Thanks for good replies.
I would say it's five because of Alpha's long range offensive holds and her speed, not just because of B.U.R.S.T and her other throws. Alpha is just range and has more range. Maybe it could be 6-4 Hitomi, but I'm sticking with 5-5 for now. Any opinions from top Alpha and Hitomi players?
synce
From my view alpha152 is a very strong character in general yes, it is no walk in the park. That said the arguments given can be mentioned against any other character on the roster, and not Hitomi in particular. However the fear of getting holded is always more present for Hitomi as she has a lot of 50/50 loops, and basically have to play the lure game a lot of the time. This is not the case with Alpha152 and she can go more "all out" than against other characters. Also most of alphas closing in moves can be poked if timed right with Hitomis own 46P, 236P or even 236K, and that for no small damage compared to other characters.
I'd say she's even with Christie. Hitomi isn't linear, if at all, with a huge abundance of mid and low single-hit tracking moves (2KK, 2H+K, 2P+K, 4P, 1P, etc.) as well as in-string, thus shutting down JAK. And while yes, Hitomi does have generally weak lows, her 1K mixups are more than enough. If Hitomi lands a 2P or her punch parry, Christie doesn't have the advantage of a 9-frame jab. Hitomi wins the spacing game though, since her 46P and 236P pokes are superior to Christie's pokes.
Most of what is said is true in theory and sometimes in play as well. Yes, 4P is relatively good and does track, but this is midpunch (same with 2P+K?). Unless you know Christie will do a sidestep it may be hard to pull that off, because it's not safe at all to use. It is slow and with limited range, and if you're in a guessing game, playing against Hitomi people will guess midpunch a lot, especially Christie given her situation. Alternatively her pokes go linear. Basically Christie has more approach options, and Hitomi has to read her, and not the other way around. Also, 2KK is slow with relatively bad range, where Christie basically can hit you with most of her sidesteps attacks if she times the range well without any real fear of getting hit, not to mention that if she actually does she'd be too far away to fear any follow up that can't be escaped. 2H+K is simply too slow against Christie, you'd be beaten to the hit 90% of the time in my experience. 2P followed by jab will be beaten by Christie's jab (just tested in training), so unless I misunderstood then that info is wrong. 1P may work in tight situations, but has short range. Christie will usually be out of that range.
That said, nothing of what you say is wrong, it is simply from my point of view a more often that not mindgame where Christie has more strings to play and more approaches to make. However, I see you're Kokoro/Eliot point, and I guess I can go with 4 instead.
Hitomi can shut down BKH stance with 3H+K (true mid), 2P (which gives +1 on hit), 1P (15-frame tracking low), 1K (mixups) and her high-low string game. Helena has excellent mixups, but Hitomi's punch parry and advanced mid-kick hold should be able to deal with them, reducing the guessing game Helena's so good at. Hitomi also outspeeds Helena in everything, as well as being much safer than she is. Helena has a superior stun and mixup game and much better crushes, but Hitomi can has the tools to stop her even before she initiates stun.
Point is that getting close to Hitomi is not that hard, even for Helena, as Hitomi's pokes are unsafe. If Helena play the lowgame up close Hitomi will likely get massacred more times than not. That said she is not defenseless and 2P and 1P are both good, but we are speaking very varied loops where an opportunity may rarely come. Punchparry may be good, but Helena knows you can't use that mid-combo and plan accordingly. Also, Helena may simply start reading those low hits at certain loopstages, as there must be A LOT of them as Hitomi use quite some time to build damage down low. It is also that nature of the character that Helena is, you know always being down on her knees somewhere or going down low for a punch or kick, that she forces Hitomi to play a game she is not very good at. That I'd say is the strongest argument for a 4. Helena has her strengths and weaknesses yes, same with Hitomi, but some of Helena's strengths happens to be Hitomi's weakness which can't really be said the other way around. Helena is used to be outspeeded and "unsafe", it's part of her character in my view.
Again, I am all up for debate, and much of what I say may be subjective as things I find "easy" others find hard and vice versa. Also I might get very theoretical in "what are the risk/odds of success, and what damage can one capitalize on that risk/odds"-line of thinking and not necessarily what is easy/hard to do.
Another thing I'm wondering is why Kokoro is a 6. Never given it much thought as there aren't that many Kokoro's to go around. Anyone got any smart comments on that?