However, Akane is also the hardest character I've ever played. Her combos and setups require pixel perfect spacing and impeccable timing. To add insult to injury, everything is character specific and situational too. Characters in EFZ have widely varying hitboxes, weights, and wakeup times. This is a character that absolutely requires training mode. I've spent a lot of time on and off the past few years trying to learn her and even now I can only do about 15% of what she's capable of.
If I had to describe Akane in one sentence, it would be that she's a mutant lovechild of Millia and Gouki/Akuma. She has many of their signature moves, and is a lot like Millia in that she fights with her shapeshifting hair and her mixups and movement options are so good. She has Akuma's demonflip, and it's also a major part of her gameplay.
I guess I'll start by describing her most notable normals. She has great A normals, as they're very fast and have good utility in combos and pressure. 5a is a good antiair to use after RGing an opponent's air attack. Her 2b is a forward moving slide that recovers quickly, and her 2c sweep has a lot of range so everything she does on the ground combos into it easily.
66c is one of her most important normals. As the input suggests, she can only do it while dashing. It looks a lot like her ground throw, in that she pushes the opponent away with both hands outstretched. 66c is integral to Akane's corner combos, because when she hits an airborne opponent with this, the opponent goes flying and if they were near a wall, then the opponent will then bounce upward off the wall and slowly float back down. The wallbounce is untechable for a VERY long time so Akane can almost always do a followup combo into a big setup. In this clip, Akane does a very difficult and optimized combo off of an overhead starter involving three 66c wallbounces into a mixup.
j.c is another very important normal. Akane takes her hair, forms it into a big hammer, and strikes downward with it. What makes this move so good is that it has crossup hitboxes and also knocks down opponents if they were hit in the air. I mentioned in the earlier EFZ post that the game does not have crossup protection, so everybody in the game that has an air normal that hits crossup can abuse this to no end. Akane is no different, and here's a good example of her using it. In this clip, she gets a knockdown on UNKNOWN with an EX move. She then does a dash momentum forward jump to make it appear as if her j.c is going to hit crossup. But it's a fake, and it ends up hitting from the left. She then combos into a simple knockdown into another series of mixups.
I mentioned earlier that Akane has Akuma's demonflip. She does, but hers are actually better than Akuma's for several reasons. One of which is that she actually has two of them. First off, 214x. It's called Assault Leap, but this is the classic Akuma demonflip. The button strength determines how far it goes. If Akane doesn't press anything during the descent, then she'll land and do a slide which is highly punishable on block, just like Akuma. But if it hits, it allows her to do a followup combo(in the corner). Like Akuma, she has many followups for the descent portion of the flip:
-If she presses C, then she'll do the classic Akuma divekick followup. It doesn't hit high, though.
-If she inputs 4C, then she'll do an upgraded version of the Akuma demonflip throw followup. It's upgraded in that it 1)throws both ground and airborne opponents 2)allows Akane to combo afterwards.
-If she presses 236x, then she'll throw out a hairpin just like Millia's Silent Force. It's not as good as Millia's though, because she doesn't get free movement after. Akane doesn't need to pick up the pin, however: she can throw as many as she wants. 236c makes her do an EX version of the pin, which is actually a lot like Anji's butterfly: if the opponent blocks the EX pin, it will bounce up and then fall back down for another hit.
The other "demonflip" she has is done with 412x, and it's called Trick Leap. This is quite a bit different than the classic one with the parabolic arc. Instead, Akane ascends almost instantly, and then falls straight down for the descent. As usual, button strength determines the distance travelled, and she has all of the same followups for the descent from Assaut Leap. However, Trick Leap has an additional followup which is done by pressing 2c. This makes Akane form a hair drill on her feet, while she descends straight down. It's very reminiscent of Morrigan's Pursuit attack.
One thing I failed to mention about the demonflips is that they can both be done in the air. This is ridiculous, and it basically gives Akane a third jump. So along with the universal movement options, Akane has two demonflips which can be done both on the ground and in air, and they have tons of followups including a projectile and a divekick. The demon flips are integral to Akane's gameplay. They aid her movement so much to the point where Akane should never get antiaired if played right. The dive kick and drill hair followups are also really important in combos and left/right mixups too.
Akane has Millia's Bad Moon, and it's the exact same input in j.236x. Except it's called Bad Waffle, as Akane encloses herself in two huge hair waffles and crashes down towards the ground. In some ways, it's better and worse than Millia's. It's worse in the sense that it isn't as fast: TK Bad Waffle is pretty easy to react to in EFZ, while TK Bad Moon is really difficult. But it's better in that there are multiple versions of it. First off, j.236c(EX Bad Waffle) is pretty useless, so I won't bother talking about that. j.236a does the classic Bad Moon attack, and it's very useful to tack on at the end of air-to-ground strings for a surprise overhead. Is your opponent getting used to blocking high twice against your IAD j.ab airstrings? Do IAD j.ab j.236a instead for that surprise high hit. The E force meter charges fairly quickly in this game, so Akane will usually have enough to do an IC to cancel the Bad Waffle recovery and go into a combo. Bad Waffle floats the opponent, so ICing the recovery is one of the most common combo starters. j.236b is interesting in that it makes Akane float back in the air a bit before she attacks. This sounds kind of useless at first, since it's slower than the A version, but it's amazing for faking a crossup. For example, say you just knocked down your opponent and you are now airdashing to the left over them on okizeme. It seems like you are going to cross them up(and land on their left), but before you land you press j.236b. j.236b makes Akane float back in the other direction a bit, so it makes her cross up yet again, resulting in her doing her Bad Moon attack from the right side. Very very evil.
Akane's 236 specials are pretty unique in that she calls forth her friend Shiko to help her out. The A version is a lot like MvC2 Commando's Captain Strike, where Shiko flies across the screen. It's a very nice antiair, and it has some uses in corner combos too. The B version makes Shiko dash up from your side to the opponent and punch them. It has quite a bit of delay on it, so it can be used for throw setups. You can knock your opponent down in the corner, summon Shiko with 236b, and then throw the opponent right before Shiko hits them. The C version is an EX move, and it makes Shiko ride across the screen on her scooter... from the other side of the screen. This is an amazing move, as it makes Akane impossible to zone out. Characters can't keep her away using fireballs because EX Shiko can easily be summoned on reaction. It knocks down too, so Akane can go straight into okizeme for it. EX Shiko is also needed for Akane's general midscreen BNB.
Akane has 3 supers, and they're all pretty useful. 641236 is the Shiko super, and each button does a different thing. The A version is the Lvl1, and it's not really that great... The B version is the Lvl2, and it's actually very good as there's a fair amount of startup invincibility. This is pretty much the only move that Akane can reversal with. The C version is the Lvl3, and it makes Shiko do a frog uppercut after a bit of delay. This is actually unblockable, so there's some good uses for it. More on this later.
214214 makes Akane set up her Absolute Rejection Barrier, but it's really just Urien's Aegis Reflector. It's not quite as good though, because it only hits once. It's also unique in that all three versions of her Reflector are Lvl1 supers, unlike the others where the super gets progressively stronger depending on which button is pressed. A Reflector sets one up very close to her, the B reflector sets one up far away, and the C reflector sets it up in the air(lol). As you might guess, the C version isn't very useful.
236236 makes Akane shoot up a bunch of hair swords in the sky, which come crashing down after some delay. It's very reminiscent of War Machine's War Destroyer super. Not much to say here... the button strength determines what Lvl the super will be and thus how much damage it will do. This super has some great utility in corner mixups.
Akane's Final Memory, which is called Unpleasant Hell Murder, is pretty awesome. It's Akuma's Raging Demon, and it even has the exact same input! Unfortunately it's not very useful because EFZ has so much more movement options than Street Fighter. It's also an FM, so it can't be used very often, since it requires Akane to 1)have Lvl3 meter and 2)be in critical, flashing red life. It has some good utility in RG exchanges, though.
Akane's mixups are amazing, and she has a good number of them. I already mentioned the utility of j.c earlier, and it's usually a good choice for mixup if she doesn't have any meter available. Here's a mixup she can use from a double overhead starter. In this clip, Akane ICs the second overhead into a nice double 66c combo. She jump-cancels the second 66c into a backwards jump and then an airdash to push Unknown into the corner. This maneuver is interesting because it pushes the opponent into the corner with a tiny bit of space behind them. Which means that they can be crossed up. And this is exactly what happens afterwards: Akane jumps towards Unknown and makes it very difficult to tell whether j.c will hit crossup or not. It crosses up Unknown in the corner, and she then hitconfirms into a simple knockdown. I should also note that instead of j.c, she could have used Trick Leap into the drill hair attack for a similar effect(ambiguous left/right).
The earlier mixup employed the 66c wallbounce and required no meter. If Akane has meter, she can use her 236236 hair sword super for another evil mixup. The idea is to get use 66c to get a close to corner knockdown, and send out the hair sword super. There's a bit of delay on the super, so the swords will come down and hit meaty on the opponent's wakeup. Since EFZ has no crossup protection, Akane can then use her jumps and demonflips for an easy left/right mixup. If Akane does this perfectly, she can make it so that there's a 1f difference between left/right. So the opponent must guess this mixup as it's unreactable. In this clip, Akane lands a throw and cancels it with a Blue IC. She then goes into a big double 66c corner combo. She starts the mixup after 66c, summoning Shiko A and backdashing into the corner followed by a Lvl2 hair sword super. You might notice Sayuri's juggle bar vanished right before the super activated, which means that she could have air teched. Well teching is dangerous in this game because there's actually a fair amount of time you are completely defenseless after teching. If Sayuri had air teched there, she would have been unable to guard the hair sword super and would have eaten the entirety of it. So Sayuri opts not to tech, and falls to the ground. The swords hit meaty, and Akane jumps over Sayuri. I can't even tell if this was a crossup or not, but Sayuri gets hit, and Akane does a combo and the mixup resets into itself. So so dirty.
The other big mixup that Akane gets involves her Aegis Reflector. The idea is to get a midscreen knockdown and set up the B version of the reflector. Usually the distance will be just perfect so that the reflector will be placed right on top of the opponent. Meaning that the opponent will wake up into it. Akane can then use her jumps, airdashes, and demon flips for a left/right mixup. If done perfectly this is also a 1f left/right, so opponent has to guess. This mixup resets into itself, and it can also go into the mixups she gets from 66c too if she was close to the corner. In this clip, Akane does a simple knockdown combo into B reflector on Shiori. She then dashes forward, making it seem like whatever demon flip she uses will cross up the opponent. But instead, she stops her dash short with 6a, and goes into the B version of Trick Leap, which almost crosses up Shiori, but doesn't. Shiori guesses wrong, and Akane does the drill hair followup into a combo, resetting back into the same mixup. In this clip, Akane does a simple knockdown combo on Ayu into B reflector. She then does a dash momentum IAD, which makes her sail over Ayu's head for a crossup. Ayu guesses wrong, and Akane is able to combo Ayu into a corner hair sword mixup.
So you might think that it ends here with all these amazing mixups. But this is EFZ: the bullshit doesn't stop in this game. And indeed, Akane has something even better than a mixup: an unblockable setup. She can't go for this very often, since it requires a Lvl3 super, but it's pretty ridiculous nonetheless. The idea is to set up the Lvl3 Shiko super after a corner 66c, and then use the knockdown property on j.c to send the opponent into the ground, so that they will wake up into a meaty unblockable. However, j.c is interesting in that while it sends the opponent towards the ground, it's air techable if the opponent's juggle bar is small enough. In this clip, this is exactly what happens. Akane gets a double 66c combo on Mishio, and cancels the 66c into the Lvl3 Shiko frog uppercut super. Akane then jumps to j.c Mishio into the ground. However, the combo count is at 23 hits, and the power indicator is fairly low too(at 66.4), so j.c becomes techable. Mishio techs, but Akane anticipates this and airdash cancels her j.c into j.ab. Mishio is totally vulnerable when teching, so she is forced to eat the j.ab and take almost 3k damage. If Mishio had decided not to tech, she would have been hit meaty by the frog uppercut unblockable, and taken upwards of 5k damage.
I'll end this post with another clip. This extremely one-sided match shows what is pretty much a perfect Akane game: mixups after mixups with the opponent guessing wrong every time. The real fun is in the 1st round though, and it begins at around 18 seconds. Akane gets a knockdown combo into Aegis Reflector. She does an unseeable left/right by simply jumping over Ikumi. Ikumi guesses wrong, and Akane combos her into the corner ending with a j.c knockdown. The j.c is done at the just the right distance so that there's space behind Ikumi in the corner. Akane then does Trick Leap into the drill hair attack. It seems like it will crossup, but it doesn't and Ikumi gets hit again. Akane combos off of this into a corner hair sword mixup. This is unseeable, so Ikumi guesses wrong again and Akane wins the round. So basically, this was 3 completely different mixups back-to-back. There's a strange beauty in seeing these mixups reset into each other.
But I think the most amazing part of Akane is that even though she has all this broken stuff, she isn't even considered S tier. It really shows what EFZ is all about in that nothing is too broken in this game.
