Samurai Shodown 3/Gaira Kafuin

花諷院骸羅, Gaira Kafuin

Colors

Introduction

Gaira’s illustrious college football career came to a grinding halt when he accidentally killed someone during a game. He was expelled and sent to serve as a monk at a local Buddhist shrine in the hopes that he would learn to control his temper. He didn’t.

Gaira is the boisterous nephew of Samurai Shodown 2 veteran Nicotine Caffeine. He uses his large stature, the strength that comes with it, free guard cancels, and huge normals with surprising speed to pummel, grapple, and SHOUT his opponents into submission.

Slash Gaira could be classified as a more 'mixup' oriented incarnation, for lack of a better descriptor. He boasts an incredible anti-air grab, two threatening hitgrabs that form a high/low mixup at close range, and an all purpose high damage shoulder tackle that provides decent corner carry. This versatile toolkit lends itself to conditioning the opponent to block a certain way and hurting them for it. A lot.

Bust Gaira is all grappler, all the time, mixups be damned. His command throw is the star of the show. It cashes in hard on unjumpable setups, can combo on hit AND block, and it’s one of the best guard cancels a monk could ask for. He wants nothing more than to be in his opponent's face and hammer toss them to the ends of feudal Japan.

Stats

Damage taken: 95%
Rage rate: 100%
Rage duration: 3.5 seconds

Normal Moves

Far Slashes

5A (Properties) - Air Unblockable (Description) - A very swift hook that moves Gaira forward with each use. Not his go-to anti-air, but I suppose you could tag someone with this.

5B (Properties) - Cancellable. Deflectable. Air Unblockable (Description) - Gaira's primary poke, boasting great reach, decent speed, and decent damage. Gaira swings his beads at a slight downward angle, striking anyone caught in their path. No whiffing on crouching characters in this game, folks. While special cancellable, Gaira is sadly too far away to connect into anything like 236C/WFT, and the opponent can't be caught by 632146AB afterwards. There's always 22AB though.

5C (Properties) - Deflectable. Air Unblockable (Description) - Remember when I said Far 5B had great reach? Well, so does Far 5C, hitting at right about the same max distance. Gaira takes a mighty step forward and clocks his opponent in the jaw with his mala beads. After the initial strike, Gaira takes a step back to his original position. Very good for stopping your opponent if they're carelessly running towards you, or underestimate Gaira's range.

2A (Properties) - Air Unblockable (Description) - Not much to say here. Just a basic crouching jab. Hits mid, decent speed, but doesn't move Gaira forward like his Far 5A.

2B (Properties) - Deflectable. Air Unblockable (Description) - Similar to Gaira's Far 2A, his Far 2B is a less versatile version of his Far 5B. Boasting less range and slightly more recovery, no real reason to use this over it's standing variant.

2C (Properties) - Deflectable. Air Unblockable. (Properties) - Gaira swings his beads in a horizontal path similar to Far 2B, but boasting equal range to 5B/5C, and the damage associated with heavy slashes! Getting hit by this will ruin anyone's day.

Near Slashes

n.5A (Properties) - Air Unblockable (Properties) - A standard jab. Decent speed/range, all things considered. You can use this if you think you're opponent is going to try to up back, but also if you don't want to use Gaira's other hard read AA options for whatever reason.

n.5B (Properties) - Cancellable. Deflectable. Air Unblockable (Description) - Gaira thrusts his mighty arm upward, striking the opponent in the face with a fistful of mala beads. What makes this, and Samurai Shodown 3 Gaira as a whole, so unique, is this move being special cancellable, giving both Slash and Bust Gaira opportunities for some REAL damage.

n.5C (Properties) - Cancellable. Deflectable. Air Unblockable. (Description) - This. Normal. Gaira hoists his mala beads over his head before bringing them down with the force of a dharmapala. Now, normally getting hit by a heavy slash is enough to ruin anyone's day, but both Slash and Bust Gaira have their own options to cancel into, making this Gaira's best punish tool.

n.2A (Properties) - Air Unblockable (Description) - It's like Far 2A but if Far 2A was Near-er

n.2B (Properties) - Cancellable. Deflectable. Air Unblockable (Description) - Gaira swings his mala beads upward, taking a moment to close his eyes in prayer afterwards. Unlike Far 2B, Near 2B is cancellable! Though he has better normals to use up close, be sure to take advantage of this if you ever find yourself using this.

n.2C (Properties) - Deflectable. Air Unblockable (Description) - Boasting significantly less range than Far 2C (be careful about your proximity to the opponent!) no cancel window, and some hefty recovery, there's really no reason to use Near 2C over the other near slashes listed above.

Overheads

5BC (Properties) -

u.5BC (Properties) -

Kicks

5D (Properties) - Cancellable (First hit only). Air Unblockable (Description) - Das Boot. Decent range for a kick, and hits twice up close, once bring his knee up, the second when he sticks his leggy out. The real sauce with this move is, due to there being no recoil for it, Gaira is able to special cancel the first hit, which is ESPECIALLY good news for Ol' Bust Gaira. Trying to tag your opponent with this on wakeup is tricky though, so be wary about whiffing it.

6D (Properties) - Cancellable. Air Unblockable. (Description) -

2D (Properties) -

3D (Properties) -

Jumping Normals

j.A (Properties) -

j.B (Properties) -

j.C (Properties) -

j.D (Properties) -

Dashing Normals

66A (Properties) -

66B (Properties) -

66C (Properties) -

66D (Properties) -

Unarmed Normals

u.5S (Properties) -

u.2S (Properties) -

uj.S (Properties) -

u.66S (Properties) -

Command Moves

j.2D (Properties) -

j.2C (Slash Only) (Properties) -

Special Moves

Universal

- 「Jishin Gan」 - 22AB (Description) -

- 「Katsu」 - 214A (Description) -

- WFT「Kenbu」 - 236236AB (Description) -

Slash

- 「Midare Uchi」 - 236AB (Description) -

- 「Kachi Age」 - 623S (Description) - (A version) - (B version) - (C version) -

- 「Tsukamuzo: Kumitenjo」 - 421A (Description) -

- 「Tsukamuzo: Ishi Atama」 - 421B (Description) -

- 「Tsukamuzo: Shiri Mekuri」 - 421C (Description) -

Bust

- 「Buchikoroshi」 - 236S (Description) - (A version) - (B version) - (C version) -

- 「Enshin Satsu: Ten」 - 2146AB (Description) -

- 「Enshin Satsu: Chi」 - 2146CD (Description) -

Strategy

both techniques press buttons and make combos happen sometimes

Slash

slash strategy

Bust

bust strategy

Combos

Universal

combos both techniques can do

Slash

slash-only combos

Bust

bust-only combos