I can assure you it's a glitch. This occurred in DOAD as well. The recovery of moves can sometimes be negated through Lord knows what means, but it can happen, usually only online. It's exceedingly rare, so much so that I've only done it twice throughout DOA5, though it was slightly more common in D.
In all honesty, you shouldn't even bother trying to figure out what causes the glitch. Chances are that it's not only not easily replicated by any means, but it would ruin the sport of the game.
Even if it is a glitch, the AI does have moves that we cannot use. But, I think the AI can free cancel really quickly. The AI Honoka will launch with 8K and do 6H+K right after. There is no way in hell you could do that. Lol
that's a glitch lol. there's no way you can free cancel quick enough to do to 2h+k wr k, and it of course isn't a string. glitches like that do happen sometimes.