Eternal Fighter Zero/Sayuri Kurata

Introduction

Kurata Sayuri (倉田 佐祐理) is an formal, elegant character who fights using her magical girl powers. She has good normals, projectiles, some decent way of attacking overhead, a command grab, and a 100%-reliable counter, making her one of the most well-rounded characters in the game.

Sayuri is a supporting character of Kanon, a visual novel produced by Key in 1999. She is a normal third-year student at the high school that Yuuichi goes to, and has been best friends with Mai since they first met during first-year. She is very polite and formal, but has a strange habit of addressing herself in the third person. During Kanon, Sayuri supports Yuuichi becoming Mai's friend and does what she can for them, and she stubbornly stays by Mai's side even as the strange incidents surrounding Mai continue to escalate...

Stage: Courtyard of the Lunch Break (昼休みの中庭)

BGM: The Girls' Opinions (彼女たちの見解)

Character-Specific Notes

• Sayuri is able to air jump once, and air dash/backstep once.
• Sayuri's ground dash is actually an air dash that moves forward-up at 45 degrees. Therefore, Sayuri does not have any dashing attacks. Any attacks she does during her "ground" dash will be considered jumping attacks.
• Sayuri's ground dashes do not actually count as air dashes/backsteps, so she is free to jump or dash/backstep at the end of her "ground" dash.

Normal Moves

The notation for the movelists can be found under Notation.

Move	Hits	Damage	Guard	Move Cancel	Jump Cancel	IC Cancel
5A	?	?	?	?	?	?
2A	?	?	?	?	?	?
j.A	?	?	?	?	?	?
5B(c)	?	?	?	?	?	?
5B(f)	?	?	?	?	?	?
2B	?	?	?	?	?	?
j.B	?	?	?	?	?	?
5C	?	?	?	?	?	?
2C	?	?	?	?	?	?
j.C	?	?	?	?	?	?
Throw	?	?	?	?	?	?
j.Throw	?	?	?	?	?	?

Standing

	5A [ Startup: 4 | Hit:+2 | Block:+1 ]
	c5B [ Startup: 6 | Hit:+1 | Block:-1 ] Sayuri kicks her leg out at a downward angle, hitting the opponent as a low. Excellent move to catch opponents by surprise at max c5B range.
	f5B [ Startup: 8F | Hit:+1 | Block:-1 ] Sayuri swipes with her magical wand. This move has incredible priority and can be used in a variety of ways. Perfect for harassing at a safe range and smacking people out of the air.
	5C [ Startup: 10 | Hit:-- | Block:+2 ] Sayuri's magic wand transforms into a piston which kicks twice. Second hit launches.

Crouching

	2A [ Startup: 4 | Hit:+2 | Block:+1 ] Sayuri extends her arm while crouching. Hits low.
	2B [ Startup: 7 | Hit:-1 | Block:-3 ] Sayuri's wand turns into a sword and she stabs it up and forward. Be wary of characters that can go under this move, including Neyuki and Ikumi.
	2C [ Startup: 9 | Hit:-5 | Block:-7 ] Sayuri's wand turns into a mace and she swings it from her feet to above her head. Decent anti-air for opponents too close or too high to use f5B.

Jumping

	j5A [ Startup: 5 ] Sayuri punches her clenched fist diagonally downwards.
	j5B [ Startup: 8 ] Sayuri extends her leg out in a jumping kick. Excellent priority. Her primary tool for dealing with opponents at the same height in the air. Decent as a crossup tool.
	j5C [ Startup: 10 ] Sayuri's extends her wand diagonally downwards. One of Sayuri's best normals. Her main normal for getting damage from juggle loops.

Special Moves

The notation for the movelists can be found under Notation.

Move	Hits	Damage	Guard	IC Cancel
Magical☆Shot [+Aerial]
236A	?	?	?	?
236B	?	?	?	?
236C	?	?	?	?
j.236A/B/C	?	?	?	?
Magical☆Sword
623A	?	?	?	?
623B	?	?	?	?
623C	?	?	?	?
Ah, got your skill~
214A/B/C	?	?	?	?
> Magical☆Cutter [During block-stun of the last move caught]
> A/B/C	?	?	?	?
Magical☆Smash
j.412A	?	?	?	?
j.412B	?	?	?	?
j.412C	?	?	?	?
Magical☆Press
41236A	?	?	?	?
41236B	?	?	?	?
41236C	?	?	?	?
Magical☆Agents [SP Level 1-3]
236236A	?	?	?	?
236236B	?	?	?	?
236236C	?	?	?	?
Magical☆Pressure [SP Level 1-3]
2141236A	?	?	?	?
2141236B	?	?	?	?
2141236C	?	?	?	?
Magical☆Thunder [SP Level 1-3]
6321463214A	?	?	?	?
6321463214B	?	?	?	?
6321463214C	?	?	?	?
Magical☆On Stage [1/3 HP, SP Level 3]
22A2S	?	?	?	?

Specials

	236*/j.236* - Magical☆Shot (マジカル☆ショット) A version: Sayuri shoots a slow moving star along the ground low. B version: Sayuri shoots a slow moving star along the ground high. C version: Sayuri essentially does the A version and B version in quick succession. j.A version: Sayuri shoots a slow moving star directly forward. j.B version: Sayuri shoots a slow moving star angled slightly downwards. j.C version: Sayuri shoots a slow moving star angled more downwards than the j.B version.
	623* - Magical☆Sword (マジカル☆ソード) A version: Sayuri quickly slashes her wand (transformed into a sword) horizontally about half the screen. This attack moves Sayuri closer to the opponent. This move is incredible, as it is quick and has good range. It can also be IC cancelled to work as a launcher to continue a combo. B version: Sayuri slashes her wand (transformed into a sword) vertically up, and then back down. The first hit will not connect if the opponent is standing right next to you. Almost useless. It's a bit slower than the A version, and if the first hit is blocked, the second hit can easily be RGed. C version: Sayuri does 623B into 623A. The second hit is an overhead, and the third hit will wallbounce the opponent if they are knocked back to the corner. Has some invulnerability. Can be used as a risky reversal.
	214* - Ah, got your skill~ (あ、コツ掴みましたー) Ah, got your skill~ (あ、コツ掴みましたー) Sayuri poses with her hand ready for a second. If Sayuri is attacked by a counterable move within a half-second of the start of the pose, she automatically catches the opponent and throws them. She will also remember the move used against her for her "Magical☆Cutter" move. Can be useful to add an extra layer of stress for the opponent, as capturing a move unlocks the following skill.
	Details below - Magical☆Cutter (マジカル☆カッター) Magical☆Cutter (マジカル☆カッター) If Sayuri blocks the move remembered by her "Ah, got your skill~" move, she will flash completely white while in block stun. Pushing any attack button during this time will cause her to perform a rising circular kick. Sayuri is completely invincible while rising up. Depending on what move is caught defines how good this is. Moves with quick recovery will recover in time to block the flash kick. Don't rely on this but use it as a trump card to keep your opponent on their toes.
	j412* - Magical☆Smash (マジカル☆スマッシュ) Sayuri does some sort of magical energy dive. A version is next to useless. Looks like the first image. B version can be used as a tech punish when you have used up all your aerial jump and dash cancels. Looks like the first image. C version is the most useful. It starts off with an energy ball where she is completely invulnerable for 38 frames. This makes it fairly decent for predicting wakeup invul moves as the invul in this will outlast the invul frames in other moves. After this initial invul, she has 5 frames of being vulnerable without a hixtbox to cover her. Due to the length of the initial invul and the comparatively shorter length of the vulnerable frames, punishing before the second hitbox comes out is more challenging than it seems. The second half is visually identical to A and B but has a much larger hitbox. When used as a crossup this move will automatically turn around to face the opponent, making it an excellent mixup tool that has lots of invul frames.
	41236* - Magical☆Press (マジカル☆プレス) Sayuri dashes forward a bit. If she catches the enemy, she slams them into the wall in front of her (regardless of how far away it is). Air unblockable. C version also has a wallbounce property, and can be followed up in the air. Incredible in blockstrings if mixed up with 236A/B and 623A. With how varied the timings for RG are for each move, it becomes much harder for the opponent to create a situation where the can escape the string.

Eternity Specials

	236236* - Magical☆Agents (マジカル☆エージェンツ) Sayuri's turns her wand into a gun and fires it down the stage. Excellent tool for Blue IC drain. Will combo from 5C against most characters. As it reaches across the entire stage, can be used to punish unsafe moves full screen with level 2 or 3.
	2141236* - Magical☆Pressure (マジカル☆プレッシャー) A super version of 41236* - Magical☆Press. This is Sayuri's highest damage combo ender.
	6321463214* - Magical☆Thunder (マジカル☆サンダー) Sayuri grabs the opponent by the neck and electrocutes them. Level 1 is jumpable post super flash and thus fairly useless. Level 2 and Level 3 are impossible to jump post super flash.

Final Memory

22A2S - Magical☆On Stage (マジカル☆オンステージ) Sayuri teleports above the opponent and falls on top of them, feet first. Unblockable. You can avoid it if you jump or are in RG stun so this Final Memory has very little use.

Strategy, Tactics, and Combos

Combos

BnB combo: (close) 5BB 5C [cancel after first hit] 41236B. Does about 1800 damage, and doesn't require any RF or SP bar. If the opponent is against a corner, you can use the 41236B after the second hit of the 5C, which will add about 300 damage more to your combo.

Red IC Corner: 2A 5BB 623A IC 5AA 5BB 2C jAABC dj6C (whiff) Does roughly 3500 damage. Very stable combo with a stable tech punish.

Red IC Corner from 2B: 2B 623A IC 2B jC j66 jAC land 5AA 5BB 2C jAABC dj6C (whiff) Does roughly 3850 damage.

Magical☆Shot follow-up: 236A/B 2B jC j66 jAC land 5AA 5BB 2C jAABC dj6C (whiff) Does about 3540 damage. Useful if you hit an opponent with a standing 236A/B.

Blue IC Corner: 5AA 5BB 623A IC 2B jC j66 jC land c5B 2C jC j66 jAC land 5AA 5BB 2C jAABC dj6C (whiff) Does about 5900 damage.

Blue IC Midscreen: 5BB 623A IC 2B IAD jC land c5B 2C jC j66 jAC land 5AA 5BB 2C jAABC dj6C (whiff) Does about 5560 damage.

Into Magical☆Pressure: 5ABC(1 hit) 2141236A Does 2791 damage at level 1.

Into Magical☆Agents: 5ABC(2 hits) 236236A Does 2878 damage at level 1.

Red IC Into Magical☆Agents Level 2: 5ABB 623A IC 2B 236236B Does 3717 damage. Level 1 will not work for this combo, only level 2 and 3.

Strategy

Sayuri's main gameplan is to abuse her obnoxiously large and high priority normals to poke, whiff punish and generally Street Fighter her way to victory. Sayuri will get most of her damage out of capitalising off the opponent's mistakes and abusing command grabs when the opponent becomes too respectful of her normals and pressure.

Footsies

Sayuri's normals are some of the best in the game. On the ground she has f5B for an excellent eye height level poke that can sometimes be used to smack people out of the air. 2B is another excellent tool which covers the area below that of f5B. 2C is a decent anti air for when aerial opponents get too close for comfort and leads easily into juggle loops if it connects. In the air she has jB which has incredible horizontal priority. jC trumps this however, in being her best aerial normal. Sayuri's can neutral jump jC to stuff ground and aerial approaches alike.

As for specials, her main tool is 623A. With 8F of startup and a huge hitbox that moves forward with Sayuri, this move has lots of uses. You can add it after f5B/2B pokes and be relatively safe on block/RG, or just use it as it's own neutral tool. Mixing it up with her other neutral tools can make for very surprising forward movements covered by a genuinely disgusting hitbox, leading into a knockdown. Speaking of knockdowns...

Okizeme

Compared to some characters in EFZ, Sayuri's okizeme is lackluster. Her main crossup oki tool is jB, which has a crossup hitbox to boot. Converting from hits using this is tough, however - and Sayuri definitely has better, albeit more expensive, setups to use.

j412C/jC Which Way

j412C is absolutely incredible. It has 38F of invul at the start, with the only downside being 5F of vulnerability with no hitbox cover before the second half the the move. The initial hitbox is huge. Please check the move list above to fully appreciate the hitbox. This makes it an especially scary okizeme tool - while it is possible to punish, it is difficult to properly time a 4F 5A before the second half of the move starts.

Off a lot of midscreen knockdowns (most commonly being 623A) you can go for a same side jC or a crossup j412C option select. To do this, IAD (instant air dash) after the knockdown and as you crossup the opponent input j412C in the opposite that you are air dashing. Essentially, this makes the input j632C. The game will auto correct the direction and go towards the opponent. If you end up doing an IAD that's too low to crossup, your j412C will just turn into a jC allowing you to land and confirm into a regular ground combo. To see followups for the crossup version, please use this reference.

66jC Overhead/c5B Low

With 22F of startup, 66jC is the fastest Sayuri has for an overhead. She can combo from this easily with j236B FIC, which you can see here. Has the ability to stuff lows and leads to some nice damage. Your alternative option, which you'll be using more often, is c5B. This is a Sayuri's longest reaching low and can be tough to use at first, as it requires some knowledge of the range at which close normals activate. Hitconfirming c5B is made easier by the fact it has an extra 6F of special hitstop.

236A IC IAD Which Way

Sayuri's star projectile can be used to create mixups on waking up opponents. Using 236A IC and instant air dashing over the opponent, with correct timing you can stay the same side of crossup. This setup is very easy to choose the side on, and if you choose crossup you can use j412A to convert from hits. You need to input this the same way you would the j412C crossup listed above, meaning you'll have to input is as j632A after you cross the opponent up.

Magical☆Thunder

When your opponent begins being overly respectful, not mashing and just blocking, you can bring out the tool that makes Sayuri genuinely scary. Magical☆Thunder (6321463214*) is a command grab super that deals a lot of damage, especially compared to Sayuri's usual combo damage output. The only useful versions are Level 2 and Level 3, as Level 1 is jumpable post super flash rendering it next to useless. Level 2 and 3 cannot be jumped post superflash so they must be predicted or the opponent must be mashing or holding jump in order to beat them. These command grabs have decent range, you don't have to be standing right next to the opponent for them to connect, but you can be no more than a few paces away. I'd recommend testing out the ranges of Level 2 and 3 respectively to get a feel for their uses.

Blockstrings

If done correctly, Sayuri can have some seemingly endless blockstrings if she manages her meter efficiently. Her main blockstring tools are: 41236A, 623A IC, 236A/B, 236A/B IC to catch mash/reversals, c5B f5B .. c5B f5B frame trap, and generally using her pokes at a safe distance (f5B and 2B, occasionally cancelling into star or 623A).

Her simplest and most predictable string is 2AA 2B 5C 41236A. If not for Recoil Guard, this string would be inescapable. You can repeat this over and over and the only way to beat it is to RG the 41236A. This will be the basis of our blockstrings. From this, you can adjust the string to add differently timed attacks into the mix. For instance, instead of 41236A which is fairly slow, you can instead use 623A to try and catch your opponent off guard. In the same sense, you can do 2AA 2B 236A/B and even IC into f5B to prevent the possibility of jumping out. Changing the timing for when you do each section of 2AA 2B 5C is also important, as it is important to mix this string's composition up. You can also do strings like 2AAA c5B f5B 5C or 2A c5B 5C (2 hits) - essentially anything to keep your strings from becoming predictable.

Every 8 seconds you will get access to Red IC, allowing you to go for riskier setups using IC. One example is 236A IC IAD jAAA - this forces a mixup situation of how many highs, when will they stop and go low, will they go for a command grab after the star is blocked, etc etc. Another option is from the mixups listed in Okizeme: using 66jC j236B FIC overhead or c5B, and as another option using the insane priority and invulnerability on j412C to predict reversals.

Win Quotes

Japanese	English
佐祐理の射程と 攻撃範囲には あいにく死角が ありませんよ でもその工夫は 評価されるべきですね あははー	[TRANSLATION NEEDED]
すみません これも仕事なので 恨まないで下さいね	[TRANSLATION NEEDED]
あははー 佐祐理は ちょっと頭の悪い 普通の 魔法使いですから	[TRANSLATION NEEDED]
ふぇー このステッキですか? この前、夢に出て来た 髭のダンディな おじ様に 貰ったんですよ あははー	[TRANSLATION NEEDED]
テイルトウェイト 辺りを使えば 簡単に勝負が つくんですが… 周辺の皆さんの ご迷惑に なりますからねー	Tiltowait [TRANSLATION NEEDED] ("Tiltowait" is a Level 7 Mage Spell from the game Wizardry. It is the strongest magic, causing a nuclear explosion and damages all monster groups.)
(To Mai) 舞にばかり 良い所とられるのも 寂しいんですよ 今回は許して くださいねー	(To Mai) [TRANSLATION NEEDED]
(To UNKNOWN) その力 佐祐理が貰い受けて おきますねー あははー	(To UNKNOWN) [TRANSLATION NEEDED]
(To Sayuri) あははー 上手く 化けているとは 思いますけど ちょっと相手が 悪すぎませんか?	(To Sayuri) [TRANSLATION NEEDED]

Colors

In-game References

External References

• Sayuri's "Magical☆Sword" move is based on Gambit's "Cajun Slash" move, from Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
• Sayuri's "Ah, got your skill~" move is based on Chaka's "Okuetazo" move, from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure.
• Sayuri's "Magical☆Cutter" move is based on Rugal's "Genocide Cutter" move, from The King of Fighters series.
• Sayuri's "Magical☆Smash" move is based on Omega Rugal's "Gravity Smash" move, from the The King of Fighters series.
• Sayuri's "Magical☆Press" move is based on Rugal's "God Press" move, from the The King of Fighters series.
• Sayuri's "Magical☆Pressure" move is based on Rugal's "Gigantic Pressure" move, from the The King of Fighters series.
• Sayuri's "Magical☆Agents" move is based on Bulleta's "Cool Hunting" move, from the Vampire Savior series.
• Sayuri's "Magical☆Thunder" move is based on Benimaru Nikaido's "Electrigger" move, from the The King of Fighters series.
• Sayuri's "Magical☆On Stage" move is based on Rugal's "Dead End Screamer" move, from the The King of Fighters series.