From looking at sf5sim Kage’s cr hp has a glaring hurtbox in the first two frames (9-10), whereas it’s very strong in the later frames. So you want it to hit early or you’ll trade. Akuma’s b hp is easily better because it does more damage, starts in 6 frames, you get corner carry and knockdown. Kage’s anti air options is probably one of the better ones in the game. A good player wont let you jump in on him anyway, so it’s more skill and spacing dependant than down to character’s anti air toolset.
As for tk fireball, i wouldnt do that much especially if your in range of the opponents normals. The fireball only hits grounded opponents. The fireball wont clip you even if your standing, so it’s mostly for anti air purposes. You leave yourself open to a poke and slide. You wanna throw that out there to warn the opponent not to jump. Btw tk fireball is also good for evading fireballs.
Yeah I understand that. I know a lot of people have (valid) complaints about how designers are clearly way more into controlling how the game plays, but I think one of the benefits of that is modern fighters will have bad chars that are no where near like a “bad” char in, say, even a late 00’s fighter.
Dan and DJ in USF4 are bad, but they take a runny dump on like idk Alpha 3 Mika and CvS2 King, who barely function.
