Honestly, I am sick of this damn matchup. Her kunai seems to be beating everything I throw at her. Any help?
Block the kunai, try to read if she goes for it or not etc. Vortex is vortex dude, sometimes its guesses sometimes its good reads. Also, try not to get knocked down.
don’t try to ultra 1 through a kunai 
MU phucking suxx.
Actually I was going to say the opposite. Some kunais like the full screen one can be punished with U1, the kunai have a lenghtly recovery after landing and U1 will go through it.
What’s the timing to do that? I finally got to play a long set with a solid Ibuki, and I remembered hearing that you can U1 kunais, but every time I tried it Honda just got hit out of the Ultra by the kunai. They aren’t counted as projectiles, and U1 is only projectile invincible (except at the very start). Also, does anybody have a link to that one video that shows how to punish Ibuki’s EX DP xx EX Kunai? I remember seeing it a long time ago, probably on these forums.
This sounds cheeky, but it’s actually good advice. I think you just have to accept that if you get knocked down, you have to win a coin flip to get out, so you just gotta work really hard to not let her get in on you. Get a life lead and commit to sitting on your ass. Do whatever it takes to stay away from her. In many matchups, I try to avoid using s.HP as a no-charge anti-air because it’ll probably just trade, and trade unfavourably if you get the 80 damage hitbox. But this is not one of those matches. Take anti-air trades all day.
Don’t do buttslams because the neckbreaker will punish those from anywhere and put you into the vortex. Don’t do MP/HP Headbutts when she has U2. Don’t do jump-ins because her b.MP (?) is crazy good and leads into a combo/mixup where she can cross you up to get rid of your charge. You just have to grind her out with nj.HP, headbutts, and s.MP to whiff-punish her stupid cr.MP spam.
The kunai have a hurtbox and any kind of attack will knock it down so it was either to fly under it or hit it.
I have not played in a long time to remember clearly which case it was.
I try hard not to get knocked down because her vortex is super confusing. I take note of the distances of her pokes, her slide and stuff and punish with standing FP, HK or MP and nj FP her jump ins. Though I remember I read in the Ibuki forums (I find that a great way to learn the matchup of other characters: use their “knowledge” of the matchup against them hahaha) they said LK buttslam escapes kunais so just watch out for the bait.
ok one thing to keep in mind is if your head hits the kunai it will beat it, the rest of your body won’t… it can be jabbed, etc, you just have to get the right hitbox. it has a hurtbox unlike most projectiles you need ot make sure you stay out of the hitbox.
if she is spamming kunais from 3/4 screen away, definitely ultra 1 her… i always do it. you will generally only see bad players do this, its acutally easiest to catch her during EX Kunai. you have to look for patterns, a lot of playesr will do a bunch in a row… again normally only bad players do it, good ones know better. full screen probably won’t hit unless you catch her on the way up and she still manages to get the input out.
another thing to keep in mind is you should stay ducking against kunai as its not an overhead. that way if you see her go for the overhead, you can buttslam her. watch for the crossup jump kick because sometimes ibukis will do it, but its a much shittier vortex and a lot easier to block although now you’ve lost your downcharge. ibuki’s won’t normally go for it and its obvious to see it coming as she will jump from a different spacing.
one last tip about this matchup; when she does the 3-kick move, you can FP Headbutt her in between the 2nd and 3rd kick… if you don’t you are basically wasting damage potential. i think you can actually ultra 1 it too but don’t quote me on that.