punch during the hit-stop of autoguard):

Basically this means that during any time you auto-guard a move with Anji, if you press P during the part where their move and your autoguard connect you get this spinning special move thing. It does a decent amount of damage, and in certain situations you can autoguard aerial moves with 6K or some other autoguard and cancel into this to punish those people who like to maybe air dash or jump in at you a lot.

Aoi (Hit kick during the hit-stop of an autoguard):

Anji really needed this. It's basically for you to cancel into on ground during an autoguard. Does a decent amount of damage, and causes wall stick, which is a pretty long wall stick and you can combo from that wall stick into an On or some other combo. Great fucking move, with lots of nice invincibilty too.

(in air) 214P or Shin: Nishiki (Orb):

Anji does this little ball thing in the palms of his hands, looks like he's charging a kamehameha attack in DBZ. You can input 2147P to do it very close to the ground to create a nice little instant overhead. You can also combo into it for a knockdown at certain heights because it's untechable for 60 frames.

Specials Summary:

Anji has some pretty decent Specials. Fuujin HS is probably his best special, it's like a horizontal shoryuken and can be used a lot. Don't get too fuujin happy though, because every character can fuck you for using it. He has a lot of gimmicky special things to use with your butterfly. Mmm, fun right?!

Force Breaks:

These are the new mechanics they added to the game. Basically like EX moves from 3rd Strike, they cost 25% tension, and are normally super versions of other moves.

After Fuujin:

Force Break Rin (D after 236 HS or S):

A beefy version of rin that is faster, leaves you in advantage on guard,is and overhead, and on hit causes a nice ground bounce that's untechable for more combos. It's the zesty sauce on the Anji Combo sandwich. Less autoguard frames than regular rin though.

236D Force Break Shitsu (Red Butterfly):

This is a mixture of old and new. In reload Anji had unblockable setups from his butterfly, because the transformed part was always an overhead. The two hits of his FB butterfly are overhead. So for 25% tension you get an overhead butterfly. Best used only after a ground throw, or certain characters you can OTG this move and create a mixup that way.

Force Break Kou (D during the hitstop of an autoguard):

A spinning tornado of awesome that ends in knockdown, but overall really useless. Doesn't do a lot of damage, but it's pretty invincible. If for some strange reason it whiffs, or the opponent blocks it, it's very unsafe, unlike most other force breaks. Best to use Aoi instead, because it's so much more awesome.

Force Breaks Summary:

Overall, Anji's Force breaks are good. FB Rin is essential to his combos now, and FB Shitsu is pretty sweet. FB Kou is garbage though. Overall it could have been worse (See I-No and Johnny's FBreaks)

Overdrives:

Anji's Overdrives haven't really changed much since Reload.

632146HS Issei Ougi: Sai:

Giant Fan Super. Pretty useless, doesn't do a lot of damage anymore, you have to FRC it to combo after it, unless you can time it right where you get hit during the right time in startup. Overall there are better uses of your tension.

Charge 2, 8K Tenjinashi:

Anji does this move that looks a lot like 214K, but then he spins around on the ground. Decent damage and invincible to strikes starting at frame 4, so not really bad, but if blocked you're at a disadvantage. Better uses of tension once again.

63214S (during the hitstop of autoguard) Kachoufuugetsu:

Anji does this pretty fan thing, and this does a decent amount of damage. You can RC and combo some if you have a gold bar of tension. Once again, better uses of tension.

Overdrives:

Honestly I can see no reason for you to be using overdrives with Anji. Save your tension for his various force breaks, and RC for combos that create knockdown. Perhaps at the end of the match, to get that last pixel of health it's ok to combo into Issei Ouji: Sai for the last hits of damage. That's about it. Anji didn't get blessed with good overdrives, sorry folks. The autoguard Overdrive is ok, but Aoi is free and most of the time you get wall stick and combo to do almost as much damage for free as the autoguard overdrive.

[KBnova]

Good guide John, this will give a fresh start for the new players and give a basic insight on how to play AC Anji. I also found some more new interesting things that's very specific for 3s cancels that are highly safe and practical and increased damage/gaurd meter/pressure during strings but in a more forgiving way (input wise). I will post these soon sometime this week since I've been very busy with job. But great guide. Cheers John.

[TheSlyMoogle]

Good guide John, this will give a fresh start for the new players and give a basic insight on how to play AC Anji. I also found some more new interesting things that's very specific for 3s cancels that are highly safe and practical and increased damage/gaurd meter/pressure during strings but in a more forgiving way (input wise). I will post these soon sometime this week since I've been very busy with job. But great guide. Cheers John.

Oh jeez Kenji, please post, I've been trying my hardest to figure out a very easy input for 3S cancels because I just can't get it to work consistently.

It would be great to add that to my game.

Thanks for the input.

[Akodet]

Thanks for the info. I've been wanting to use Anji since #R but I had no idea how to use him. Hopefully this will provide some insight. :D

[Harem]

Good guide John, this will give a fresh start for the new players and give a basic insight on how to play AC Anji. I also found some more new interesting things that's very specific for 3s cancels that are highly safe and practical and increased damage/gaurd meter/pressure during strings but in a more forgiving way (input wise). I will post these soon sometime this week since I've been very busy with job. But great guide. Cheers John.

;o

[iora]

im gettin into anji, learning autoguard frames and what normals to use when... but me + comboing isnt the strongest thing for me ever any chance of some decent BnB combos being added to this? especially a lil clarification of some things you mention, like fuujin loop i personally can learn better from reading then videos so id lovers you if ya could hook me up ^_^ good explanation of the normals though ^_^ this guide is the piece of garnish on anji's combo sandwich kekeke

[Tiamat]

iora:

http://www.dustloop.com/forums/showpost.php?p=220366&postcount=22

I will make some revisions to my guide soon but there are some good combos in there for you to try.

[iora]

thank you :D didnt look in the discussion thread honestly, didnt think something like that woulda been posted i feel silly now but yes thats a large large help ^_^ maybe you and moogle could team up, add some of that to this?

[Tiamat]

i dunno I think we both want to do our own thang! lool guide will be updated later today with some things (nothing stupendous) and then I'm gonna put a link in my signature for easy access

[Alternate275]

Where's the Fuujin Loop??? I wanna know how to do it :8/: And combos for that matter (ID combos as well) =o

[ChunkTug]

ongoing Anji guide: http://www.dustloop.com/forums/showp...6&postcount=22

Check it.

[Alternate275]

Check it.

link isn't working

[ChunkTug]

Sorry, I didn't realize the Quote didn't have the rest of the link.

http://www.dustloop.com/forums/showpost.php?p=220366&postcount=22

[Louiser]

Hey I gone through this and it helped me create an overview of Anji-Mito, m newbie to Guity Gear and have lots of confusions... well one of these has been troubleshooted...