Agemen

Ibuki using Agemen.

The Agemen (揚面, Agemen^?) is one of Ibuki's unique attacks, introduced in Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike.

Input

All appearances	+

Description

Executed by pressing back and Medium Punch, Ibuki performs an upward palm thrust that hits almost vertically above her.

Tactics

Street Fighter IV

Ibuki using Agemen in SFIV.

This attack is Ibuki's standard and most consistent Anti Air attack. The first hit of this attack is a Juggle that can also be Special Canceled while the second Air Resets the opponent.

While this attack is serviceable, it reflects Ibuki's nature of a fast multi hitting but low damage character, meaning not much damage will be done without a follow up. A popular option is to cancel the first hit when catching an aerial opponent with light kick Kasumi Gake, this allows Ibuki to juggle her opponent for even higher damage if she didn't perform a follow up. Some advanced Ibuki players with high amount of execution to jump cancel such attacks as her close hard kick into another Command Dash to attempt a Reset Cross-up with her crouching hard punch, an attack that an be jump canceled.

Ibuki players should experiment with the hitbox of this attack in Training Mode, as while serviceable it can lose to dominant Jump in attacks from characters such as Vega. This attack can also be baited and punished by some aerial stall tactics such as Dive Kicks, though she has some other anti airs that can help here.

Street Fighter X Tekken

Ibuki ruining Ling Xiaoyu's neutral jump attempt in Street Fighter X Tekken.

In Street Fighter X Tekken the attack has upper body invincibility from frames 1-11, making it even more effective as an anti air. It also gains some side use such as avoiding high Tiger Shots from Sagat. Additionally, as how Juggling works, the first hit does not have to be canceled to get a juggle compared to the main series.This means that it gains even more versatility, and can even be used to set up Safe Jumps off a successful anti air. This is generally considered to be one of the best anti airs in the game, especially for the Street Fighter Cast. It should be noted that while some characters like Law and Asuka got fully jump in immune anti airs, Ibuki's Agemen gives her upper body immunity to any Hitbox type. This means she can beat some attacks such as Cammy's infamous standing Jab pressure with Agemen (though she has other attacks that work as a Low Profile and works better with Ibuki's unique Cross Rush Target Combo interaction). In comparison to aforementioned characters their anti airs do not help them with grounded hitboxes of any kind. Agemen can actually juggle the startup of Tekken anti airs like Law's for a full juggle combo, Agemen beats Craig Marduk's LP and EX Gator Slam, and it is faster than Nina's LP Geiser Kick. If Ibuki gets a counter hit with the second hit her opponent will still be juggled.

Agemen's upper body invincibility on display.

Ibuki's upper body immunity can help anti air attacks that her IV incarnations would have struggled with. A useful tactic is that Agemen allows Ibuki to punish most of the cast neutral jumping away from her throw attempt aside from characters that have some attacks that can catch Ibuki at her throw frames such as no Height Restriction dive kick characters such as Cammy and Lili. It should be noted that Agemen doesn't catch extended hurtboxes well meaning that some attacks that have very low reaching hitboxes when on the air such as Marduk's jumping hard punch and Jack-X's jumping hard kick can simply hit Ibuki even through her upper body invincibility. 

Street Fighter V

Agemen's anti-air properties on display against Cammy.

This attack is one of four of Ibuki's anti air attacks and arguably the most reliable. It doesn't have the upper body invincibility of X Tekken anymore. This incarnation acts more like her IV incarnation of the attack, however, combos after the command dash cancel are more limited due to Ibuki losing her jump/super jump cancels alongside with Ibuki losing the close Proximity Attack version of her standing hard kick limiting Ibuki to a Raida, single hitting Kazekiri, or Critical Art as a follow up. This attack can lose to dominant jump ins, in these cases either Light Kick Kazekiri or at the proper spacing her standing hard kick might be better anti airs against characters such as Abigail. It should be noted that the horziontal hitbox of this attack has been nerfed, meaning the range of this attack in an anti air context is almost exclusively just above her head (a little above than how high her ponytails reach above her head), any jump ins further away may be better dealt with by her standing hard kick.

Ibuki's standard Agemen juggle.

The second hit air resets like the IV incarnation, in this game Ibuki overall is infamous for her reset ability so the second hit was made unchangeable (meaning only the first hit could be canceled) as the second hit air resets the opponent. Despite the nerf the second hit of Agemen is still part of reset combos in sequences including Kunai (EX) or any of her V-Triggers.It can also be part of reset combos in the Corner after EX Kunai.

Trivia

• Street Fighter V was the first time that the second hit of this attack could be special canceled. This property was removed in season 3 of the game.
• Ibuki's official Universus card sees her performing Agemen as her official pose.

Gallery

Agemen

Agemen starting a juggle for Ibuki against Cammy

Ibuki punishing Makoto with Agemen in 3D Battle.

Ibuki utilizing a Side Switch with Agemen's special cancel properties.

Ibuki's official card in Universus. Notice the similarities to Agemen.