Karin I think is in a really good spot balance wise. She might be a bit on the strong side, but some of that is just because she is a “complete” character.
She has functional buttons for different situations, she can move, she has some defensive options. I’d say she is actually a pretty good baseline for the most part.
Ibuki I don’t think is really that far off. She probably only need a light touch.
I fear for young zeku getting nerfed in 4.5 (but they’ll probably compensate us by buffing old zeku). Momochi making him look op is the problem, because literally no one else would have the same success, unsung is the second best zeku and he doesnt crack top 8. I’m somewhat glad he used Kolin in the Evo Japan finals and lost to Punk. But on the positive end not many people been complaining about zeku, capcom notices and responds to community angst over characters. Just look at cammy in s3.
putting menat near top/S tier seems silly to me. she has good matchups still but most of her good matchups aren’t vs other top tiers and that’s a big problem. rashid, zeku, bison, ibuki, kolin, akuma, all bad. karin and birdie are the only matchups vs a top tier that could be argued to be even or in her favor.
either a character kit is solid or they are solid as far as competitive play (or both). Mika kit is not solid (better than alexs but still not solid) because but she is a decent pick for competitive play.
My whole point was that alex wasn’t solid (his kit) nor was he solid as far as competitive play and reducing his VT steam rolling and buffing him to make him more solid was the way to go, and while they are at it they might as well do the same for mika because she isn’t solid either.
Then people were like WTF mika is very solid! look at fudo, luffy and du… only one of which plays the character as a main to this day.