[P4A] Kanji vs. Akihiko: Brofists with Senpai.

[Circuitous]

Such muscles.

~Axis edit~

Full range: J.D, play some footsies, keep him a bit out of 5C's range.

Mid range: Decent range to fish for stuff, fish CH and stay out of close range, your jabs cannot compete.

His persona is a overhead but you can roll and punish on reaction if he goes for it.

Close range: If he is on you then you still have options.

If he does sweep you can IB punish it with grab or 5A, crouch confirm usually leads to around 2k.

You don't really want him in though, never let Aki get in if you can't help it

If you got the momentum then you will be happy to know you that your 214D goes through his R-action.

Now for some extra info.

Akihiko has a very short jump so you can actually AA with 5B on some occasions other wise stick with the usually blocking and dodging.

2B works too but as usual it's risky.

That's all I can think of atm.

Will update later.

[MilkSmash]

I honestly think this is one of Kanji's harder match ups. When Akihiko starts pressure, some of his options out of Kill Rush include Sweep/All Out/Duck Grab/Duck more pressure/Ex stance to cross me up. So Kanji has to constantly guess what direction Akihiko is coming from, midscreen he can typically walk back and avoid the grab out of duck. On sweep/All Out, on block, you can punish with a C Command Grab, as well as super, midscreen and corner typically. Basically though, he beats your spacing with Ceaser, with Ceaser's range on Stand C, its really hard to break him cause you hit his sword, though, Kanji's stand C does beat Ceaser. Before they learn that Kidnap (QCB A/B) can be crouched, A A QCF B xx QCB A/B is alright. A A C QCF B xx QCB A/B makes them have to block high at first with C, then if they don't crouch it, you'll get scooped by Kidnap and you can convert to a full combo. But, true to Kanji fashion, that one good hit can make or break the match.

I feel like it's in Akihiko's favor, but no more than a 60:40, just because how hard Kanji gets rocked in the corner by Akihiko.

[Omex]

One note on the earlier post--Info from a potentially poor source, but I've been told cyclone level affects how punishable his sweep is, and it's like -2 at max, and he can cancel off of it in some scenarios, so it's not always a free punish. 2b is risky to use as anti air as always, but Akihiko actually has a pretty strong mixup in IAD j.(b?)/ IAD airturn j.(b?) and kanji's silly 2b hitbox actually denies him from doing either or, so it's a good tool to have if he likes going for that.

If he tries to alternate between kill rush --> duck back for safety or duck forward/throw, your NORMAL grab actually beats both options--You'll tech his forward grab and you'll grab his ducking back due to the move forward property of your normal grab.

If he's throwing out J.C as a poke, 236236A/B can actually confirm into full combo quite well if you moved too close before the poke came out, confirming from quite a distance. Don't expect it to work if he's pressuring on wakeup however, it'll be spaced well.

Also, small note I scrounged up checking the akihiko forums kanji matchup lol. apparently Kanji's sweep punishes these 3 situations cleanly--

A Killrush-> D weave

A killrush-> A hook-> D weave

A killrush-> A hook-> jump back

and Kanji can apparently grab between killrush and B hook. Punishing the D weave can be important, as some Akihikos like to D weave backwards and cancel it into Ceaser for a non AoA overhead.

sept. 20th edit: If you IB Akihiko's A or EX killrush (run forward punch a lot), you can punish with 720 or BD. By 'IB' it, I mean IB any time during the animation--You can block the later hits and still get it for whatever reaosn. He might be able to do something like EX weave in order to get through it, but 214C will grab him if he weaves in place or weaves backwards.

Akihiko's sweep's frame data DOES change based on cyclone level, as does it's cancelability. If he's at 0 cyclone level, he can cancel his sweep into weaves and kill rushes. Level 0 sweep is easy to punish if he does not cancel it. Do whatever, honestly.

Level 1 sweep is easy to punish, 214C, 214CD, 720 all work

Level 2 sweep is harder to punish, 214CD on block or 720 on IB

Level 3 sweep does not seem to be punishable, even on IB.

Similarly, Akihiko's All out Attack gets faster/etc with cyclone levels. Thankfully, if you know it's coming, you can just mash 214D for a punish, and it's punishable by 214C even at level 3.

[A.X.I.S.]

Gonna add a bit of info here.

Interesting simple stuff.

Duck 236C/D travels a short distance and as expected can have usual follow ups: Cork screw (for mid/longish range), grab (higher level grab for combos),

AoA (increased cyclone levels increases speed of AoA, at level 3 it becomes the fastest AoA in the game), and sweep. (look at post above this.)

D Duck travels much farther and has the same options as above.

EX duck is where things get trippy.

When Akihiko is point blank ex duck has the ability to cross up making for really hard to react to cross ups and mix ups they are usually followed up with a corkscrew, usually a level 3 corkscrew so look out for that. (Leads to about 3-4k)

Weave 214C/D is another thing to note, C weave doesn't move akihiko and its used as in between for cyclones, is upper body projectile invul (Kanji D's still beat it clean), and holding it down gives meter.

214D moves Akihiko back, what people don't know is that while he is moving back he can cancel into his other follow ups making OS's like grab OS or sweeping not as safe as you think.

The real scary part about 214D is that he can make the sweep unpunishable or just out of range of our attacks while still having offensive power.

He just moves away a bit and if you panic and hit the wrong button you get hurt.

Now for ex weave my favorite weave.

This move has invul after frame 4 and allows him to avoid moves and punishes unsafe stuff, it is grab invul so he can do it in place of D weave on reads. (it is D weave with invul)

Has the same quirk of canceling during the backwards motion so he can do dirty stuff like invul through attacks and throws and grab you or cork screw you in the face.

Or my favorite 5C you and get 5k because you pushed a button.

Now on to other small bits.

A corkscrew is 6F, really fast and travels far, mad unsafe.

EX corkscrew really slow but invuls through stuff, loses to lows, not a good trade if he has level 2 or higher corkscrew though.

214 series all have 4F start up but depending on the buttons depends on active frames and recovery.

When triggered he can cancel into the usual.

Now for the next thing. (Akihiko is scary)

His B hook is unblockable when fully charged.

Maziodyne gets stronger with cyclone levels.

So level 3 maziodyne > OMC, duck > 4B (charged) is a unblockable setup that cost 100 meter and gets him 2-3k.

He can also scare you into an unblockable on knockdown too.

Hook unblockable has 30ish frames or so to become unblockable so if you see a exclaimation mark (it lets you know its unblockable)

Then get out of dodge.

last bit, ex hook has autoguard.

Have fun.

Sorry if it seems like a mess these are just thoughts I have.