The basics of Kanzuki-Ryu: Karin Beginners Guide

Street Fighter V Karin
1

Karin introduction guide
There was a need for a comprehensive written guide for Karin, and I had nothing better to do, so I decided to write one. The goal of this is primarily to give new Karin players an idea of how her tools work, what her gameplan is and how to apply these things in a match, rather than focusing on her most technical combos and match-up specifics.

Glossary

LK/MK/HK:
Light kick/medium kick/heavy kick

LP/MP/HP
Light punch/medium punch/heavy punch

Normal preceded by:
s: standing
c: crouching
f: forward direction
b: backwards direction
j: jumping

JFT:
Just-frame Tenko

QCF/QCB
Quarter circle forward / quarter circle backwards

Why play Karin?
In short, very few characters get rewarded as well as Karin for fundamentally sound play. She has all the basic tools you’d want in a character: good walk speed and overall mobility, excellent ground normals, one of the strongest frame trap games in SFV, good throw range, consistent damage from very many situations, has tools that allow her to make comebacks, and some useful (but unsafe) gimmicks on top of all of this. There’s nothing that truly screams “stupid” about her, however, and she has some weaknesses you’ll need to learn to live with, most notably her difficult anti air-game. She’s a character that make you better at fundamental decision making as you get better with her. If that sounds even remotely interesting, you should give her a go. She’s a relatively straightforward, yet fun and rewarding character.

Toolset: Normals
The backbone of Karin’s toolset. Almost all of them are useful in some way, and most of them are really good in more than one way, so make sure to familiarize yourself with them.

s.LP
Standard 4 frame standing jab. Works in certain up-close pressure strings since it combos into c.MP and s.MP on counter-hit. It’s most prominent use, however, is as an anti-air, as it can swat people out of the air from a lot of angles and let Karin pressure them as they land.

s.MP
Poke at hits roughly at chest height. Most notably used as part of the very standard string of c.MP - s.MP, which doubles both as a hit-confirm and a very good frame trap. Only +4 on regular hit, so it doesn’t combo into medium attacks without a counter-hit. Canceling s.MP into orochi is a common string that can also function as a frame trap (more on this later). Also single-hit confirmable, and useful as a counterpoke. You’ll be using this move quite a bit.

s.HP
One of Karin’s best anti-airs, though not one without its problems. It has blindspots, and the hitbox used for AAing is only active for a single frame, so the move can be somewhat difficult to time, and it tends to trade a lot. Still, on a clean AA hit you can cancel it into Seppo and get in on your opponents, or even cross under them, and it’s one of her most important buttons in this regard.
Aside from being an AA, this button is still very good. It’s an excellent counterpoke in a lot of situations, as well as her most damaging cancelable normal. s.HP xx Seppo and then confirming into Orochi on block or Tenko on hit is also a common use (or just going straight into orochi if you’re unsure).

s.LK
Despite not looking like much, this little shin kick is one of the best normals in the entire game. It’s very fast, has an excellent hitbox, is +3 on block (!!), combos into itself on regular hit and into c.MP/c.MK/s.MP on counter-hit, and will combo into any of Karins relevant combo enders (JFT, HK Mujin, EX Orochi, Guren Ken). As such, it’s an excellent pressure/tick throw tool up close, and a very good pre-emptive button to throw out from certain spacings. It’s not completely obvious how to use the normal, but once you understand how to apply it, it will do huge work for you.

s.MK
Karin stretches out her leg and shows these classless plebs how real footwear is supposed to look like. And boy does it work. s.MK is a low risk, low reward poke that controls the mid-range game in excellent fashion. Good hitbox and speed, difficult to whiff punish, 0 on block, and just an overall nuisance. Its only real weakness is that the move isn’t cancelable and doesn’t lead into anything, but that’s a small price to pay for showing these bums that a proper Kanzuki has both superior elegance and normals. It will win games almost by itself applied properly. Use it.

s.HK
Karin’s infamous crush counter, which has started many a comeback seemingly out of nowhere. s.HK VTC can and will steal games for you: on crush counter you get a huge combo and whatever mixup you want afterwards; on regular hit you get a combo into rekkas from any range (a full combo if they’re close enough for s.HP to connect); on block you’re plus a billion, and they’re forced to take a safe low/throw/shimmy-mixup.
Even without the VTC, s.HK is still a good poke. It’s not the most rewarding CCH-normal depending on spacing, but it’s safe on block and still usually gives you at least an uncharged V-skill on CCH (which amounts to almost half a VT-bar). Has some recovery, so make sure not to whiff it.

c.LP
3-frame jab, which is very good on virtue of being a 3-frame jab. Good for interrupting pressure, and as part of certain frame traps. Chainable, combos into s.MP/c.MP on counter-hit, and JFT/LK Mujin on regular hit. Quite useful.

c.MP
Karin’s primary pressure/hit confirm tool. Is annoyingly stubby, but is +2 on block and +6 on regular hit, so it produces a lot of useful frame traps and can easily be followed up with s.MP or c.MK to confirm into a combo. Not much more to say, you’ll be using this a lot as well.

c.HP
Karin’s not-so-infamous crush counter, on virtue of it giving worse reward on CCH than on regular hit and just being overshadowed by most of her other moves in terms of pressure. It is, however, Karin’s best anti-air from certain jump angles, and should thus be used if your opponent is silly enough to jump at you from those spacings. You can also frame trap with it from s.LK, but she’s got better options here. c.HP has its place, but you’d be wise to know when to use it.

c.LK
4-frame low that doesn’t combo into any other normal. Mostly used for empty jump-setups as it can be safely canceled into Guren Ken or EX Mujinkyaku, but not a mainstay normal by any means.

c.MK
Far reaching, cancelable low. Used as part of hit-confirms, frame traps, to catch dash attempts, to condition people to block low during your pressure… you name it. It has an extended cancel window which allows it to be single hit-confirmed into JFT or super as well. HK Mujinkyaku and Guren Ken combos from this from any spacing, while JFT and EX Mujin won’t work at the tip.

c.HK
First, there’s a misconception I want to clear up: *this sweep is never safe at any spacing or in any matchup, and the only reason people are getting away with it is because people haven’t practiced their punishes. *
(If you’re not playing Karin, please disregard the sentence above so that I can keep getting away with max range sweeps.)

Ahem.

That out of the way, this is still one of the best sweep in the game. Very good range and speed makes it an excellent whiff punisher, or as a tool to make people stop standing up. On crush counter, instantly following with HK Seppo and neutral jumping gives you a 4 frame safe-jump. In theory, this move is always unsafe, as said before, but it’s often worth testing if your opponent actually understands how to punish it properly from max range. If they don’t, abuse the fuck out of this. And even if they do, the move is worth using, though primarily as a whiff punisher.

j.LP
Useful as an air-to-air, and not much else.

j.MP
Basically j.LP, but slower startup and more damage. Has an excellent hitbox for air-to-airs, so it’s situationally very good.

j.HP
Also a viable air-to-air and even jump-in, but the move is mostly overshadowed in both repsects and thus rarely used.

j.LK
Crosses up, but mostly overshadowed by j.MK. Can air-to-air as well, since it starts up fast and has a good hitbox.

j.MK
Huge horizontal range, making it good for both jump-ins and air-to-airs. Also functions as a very good cross-up. Probably the best jumping normal Karin has.

j.HK
Solid jump-in. Doesn’t cross up, but has more hit-/block-stun and a better hitbox than j.MK. And more damage, of course. Quite useful.

V-skill: Mei-o Ken
Karin takes a step forward and does a long ranged palm strike. There are two versions of this move: a charged and an uncharged version. The uncharged version is faster, but -5 on block, while the charged version is completely safe, does more damage and has an excellent hitbox. Both versions knock down on hit. The move grants V-gauge on both block and hit, so its slow startup aside it’s a move you want to use whenever you have the opportunity, the charged version in particular. As mentioned, it’s also excellent as a stand-alone poke, which just further increases its usefulness.

The move also has an interesting property: it has a projectile hitbox in addition to its regular hitbox. While most V-skills have anti-fireball properties, this one fills this function by nullifying the fireball with a hitbox of its own: a hitbox that, to my knowledge, will never hit players. Not a huge deal since this move isn’t particularly good as an anti-fireball tool. Use it for what it is instead: a really good poke, and in certain cases a combo ender.

f.MK - overhead
I almost forgot about this normal while writing the list. It’s an overhead, and not a very good one. It has okay range and some low evasion properties, but it’s fairly slow, doesn’t do much damage and is unsafe on block. Most of my uses of this move has been by accident when I’m walking forward and want to use s.MK. It’s still an overhead though, and useful as a round finisher or something to mix into your offense every once in a while by virtue of that alone, but it’s not great.

Throws
Karin has above average throw range and good walkspeed, which makes her throw game very strong. Furthermore, her frame traps and shimmies lead into big combos, making it very scary to try to tech against a good Karin. However, as good as she is at setting up throws, her throws usually aren’t very rewarding to land. Her forward throw sends the opponent across the screen while leaving you at +4 if they quickrise, resetting the situation to neutral: in fact, a lot of characters can straight up punish you if you try to dash/Seppo after a mid-screen forward throw. Her backthrow leaves them close, but quickrising leaves Karin at a slight frame disadvantage, so there won’t be any immediate pressure afterwards. Considering how much damage Karin gets from frame traps or shimmy punishes, and how dangerous her post-combo oki can be, it’s often considered better to just take a throw than trying to tech against Karin unless she’s very predictable.
This changes in the corner, however. Her forward throw leaves her at +4, so quick rising lets her get free meaties, and not quick rising… well, still free meaties. This makes her basic corner mixup extremely scary to face.

2

Specials
Even though her normals make up the meat of her game, Karin still has a bunch of specials that range from “okay” to “extremely useful”.

Seppo (qcf+K)
Without any doubt, Seppo and its follow up is the most important special move Karin has. Seppo is a command dash with two possible follow ups: Tenko and Orochi. Before we get into those, let’s talk about the command dash itself. The button you press determines the distance and duration of the dash: LK has the shortest and fastest dash, HK has the longest and furthest. Even though even the LK version is significantly slower than Karin’s regular dash, it can be canceled out of normals, and used to continue pressure or set up surprise throws: like with Ken and Laura, canceling normals into command dash isn’t actually safe, so make sure to only use it when you’re certain your opponent won’t press buttons. The dash also shrinks Karins hitbox, allowing her to low profile certain moves. Aside from the EX version, the follow-ups are identical regardless of which version of Seppo you used. You can cancel into the follow-ups at 4 different timings (instant, normal, delayed, late) which can be useful depending on the different follow ups.
The EX variation of Seppo goes extremely far extremely fast, is invincible to fireballs, and automatically gives you the EX version of any follow-up specials you’d want to use.

Tenko (qcf+K, P) / Just frame Tenko (qcf+K~P)
Tenko is a palm strike launcher that sends the opponent upwards and puts them in a juggle state, allowing you to follow up with the special of your choice. Combos from all medium and heavy normals. Unsafe on block. Regular Tenko would be decent on its own, but is almost never used because there’s a “secret” version of this move that’s strictly better 99% of the time. If you cancel Seppo into Tenko at the earliest cancel window, Karin will perform a different version of the move, known as Just frame Tenko (JFT). This version launches the opponent higher, does more damage, is slightly less unsafe on block (though still fully punishable by the entire cast), and comes out fast enough to combo from every single cancelable normal Karin has. This allows Karin to get a full juggle and post-combo oki from a huge multitude of situations. Executing JFT can be tricky at first (I’ll get back to how to do it later), but once you learn it, Karin truly takes off as a character.
EX Tenko has slightly more juggle points than even JFT, and does even more damage. It’s not a bad way to use a single bar, as it can also be used to extend juggles (i.e. JFT, LK Mujinkyaku, EX Tenko which is a very decent combo).

Orochi (qcf+K, d+P)
Karin twists around and does a shoulder strike. The regular version is safe on block (-2) and has very long effective range since it comes out of her command dash, making it something that’s worth throwing out in the neutral game on occasion. It’s also useful as a pressure tool, canceled from medium/heavy normals to finish a string safely and teach your opponent to not press button in that situation. It doesn’t give much on regular hit or counter-hit(+1 and +4 respectively), but it has the curious property that it has extremely long hitstun, which means that if a normal trades with it, you can often confirm that trade into a full combo afterwards. The move also has a low profile and can even go through fireballs in a few situations.
EX Orochi is unsafe on block, but does a lot of stun and puts the opponent into a crumple state, which can be followed up by specials for a combo. You can also do quite a few of gimmicky resets from this crumple state, but any opponent that knows the matchup is going to be able to block them, so I don’t recommend relying on those.

Ressenha (qcb+P)
The three regular versions of this is a long range jumping attack that hits overhead. Which button that was used determines the distance and start-up of the move, LP the lowest and shortest, HP the furthest and slowest. All versions are unsafe on block, though the HP version is safest at “only” -4. After landing, you can follow up by a slide that combos from ressenha naturally (d+K), or a flip grab that doesn’t combo, but evades a lot of moves (u+P).
Though these aren’t great, all of the moves have their respective uses. LP Ressenha is a decent combo ender on standing opponents, doing a lot of damage, giving you a knockdown and leaving you in their face afterwards. MP has a bunch of okizeme-setups attached to it, which allows you to hit the move meaty enough for it to be safe on block, and allows you to link a jab on hit (which leads to a full JFT-juggle). HP is probably the best version to jump over fireballs with, and though the move isn’t actually all that good at it, it does work on prediction/bait and is definitely something you want to do every once in a while against a predictable opponent.
While the regular versions of Ressenha are relatively unexciting, the EX verion is extremely good. It’s not an overhead like the other versions, but turns into an invincible uppercut. It’s one of Karin’s most reliable anti-airs, and forces people to respect her on defense a lot more since she can blow through their offense. It’s crush counter punishable on whiff/block, but that’s a minor complaint in the grand scheme of things.

Mujinkyaku (qcb+K)
Karin does two fast kicks and a follow up depending on the button. LK has no follow-up, MK does an overhead that looks identical to her f.MK-overhead (and is equally bad), HK does two additional spin kicks that combo naturally. All of these moves are unsafe and are mostly used in juggles or as combo enders. HK Mujinkyaku is a very decent combo ender regardless, so if you can’t do JFT yet, you could start with using this as your combo ender from mediums/heaviest first, though JFT is usually better by quite a margin.
EX Mujinkyaku is a criminally underused move in my opinion. It’s a fast, safe-on-block move that combos from all cancelable normals if done close enough, and it jumps over lows. You can throw it out in neutral every once in a while as a surprise move if you have spare meter. Its chief use is to cancel into from c.MK or c.LK to punish people for not respecting your low options, however, while still being safe if they do block low. Not a mainstay move, but definitely one that needs more love than it’s usually getting.

V-reversal
Quite standard V-reversal. Knocks down on hit, -2 on block. Grants a safejump against certain characters on hit. Karin builds V-gauge fast and only has a 2-bar VT, so you can be pretty liberal with your use of these. In fact, you probably should be pretty liberal with them: since Karin has so low health and her defensive options aren’t the best, you want to make sure your opponents don’t get their offense going.

V-trigger: Kanzuki-Ryu Guren no Kata
Probably the most complicated V-trigger in the game, Karin gets access to a new special move that has a staggering 7 follow-ups. It’s pretty difficult to assess how good the VT actually is, since each individual follow-up is fairly underwhelming on paper. However, with good knowledge of each option and your opponents’ defensive tendencies, you can still get very good mileage out of this VT. Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, the VTC itself gives Karin some nasty mixups when the opponent is stuck in blockstun. And, last but not least, it opens new combo- and okizeme options for Karin.
The main move you get access to is Guren Ken, a 2-hit rekka done with qcf+P. The rekka itself isn’t safe on block, and can be canceled into a number of follow-ups:

Guren Hosho (qcf+P, P): A palm strike that combos naturally and will counter-hit most attempts to punish you. Unsafe on block, however.
Guren Senha(qcf+P, u+P): It’s basically Ressenha. Unsafe on block, +4 on hit. Gimmicky, but useful for resets every now and then if you see your opponent blocking low constantly.
**Guren Chochu(qcf+P, d+P): **A delayed elbow strike. This move does not combo naturally, but it’s +1 on block and goes into full combos in counter-hit. It has a gap after the rekka that allows your opponent to interrupt the elbow if they use a 4-frame move before the elbow hits, however.
Guren Hochu(qcf+P, d+P, P): A gimmicky crossover that’s horribly unsafe and hits people way more often than it should. You’ll get killed if your opponent sees this coming. Use very, very sparingly.
Guren Kusabi(qcf+P, d+K / qcf+P, d+P, d+K): Similar to her slide post-Ressenha. Combos naturally from Guren Ken, counter-hits jabs after Guren Ken, and knocks your opponent down in front of you. Also has a version that comes out of Chochu, which is mostly useful in juggles. Unsafe on block.
**Guren Resshu(qcf+P, u+K): **It’s the same gimmicky flipgrab as in Ressenha. Avoids some moves, and can be used in some gimmicky resets during combos. Otherwise, not very useful if your opponent is paying attention.
Guren Kyoho(qcf+P, K): A backdash that leaves Karin negative, but far away. Only a handful of moves can actually punish Karin here, and almost all of said moves are supers. If you want to be safe, cancel into this. Consumes a truckload of V-meter, however.

Aside from Kyoho and Chochu, all of these follow-ups are fully punishable on block. Chocho, however, is +1 and gives you a free c.LP followed by with whatever you want, allowing you to continue offense. People need to pre-emptively mash jab to avoid this, but you can counter-hit that with Hosho or Kusabi. The risk-reward for going for this isn’t in your favor, but it’s worth doing every now and then if you want to cash out on your V-trigger. It’s also completely viable to just go for a string into Guren Ken, and Kyoho out if your opponent blocked.
Otherwise, Guren Ken is the most damaging combo ender post-JFT and post-EX Orochi, and is useful for that.

Critical Art: Kanzuki-Ryu Hadorokushiki Hasha no Kata
OHOHOHOHOHO~
Karin’s infamous super, where she one-inch punches her opponent so hard that reality bends around them, and then proceeds to laugh at the poor sod’s misfortune. Said infamy is actually somewhat undeserved, since you’d mostly only want to fire off her super when it guarantees you the round. The damage is average for a CA, it doesn’t add as much damage per meter as most of her other combo options, it does no stun, and it sends the opponent fullscreen (and out of the corner if you were in the corner) resetting any momentum she might have had. Of course, the trade-off is that combos into super are still her most damaging options, and Karin builds meter fast while she also has an extremely easy time comboing into super, making it an excellent round-ender.

3

Gameplan
Karin’s gameplan in most matchups is an old but good one: you want to shut down your opponent from executing their gameplan, while forcing them to make mistakes that you can capitalize on. Having good normals and good movement assists greatly in this: her walkspeed lets her dictate what spacings the match happens at, and combined with her excellent set of normals, she can get a lot of mileage out of standing back and using normals. Once the opponent starts hesitating, she’s can take advantage of that with her dash or Seppo, allowing her to get in for pressure or a throw.

Once Karin gets in on an opponent, she becomes really scary. While her offensive game is very basic, it’s also very strong in the right hands. Her standard hit-confirm string (c.MP - s.MP) doubles as a frame trap with a 3f gap, beating any attempt at using normals or teching during her strings. She also has other trap sequences to her disposal, which she can mix up between. Thanks to her decent throw range, good walkspeed and good range normals, she also has an excellent throw/shimmy game that can be used to open people up. Once she lands a solid hit, she can convert it into a full juggle with decent corner carry, and be right in her opponent’s face as soon as they wake up. Against opponents with no reversal, she can essentially ride the momentum from a single hit to stun or even death if she has a good read on their defensive habits.

What’s usually the biggest challenge for new Karin players is her anti-air game, which takes time to become proficient at. Unlike some characters, Karin has no catch-all anti-air. Which AA to use depends on matchup, jump spacing and jump timing, and you need experience to learn which AA to use when. Furthermore, Karin has a deadzone right behind her head that none of her grounded AAs will cover, where she has to resort to jump-back air-to-airs or walking / dashing under her opponent to get out. Her most important AAs are s.LP, s.HP and EX Ressenha, which answers most angles except for those that hit behind her head. Other situationally useful AAs are c.HP, JFT, and her air-to-air normals. In the end, good spacing and situational awareness are the most important aspects of her AA-game.

Basic combo theory
I’m not a big combo guy, and there have been made plenty of great posts about Karin combos already. Furthermore, Karin has some very open-ended combo options, so listing them all is going to take forever. What I will do here, however, is to give a couple of basic options to start with. Once you’re comfortable with these, I recommend exploring other options and working on optimization.
As mentioned previously, every cancelable normal can combo into JFT and Guren Ken, so I won’t mention individual combo starters for those, only the actual juggles.

Meterless

Spoiler

c.MP - c.MK - HK Mujinkyaku
Perhaps her easiest combo. HK Mujin has further range than JFT, so there are a few situations where this is your best option, too.

(c.MP) - s.MP - Orochi
Safe pressure-string, and useful as a frame trap. Low damage, but also low risk.

c.LP - c.LP - LK Mujinkyaku
Crap damage, though the Mujin can be cancelled into super. Comboing into JFT is vastly superior either way.

s.LK - s.LK - HK Mujinkyaku
Once again: JFT is better. But this isn’t actually a completely terrible combo, so it’s worth keeping in mind.

CCH s.HK - V-skill
The most reliable crush counter combo she has. Doesn’t combo from max range and isn’t the best damage, but gives a lot of V-meter.

CCH s.HK VTC - dash - s.HP xx (special of choice)
If you land s.HK VTC, this is what you want to do. JFT into Guren Ken is recommended.

** xx JFT**
> V-skill: Builds V-meter, lowest damage option
> LK Mujinkyaku: Easy to land, though spacing specific
> JFT: Easy to land, higher damage than LK Mujin
> Orochi: Difficult, but gives the best damage, stun and setups.
> c.LP (whiff) xx c.LP xx Seppo: Resets the opponent for a left-right mixup (corner only)
> Guren Ken > Elbow > Crossover: Easy to execute and decent damage. Be aware that this changes sides

1 bars

Spoiler

c.MP - s.MP xx EX Orochi - HK Mujinkyaku
Gives very good stun and corner carry for 1 meter.

xx JFT - JFT - EX Orochi (corner only)
Karin’s staple corner combo. Meter efficient, huge damage. Learn this.

xx JFT - LK Mujinkyaku - EX Tenko
Easy midscreen 1-bar combo. Decent damage, gives a lot of time to set up okizeme afterwards.

2 bars

Spoiler

(whatever) xx JFT - LK Mujinkyaku - EX Tenko - EX Orochi
Extremely difficult to execute, but definitely her best 2-bar combo.

(whatever) xx JFT - EX Tenko - dash - EX Orochi
Easier than the first, though slightly less optimal.

3 bars

[details=Spoiler]Combo into super, basically. Almost any of the 0-bar combos actually go straight into her CA. They are too many to list, so I’ll just go with the two most basic ones:

(whatever) xx JFT - LK Mujinkyaku - CA
Easy to execute, good burst damage. Note that you don’t cancel into the CA, you link it afterwards. The timing is extremely lenient, however.

(whatever) xx JFT - Guren Ken > Elbow > Crossover xx CA
Again, very easy. Once you’ve done the elbow, just mash the super to input it.
[/details]

Executing JFT
Executing JFT is usually the other big hurdle for new Karin players, AA-game aside. The move is done by cancelling into Karin’s command dash and then “instantly” cancelling that into a special, which can get tricky. It also means you can’t mash or double-tap the input by regular means, since the timing must be quite precise for the JFT to come out over regular tenko. And, finally, the buffer we usually see for specials doesn’t apply the same way for JFT, so you need to manually time the move depending on the cancel timing of the normal (which varies), which can be a bit tricky to learn.

The good news is that once you know what to do, it’s very easy to get JFT-combos down very reliably (as exemplified by the fact that I have shit execution and can do them 90%+ of the time). Since the type of button you press for the JFT is irrelevant as long as the input is qcf+K>P, you also don’t have to worry about which version of the special you get out as long as your timing is good, which can be used to make the special come out more reliably. There are multiple methods for inputting JFT, and once you’ve found one that works for you, you really only need to learn the cancel timing for each normal and you’ll be set for life. I’ll list some of the options I know of below:

Pianoing: Originally a method for getting mash moves out in CvS2/SF4, a version of this can also be applied to JFT. The trick is to hit the buttons sequentially like piano keys. You can do this in multiple ways: my preferred method is to hit the LK-button with my index finger, and right after hit LP and MP with my middle- and ring fingers, respectively. I also know someone who hits HK with their pinky, then HP ~ MP ~ LP with ring, middle and index. Gives you a lot of chances to hit the input.
Plinking: Originally used in SF4 for tricking the game into giving you a second input for a normal, making those pesky 1-frame links more manageable. If you’ve played that, you probably know what to do. You hit one kick button with one finger, and a punch button just afterwards. Doesn’t give as many chances for the input, but I know several players who prefers this technique to pianoing.
Sliding: Another old method for mash moves. Simply input the pick button of your choice and, while holding the button down, slide your finger rapidly over the punch button(s).

Demonstration of both sliding and pianoing. Again, it was originally for SF4 E.Honda Hundred-hand slap, but these methods are applicable to JFT as well.

Sadly I am unable to give any tips in regards to executing JFT on pad, as I don’t use it myself.

Useful sources / posts:
To be added

Karin players to watch:
Justin Wong
Mago
Romance
Packz
Ricki Ortiz

4

Reserved, I might need this space later.

5

Reserved #2

6

aaaaand reserved #3. Just in case.

7

Thank you for the guide. I presume it still mostly relevant in s2?

8

I don’t play SFV anymore, but I balance changes aside (j.MP floating, s.MK being nerfed, etc) she still plays more or less the same, to my knowledge. So yes, I’d imagine this still counts.

Also Punk should obviously be added to “notable players”.