"Hitomi's neutral is bad"
Well, might be a little out of context, but I kinda agree with you on the part of Hitomi's neutral (up close game) is among the worst (depending heavily on who you face I must add). Also she is greatly dependent on lagg and reaction time. Because of this I've (since the nerf to the 236ks) started using her more later into tournaments, or against people who I for different reasons know have been at it for a while. People with much lagg or excellent reaction time (/ fresh and focused mind not drained of endurance from playing long,) they will have an easier time reacting to some of Hitomi's moves.
When this is said Hitomi shines more than anyone once she gets on frame advantage. Sure getting into that frame advantage can be difficult and you can only fool them with 8pp2k => 7pp so many times before they know it is a low with +12 on hit into deep stun. However I'd still argue that you can, if playing it right, keep the frame advantage through the game, never allowing a reset and always having the odds in your favor.
It is kinda ironic, but Hitomi is easy to begin with and presented as such, but becomes very difficult to use at higher levels. Not in executing, but more in the mind games. You need to know not only the frames of yourself, but also your opponent. What works against Hayate, doesn't work against Christie, the fine line of 1 frame will very often determine if you get the hit or get hit (or forced back into neutral). 6T and 9H are very deadly tools that put Hitomi on frame advantage, and even if they do not do much damage on their own they force a continued barrage of never ending hits putting the opponent on their heels. From experience (and math) every resetpoint and none guarantee will have 66% chance of you coming out on top or more, and if they guess wrong the damage of that string will turn into a counter hit or high-counter throw.
But enough of that, I don't want to give a massive text of death here, but in general I agree that her neutral game is bad and you can't play it as most other characters.
Quick pointers.
- Hitomi is good all around, so you can use spacing against CQC opponents and CQC against spacing opponents.
- Overall Hitomi's best approach would be to use (mid) range to get frame advantage / deep stun, and then continue in CQC.
- Most close range characters use p and mid p a lot and can force CQC (Christie, Kasumi, Pai, Kokoro, etc). This is when punch parry becomes important. This is because if they use anything else your own p and mids will beat them out in speed (or damage at equal frames). The nature of the setup just makes it so. If you get frame advantage you are better in CQC than any other character on the board.
-You must be able to time delay and back to block timers. This way your free cancels into 6T will catch both a fall back to block and a hold, at the same time not denying yourself the possibility to continue p or ks. If you throw too early you'll miss the throw all together. If you don't do it on the right moves/scenarios then the opponent will know the odds are in his/hers favor when counter attacking.
-There is a lot of mind games with this character. If you are smart you'd win a lot just on rock paper scissors lizard spock.
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