Yu Narukami

Chad All rounder with shockingly effective neutral game

Yu's Objective:

Yu is Fairly straight forward shoto, his goal is to use his simple yet strong tool kit to lock you down and pressure you with his very safe offense.

His tool kit may look simple but combined with normals like 5B, 2B, and j.2B makes for quite a dangerous foe.

What Yu wants:

Yu will want to engage in close range combat with you since Ken doesn't have a 5F normal staggers are very strong against him.

After he got you blocking he can mix you up too.

Tools:

Zio:

standard fire ball useful for zoning and can be done in the air. you can actually dia through this but know dia is armor so he can cancel into ziodyne to punish you.

Note: SB Zio is a close range multi hitting attack that has good frame advantage and can be held.

Raging lion:

A Raging lion is used as a quick overhead and a throw bait, the ways to beat it is to DP/super it.

Do not mash on it you will definitely get counter hit, blocking it is also good to do since he is -2 which means you can win a mash battle on it.

B Raging lion is used as a slow overhead that has the ability to be used as a feint and as a jump cancel of sorts.

Since he lacks jump cancelable moves on block expect him to use the feint combined j.2B or air turn j.B to for side switches and mix ups.

SB Raging Lion is like the A version but is +1, the real threat SB presents is Narukami can do j.B/j.2B into a delay SB air raging lion for a sneaky triple overhead can combo from this for over 3k.

this can prove to be lethal in the corner.

Swift strike:

Narukami slide with Izanami and it hits low.

A version is used a combo ender of sorts.

B version is a multi hit low that can be omc'd to continue pressure.

SB: swift strike hits more times than B and travels near full screen.

Narukami can always use 25 meter for a punish or delay a special cancel into this to call out escape attempts be warned if Narukami has resources (burst or extra meter) then he can potentially take half your health.

Heroic Bravery:

A version is a dash slash attack it can be special canceled into raging lion and swift strike

-6 so you can punish it if not canceled.

B version is a dash command grab, the appeal to it is that it looks like a delay A version so if you sit still to block you get caught, comboable in the corner meterless.

SB version is a faster A version, dont expect to see it a lot.

Reversals:

DP is a normal upward flying strike, roll behind him and 2B collect the punish.

Ziodyne mainly used a full screen punish attempt jump block and mash back to get instant block and build meter while negating mix up opportunities.

a ground blocked one will subject you to hard to see lions and 2A's.

Cross slash:

slow but big reaching horizontal slash, roll it or reversal super it back (b version of course)

remember to watch out for dog since he can OMC if it hits the dog.

How to win:

The name of the game is to take full advantage of staying out of Narukami's range and picking your battles wisely.

Your 5B can contest him on the ground due to its range.

2B is a big problem 8F but its a really strong mash and anti air, this move is really hard to contest when jumping in and hits further than your best moves, beware of Narukami's that use this, safer to block then guess on a DP.

thats why its important to make sure Koro covers you any chance you get, to keep him from making a mash.

Koro can cover the ground quite well, make sure you are in a range where you can 236A or 236AB.

using Koro special moves to shut down forward movements are also good.

stuff like 236C/D is really good for covering ground with a hitbox that knocks him down.

214C/D is useful for stopping air movements too and Koro can tank a zio for you as well which is useful for your own air advance or retreat.

you force him to block proceed to do the normal pressure stuff.

When fighting Narukami do not take any chances to be cheeky or cute he only needs one chance to turn the tides on Ken.

notes:

He can ziodyne or cross slash to punish gaps in pressure.

He can raging lion 5B > 2AB so use 5B 5C > 2AB at times just to call him out.

5C > 2C can be rolled and punished on IB.

You can sweep 5B.

5C dash cancel is a free mash if you ib the 5C.