E. Honda

Edmond Honda is a powerful and aggressive brawler with a speciality in mid-range pressure. Honda's entire gameplan revolves around his signature sumo moves, burying opponents under a barrage of slaps, headbutts and ground slams until he's the only one left standing.

Honda's Standing Medium Punch (5MP) is one of the strongest buttons in the entire game. High damage, disjointed, long range, forward advancing, special cancellable, higholy rewarding on hit and even plus on block, this button forms much of the crux of his gameplan. He can use it from out of range of common pokes like crouching medium kicks to harass foes, drive rush into it to set up powerful strike/throw mix-ups from range, whiff punish and even set up his overhead/throw mix via his target combo. Extremely powerful and versatile, Honda is rarely disappointed to use this move.

Outside of 5MP, Honda also has a great set of brawling tools. In close range, Honda has strong normals and target combos. Crouching Heavy Punch (2HP) has even greater range than 5MP, is completely safe and with sumo spirit can convert into big combos. Honda can poke with crouching medium punch (2MP) and Harai Kick (6HK). At mid-range Honda can dissuade opponent's approach with Sumo Headbutt or close the distance with OD Teppo Triple Slap, getting him up close to the opponent and +3: enough to threaten a strike/throw mix-up. Oicho Throw (a damage-dealing command grab) and Sumo Smash (a combo finisher and anti-air that is plus on block) round out Honda's offense. Once he's gotten the hit, Honda is capable of dealing exceptional damage thanks to Taihou Cannon Lift, a launcher that allows him to follow up with any of his specials or supers, and if he has Sumo Spirit applied the mighty Hundred-Hand Slap becomes a powerful combo extender that turns unassuming stray hits into significant damage, or taking his big openings up over the top.

While Honda's offense is nothing short of devastating, it does have one major weakness: commitment. Unlike a lot of characters, Honda is all-in or all-out. He has poor movement speed, meaning his footsies can be somewhat lacking. He lacks a throw loop, and Oicho Throw resets him back to neutral on landing it. While Honda has great pokes, his Medium normals are notably either stubbier or slower than the majority of the cast, and he lacks a low to cancel into Drive Rush for demonstrating neutral control. Thus, Honda often has to play very patiently to get into his preferred position, so smart Honda players have to learn when to go ham and when to back off and be patient. Honda rewards both styles well, as any sumo should. If you love getting up close and personal and live for the feeling of landing a good headbutt or hand slap, there's no better Rikishi to show you the ropes than E. Honda.