Kagaribi 5 Preview: ProtoBanham, Zackray headline Japanese Major
Japan’s scene has been sporadically active during the Quarantine Era. With a robust online community in the form of Smashmate and its associated events, players from the country had ways to play both online and offline.
Japan’s scene has been sporadically active during the Quarantine Era. With a robust online community in the form of Smashmate and its associated events, players from the country had ways to play both online and offline.
This year, Kagaribi emerged as the new premier major series in Kanto. While the EGS Cup and Umebura seem to be on hiatus for the time being, tonight’s Kagaribi is equivalent to any Umebura event from late 2019. Featuring Kanto’s best and a glut of Kansai and Chubu players, it’s a meeting of Japan’s three strongest regions.
Capped at 520 entrants, it is the largest Japanese event since EVO Japan 2020. Like Kagaribi 4, it is also a two-day event, and it - unlike the vast majority of events - is best of five from start to finish.
The King
“”
is the best active player in Japan. On a recent unofficial ranking of Japan, he is solidly in first place, having won three Japanese major events - Kagaribi 4, Seibugeki 8, and Maesuma Top 6. While ProtoBanham initially piloted Lucina and Inkling, he has shifted his lineup’s roles. Dropping Inkling entirely, ProtoBanham now uses both Min Min and Lucina depending on player and character matchups.
His extensions offstage with Min Min are well established and quite deadly, while his Lucina features the most efficient movement & spacing of the character seen to date. ProtoBanham, while not invincible, is the clear favorite to take the event, as his only event losses have been at lower stakes locals.
Reaching for the Crown
Sota “” Okada 
has been #1 in Japan before. However, his return to the new Japanese meta has seen him fall just short of victory. He lost out to ProtoBanham at Kagaribi 4 and has been fairly inactive since his solid run at Smash Ultimate Summit 3.
Returning at locals, he has shown interest in Sora, immediately utilizing the character’s unusual mobility and combo trees to secure 2nd at WINNER #4, failing to defeat Shuto “” Moriya 
.
Seeded third, Zackray is known for occasionally dropping sets in the winners bracket and making substantial losers bracket runs. His path to top 8 features Toshimasa “” Hayakawa 
, Eita “” Hoshi 
Kong, and Kengo “” Suzuki 
. This is a rogue’s gallery of some of Japan’s best players, showing just how hard this event will be.
Takuma “” Hirooka 
is a multi-major winning Pac-Man player hailing from Kansai. The best player in western Japan, Tea has made waves by winning majors in the United States, Europe, and Japan. Regularly overperforming his seeding at USA events, he’s considered a prime threat to take on ProtoBanham.
“” 
is another player reaching for a big win. Starting his career as “//” on Smashmate in Super Smash Bros. Smash for Wii U, he went from a hidden boss Little Mac player to a premier online threat in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Since the Wifi Era has waned, he has seen consistent successes at offline major events, peaking with last week’s Maesuma Top 6 run where he placed third, beating ProtoBanham in the process.
Shuton, no stranger to being considered the best in Japan, has recently picked up the Aegis to supplement Olimar. His bracket, while potentially challenging, does feature a streak of luck: His Winners Quarters opponent is projected to be Tea. With sixteen sets played, Shuton is 13-3 on Tea. Looking forward, an upset on Tea would likely make his Winners Semis opponent Zackray, whom he beat recently.
His biggest challenge up to that point is likely Gakuto “Gackt” Ito 
, a candidate for best active Ness main. He sports a far less solid 4-2 record against the Kanto Ness main, making the matchup likely the shakiest in Shuton’s bracket until Top 8.
Fighting for an Upset
Towa “” Kuriyama 
, recently sponsored by Team Liquid, is an unexpected pickup for a major organization. Known for his top of the line Rosalina player in Smash for Wii U, Atelier continued to be a background threat in Smash Ultimate during most of 2019.
In 2020, something clicked. While events slowed to a crawl, Atelier continued to attend them. By the time the country held large regionals and major events, he quickly became established as a potential major winning threat. Sporting suffocating and technical play as Pokemon Trainer, he’s made his case as the best player of the character in the world, sticking with them even as the character has seen less usage since events restarted.
At Kagaribi 4 and Maesuma Top 6, Atelier came within striking distance - a single set, both times starting in winners side of Grands - from taking a major. Now, fighting against Japan’s absolute best in full force, he’ll have to come up with a way to overcome his losing records against ProtoBanham and Tea in order to take the event and make his case as a top 10 contender.
“” 
, much like HERO, is a recent upstart known for his formidable performances on Smashmate. While Hero’s meta became stagnant, Akakikusu was the most significant element in reviving it and demonstrating the character’s raw potential. Known for incredible reads, he is easily the best Hero in the world.
Despite this, he does have issues reaching deep into the bracket. After his shock win over Zackray to place 3rd at Kagaribi 3, Akakikusu’s biggest bracket run was the Kanto monthly Dawn, which he won. He does consistently make it deep into bracket, but he is projected to lose to KEN - a player he’s fought and lost to once. Should he make an upset, he’ll rematch Zackray, which could be his golden opportunity to get into the winners side of top 8.
“” 
, long hyped up in Smash for Wii U as a serious threat, never had his day in that game. However, he did emerge during Quarantine as a surprise top Kansai player in Smash Ultimate. In 2020, this peaked with a 1st place finish at Sumabato SP 14, a regional event featuring several top Kansai players.
However, this would pale in comparison to his emergence as a top player in the country outright with back-to-back major runs at Kagaribi 4 and Maesuma Top 6. At the latter, he notably defeated Shuton and Tea - two serious contenders to take majors - and lost only ProtoBanham and Atelier, the top two finishers.
This in mind, Yoshidora has an outside chance to win the event, and put Yoshi on the map as a major winning character for the first time. While the spot of best Yoshi is contentious, another high level performance from Yoshidora would put him in the lead.
KEN, Japan’s best Sonic, has been on a roller coaster of a year. At times seeming invincible and displaying a formidable mentality, KEN has also seen his fair share of underwhelming runs. While some in context could hardly be considered poor - such as his Kagaribi 4, where he lost to “” 
and HERO, he has had a recent habit of failing to close sets out.
However, this isn’t the first time KEN’s seen a temporary slump and ultimately emerged a champion. In late 2020, KEN took Kagaribi 1 in seemingly effortless fashion, and he has seen success at the WINNER weekly series, as well as a good performance at European supermajor event Temple.
As a result, KEN could simply slide past his slump and emerge as a serious contender to take the event. While not especially likely, it seems inevitable that he will eventually return to the peak seen in late 2019 where he came just shy of taking events similarly as stacked as this.
An Army of Elites
While the number of players competing for first is limited, this event is a gathering of serious worldwide ranked threats. Players such as Choco and Gackt have been noted, but many more exist waiting in the wings.
HIKARU has brought Roy to Japan in a way that hasn’t been seen before. Initially trying his hand at a variety of characters, his settling on Roy and his former main Donkey Kong has seen considerable success, placing top 8 at Maesuma TOP 6.
Seisuke “” Komeda 
has struggled in recent months, but nonetheless retains an incredible legacy that makes him a persistent threat as the world’s best Shulk. In addition to Shulk, he has experimented with the Aegis. If we see him upsetting Yoshidora, we could be in for a big winners quarters set between him and ProtoBanham.
“” 
is one of Chubu’s best players in attendance. A Toon Link main with a formidable Isabelle secondary, he often finds himself with frightening brackets. While he overcame this at Maesuma Top 6 - defeating KEN - he has been so unlucky as to lose to Leonardo “” Perez twice in the same event, at Umebura Japan Major 2019.
“” 
is likely Japan’s best Falcon main. Initially struggling at early 2020 events, Jogibu has emerged in the Quarantine Era as a top Falcon main and a major threat out of Kansai. Like many successful players in this Era, he played frequently at the small entrant cap Sumabato events during 2020.
Set to face off against Atelier in round 1 of Top 96, he has a technical advantage. At Sumabato SP 19, the two fought, and Jobigu won 2-0. An upset victory here would tear the bracket open, as it’s in the path of “” 
, who has stated he cannot attend the event.
Lea is generally an underseeded and underrated player. While rarely breaking into top 4s on brackets, he often makes significant upsets and tears through top players in his path. Most well known for an incredible run at 2GG: Kongo Saga - where he defeated all three top Olimar players to place Top 8 - Lea is also accomplished in Japan.
At Kagaribi 4, he defeated Gackt and KEN. However, he did lose to Yoshidora - who happens to be his round 1 opponent in Top 96. An upset would likely see him facing against Kome for the first time.
“” is a recent upstart player worth noting. While having been around for a while, he emerged as one of the best Toon Link players at Seibugeki 8, where he beat Yuki “” Kajihara and Shuton to place 4th. While he didn’t fare quite as well at Maesuma the following week, he did defeat wifi warrior and top Link main “.” 
With a close loss against Shuton in the runback, Manzoku’s bracket path of “” 
seems like an easy upset prediction. However, if he does manage that, he’d face off against Gackt, who he has an 0-4 record against.
While Samus is a common character in the country, Yaura’s wins over Atelier, Gackt, and Yuta “” Kawamura 
place him as a player to watch and his region as one to keep a very close eye on.
Takuto “” Ono 
might seem low, but he has recently undergone something of a main crisis. Initially known as a top Mega Man, Kameme held a powerful Wario in his arsenal used to great success both in Japan and abroad.