Blanka thought being best pals with Dan meant his dad was safe from getting killed by him.
He was wrong.
Blanka is a highly mobile character who relies on his variety of movement options and long range normals to keep up the pace in neutral, before using his unique specials to mix the opponent up.
Blanka's defining feature is undoubtedly his mobility. With a great dash and backdash, a very fast command dash, multiple movement based specials, and a double jump on top of it all, pinning Blanka down in neutral can be extremely difficult. This is aided by his own normals. His long range jabs are great for checking opponents offense, while his extremely long range mediums help to zone the opponent out. His heavies have a unique property where each of them have super armor, making normals like 2HP and 5HK extremely hard to contest. This armor property also applies to his air heavies, which makes him nearly impossible to consistently anti-air thanks to the infamously strong j.HK.
He backs this up with consistently high damage, with multiple ways to launch and juggle opponents in the air. Many of his combos will also end in a hard knockdown, since Blanka has such easy access to them through 4MP, which can set up nasty crossups or fake crossups, or more standard high/low. His specials play a key role in some of his setplay, as specials like Blanka Ball can hit as crossups, and Rainbow Ball can set up extremely ambiguous crossups as well.
Blanka ultimately relies on a mix of solid neutral and good setups to win. While he can often get away with being a "scrub check" thanks to his armored heavies and unique mobility, smarter opponents will recognize and punish his more gimmicky setups.
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Weaknesses
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- Movement: Blanka's movement is the backbone of his kit. All of his base mobility is above average, while also possessing a fast command dash that can be cancelled into, and the ability to double jump. Blanka can often feel somewhat ignorant with his movement, as covering every approach is extremely difficult.
- Normals: Long range mediums, fast and large lights, and universally armored heavies let Blanka bully characters with weaker normals. Normals like j.HK especially can feel impossible to deal with. Bullying the opponent with the sheer range and armored properties of his normals.
- Just A Bit Random: All of Blanka's specials allow him a bit of randomness. These land somewhere between real setups and gimmicks, with some being more real than others. Blanka can juggle a ton of these setups at a time though, and overwhelm an opponents mental stack easily.
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- Unorthodox: While Blanka's normals are strong, his movement and setups require a bit of creativity. Blanka feels very unique among the cast, and can be a bit difficult compared to more fundamental characters. His nature also lends to him being a bit more gimmicky: many of his setups have direct answers, and some character specific answers as well, meaning opponents who know Blanka's setups will be able to punish you hard.
- Unsafe Specials: Though his normals are amazing, without proper spacing, Blanka's specials are all unsafe in some way. His max damage combos don't allow much time to hitconfirm into them either. Watch your cancels, especially at close range.
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