Samurai Shodown V Special/Shizumaru Hisame

緋雨 閑丸, Hisame Shizumaru

Colors

Introduction

Young man with an umbrella of mass destruction.

At first glance, Shizumaru seems like a standard character with a fairly standard (if slightly less threatening than some others) toolkit. Then you remember that you can screw with people thanks to your crazy aerial mobility. And then you remember you've been holding down the D button for about a minute and a half and make your opponent explode.

Strengths	Weaknesses
Well rounded tool kit sporting a solid projectile and a dragon punch-type special for anti-air and combos Tricky movement and mixup potential thanks to the umbrella float Insane damage potential thanks to his charge	Somewhat linear ground game due to limited range on his normals Projectile can be difficult to use due to its slow speed and it temporarily leaving Shizumaru disarmed Holding charge and properly using float makes him somewhat executionally demanding

Data

• Damage taken: 115%
• Rage duration: 8 seconds
• Amount to rage: 22
• Walk speed: 624
• Backwalk speed: 512
• Dash speed: 1664
• Jump duration: 50 frames
• Width: 16
• Throw range: 20
• Throw recovery: 46 frames
• Tier placing: S

Normals

Far Slashes

5A: A jab with nice range to it. Recoil cancels can happen here.

5B: Standard medium attack. Not too good in neutral. No recoil cancels and is deflectable.

5AB: Horrible for anything but punishes, unlike 2AB.

2A: Quicker, closer jab than 5A. Recoils, and cancels to specials.

2B: Quick little crouching uppercut with the umbrella. Poor vertical range, but special cancel on both hits makes it useful for certain punishes. Recoil cancels can happen here, too.

2AB: A long range ground poke that hits three times, with the big damage on the third hit. You can step on some toes with this kind of hitbox even at mid range. Unfortunately, no recoil cancels here. It can be canceled, but only before the third hit, limiting that factor of this move to input errors only.

Near Slashes

n.5A: A quick elbow jab. Recoils on block, but no cancels otherwise.

n.5B: Quick slice that can be cancelled into 623S or a super. Deals slightly less damage than n.2B, so that move is probably better for punishes.

n.5AB: Fairly slow heavy slash, has enough hitstun to link to 66B afterwards, making it your optimal close range punisher.

n.2A: Same as 2A. Combos into 623A at point blank range if you need a punish.

n.2B: Same as far 2B. Much more useful at close range due to its two-hitting nature, as well as its recoil cancel.

n.2AB: Same as far version. Less advisable up close.

Overheads

5BC: Fairly average short hop overhead with decent range. Knocks down on hit. Unfortunately can't kara cancel into float.

u.5BC: Standard tobi geri unarmed overhead. Slow, short range, quite unsafe.

Kicks

5C: High kick used to stop Enja jump ins.

6C: A nifty little low poke that allows for special cancels. Can combo into 623S. Can be useful for quick punishes.

2C: A short low kick. More or less invalidated by 6C due to its shorter range and lack of special cancels.

3C: Sweep that can be confirmed into small pursuit anywhere, and cancelled into heavy pursuit in the corner.

Jumping

j.A: Very quick air attack with a surprising amount of hitstun given its speed. This is an extremely important aerial for Shizu's umbrella mixups, as it can be performed from a backdash into float.

j.B: Another useful aerial, this slash is primarily used for crossing up when cancelling a float from behind.

j.AB: A pretty good air heavy that swings in a big arc downward. Comes out fast enough and has pretty nice horizontal reach.

j.C: Basically his 2C but in the air. Not as good as j.A given its slower speed and smaller hitstun, as well as j.A more or less covering the same horizontal space.

Dashing

66A: Quick umbrella poke. No special cancels, no recoils. Very slight disadvantage on hit, quite punishable on block. You probably won't get a lot of use out of this move.

66B: This move shows up in Shiz's good combos as a link or punish/crossunder starter. Normally cancelled into either 623AB, the charge, or the super.

66AB: Fairly fast knockdown slash with decent range, useful for punishes. Easily allows for a pursuit near the corner.

66C: Basically the same as 3C, except it can't cancel into heavy pursuit.

Unarmed

u.5S: Finger jab. Fairly slow on startup.

u.2S: Another finger jab, about the same range as u.5S but slightly faster.

ju.S: A quick aerial punch. Not too bad if you need to meet someone in the air.

u.66S: A double palmed shove that knocks down. Decently fast, but quite unsafe on block. Works if you need the punish, as it could give you the time you need to pick your weapon up.

System

Deflect - 216D: Average range deflect.

Weapon Pickup - 5A: Shizumaru can substitute his slash-based command moves for this by inputting them while standing near the umbrella. He will instantly pick up the weapon and perform the move. While doing this isn't necessarily safer than basic pickup, at least he isn't just standing there.

Taunt Disarm - Start Start Start: Unfortunately, when holding a charge, Shizumaru will not be able to do this. Probably a good thing since his disarm animation is super long.

Specials

Kirisamejin - 236S: Umbrella throw. Has high startup for a projectile, but very good priority as such-- it will cut through a lot of non-weapon projectiles. One downside is that Shiz becomes disarmed for the duration of the move, limiting his options until the weapon returns to him. The A version has really bad range for the price you're paying. Though the heavier versions have even higher startup, they benefit more from these properties if Shiz makes an effort to retrieve the weapon faster, as the "flyback" homes in on him at a constant rate.

Baiu Ensatsujin - 623S: A lightning fast upward airstrike with the hitbox going straight up, over and even behind him as he reaches the top of the attack. The B and AB versions have a ground horizontal component before going airborne, while the A version acts as a pretty reliable instant anti-air. This has great priority on the ground as well-- particularly the part following the forward dash-- but is very punishable. This is usually the attack of choice to substitute for basic weapon pickup.

Samidaregiri - 214S: Umbrella spin that hits people on either side. Depending on the button used it will last different amounts of time, but always does fixed damage. It's very close range, however when spinning it will beat attacks where the enemy character hitboxes cross into it, but loses to projectiles and long-range attacks done at an appropriate distance. Even with that aside, despite the fact that all versions have the same startup, it has some recovery at the end that isn't too difficult to punish on block. It could also be used for chip or anti-air, but there it's simply outperformed by the DP, making this a gimmick move.

Hisame Gaeshi - 236C: Projectile reflect. Also knocks down for small damage at point blank.

Shin Amanagare Kyourakuzan - Hold any button: This charge is one of Shiz's main gimmicks. While fighting and in between rounds, hold down any button (A,B,C, or D) to charge up Shiz's charge. You can switch which button this is at any time without losing your charge, if you start holding down a different button before releasing the first. As you hold the charge for longer periods of time, the move becomes progressively more damaging-- the 80+ second charge version is one of the most damaging moves in the game, singlehandedly able to perform 100% kills on some people. Release the button to do the charge: Shiz will throw his weapon in the air and charge forward with his sword. Alternatively, you can press Start to unleash the attack while continuing to hold the button, and if it doesn't connect, you won't lose your charge and will continue to build it. chart for SAK damages This attack is easy to block and punish, but has some really nice invincibility frames on the startup and can be cancelled into. You can actually start charging this from the character select screen once you have selected Shizumaru, and it will keep charging regardless of whether the fight is active. To be good with Shiz you have to learn how to play well while always charging this and be able to switch the charge button very quickly to free up the buttons you need for other inputs. One noticeable side effect of holding the charge is that you can't meditate normally. You have to keep re-pressing the D button to meditate your meter in pieces. People not already using and unaware of this ability sometimes set it off unintentionally if they meditate for too long.

Shigure - j.2C: Pogo attack. Starts a continuous stream of pogo attacks on their head until you miss. Each time you bounce you can go left or right with 4/6, or straight up by pressing nothing. Damage is low if a bounce connects, and furthermore landing has an added recovery beyond that of a normal aerial attack. Theoretically you could beat some characters just with this if you have godlike reads. Interestingly, this attack doesn't reset the life meter in practice mode.

Kosame - j.8S: Shizumaru's main gimmick. At any point in the air, 8S will open his umbrella and he will float very slowly downward. While floating, he can slowly drift left or right to an extent with the directionals. The float lasts for a while before automatically cancelling into freefall. The float may also be cancelled early at any time just by pressing down. After a float is cancelled, Shiz can easily start floating again with 8S as long as he is still in the air. It is possible for Shiz to start and stop floating very quickly more than a dozen times off a normal jump. Basically, Shiz can put a lot of arbitrary delay on his airtime, for throwing off your blocking. This can be done from most things that put him in the air like backdashes, with 5BC being the notable exception. The extreme speed and hitstun of j.A makes a potent combination with this. Raiu - j.AB Shiz has one other option when floating. Hitting AB will make him dive downward and forward while spinning the umbrella for a damaging multi-hit knockdown attack. This lets him quickly cover a lot of distance and do a threatening overhead, although it is very punishable on block. In particular, a backdash cancel into this (44 8S AB) is a great dodge-->attack sequence and due to the low height it only hits once and has seemingly less recovery, while still knocking down.

Hitouryuu Kinjite: Bouukyoufuuzan - 236CD - WFT: After a brief startup, Shizumaru does an umbrella spin while moving forward a bit. If this connects, he will push them vertically into the air for the standard super damage. This is heavy punishable on block so it's always better to hit confirm into it, although it has a notably good time catching jumpins due to the big hitbox all around him as he moves forward.

Combos

Normal

• (n.5B or 6C or 2AB or 66B) ...

• ... xx Charge
• ... xx 623AB
• ... xx 214AB

• n.5AB ...

Link combo starter.

• ... 623B 2BC
• ... 66B xx whatever

• 5C xx 236C 2BC

• 236S 8BC
• 623S 2BC
• 66AB 2BC

• 66C 8BC
• 3C 8BC

Time slow

• (vs air) j.AB x n

Standard air to air time slow combo if you can't catch the opponent with an Issen.

• (low float j.A or 6C), Issen

Makes Shizumaru's little low float high/low mixup significantly more threatening.

• unfloat j.B (whatever) Issen

Much like the low float mixup, being able to back up Shizumaru's float crossups with Issen makes them much scarier.

Strategies

Shizumaru is a character that excels at catching people off guard and punishing their mistakes. Since he suffers from a lack of variety in his grounded neutral tools, he instead opts to take to the air, using his umbrella float and all of the shenanigans associated with it to mix people up, mess with their anti-air timings, and all sorts of nonsense.
Alternatively, once you get to the second round (and you know how to keep a button held down for that entire time), Shizu can simply force the opponent to respect him by keeping the threat of his insanely damaging Shin Amanagare Kyourakuzan available to punish any single mistake in the hardest way possible.

Using Kyourakuzan
Kyourakuzan is Shizumaru's version of Boxer's TAP from Street Fighter, with a couple of key differences.
Firstly, he only needs to hold down one button, which can be changed at will.
Secondly, his charge carries over between rounds, and he can start charging it from the character select screen. At max charge (about 80 seconds), this move does stupid damage -- about 50% at minimum.
Oh, also, he can combo into it.

One of the keys to using this move is knowing how to switch the button you're using to charge the move. It's not incredibly difficult to do so, especially since you can buffer it inside of other actions to hide it, but you need to make sure you don't let go of the button too early or switch to another button too late, lest you accidentally lose your charge or let the move rip when you don't want it.
If you want to meditate while charging Kyourakuzan, you'll need to do so bit by bit, by tapping the D button repeatedly rather than holding it down -- doing the latter will cause you to unleash the move.
A neat little trick you can do while charging Kyourakuzan: pressing your taunt button (start on arcade, whatever you've set to "provocation" on PS4) will cause you to unleash the move without losing your charge if it whiffs or gets blocked, which makes it a fair bit more threatening thanks to the newfound sense of impunity with which you can potentially make people explode.

Uses for Float
Shizumaru can begin floating by pressing 8S while in the air, either after the peak of his jump, or from a backdash. You can cancel the float at any time by pressing 2, and either come down with a button or his "divekick", or re-enter float by pressing 8S again. While floating, Shizumaru can make himself drift to the left or the right, giving him a surprising degree of control over his aerial positioning.

Floating from a jump gives Shizu access to all sorts of trickery, since the ability to drift as well as exit and re-enter float as he sees fit means he can mess with the opponent to a huge degree, ranging from setting up tricky cross-up situations to screwing with anti-air timings. It's here that Shizu generally wants to use his aerial mobility to frustrate the opponent into doing something stupid. You can quickly descend and potentially catch people off guard with your "divekick", Raiu (AB while floating), come down with a j.B that could hit on either side depending on your positioning, or just unfloat-refloat a bunch and test your opponent's ability to anti-air you.

Floating from a backdash is a little trickier to implement, but it has some interesting offensive uses.
Inputting 8S quickly from a backdash will cause Shizu to start floating very low to the ground. From here, you can come down with Raiu to potentially shut down advancing buttons or other kinds of movement (almost like a back swing blow). Alternatively, you can unfloat and come down with a j.A, which has slightly better range than Raiu and is much safer to attempt. Be careful not to unfloat too early, as attempting the unfloat j.A too quickly will simply cause you to refloat, due to the game's input buffer.
In the corner, you can use backdash float to set up a cute little mixup between unfloat j.A and unfloat land 6C. If your opponent is respecting you, they're going to have a hard time reacting to this.

Rage
Shizumaru mostly wants to meditate his rage away, due to his short rage duration (8 seconds, the same as Rasetsumaru) and a pretty decent meditation (comparable to Haohmaru). Time slow also makes Shizumaru's float mixups significantly more threatening due to Issen backing them up.
That being said, having access to rage (or even rage explosion) can make the already stupidly damaging Kyourakuzan that much scarier, so if you can find a way to squeeze in that damage during rage you have no reason not to -- you may just be giving up some consistency as a result.

Frame Data

Move	Damage	Startup	Active	Total	Cancel	Weapon Clash	Hit Adv.	Backhit Adv.	Block Adv.	Guard	Notes
5A	5	10	5	22	1~7(7)	8~9(2)/15~20(6)	-2	-2	-12	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(weak)
5B	11	11	3	32	1~10(10)	-	-3	+5	-9	Mid	Medium attack, Deflectable(med)
5AB	29	19	2	57	1~3(3)	17~18(2)	-1	+9	-21	Mid	Heavy attack, Deflectable(heavy)
2A	4	3	5	15	1~2(2) / 8~15(8)	-	-2	-2	-12	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(weak)
2B	2, 9	9	1	32	1~11(11)	-	-4	+4	-9	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(med)
2AB	3, 3, 22	18	1	50	1~3(3) / 18~19(2)	-	+7	+17	-21	Mid	Heavy attack, Deflectable(heavy)
n.5A	4	4	5	15	1~3(3)	1~3(3)	-1	-1	-12	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(weak)
n.5B	8	9	2	35	9~30(22)	7~8(2)	-8	+0	-9	Mid	Medium attack, Deflectable(med)
n.5AB	22	19	2	40	1~5(5)	16~18(3)	+16	+26	-21	Mid	Heavy attack, Deflectable(heavy)
n.2A	4	3	5	15	1~2(2) / 8~15(8)	-	-2	-2	-12	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(weak)
n.2B	2, 9	9	1	32	1~11(11)	-	-4	+4	-9	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(med)
n.2AB	3, 3, 22	18	1	50	1~3(3) / 18~19(2)	-	+7	+17	-21	Mid	Heavy attack, Deflectable(heavy)
5C	6	5	8	20	1~20(20)	-	-5	-5	-10	Mid	Weak attack
6C	6	9	14	28	1~22(22)	-	-1	+7	-14	Low	Medium attack
2C	2	6	5	17	1~2(2)	-	-1	-1	-6	Low	Weak attack
3C	6	8	4	29	1~22(22)	-	KD	KD	-16	Mid	Knockdown attack
j.A	6	3	4	25	1~2(2)	-	--	--	--	High	Weak attack, Deflectable(weak)
j.B	10	13	4	24	1~12(12)	-	--	--	--	High	Medium attack, Deflectable(med)
j.AB	24	11	4	20	1~8(8)	-	--	--	--	High	Heavy attack, Deflectable(heavy)
j.C	3	8	10	23	x	-	--	--	--	High	Weak attack
ju.C	3	8	10	23	x	-	--	--	--	High	Weak attack
5BC	16	20	2	41	1~2(2)	-	KD	KD	-15	High	Medium attack Knockdown attack
u.5BC	6	25	3	44	2(1)	-	KD	KD	-14	High	Medium attack Knockdown attack
66A	4	10	11	29	1~6(6)	-	-1	+7	-14	Mid	Medium attack, Deflectable(heavy)
66B	10	10	2	35	10~13(4)	8~9(2)	-7	+1	-21	Mid	Medium attack, Deflectable(heavy)
66AB	16	12	2	41	1~3(3)	10~11(2)	KD	KD	-24	Mid	Knockdown attack
66C	4	7	12	27	1(1) / 7~12(6)	-	KD	KD	-15	Mid	Knockdown attack
u.5S	3	10	5	19	1~5(5)	-	+1	+1	-4	Mid	Weak attack
u.2S	3	6	4	15	1~5(5)	-	+1	+1	-4	Mid	Weak attack
ju.S	3	4	5	22	x	-	--	--	--	High	Weak attack
u.66S	4	10	11	29	1~9(9)	-	KD	KD	-14	Mid	Knockdown attack
u.66C	4	7	12	27	1(1) / 7~12(6)	-	KD	KD	-15	Mid	Knockdown attack
2BC	4	12	14	36	1~36(36)	-	--	--	--	Mid
u.2BC	4	12	14	36	1~36(36)	-	--	--	--	Mid
8BC	13	39	2	90	48~90(43)	-	--	--	--	Mid
u.8BC	8	39	5	88	45~88(44)	-	--	--	--	Mid
Kirisamejin - 236A	14	27	15	60	x	-	KD	KD	-20	Mid	Knockdown attack
Kirisamejin - 236B	14	32	18	58	x	-	KD	KD	-13	Mid	Knockdown attack
Kirisamejin - 236AB	14	37	24	56	x	-	KD	KD	-6	Mid	Knockdown attack
Baiu Ensatsujin - 623A	1x4, 15	4	1	67	x	-	KD	KD	-44	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(weak) Knockdown attack 1-6f above knees invincible 5-20f throw invincible
Baiu Ensatsujin - 623B	1x5, 15	12	1	87	x	-	KD	KD	-55	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(med) Knockdown attack 1-7f hit invincible 8-11f above knees invincible 13-31f throw invincible
Baiu Ensatsujin - 623AB	1x6, 17	16	1	107	x	-	KD	KD	-69	Mid	Weak attack, Deflectable(heavy) Knockdown attack 1-16f hit invincible 17-44f throw invincible
Samidaregiri - 214A	18	14	15	67	x	-	KD	KD	-29	Mid	Knockdown attack 14-26f throw invincible
Samidaregiri - 214B	18	14	39	91	x	-	KD	KD	-51	Mid	Knockdown attack 14-50f throw invincible
Samidaregiri - 214AB	18	14	75	107	x	-	KD	KD	-86	Mid	Knockdown attack 14-86f throw invincible
Hisame Gaeshi - 236C	8	6	1	45	x	-	KD	KD	-34	Mid	Knockdown attack Reflects projectiles
Shin Amanagare Kyourakuzan Ichidan - 1.5s hold	16	20	x	x	x	-	KD	KD	-35	Mid	Knockdown attack 1-5f hit invincible
Shin Amanagare Kyourakuzan Nidan - 3s hold	23	20	x	x	x	-	KD	KD	-35	Mid	Knockdown attack 1-9f hit invincible
Shin Amanagare Kyourakuzan Sandan - 8s hold	28	20	x	x	x	-	KD	KD	-35	Mid	Knockdown attack 1-13f hit invincible
Shin Amanagare Kyourakuzan Yondan - 20s hold	38	20	x	x	x	-	KD	KD	-35	Mid	Knockdown attack 1-15f fully invincible
Shin Amanagare Kyourakuzan Godan - 80s hold	10, 20x4	20	x	x	x	-	KD	KD	-35	Mid	Knockdown attack All but recovery invincible
Shigure - j.2C	10	1	x	x	x	-	-72	-72	-19	High	Weak attack
Raiu - (j.8S) j.AB	1xn + 24	1	x	x	x	-	KD	KD	-28	High	Weak attack, Deflectable(weak) Knockdown attack
Hitouryuu Kinjite: Bouukyoufuuzan - 236CD	30	14	32	76	x	-	KD	KD	-34	Mid	Knockdown attack 1-3f fully invincible 8-45f throw invincible