So it’s actually pretty easy to do a standing u2 by buffering the first up in a jab or st.lk. After you press lp, hit up right after, almost like a plink and then up + kkk. If your timing is right you’ll never leave the ground. You need to hit the second up and kkk at the exact same time. It’s very easy to do after a little practice and once you’ve got it down you can buffer it during a match without thinking too much about it. It is definitely much harder to do in a match on reaction but I find it a little easier than using cr.mk xx u1 for aa.
It will wiff on some characters and seems to work better on larger characters. I successfully landed this in a match on honda and hugo jump-in attacks but in training it wiffed on ryus j.hk. (edit, will hit ryu if jumps from far away)
Edit: This works great vs evil ryus command dive kick. Just do it when you see his jump arc change. After some more testing it seems you can catch most jump-ins but it’s distance dependant. I tried it on Dudley and it’ll catch all his jump-ins that are out of sweep range. If you do it at the apex of the jump or slightly after it will always get him but if he’s too close he’ll cross you up. Same thing when I tried it on evil ryus j.hk, apex or slightly later of apex it lands, do it to late and it can wiff, to close and he’ll go over you, dive kick is the only exception and timing isn’t as strict. You have enough time to see him start the dive to react. Tested this on Yuns dive kick and it will catch him pretty easily. I didn’t try all his dives, just mk from various ranges and it landed every time unless he was real close. You can catch adons jaguar tooth easily but if he does a fake one you waste an ultra. You can catch cammys air spikes, regular and ex, sakuras air tatsu (very easy to do). Hugo’s jump in attacks are very easy to catch and you can catch him wiffing the clapping hands. Aside from knocking zangeif out of jumps, you can also punish lariat from a decent distance but if he does it after a fireball he can recover in time to block. Also works on Seth’s off the wall kick and dive kick, pretty easy to do but practice the timing in training, it needs to be done a little late. Bison and Rose are easy to hit since they have high, slow jumps.
This can punish empty forward and neutral jumps. tested it on evil ryu, zangeif, adon, elena, cammy, sakura, hugo and ryu. The trick is to input it on the way up before they reach apex, basically as soon as you see them jump. You have to wait a little longer for characters with high jump arcs like elena and sakura. I was able to hit elena out of a empty jump from 3/4 away and this basically destroys all sakuras far jumps, especially air tatsu. Since u2 has far range and move akuma forward a little, you can hit ryu and evil ryu out of empty jumps that would normally be pretty safe since they are outside dp/crouch hp range and safe from sweep since it’s empty. This is so easy to land against Goukens df kicks, it really shuts down a lot of his air game. I’ve tried it twice in 2 different matches and both landed. He stays in the air so long that it’s very easy to react to.
I had a very hard time getting this to land on juri and cody(edit- cody is actually pretty easy, see video below). You can catch juri’s full screen air dive kick but timing is tight so it’s not worth it. I found it almost impossible to catch both of their empty jumps. It’s possible but timing is so strict I wouldn’t even attempt it.
I put it up on my Facebook and posted your tech in dark hado Facebook group. Hopefully it gets spread around. In regards to performing the standing U2. It’s a bit difficult so far so I need time with it. But it makes a great reaction ultra for all sorts of things. It’s the best used as an anti-air though because raw U2 doesn’t have a good lower hit box if any at all. But the damage is excellent brining U2 at a much higher utility. If mastered if can definitely strength Akuma’s placing.