Dead or Alive Warzone: Blogs - Hitomi vs Kasumi

Date: November 21st, 2010

Finally!

Four months later, and only now do I actually have the time to do a new blog! Fantastic! Only... this isn't actually a write up I wanted to do though I say that in a positive manner. Last August we saw Hitomi and Tina square off against one another and I was hoping to share some opinion pieces on other characters. It doesn't look like this is going to be the case. I've received several suggestions for further match ups should be analyzed next and they were all very cool. Unfortunately, I can only do one at a time and believe it or not, I do put quite a bit of thought into these.

Which leads me to my next announcement. For the next little while I am honored to have the privilege to be able to share the opinions of Mephy, another
frequent visitor on the site. The two of us will be making predictions on who we think the better competitor is, then having the game see who is more
accurate. Now you won't need to listen to me broadcasting my opinion to me like some pompous jerk, whoo hoo!

As I mentioned earlier, we're going to be seeing a character in back to back action, and that individual will be Hitomi. This time, she'll be matched
against none other than the Runaway Shinobi, Kasumi Chan. Unlike Tina, Hitomi and Kasumi will likely never engage in combat in the DOA Universe due to
their more or less separate story lines. In that regard, this makes this fight difficult to interpret and predict. Anyways, let's begin:

Mephy: Hello there. I’m pleased to join the good Jim Vengence in this little analysis. For the record, I think your enjoyment will be increased significantly if you imagine us as casual commentators in a WWF match. The cheesier and more pompous the better I think. Enough talk, let’s get down to business!

Strength
Though of a similar stature, Hitomi and Kasumi are very different in this category. Let's not assume that because Hitomi is widely considered one of the strongest female characters that she is just given the advantage here. It would be difficult to make an argument that Kasumi's punching power is greater than Hitomi, but on the flipside one cannot overlook Kasumi's lower body strength. Many of times Kasumi is seen using her powerful legs to toss her opponents around. In fact, Kasumi uses her legs and lower body incomparably more than Hitomi and boasts a much vaster and impressive move set in that regard. Not to down-play Hitomi's kicks, but she rarely seems to use her feet and legs for anything more than striking. Perhaps the greatest downfall for Hitomi is her lack of impressive moves. Her move set is very dangerous, but up against the flashy Kasumi she seems to pale in comparison. Let's not mistake style for substance here. Hitomi, at 5'3 108 pounds is very similarly sized to Kasumi, who comes in at 5'2, 106 pounds, rendering any size advantage moot. While Kasumi has the flash and lower body advantage, Hitomi all around seems to be more competent with her strength. Her punching strength is unquestionably better than Kasumi's would be, and her assortment of knee's and strikes would give her the advantage in this field.

Mephy: Good point there Jim. Most important is how both fighters use their strength, if both are comparatively strong. Kasumi is the quicker of the two, no question, and her moves in general seem focus more on stunning or knocking down her opponent than truly hurting them. Her throws and kicks also tend to knock down rather than back. Hitomi by comparison strikes hard, plowing people away from her as well as throwing them to the ground or stunning them. To me this indicates that she has greater overall strength. Kasumi might be better focused, better able to deliver hurt to her enemies, but I think Hitomi’s strength is higher overall, albeit perhaps less focused. Kasumi cuts with her hands, Hitomi bludgeons.

Winner: Hitomi

Agility/Speed
Unfortunately for Hitomi, or nearly any other competitor, being matched up against Kasumi in this category is likely going to end poorly. Hitomi's not slow by any means. In fact, she's probably one of the quicker fighters with a few exceptions. It's just that Kasumi is really, really, really quick.
Really quick. Like, zoom zoom quick. Not to mention her teleports and incredible jumping abilities make Kasumi one of the trickiest characters to generate any offence against. Even Kasumi's jabs, albeit less powerful then Hitomi's, are considerably quicker. Hitomi would struggle to keep pace with the ninjette, and without a double loses out in this category.

Mephy: Not much to say here. Here’s where Kasumi shines. Hitomi may be quick, sure, but Kasumi is a beast. She is fast, and seemingly precise as well. Her chops, as mentioned above, seem more focused. Throw teleportation and crazy acrobatics into the equation and there's no contest at all: Kasumi is able to back-flip circles around Hitomi.

Winner: Kasumi

Technique
I've said it before - Ninja's do not get a free 'awesome' pass with me. They need to earn it. Kasumi, who won the first DOA tournament, is likely a tough competitor and very technically sound. Hitomi, on the other hand, has finished third in the DOA3 tournament, which had a tougher field. So the
question is, who is better? I'd argue that Hitomi, spending many years practicing her karate ability, is quite established in her art form. Kasumi has been on the run for many years, which may be a more brutal training regiment than what Hitomi went through. Though this is likely the toughest one to
call, I would give Hitomi a slight advantage here. A lot of Kasumi's moves may look cool, but could potentially be exposed by the more conservative Hitomi. It seems like Kasumi is all about high risk, high reward, and if Hitomi can adapt to Kasumi's style, would be my favorite to win this match up.

Mephy: Now here is where Jim and I disagree somewhat. Kasumi does not get a free pass, no, but the fact that she is a ninja, living in an isolated (seemingly so) ninja village, should be considered. Certainly Kasumi has been on the run for some time, perhaps a year or two at most, depending on how much time takes place between DOA and DOA4. Brutal training regimen indeed. But that’s already on top of the fact that she’s been trained by isolationist ninjas for her entire life. I would argue that if Kasumi wasn’t more skilled than Hitomi before she was exiled, she may well be more skilled now. Hitomi is a good fighter, placing third in a world wide fighting tournament will attest to that, but I’m not convinced that her technique is better than Kasumi’s. However, we should also remember that when fighting for her life against people that want to kill her, Kasumi employs her full bag of ninja tricks – such as her weapons. It is entirely possible that in the arena Hitomi is the better unarmed fighter. Kasumi seems to have been taught how to kill people in a fight. Hitomi seems to have been taught how to fight. Now, while obviously you can fight and kill a person without a weapon, this emphasis may be the deciding factor. Kasumi might be better versed in using a blade and her legs, which would explain the comparative weakness of her upper body.
On the whole, I give this to Kasumi, though with the caveat that it may be that Kasumi's better overall, but not unarmed.

From an exclusively character point of view however, there’s another factor which should be considered: stamina. Which of the two characters can just take more punishment? Given that Kasumi seems to have more practice in acrobatic moves, jumping and flipping as she does, I’d imagine she uses them regularly. To me that implies she might need to do that. Hitomi by contrast tends to fight close and personal. Her range is shorter, mostly relying on her arms as she does, and doesn’t shy away from crushing an opponent into the ground and following them to the ground. I’d imagine a fighting style like that would require a bit more toughness, placing a greater focus on stamina. After all, though you’re close to your enemy and can grab them, they can grab you too. You've got to be prepared for that, and if not, be prepared to get back up if you need to.

I’m guessing that Hitomi and Kasumi will be fairly matched – with Kasumi’s speed helping her out against Hitomi about as often as Hitomi’s crushing strikes are able to wear the ninja down.

Winner: Draw

Prediction
While I could ramble about strength and agility and all those wonderful attributes, ultimately no one knows better than the game who would win in a show down. This fountain of information would be critical when determining which fighter would come ahead in an all out brawl. To get an accurate result, I chose to do ten, first to 1000 damage watch mode matches. Before I did, I chose to make a prediction based on my earlier opinions to see how well I did compared to what the game suggests. Here are the results:

VJ's Prediction: Hitomi wins (Six out of Ten matches)

DOA4 Says...

DOA4 Suggests:: Hitomi wins (Seven out of Ten matches)

Closing Thoughts
Very interesting. I have to wonder which one was the fluke. Was it Hitomi's early success against Kasumi, or was it Kasumi's one sided affairs that were the abnormal event. I dare say that if I were to rerun these tests, the results could be vastly different. Also, could the level have had an impact on the result? Kasumi seemed to do extremely well on the Ninja Hideout level. How impactful were these choices? There are a lot of variables in this match, that may be worth re-investigating down the road. But for now, it would appear as if Hitomi would pull off the 'upset' and take down the Ninja.

Mephy: Interesting indeed. I was quite wrong here it seems. I’d have thought the fights would be more 50/50 than this. Maybe the results would be different if tried again, but the numbers this time around do not lie. Maybe it’s the toughness of Hitomi shinning through? It is interesting to note that while Hitomi wins out more often, she wins by a narrower margin. Kasumi’s victories, all three of them, are much more one sided. Perhaps in these cases Kasumi’s speed and agility came more into play.

Verdict: Hitomi wins (Six and a Half out of Ten matches)

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