Janine Brainstorming

JANINE

General Properties: A magical, close-to-mid range fighter with some big, disjointed hitboxes. She has a good punish game, excellent techchase setups, and high damage output, but her quickest moves are mostly short-range and/or easily punishable on whiff.

STANDARD ATTACKS

Jab: A three-hit jab(which of course can just be used as one or two hits). Janine starts with a low front-kick, then throws a left body blow, and finishes with a splayed-fingered right-handed blast of dark energy. The first two hits don't combo very well into the last, but that finishing blast is surprisingly powerful, and possesses decent range and active frames. This jab combo does quite a lot of damage if all three hits manage to connect, but is still impactful if you just land the last; or an okay short-range poke with the first or second hits.

Dash Attack: Janine stops short, hopping slightly, and lands with her hands outstretched. A moment later, she blasts the area with dark power! This acts as a complete stopgap for Janine's momentum, and while the attack is pretty choreographed, the ending lag is average, meaning she isn't punished too much on a whiff(and can kind of follow up off a hit). It's much weaker than it looks, popping an opponent up and away. At low %s, it can lead to a techchase, as the foe will hit the ground before hitlag is through. That stops working at mid %s, though. Regardless, the move remains a good 'trap' option; dash in, then stop short and blast the area the opponent thought you'd be in. At high enough damage, it can even kill, but it's far from Janine's best option in that regard.

Forward Tilt: Janine sticks her arm out, then snaps her fingers and reels her arm back in in one motion. A moment later, the air in front of Janine cracks with a small explosion of black, eye-shaped energy. The move sends up and in, and has low knockback, so it can set up into an aerial. It's pretty quick, and while the initial animation extends Janine's hurtbox, the actual hitbox of the attack is disjointed.

Down Tilt: Janine stomps forward with a magic-infused boot, creating a small shockwave at the point of impact. Quick to start and finish due to IASA frames, but it extends her hurtbox a little, and unlike most Down Tilts, Janine stands up straight for this one. Regardless, an excellent move since it sends the opponent up and away with middling knockback.

Up Tilt: Janine finger-guns upward twice(once with each hand), shooting eye-shaped 'bullets' of dark energy; the first hit has low knockback and will typically lead into the second, which has higher knockback and can KO. The eyes don't travel too far upward, but the move still has pretty damn good range for an Up Tilt, making it a solid anti-air option or setup for an aerial or juggle at certain %s. Its high amount of startup frames as Janine leans back and raises her hands keep it from being too spammable, however.

Throw: As her grab, Janine suspends the foe with dark magic. It's got good range and disjoint compared to most other grabs, but is marginally slower. Her throw is simple; she slams the foe into the ground, either in front of or behind her, and they bounce off. At low %s, they'll bounce a second time; this is techable, the first isn't. At higher %s, they'll just bounce too high into the air for a techchase to be viable.


FEATURES

Neutral Feature: Snapjaw Sleeve: Janine flings her arm back and slaps it forward. Her sleeve of course follows her motion, but on the way back, it grows teeth and angry eyes! At the end of the arc, the sleevejaw snaps shut, munching and crunching on anything in its hitbox. It chomps down twice, rotating between the two as a bit of animation flare. The first hit will generally lead into the second, for some pretty respectable damage and high diagonal knockback. It's pretty damn slow, comparable to something like a Falcon Punch, but the high amount of active frames helps to make that workable.

Side Feature: Cat-A-Pult: Janine flaps her sleeve, billowing it as a black cat jumps out, lands, and runs along the ground, as cats are wont to do. Upon coming close to an opponent, the cat will jump up and claw at them, then land and keep going. When it reaches the edge of a platform, it'll jump up off it, going into the air a little. It'll do the same at the edge of the stage; poor kitty will jump to its death. As a 'projectile' this is a pretty simple move. The cat covers the area directly in front of Janine pretty well, but after that, it's only traveling at stage level unless it jumps off a platform. It serves the purpose of getting the opponent into the air, or causing them to shield the cat or stuff it with an attack. The cat is relatively quick-moving, but doesn't deal a lot of damage or knockback, serving mostly as a harassment technique.

Down Feature: Hat Trick: Janine spins downward, shrinking until she blips out of existence, leaving only her(normal-sized) hat on the ground. It's still spinning, too. You can mash the Feature Button to spin faster and longer, like Luigi Cyclone, and you can travel back and forth similarly to it as well. Janine can't travel off a platform or the stage in this form, but if used in the air(and mashed hard enough), she maintains her height. She can't gain any vertical height off this move, but it's a decent semi-hover. The move has decently powerful hitboxes, and is a single-hit move(as in while the hitboxes flash on and off, the knockback is high enough to send people away and keep them from getting hit multiple times, generally). However, these hitboxes only exist on the hat's brim, at the base; she's completely vulnerable up top. Still, the move shrinks her hurtbox quite a bit, and pretty quickly, and can thus be used to avoid high attacks.

Up Feature: Janine whips her staff out for all to see, and rides it diagonally upward. The head stays closed until it comes to an opponent, at which point it'll snap at them, dealing some respectable knockback. Janine can change the direction of this move by hitting back on the control stick, which'll just cause her to start moving in the opposite direction, still going diagonally up. It allows her to trick out opponents or easily reverse her trajectory. Since the staff's hitbox is at the front of her path, and disjointed, the move has some protection against gimping, but it's very vulnerable from the top.


POWER STRIKES

Forward Strike: Janine throws her hands to each side as they seethe with magic and crackle with black lightning. When the charge is released, she flings them together in front of her, creating a huge, swirling vortex of magic that stays active for a pretty long time. The hits all lead into each other, and can't be DI'd out of if the move hits dead on. As the move comes to a close, the vortex explodes in a flash of black lightning, sending opponents flying with ridiculous amounts of knockback. The move is powerful and can act as a finisher, as it comes out somewhat quickly and covers a good area, but Janine is locked into it for the whole animation as well as the above-average ending lag. At low %s, this could even be punishable on hit, especially if only the fringe of the attack lands and the opponent DIs out. But, at mid-high damage, it's a very powerful kill move.

Up Strike: Janine forms a black gale around her hand and thrusts it toward the sky to rend any foes above her. Once it starts going above her, it stretches out while rotating and takes on an oblong, galaxy or eye-like formation, which helps cover her on the sides a little. This is another multi-hit move, and all the buildup hits send inward toward the center of the gale, making it very difficult to escape. The final hit has very low Base Knockback, but very high Knockback Growth, meaning that at low %s it sets up for aerials, but at high %s it's a good vertical kill move. The move charges twice as fast as other moves, but the damage doesn't increase that much to reflect this. However, at full charge, the final hit is a spike which sends straight down, setting up for a techchase in combination with the attack's relatively low ending lag. But, since the move itself lasts a while, it's still very punishable on a miss.

Down Strike: Janine rears her hand back behind her head, pointed downward. While she's charging, her hand shakes, tense and strained. The whole hand glows with purple magic and streaks of black lightning. When released, she slams her hand downward, roughly down to her waist or so. It's a pretty intense motion, and this attack is a strong one. The hitbox is big, it deals a lot of damage, and it's a meteor smash. If it's not teched, there's a huge amount of hitstun, like most meteors. If it is, Janine can techchase. The move itself is pretty decent for techchasing, because while charging, Janine can pivot back and forth and release the attack on whichever side she wants. Of course, it can serve as a gimmicky edgeguarding option due to its large hitbox, but since it's just a meteor, it can be jumped out of with good timing.

AERIALS

Neutral Air: Janine fans her arms out and EXPLODES!! with a small burst of black energy. This attack's hitbox covers most of Janine's body, but is still negatively disjointed for the most part. It's a single-hit attack with many potential hitboxes and knockback angles, and deals high knockback away from Janine, whichever direction that might be. If it sends downward, it's a meteor, not a spike. It can be used for some messy pillaring, but really, its best property is that in the hands of a skilled player, it can basically send your opponent wherever the hell you want them to go, similar to Pikachu's Up Air.

Forward Air: Janine does a spinning chop kick similar to Sonic's Forward Air, but with more magic, and her leg doesn't go as far down. The early hit of this attack has an 'electical' effect similar to Falcon's Knee, but sends down and away instead of outward. It is a meteor, of course, but it deals high damage and has lots of hitstun. This is a better move for pillaring than her Nair, and can lead into techchase situations.

Back Air: Janine flips around propels herself slightly forward(well, now backward since she flipped) with a blast of shadowfire. The move has pretty high startup and endlag, but covers a good area 'behind' Janine, comparable to ROB's back air, and can aid her recovery. It's also relatively powerful, and can KO at high %s or if landed offstage. It's not active for very long, unlike most fire-based moves(it's only shadow magic, after all). A decent combo finisher or edgeguarding option nonetheless.

Up Air: Janine circles her glowing hand around her head in a similar animation to Zelda's Up Smash. Ultimately the move acts like Mewtwo's Nair, but shifted upwards. Just like that move, you can use this to drag an opponent down with you. Unlike it, however, this has a landing hitbox which sends straight up - perfect for jumping back into the air and following up. The attack doesn't last nearly as long as its inspiration, though, so getting the landing hitbox isn't easy.

Down Air: Janine pulls herself inward and puts her hands together in front of her, aimed downward. A black eye forms and starts shooting arcs of dark lightning below Janine. This has two very distinct hits, and although they share nearly the same damage and hitbox, the first hit is a meteor, while the second, slower arc is a spike. It's a slow attack regardless, with high startup and endlag, though average landing lag. Each arc is only active for a few frames, but between the two you have decent coverage over the move.