Sora Tokino is an idol who sets the stage with her musical lockdown. She orchestrates her array of musical projectiles to set up safe approach opportunities and enforce 'respect' from her kouhai.
Sora is capable of good keepout and space control through moves such as 5M, 6M, and the note projectiles. 6L and 2H are strong anti airs making it very hard to get in on her. Off of a HKD however, she turns into a setplay monster capable of opening you up with oppresive pressure and multiple high/low and left/right mixups anywhere on screen.
22H costs 1 Bar of meter, but summons A-chan to lock them down, giving you time to run a free 50/50 mixup anywhere on screen, or set notes so that you can run even more mixups after. A-chan can be destroyed if hit though, so just throwing out 22H isn't a very good idea.
j.L is also a 9 frame overhead which you can cancel into off of any jump cancelable move like 2M. It doesn't give a combo on hit, but there are setups off of a HKD that lets you confirm it off of a note detonate or certain assists.
All her oki leads to mixup/pressure and she is rewarded with loopable oki when guessing right.
She has the best control over her airdrift in the game which enables ambigous left/right mixups.
Soras combos grant both high Super Chat and Meter Gain, and since her resourceless combos already enable strong setups, most will go into assists for conversions, pressure and neutral utility.
In exchange for her good neutral and pressure, she is weak on defense due to her slow buttons and lack of access to an invincible reversal. When being pressured, she generally has to block and wait it out.
She has lower damage than the rest of the cast.
A lot of her strongest oki and combo routes are locked behind execution barriers.
Playstyle
Sora is a setplay zoner that locks down the opponent with her musical prowess.
Pick if you like
Avoid if you dislike
Anti-Airs: Has an incredibly large and safe anti-air with 6L that gatlings into 2H for an air unblockable.
Vortex: Can set up Re:Play on knockdown which forces the opponent to guess on every wakeup due to the variable detonation timing, instant overheads, and ambiguous cross-ups she can do.
Space Control: If Sora is able to set up Re:Play traps from afar she can control the pace of the game with On Stage! and detonations.
Reflect: 22M can reflect projectiles, forcing opponents to be wary of using them as counter-zoning.
Low Damage: Has some of the lowest damage in the cast, relying on her oki to reset and chip away at the opponents health.
Weak Defense: Sora's only invincible reversal is locked behind meter, and her fastest normal is 6F of startup.
Some Assembly Required: Requires a knockdown to set up and get her gameplan going. Her combos and projectile usage can also heavily vary depending on the opponent's position and your note placements.