Please, post! You're one of the best Hitomi players I've fought over the past few years, and I for one could definitely use some anti-Mila tips. Jefffcore more or less owned me with her the other day haha.
If anything it'll get some discussion going!
Jefffcore will know the Hitomi match up as well as I know the Mila one. We've played that match up almost exclusively for close to 10 hours now.
I had it all typed up, clicked submit, and then my laptop decided it was going to power off. There's an hour of my life I'm never getting back so here's a cheap and cheerful version.
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Hitomi vs Mila (pre-patch)
Honestly I think this is a a match up that is in Hitomi's favor, but you need to be careful as Mila feeds off of your mistakes. The biggest thing that you need to watch out for is Mila's SS-tackle. It beats out a lot of Hitomi's best pokes/approach tools (
,
,
) and can make approaching her a bit of a guessing game. Mila also has a mid-kick that can make running in and grabbing risky, but it generally loses to Hitomi's other approach options.
You need to respect her side-step, but not be afraid of it. Feigning in/out and playing strong footsies can generally get Mila to show you how she's going to react to your approaches. Bait out the kick or side-step and you can get on her and start your offensive game.
mix ups work very well for getting in, especially with the
which will track if Mila side-steps, however it's a bit inconsistent and very much dependent on timing.
Once you are in Hitomi's
and
(might be a bad habit from DOA4 but w/e) are very effective tools. Her 2p gives Hitomi +1 which makes it difficult for Mila to attack you and in generally is just good. I personally see situational value in
since it tracks Mila's sidestep, which can be very handy since Mila lives/dies by her SS in this match up. In general Mila will wait for you to start a string of linear attacks and try to SS tackle you. This makes attacks that track (
{use sparingly},
{punch will miss, kick will track}, strings with
, etc) invaluable. Forward grab is also a good tool for continuing pressure.
Just a warning - be careful about using unsafe lows. They're useful, but don't just spam the crap out of them. Mila can get a grab, which leads into guaranteed damage, which leads into her ground grapple.
IF Mila does side-step and tackle you, you have two options. One is to try and break the grab, and the other is to do nothing and take the damage. Unless you absolutely cannot afford to lose the life, I would highly recommend just taking the damage. Mila's low/mid jab mix up will beat out anything Hitomi can do, and if you try to counter out of it you run the risk of her grabbing you, getting a ton of guaranteed damage, and then essentially resetting you. The options you'll gain by not breaking the grab are worth the damage you take.
If you find you're struggling to get any sort of pressure on Mila, make her come to you. Hitomi can keep decent pressure in this match up, but that doesn't mean she should go charging in like a maniac. Most of Mila's good distance closers are mid-kicks, and in general, I find they aren't very good. The attack where she throws herself legs first (don't know the input) is safe so be wary of a follow up afterwords (side step, attack, etc). Otherwise, Mila struggles to rush-down Hitomi.
Here's a video of a ft3 between Jefffcore and myself. It was pre-patch, so I don't know how useful it is now. It might give you some ideas/tips. I didn't mention Hitomi's SS options because I don't find them especially useful in this match up.
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Hope that's a decent starting place anyways
