Washizu is a very unique case as a villain in that his arc has gone on a ridiculously long period of real life time, totaling 20 real life years, and that's with constant monthly updates on the part of the manga writer, having only recently finished in 2017. The arc is all set in the same room for the majority of it, so the story isn't something especially complicated. The anime was made in 2005, so it doesn't have the vast majority of his long arc and just ends randomly. Washizu is in the series for about 230 out of the 300 chapters. He has by far the most dialogue of anyone in the series, and things are very commonly presented from his perspective, much more commonly than anyone else. Washizu is the main character of the series for all intents and purposes. He even got his own spinoff manga named after him, much like Tonegawa, though he is far more important to his original series than Tonegawa.
Washizu is an elderly rich man who has grown old and bored with normal things, somewhat like Hyoudou, who he shares a voice actor with, but is generally less senile. He plays mahjong games (like everyone else in this manga) where he forces enemies to wager their blood against his sizable fortune, making things very obviously rigged in his favor with enemies having to win over 10 times as much as he does in order to catch up to him. All he has to gain out of this is pleasure, and he normally very casually beats all of his opponents before coming against Akagi. Akagi has to slowly whittle down his fortune against pretty much impossible odds. As the game goes on, Washizu quickly gains a level of fear for Akagi. All he even had to gain was psychotic pleasure, but now his fortune is being legitimately threatened. Washizu gets more and more desperate as the game goes and regularly views Akagi as a demon, given how edgy he is and how rarely he even talks. He despises him and is always running through tons of possibilities for how to beat him. He usually loses most small scale battles, but what few victories he gets throughout the game are very decisive. Despite how long this series is, the game always feels like it could end at any moment one way or the other after the first quarter of it or so, making it into a real pageturner of a manga. This applies for both Washizu and Akagi, and Washizu is almost constantly in desperation mode doing whatever he can to survive and trying to finish off Akagi and end the game. Washizu is still most definitely very evil, but when he is fighting primarily for his own survival it is hard to not root for him with how much more likeable he is. No villain is constantly in desperation mode and coming back like he is while still being a legitimate threat to the protagonist. While he is obviously much less skilled than Akagi and is only in it due to the big handicap in his favor, he gets better as the match goes on as he tries to recover from his mistakes.
(Spoilers from here on) Washizu mahjong is a 2v2 affair, with Washizu playing alongside an incompetent minion who gets zero character development in 230 chapters and remains very generic, having to heavily carry him. Akagi, meanwhile, plays with a prominent character who much more regularly is able to help him, so to be fair here, Washizu isn't entirely at an advantage. Washizu's fortune eventually gets so far down that he desperately offers to give Akagi's partner a third of his fortune if he helps him to 3v1 Akagi, which would've also been enough to beat him, but that doesn't come to pass. It goes on to become drained completely, and he is forced to finally come down to Akagi's level and bet his own blood to try to save his money, much to the protest of his minions who are concerned for his well being. He comes so close to death from having his blood drawn multiple times that he hallucinates that he is in hell, and there are 30 chapters or so where he hallucinates he is in hell. He leads an uprising in hell against the demons and defeats King Enma and makes him his *****, finally ascending back to real life at the end of it, definitely the biggest highlight. Even assuming that it is not real, it reveals a lot about what Washizu thinks of himself and how obscenely egotistical he is. King Enma's "mirror of evil" breaks because Washizu is just so evil that it cannot show his past sins.
Washizu does have questionable sanity as he does rely heavily on getting good luck at some points, but the reason he does so is because he knows that Akagi is blatantly a better player than him, he only looks to beat him through very specific means in ways that he cannot resist him. With how many chances Washizu has to win, it only makes sense, right? Washizu comes close to winning several times, but loses these opportunities because he takes the advice of his minions who are constantly watching and cowering, telling him to take the safe route. I regularly sided with his minions and thought he was being stupid at some points, but he would always inevitably prove me wrong. As complicated as mahjong is, you don't really have to understand that much to appreciate the manga, as all of the key gameplay is very meticulously narrated as everyone's thought process is fully explained.
Washizu has no shortage of displaying just how much he hates Akagi for reducing him to this state, at moments it's fear, but he's always talking about how happy he will be when he finally kills him. Towards the end of the game, it stops being fear and evolves into outright respect for him. He even hesitates if he wants to kill him when he has the advantage after all he's been through at the very end, but isn't held back and still intends to do it regardless. He finally draws his winning mahjong tiles that will win him the game, but his heavy blood loss causes him to pass out, making everyone assume he died. Akagi's partners take their share of the money. Akagi acknowledges that Washizu was blatantly going to win and lets him keep his share. After it's over, Washizu gets blood pumped back into his system and revitalizes. In a rage, he says that he doesn't want Akagi's pity and says to burn all of the money that Akagi left behind for him. After recovering for a few minutes, he next decides that he wants to hunt down and kill Akagi even after the game is already over. To do this, he will need money, so he beats his minions over the head with his cane for being so stupid as to burn his money and forces them to get it out of the fire for him. The manga ends with him desperately chasing after Akagi as if it's a happy ending, which it blatantly is. Washizu is very obviously the manga writer's favorite character, it's not hard to see it. Despite being introduced later, just by chapter appearances alone he's very competitive with Akagi, having about 50 chapters where Akagi doesn't appear at all.
STATISTICS
Weight: 8/10 (107 units, 8th place with Ike/Wario)
Size: 7/10 (Captain Falcon)
Ground Speed: 2/10 (1.4 units, 50th place above Link's 1.394 units)
Aerial Speed: 4/10 (1 unit, tied for 31st with Bowser and Rosalina)
Falling Speed: 5/10 (1.5 units, tied for 31st with Mewtwo and Mario)
First Jump Height: 3/10 (30 units, 49th above Ike's 29.9 units)
Second Jump Height: 5/10 (34 units, 30th place above Toon Link's 33.79 units)
Aerial Control: 7/10
Traction: 9/10
Washizu has fairly ordinary stats. He's not miserably slow, but he has no movement option he excels in, being below average in both the air and on the ground. His first jump height is rather poor, though he does have good air control and the minimum jumpsquat duration, so he's still able to use his aerials on the stage decently. With use of his Up Special, his air presence improves.
SPECIALS
SIDE SPECIAL - DEAL
Washizu's stale moves are important enough to his moveset that they are constantly displayed on his hud in the form of mahjong tiles with their button inputs shown on them. For aerials, the jump button will be shown + a direction, and the grab button + a direction for throws. The 9 stale moves essentially represent Washizu's mahjong "hand" at any given time. If Washizu has at least one stale move in his hand and presses this button, he will "deal" the Mahjong tile forwards, throwing it at his enemies to dispose of it. The mahjong tile does 5% and knockback that kills at 300%, but is thrown forwards about two thirds the distance of Final Destination at a fairly high speed.
If the Mahjong tile hits the foe, whatever move was on the mahjong tile will show up on their stale moves list to enter their hand, enabling you to make the foe's moves stale. Meanwhile, the move on the tile will exit Washizu's stale moves list. By default, Washizu deals the most recent move on his stale moves list, but if he inputs any attack while he is still in the lag of the move, the mahjong tile in question will be of the input Washizu makes. If Washizu hits with this move, he will effectively refresh his "ammo" for the attack by causing the Side Special itself to enter the stale moves list. The move still exits the stale moves list regardless of whether or not Washizu hits with the move, however. Washizu certainly has no problem keeping his kill moves fresh, and if anything has trouble hitting enough attacks to keep up ammo for this move, given he starts with no moves stale at the start of a match.
If this move is held down instead of pressed, a smaller version of Washizu's Mahjong table will appear in front of him for to draw a tile out of, enabling him to add a random move to his stale moves list. Washizu can still choose which stale move he throws away to make room for the new Mahjong tile, even throwing away the random move he drew if he wants. This is fairly slow and has no hitbox. Relying on luck is far from the best strategy either, it's mostly useful early on in the match before you've hit 9 moves and are just trying to get any kind of Mahjong hand regardless of its quality.
DOWN SPECIAL - WHITE SUITS
Washizu snaps his fingers, which has a tiny, pathetic hitbox that deals 4% and a flinch which isn't even safe on hit, though starts up fast. This does not cause a
random judge in the middle of the stage to bang his gavel, but instead summons one of Washizu's ridiculously loyal minions to aid him. These simple minded thugs are severely weakened clones of Captain Falcon, who are most comparable to the
Male Wire Frame from Melee (adjusted for the current Smash game). Their only differences are they aren't floaty and don't have increased jumps, and they also don't even have the sweetspot on Falcon's dair the wire frames do, so they're even worse than those guys. Their AI is insultingly stupid with that of a level 3 computer by default, though they will go out of their way to protect Washizu if a foe hits him, briefly increasing their AI to that of a level 7 computer for 3 seconds as they gain a panicked expression, specifically going after the foe who attacked him. The AI will still increase if the foe attacks Washizu's shield, being a good way to convince your idiotic minions that this match is serious.
Washizu can only have one White Suit out at a time, serving as his Mahjong partner. While they don't have any specials normally, if Washizu inputs Down Special with the White Suit out, they will use Washizu's Side Special, Deal, in his general direction. Washizu can make another input during that time to choose what move the White Suit deals, just like when he personally uses Side Special, though the White Suit will by default deal the most recent move they hit with. If the Mahjong tile touches Washizu, he will pocket it and add it to his hand. During this animation, Washizu can make an input to choose what he discards, discarding the oldest stale move by default. If Washizu doesn't care what he discards, he can cancel out of the animation instantly like an Incineroar taunt, in which case he will automatically discard the oldest move. White Suits can also pocket Mahjong tiles dealt by Washizu into their own hands, enabling them to be kept around for later.
White Suits will ocasionally use the held version of Side Special to draw a new tile at random, though will only do so when they aren't in their defensive panicked states.
UP SPECIAL - BLESSED BY THE HEAVENS
Washizu is an insane man who believes he is favored by the gods. If this move is used in the air, a horde of various religious figures such as Buddha, King Enma, Allah, Zeus, and Satan will appear transparent and grab onto Washizu before carrying him up into the air, giving him free flight. These gods only exist in Washizu's mind, however, so his recovery's quality depends on how favored by the gods Washizu thinks he is, which is determined by the quality of Washizu's hand.
For the purposes of Smash, the kinds of hands Washizu wants to get involve getting all of the moves from one input section, and/or all of the moves in one direction. Having all 4 specials, all 5 standards, all 3 smashes, all 5 aerials, all 4 throws, all side moves, all up moves, all down moves, or all neutral moves are the hands you want. You can also get "5 of a kind" by having one move in the stale moves list 5 times, but that leaves you very predictable and with a horribly stale useless move. Given your hand can be up to 9 moves, it's possible to get 2 of these matches at the same time, which further increases the quality of your hand. For the maximum quality, you want there to be no "filler" move in the hand but for it to still be 9 moves, so 5 aerials and 4 specials, for example. To get all "neutral" moves, side moves will count for throws and smashes. Washizu's pummel cannot enter the stale moves list.
With no matches and less than 9 moves in the list, you get a single god who carries Washizu with free flight for 1 second at the speed of Pit's Brawl recovery, which isn't bad, but has no hitbox and leaves him in helpless at the end.
With 9 moves and no matches, you get 2 gods, a hitbox that deals 5% and radial knockback away from Washizu during the attack, and the recovery lasts for 1.3 seconds. Washizu is no longer left in helpless at the end of the move, though can't use the move again before touching the ground.
With at least one set of "matching" moves, Washizu gets 3 gods, it's buffed to 2 seconds, and he can now attack during the recovery.
With two sets of matching moves, he acquires the fourth god, buffs the recovery to 3.5 seconds, the speed of the recovery goes at 1.7X that of Pit's recovery, and he is superarmored for the entire duration of the move against attacks that deal 7% or less.
With a perfect hand that exclusively consists of two sets of matching moves,
he has 5 gods, the recovery lasts 6 seconds, goes 2X the speed of the Pit Up Special, and he has superarmor against moves that deal 11% or less. If Washizu manages to get a match of all of his specials involved, that will give Washizu 2 gods instead of 1 god, though the cap remains at 5 gods. None of Washizu's specials are particularly easy to land outside of Side Special, and White Suits can't even use Specials besides Side Special.
Getting more than one set of matching moves isn't super realistic most of the time, but it's not exactly a ton to ask for to only get one match in your hand. You can quite possibly get a single match on accident, or at least close to it before you actively try to get the last move needed to complete the match.
White Suits will actively try to hit with moves that will most directly help him to complete his hand in a very methodical manner, so they can then give those tiles to Washizu. They will automatically default to dealing moves to Washizu that will help him to complete his hand if applicable when ordered to deal a move to him, though you can still override their decision if you don't trust the computer. When they go to draw tiles, they will discard useless moves which won't help Washizu's current hand get to a complete state. Washizu and his minions unfortunately cannot attack each other, so they can't just casually get whatever tiles they want that way.
NEUTRAL SPECIAL - POWER OF MONEY
Washizu places down a very large, very heavy pile of gold bullion bars with lag comparable to Villager's fsmash, though with a considerably bigger hitbox. If Washizu drops the gold on top of the foe, the move is every bit as powerful as the aforementioned attack, and he has superarmor against attacks that deal 14% or less during the move. If used in the air the gold will drop until it hits the ground rather than vanishing early, traveling at the speed of Bowser's Down Special. Villager doesn't have the luxury of using his fsmash in the air, which can make this move a lot scarier. However, Washizu will just slam down the gold in place if the gold would fall off the ledge, as his gold is too precious to just mindlessly drop off the stage to kill a mere peasant like the foe, meaning it can't be used for casual gimps.
After having been placed on the floor, the gold bullion functions as a very durable wall with 60 HP, easily blocking projectiles from most foes. The gold bullion bars are arranged in such a way that they create a small slope that characters can walk over rather than a solid wall that can be directly used for combos, though will still absorb non piercing projectiles due to the fact the construct has HP. Because the gold isn't a true solid wall, Washizu's Mahjong tiles can still pass through it with no issue. The gold is slightly less wide than Bowser, and is as tall as Mario at the tallest point.
Washizu doesn't have infinite money to throw around. Inputting Neutral Special with gold already out on the stage will cause him to order a White Suit to come out from the background and carry it on a cart to his current location when he input the move at the slow speed of Brawl Ganondorf's walk. The White Suit will not carry the gold to a location beyond the platform it started on. Attacking the White Suit will "kill" him instantly, causing him to run away into the background. Washizu can ride on top of the gold given it goes to the location he was at when he first used the move and the White Suit carries it quite slowly.
If Washizu inputs Neutral Special in front of a gold bullion bar, he will just pick it up and slam it in front of himself again to recreate the hitbox from the start of the move. This is slightly faster than when he first uses the attack given it's already out, but is far more predictable given he now is stuck using the move in a specific location, and he doesn't get superarmor when using the move this way.
Washizu becomes enraged if the foe destroys his gold, which is largely his life blood to him. This will increase his dashing speed and air speed by .3 units for the rest of the stock, as well as increase his rage as if he had taken an extra 35% damage. This bonus rage enables Washizu to go over the regular cap of 150%. Washizu passively gains some slight superarmor when enraged, starting at 100% with superarmor against attacks that deal 1% or less, with that then increasing by 1% for each 10% he takes above 100%. This normally caps at 150% for a mere 5% superarmor, but can stack for Washizu to reach a theoretical max of superarmor against attacks that deal 19% or less. The passive superarmor will stack with any other superarmor in Washizu's set, such as when Washizu slams the gold bullion for the first time during this attack.
GRAB-GAME
GRAB - RESTRAIN
Washizu points forwards, causing two White Suits to come out from the background in front of him to grab the foe for a disjointed grab. This is an amazing grab with range on par with a tether, and is easily faster than any traditional tether grab, though is of course still slower than physical grabs. If Washizu misses, he will angrily shake his cane at his minions and yell at them, giving the move long ending lag on par with the worst tether grabs like Pac Man's abominable grab.
If Washizu has a minion White Suit out from Down Special and there is currently only one enemy in the match, they will just stop what they're doing and start cheering Washizu on uselessly, or give him horrible "advice" on what to do. They can't even be bothered to use this time to draw Mahjong tiles or anything.
PUMMEL - DRAW
Washizu plunges his hand into the foe's chest to draw a Mahjong tile out from their person for a slow pummel that deals 3.5% before taking the tile for himself and adding it to his hand. By default, Washizu takes whatever tile would most benefit his hand and replaces the most useless tile, though can make two inputs to choose what move he takes and replaces. While this pummel is slow, this is mainly so that Washizu has enough time to make the inputs if needed, and his grab is 1.2X harder to escape than a regular grab to compensate for this.
Being able to take tiles from the foe is very important to complete your hands with move that are otherwise difficult to land. While you can rely on the gimped Captain Falcon moveset of the White Suits sometimes, they are still dumb computers at the end of the day, and they can't give you Specials. Washizu's Neutral Special is very slow and predictable most of the time outside of the first time it's used, and Washizu only has a very brief moment to hit with his Down Special finger snap when he first summons a White Suit and will even be punished for it. Up Special requires Washizu to have at least 9 Mahjong tiles to even have a hitbox!
A foe who is trying to play against this has to be very careful to avoid hitting with moves that would be helpful for Washizu's hand when attacking not only him, but his White Suits and his precious gold. If the foe has a particularly good move they like to spam to destroy the gold, your burden in hitting with that input on Washizu's moveset is made much smaller as you can just take it from the foe later. To destroy a construct, foes will almost always have one move that is the best for it, but if they spam that you can just take that move from them over and over to get 5 of a kind. It's important to realize which moves you can easily just pick up from the foe later, especially considering the quality of Washizu's grab.
Now that it's relevant what moves are in the foe's stale moves list, it's worth noting that any hits against your superarmor will still become stale. Directly tanking an attack just to get a tile in the foe's list isn't something you want to be doing regularly, but if you can kill two birds with one stone by getting a hit of your own off it, it's very possible to multitask and make those top tier Mahjong plays.
For the purposes of Mahjong, the pummels of foes will be read as "fthrow" given Washizu cannot use pummels.
DOWN THROW - BLOOD TRANSFUSION
Washizu says "Ron!" (Essentially meaning "I win!") as his Mahjong tiles appear in front of himself and he knocks them down, emptying his hand of stale moves and "ending" the game of Mahjong which gives Washizu a payout based off the quality of his hand. If Washizu didn't have any matches, the White Suits will just shrug and attempt to cheat despite the fact Washizu did not actually win, not daring to disobey Washizu's orders. One White Suit will hook the foe's arm up to a blood transfusion machine, while the other White Suit hooks Washizu's arm to it, directly transferring the blood into Washizu's body to heal him of the many wounds that annoying foe has inevitably dealt him. The White Suit shoves the foe away afterwards as they have a small frame disadvantage from the shock of having their blood sucked out of their body like that.
With less than 9 tiles and no matches, Washizu deals 3% and heals 3%. With 9 tiles and no matches, 10%. With a match, 15%. With two matches, 23%. With a perfect hand, 30%. In addition to this considerable damage lead Washizu will have got off the foe, the foe's movement statistics will be lowered for the rest of the stock based off how much blood Washizu has drained from them. Their ground speed will be lowered by .01 units per 1% dealt from this move, while their air speed lowers by .005 units. For every 7% dealt in this way, the foe's dodges also gain an additional frame of ending lag, one extra frame to the ending lag of all their moves, one extra frame of jumpsquat, and grabs become 1.1X harder for them to escape. If you somehow deal 50% to the foe with this attack in one stock, they'll just instantly keel over dead like in a stamina match, but you should kill them normally long before that happens. Washizu will retain any rage he gained before he healed, enabling him to pass over 150% rage without having to make use of gold.
FORWARD THROW - MIRROR OF EVIL
Washizu takes out a mirror and lets the foe see themselves in said mirror. Washizu believes this mirror lets him see how evil someone is, and is supposedly the real mirror used by King Enma in hell, which he took from him himself! Washizu looks at the foe's Mahjong hand in the mirror (which causes it to show on the foe's hud for the throw's duration), then has a varying level of anger based off the quality of the foe's hand. The better the foe's hand is, the more enraged Washizu is, and thus the more "evil" the foe is in his opinion for daring to oppose his hand with a better one! Washizu then slams the mirror over the foe's head, shattering it and breaking it into a million pieces if he was angry enough. The mirror judges the foe based off how evil they are, having greater power if they are more evil, it is most definitely not because Washizu swung the mirror harder at the foe because he's angry they are luckier than him.
At minimum, the throw deals 9% and knockback that kills at 200%. If the foe has 9 stale moves, 11% and knockback that kills at 180%. With a match, 13% and knockback that kills at 115%. With 2 matches, 16% and knockback that kills 80%. With a perfect hand, 20% and knockback that kills at 65%. This does not empty the foe's stale moves list, so Washizu can potentially just grab them and hit them with the powerful throw again, but foes can go try to get a "bad" hand before then. Foes will probably have to go out of their way to attack White Suits and gold bullions with their worst attacks just to get them out of the way rather than hitting Washizu with them, freeing themselves to use other moves if they choose to respect this throw. Foes having the luxury of being able to put anything in their hands by attacking gold is great, but they have to be careful to not destroy it while they're doing that, less they just make Washizu angry about something else. Of course, Washizu can deal directly into their hands if he so chooses with Side Special to give them a hand that he can more easily get offended about.
BACK THROW - PUNISHMENT
The White Suits forcefully carry the foe over to Washizu's other side before he beats them over the head with his cane, sending them flying behind him for his most powerful throw without any set-up, dealing 10% and knockback that kills at 160% as he laughs at the foe. Washizu's cane is not among the most durable things in the world, however, as it will break after hitting the foe 3 times. It is most powerful when it breaks, being boosted to a very powerful 16% and knockback that kills at 95%. While not as strong as Washizu's other throws, this is not a KO throw to be taken lightly either! After the cane breaks in half, one of the White Suits who had grabbed the foe will give Washizu a new one before leaving.
The only thing that is unfortunate about this bonus is given the fact you must have used it twice already before you get the boost, the move will be stale already and not be as powerful as it could be. You will need to deal out those two back throws if you want this move to be at full power. Alternatively, just spam this move away to get 5 of a kind. By the time you get 5 of a kind, you will have another full power bthrow in your pocket to use at a later time after you use up your current tiles on a dthrow blood transfusion.
UP THROW - DOGPILE
Several additional White Suits come in from the background and clumsily body slam the foe all at once, including the two that were originally restraining the foe. This deals 9% and weak vertical knockback that doesn't kill until 260%. The knockback takes place in front of Washizu's current position given he is not physically performing the attack, but is otherwise entirely vertical. If the attack is performed on a slope, the knockback dealt will be at an angle, potentially enabling the move to combo into Washizu's Side Special.
The mountain of minions sticks around for about 3 seconds as sloped terrain similar to Washizu's gold bullion, but is a bit bigger than that, being a Ganondorf tall at the highest point and a Bowser wide. The minions will slowly recompose themselves over those 3 seconds as they get out one by one and go back into the background, not being a permanent terrain change as the mountain gets shorter and shorter. They will not get up if Washizu steps on them, however, as that would be highly rude considering the fact that Washizu is currently making great use of their bodies as ground. They will only start getting up once Washizu is no longer standing on them. This throw's knockback would be pretty useless for comboing without the pile of minions, but with it, Washizu can run up the side to get greater heights to combo the foe, as he personally gets out of lag with this move quite fast. This also enables him to use the move to combo into grounded attacks where he otherwise couldn't at very low percentages, as well as to change the angle of the knockback when he combos the attack by standing on the side of the minion slope.
SMASHES
FORWARD SMASH - EXECUTE
Washizu takes out a massive cleaver sword which he struggles to have the strength to wield properly, making this move incredibly laggy. He swings it forwards in an arc comparable to Ike's fsmash, dealing 21-29.4% and knockback that kills at 75-40%. This attack is incredibly laggy on both ends and is one of the hardest moves to hit in the game under normal circumstances. If you want to get a fsmash tile, you're much better off taking it from someone else.
If Washizu has a match, White Suit minions will try to grab and hold the foe in place when he performs this attack so that he can "execute" them as penalty for the foe's "loss". The generic Captain Falcon grab is much faster than this move, essentially turning that into the real hitbox for this powerful attack. Under normal circumstances, White Suits will always use their throws immediately, too stupid to give Washizu the chance to take advantage of the foe's stunned state. Fsmash is the only time where they will hold the foe down for Washizu to strike.
While the White Suits will constantly be roaming around, you have the ability to have them perform the Mahjong Tile dealing at any time, and if Washizu has a match, their grab. The White Suits can become significantly more threatening despite their stupid AI when Washizu has this level of control over them. This isn't a combination Washizu can put out on demand given he can't control the movement of the White Suit unless he constantly hides behind his minion, but that makes him more predictable. It is significantly more threatening if he simply waits for the White Suit to get into position naturally before springing this deadly combination on the foe. This move also happens to deal a bit of bonus shield damage and shield push, making the move very punishing to shields in general. A foe who has lost blood from Washizu's down throw will have a lot of their defensive options hamepered, including their dodges, but their shield is one of the few things that isn't neutered.
If you don't have a match, you probably want to mainly use this move for the range at points where you won't be punished for it. This mainly translates to when the foe is at the ledge or is traversing the sloped gold bullion terrain. With the slope in the way, it can serve to somewhat "block" for Washizu if he uses the move on the opposite side of the gold as the foe.
The White Suit will use his grab immediately if he's not currently in lag when Washizu inputs fsmash with a match. If he's dashing, he will input his dashing grab, potentially sliding and carrying the foe forwards into Washizu's fsmash. While White Suits don't dash nearly as fast as Captain Falcon, they're still based off him and have his bad traction, so they will slide a decent ways after landing a dashing grab. They can potentially carry the foe over a gold bullion over to Washizu, where he would've been entirely safe if he missed the attack. Of course, like any normal character, their standing grab is faster than their dashing grab, so if they're already in the obvious position for it it's better they're not doing anything.
UP SMASH - RIICHI
Washizu throws several wooden sticks with markers on them that represent accumulated points in Mahjong, saying the name of the move as he does so. The points sticks go upwards at a 45 degree angle, reaching about a Kirby width in front of and above Washizu before falling back down to the ground in front of him. The points sticks deal multiple hits that total to 12-16.8%, along with knockback that kills at 150-100% in the same angle on the final hit of the attack. This angle is typically always very bad for killing foes.
At lower percentages, this attack reveals that the knockback is dealt at the Sakurai angle, causing foes to slide horizontally and will also always leave Washizu's enemies tripped before the foe starts taking knockback at higher percentages. This move is quite fast but is especially low on ending lag, enabling Washizu to combo the attack more easily when he can capitalize on the trip. While fast, the hitbox starts above Washizu before gradually falling in front of him, so it's a bit harder to hit foes right in front of him. Making use of slopes is very helpful to aim this hitbox directly forwards, and makes this move into an intimidating wall to approach through if casually thrown out. Washizu can potentially combo this move out of uthrow before comboing this move into something else, such as another up based move to get a good match going. If he already has 9 tiles, he can hit Up Special and uair at the same time even. At higher percentages where the moves loses the ability to combo, the move becomes exceedingly mediocre outside of serving its expected purpose as simple anti air.
In Mahjong, declaring Riichi requires you to keep drawing tiles every turn until you get what you need to complete your hand, but gives you the ability to improve your hand, but can only be declared when the player is one tile away from winning the game. In Smash, if Washizu hits with his usmash, nothing out of the ordinary happens unless he is within one tile of completing a match. This will cause the tiles in his hand that make up the incomplete match to start flashing, down next to his stock icon on the hud.
The tiles will continue to glow until Washizu causes another move to enter the stale moves list. If the move is a tile that will complete the match, it is added to the hand as normal but those tiles will continue glowing, indicating that Washizu has a riichi bonus on those tiles. This makes that match count for 2 matches, increasing the quality of his hand significantly more than by what it normally does. However, if Washizu hits with anything else at all, that tile won't enter his hand and the tiles that made the incomplete match will all instantly be discarded. This segways Washizu into being forced to hit with that specific move, making him incredibly predictable. Granted, if Washizu has multiple sets of matches that can use to complete a hand, so long as he completes any of those matches with the next move he inputs, it will get the bonus and he won't lose any tiles. Ideally, Washizu wants to set up a scenario where he only has a move that's easy to hit with as his final one before declaring Riichi, or give himself multiple options to hit with. This can also be used as a simple mindgame as you surprise the foe by using some other move you don't need for your hand to defend yourself, but that's a heck of a lot of effort to go through for such a mundane reward.
The simplest solution is to use this move's great comboability at low percentages to simply confirm directly into the move you need to complete your hand for maximum payout and minimum risk. That's easier said than done because of the fact this move stops comboing at higher percentages, and you have to hit with moves to fill up your hand in the first place, thus damaging the foe. There are some incredibly flowchart like ways you can play with Washizu to get to full hands as quickly as possible, but when put into practice will get him easily defeated due to him not giving his foe the proper respect, something Washizu knows all too well. Keep in mind you're allowed to use other moves without losing your hand, you're just not allowed to hit with them, so feel free to throw out some other moves just to control space.
You can of course try to cheat by simply only doing this when the foe has the move required to complete the hand. Because grab and pummel don't enter the stale moves list, if you just steal the move you need after declaring Riichi, that'll be the next move in the list and get you the more powerful hand. Alternatively, you can also have your White Suit deal you the tile you need to complete the hand and play around some last move the White Suit has as the finishing vital tile. The foe can more easily interfere with this by intentionally blocking the tile the White Suit deals to you with their shield, or even their body if they really need to, as either of these options will destroy the tile. The foe's counterplay is always the most important thing to watch out for.
DOWN SMASH - CANE SPIN
This is a pretty simplistic looking smash where Washizu spins around rapidly with his cane extended outwardly from himself, with the crook of the cane facing away from him. The cane deals 10-14% with knockback over several flinching hits that drags foes in towards Washizu, while Washizu himself does 13-18.2% and vertical knockback that kills at 160-140%. Foes can get hit by Washizu's hitbox immediately without being hit by the cane for an underwhelming smash attack, but if they get hit at the edge of the cane's range at the very start of the move, it is possible for them to take as high as 22-31% just from this move alone!
The cane does more hitstun than usual as it sucks enemies in, enough to at least cover Washizu's ending lag should he fail to hit the foe with his personal hitbox. Having the foe in his face at point blank range in a frame neutral position is still a bad situation for Washizu most of the time, especially given his grab is basically a tether. However, Washizu should never really find himself in a disadvantaged state here, as Washizu has the ability to move left and right very slightly during the dsmash by angling the dsmash in that direction at the start of the move, which will cause him to walk in that direction about a Bowser width over the course of the move. If he just walks towards the foe, he will guarantee he gets the knockback dealing hit off most of the time. If he walks away from the foe, he can drag them with him slightly while keeping this perfect spacing Washizu likes so much at the end of the move, enabling him to try to hit with something else after the move is over, being one of the better set-ups for the grab/jab or to even repeat the move again if he's feeling ballsy.
If Washizu uses this attack next to a White Suit minion, he will pick them up and spin them around like the Mario bthrow animation instead of using his cane for the attack. This will unfortunately add some starting lag to the attack, but greatly increases the range of the move, more than doubling it. The White Suit's body is no more powerful than the cane, but at the end of the move, Washizu will release them, causing them to be thrown behind him a platform's distance, a hitbox as powerful as Washizu's personal hitbox during the move that deals knockback horizontally instead of vertically. This version of the move also has drastically reduced ending lag for Washizu, enabling him to outright combo the foe if he didn't deal any knockback to them. If he wants to combo the foe, he wants them to be in front of him rather than behind him so they're not hit by the White Suit flying at them, as he drags them into ideal range to have just barely enough time to true combo into grab. This move would be very strong if Washizu could casually do it on demand, but the White Suit ends the move in prone, unable to be picked up by Washizu's dsmash again, and will just stay there on the floor like a useless rag doll for a while.
The White Suit will have less lag if you throw them off the stage at the end, and it makes for a very obnoxious edgeguarding attack, as the White Suit will then typically use some aerial attack to defend themselves from the foe afterwards, or possibly even ledge trump the foe or something if you get lucky. If you want an aerial tile off the White Suit, this is certainly a good way to do it. Even if you don't give a crap about playing Mahjong at the current moment, if the White Suit already has some aerial tiles, that will influence his AI to try to hit with the move he hasn't hit with yet, enabling you to try to bias him towards using a particular aerial on the foe, with the most prominent one you want here being the Captain Falcon dair of course. Even if the White Suit has no aerial tiles, you still have full control over yourself to try to play off of the foe's dodge. The White Suit may very possibly die from a scenario like this, but it's not hard to get a new one. The main thing you will lose is the tiles he is carrying. If he does start falling off the bottom, you can have him still throw a tile towards you to try to hit the foe one final time, or to pass on the only tile that his useless life was good for.
Washizu is free to grab his White Suit even if they are currently in lag, so if the White Suit has managed to provoke the foe into dodging, that can very easily cover the starting lag of this attack even with the lag increase from using the White Suit version. This can make the White Suit's otherwise unintimidating attacks a lot more threatening when you can pull this off, with the huge range of the White Suit version making it able to easily catch rolls.
AERIALS
NEUTRAL AERIAL - "REAL" VILLAIN
Washizu looks at himself in the same mirror before smashing it with his fist, thinking that god did it because he is such a vile and despicable villain! It's either that, or Washizu just hating the fact that he's old, while all those vile, despicable Corrins of the world get to enjoy their youth despite not being nearly as deserving of it as the great Washizu. After the mirror is smashed, the pieces of it shatter all around him, making a nice multihit hitbox that deals a few flinching hits that total to 9%, with the last hit knocking foes away vertically with knockback killing at 185%.
The move is a perfectly respectable nair that hits around Washizu that serves its function. The starting lag is rather long as Washizu scowls in the mirror before he breaks it, but the range on the move and the generously low ending lag makes it incredibly safe. The real selling point of the move, though, is that the hitbox lingers on for a while even after the "ending lag", as the shards of the mirror fall downwards as projectiles, falling for a maximum of one Ganondorf height before disappearing. The mirror shards deal 1% and a microflinch, and are spread out far enough apart that foes will rarely be hit by more than one, and even if they are they'll absolutely never be hit by more than 2. The stun for being hit by this move is very, very brief. If Washizu isn't prepared to take advantage of this effect, he won't get anything out of it, as it'll be over before it even begins. Washizu needs to be already starting up his fair or bair, or some other very fast move, in order to punish the foe and capitalize on this.
This can sometimes be Washizu's main way to hit foes below himself, as his dair is a slow stall then fall move. It's also worth noting that the glass shards won't vanish early if they come in contact with the ground, instead embedding themselves into the ground. This will increase their power to do 6% and tiny set vertical knockback, perfect for comboing, though the shards will still vanish after the same very brief time they normally would. If Washizu goes out of his way to use this effect, it'll be pretty obvious given he has to be a very specific distance above the ground when he uses this move for that to work well. It can be made significantly less predictable, though, if Washizu has the ability to attack during his Up Special and uses this move just barely off the ground, similar to a Peach float.
FORWARD AERIAL - MEAT SHIELD
Washizu takes out a White Suit minion to use them as a meat shield from the foe's attack! The unwilling White Suit frails their arms and legs frantically, not wanting to outright take a hit for Washizu despite how loyal they've otherwise been. Their flailing limbs deal multiple flinching hits that total to 10%, with the last hit dealing knockback that kills at 170%. This attack's range is quite good considering it's another man in front of Washizu's position performing the attack, though it also means the move has a large blind spot at point blank. This is a very obnoxious move to spam for spacing purposes, though Washizu has to be careful of the move's bad landing lag if using it much on the stage.
The very front of Washizu's body has superarmor against attacks that deal less than 7% during the move. That's not much, but hitting the White Suit doesn't hurt Washizu. However, if the White Suit is hit by any attack whatsoever from the foe, they will instantly keel over and die, showing that they were right to be afraid! Washizu will still be stuck in enough ending lag he won't be able to get a punish off on the foe, but the move will be nullified against him as if it had already hit him, so the minion will have done his job as a meat shield. It is still possible for the foe to hit Washizu and the White Suit at the same time to hit him directly. This gets a move into the foe's stale moves list without any harm to Washizu's person.
If Washizu has flight and is able to attack during his Up Special, he can pursue the foe with the fair quite easily to combo them off-stage. His meager superarmor, when stacked with the Up Special's superarmor, will also make it much harder for the foe to resist the move than it already is.
If Washizu uses this attack next to a Down Special White Suit minion, he will use them for the attack instead of pulling out a new one. While still incompetent, the White Suits from Down Special are less wimpy than the White Suits seen in this move, so they won't instantly die if they are hit during the attack. They will simply take the effects of the foe's attack, and the move will end instantly. Assuming Washizu wasn't also hit, this means he is totally free to punish the foe's attack now, as he is now immune to whatever hitbox the foe currently has out, nevermind actually attacking during the foe's ending lag.
BACK AERIAL - CANE DRAG
Washizu extends out his cane behind himself, crook pointed outwards, before dragging it back in towards himself. Only the part where he's dragging the cane in is a hitbox, but the move is still very fast on both the starting, ending, and even the landing regardless of that fact. The move deals 7.5% and horizontal knockback that pushes foes towards Washizu rather than away from him, killing at 220%. The knockback does not stop at Washizu, with foes instead getting knocked a good ways past him. The move can sometimes combo into itself at 0% if Washizu moves away from the foe as he uses the move, but this is quite rare, being more likely to just combo into the fair instead, which can last all the way up to 35% or so.
Washizu's bair becomes a powerful way to drag foes if he is able to attack during his Up Special, with him constantly moving away from the foe in the direction he wants to drag them to chain more and more bairs, and even when the bair stops chaining, the fair can potentially chain just as well after you stop chaining with the bair.
Washizu's fair is a very respectable spacer in its own right with its speed and ability to block, but the blind spot and long landing lag makes it less reliable to use strictly for spacing than the bair. The bair's main issue is that unless you already have a good Mahjong hand, you can only really use it once per air trip given it knocks foes inwards rather than outwards. Washizu definitely has his blind spots that he has to do his best to protect, but if he can manage it his air game is very respectable.
UP AERIAL - THE NOSE KNOWS
Akagi's artist is infamous for drawing characters with ridiculously large noses, and Washizu is no exception. For this move, Washizu rears his head back as if in an overly confident pose before doing a headbutt upwards, nose first. This is yet another aerial that is very quick, but unlike the others, the sheer volume of his nose makes it pack a real punch, dealing 13.5% and vertical knockback that kills at just 105%. Washizu even gets a bit of token superarmor on his head for good measure during the starting lag and duration, not being interrupted by attacks that do less than 8%.
Washizu's nose may be big, but it's not big enough to give this move a big hitbox. Even with all the speed, hitting with this move isn't easy unless you set up to combo into it with up throw. Up Throw will stop comboing long before it becomes a kill confirm into uair, unfortunately, but it's still a nice way to get the foe high up into the air above you to harass them with this attack even once it does stop comboing. While it's a fast close range move, the fact it hits above him and requires him to be in the air means it's not especially useful for defense from a very rushdown oriented foe. It does little to enhance Washizu's neutral, only being helpful for offense.
Some of Washizu's easiest hands to get are aerials and upwards moves, so it is a bit unfortunate that the uair will often be stale before Washizu attempts to actually kill people with it. If it is stale enough, though, Washizu can outright use this move to ladder people during his Up Special if he can attack during it, killing them off the top outright!
DOWN AERIAL - IMPALE
Washizu takes out a spear and thrusts downwards with it, falling downwards at an accelerated rate. The spearhead is pointed at a slight 15 degree angle forwards as he does a stall then fall at a similar angle to Sonic's dair. Washizu could try to use this spear more liberally, but having it here means gravity can do most of the work for the old man. The spear deals 17% with forceful downward knockback at the same angle Washizu is traveling. He will fall for about 3 Ganondorf heights before he comes out of the move if he hasn't already landed or died yet, having basically no ending lag if he somehow manages to fall for that long uninterrupted.
This move has all of the horrible lag that you would expect from this archetype of move. Even with gravity doing the work for him, Washizu takes quite some time to go through with this move, and god help him if he has to pull the spear up out of the ground by experiencing landing lag. It's not a terribly appealing move, being as slow as something like the aerial Bowser Bomb without quite as much power and no shield breaking potential. There is, thankfully, a big hitbox when Washizu hits the ground as a small shockwave is emitted from the ground, though this is no more powerful than the rest of the move. This is still considered the same hitbox as the main move, so you can't hit with it twice.
The main appeal of this move is if Washizu can use it during his Up Special. The dair will only "stack" with the Up Special's movement rather than overwrite it entirely if it's currently going, enabling Washizu to fly up to greatly slow the speed he goes down at, as well as reposition himself horizontally. Washizu can even hold downwards to go down faster than he normally does! The move is a lot scarier off-stage when Washizu can fly during it, as the one thing this naturally has over Bowser Bomb is the angle is very good for gimping. Just having a good recovery might not seem like a good payoff to getting a good Mahjong hand, but that recovery makes his air game far, far more powerful.
This is the only move that makes getting a hand that consists of all 5 of Washizu's aerials hard, being far harder to hit with than the others. If you're still trying to get a hand in the first place, you won't be able to have the luxury of using the dair during Up Special. The move can autocancel into grabbing the ledge like Bowser Bomb does, thankfully, so harassing the foe off the ledge with your side aerials and humping the ledge with dair is your best bet without getting a big read.
STANDARDS
JAB - FORMER GLORY
Washizu takes out a steel ball and chain before he goes to start spinning it around in front of himself, just like when he was young and ridiculously muscular! It looks quite impressive and intimidating, until Washizu actually hits somebody with it, at which point the on hit sound effect is quite pathetic, revealing that the "steel" ball and chain is actually made out of plastic.
This move is essentially Sheik's crappy old chain Side Special that got removed in SSB4. Washizu will automatically move the ball and chain around in a circular motion if nothing is input as holding A, but can direct it about with the control stick to more customize the hitbox. The chain deals rather poor damage for a repeating jab, while the Kirby sized plastic ball itself does average damage. The chain can reach out a respectable distance for how pathetic and weak it is, reaching slightly further than Bowser's width.
The jab finisher has Washizu slam the plastic ball in the direction the momentum was currently going. It's most powerful if slammed downwards onto the floor, dealing 8% and decently strong knockback that can possibly gimp off-stage. On-stage, they'll just get spiked against the floor and not take very strong knockback due to the SSB4 reduction, making the move usable for comboing. Washizu can also knock the foe towards himself at the end of the move if the ball was coming inbound, potentially leaving them in point blank for a combo at very low percents. If the ball is not slammed downwards, it deals a paltry 5.5% and knockback that kills at 250%.
Aside from using the move as a basic comboing tool, like Sheik's chain, the wonky gravity on the ball and chain enable it to see some use at ledges and on Washizu's gold slope, giving the move rather deceptively good range. In particular, the gravity when Washizu performs the jab finisher will have him slam the plastic ball down all the way onto the ground, potentially letting Washizu even reach over to the other side of a pile of gold or to smack the ledge with the plastic ball. What a pathetic way for the foe to go.
DASHING ATTACK - STOMP
Washizu does an overly exaggerated stomping motion out of his dash, dealing 15% and knockback that kills at 90% for an obviously laggy dashing attack. Ending lag is added to the dashing attack as Washizu skids to a stop from the dash after the stomp is complete, kicking up aesthetic dirt as he does so.
The existence of this move makes it obnoxiously difficult to get a match of all of your standards put together on one move, when all the rest of them aren't big asks to get Mahjong tiles for. If you get the other 4 standard Mahjong tiles, White Suit minions will be more biased to use their dashing attack if they haven't hit with it already. While they're not as fast as Captain Falcon, they're still fast enough that the move is fairly easy for them to hit with, and you can get the tile from them easily afterwards. It's an incredibly respectable stance to just never want to use this input due to the lag, especially considering Washizu's sluggish dashing speed.
Washizu's Side Special can be used as an obnoxious camping tool to get the foe to dash at Washizu a lot, and thus use their dashing attack so he can just take that tile from them with his pummel. So long as Washizu hits with every Side Special, the ammo for it is self renewiing and infinite, though he has to be careful of throwing away other tiles he actually needs for a good hand if trying to use his Side Special to camp and aggravate the foe into making mistakes. If a foe respects Washizu enough to not use their dashing attack somehow, this camping will have been made significantly more powerful.
If Washizu, god forbid, actually wants to use his dashing attack, it performs better if used on a slope. Washizu's stomping leg is a hitbox until it touches the ground, so if he jumps up at the top of a slope, the hitbox will be out for a significantly longer period. The ending lag is still terrible, and if anything you're making the move take even more time than it normally would so you're technically making the move slower. Still, having the hitbox out for more than just a couple frames can make the move more threatening.
If Washizu is in his sliding ending lag from the dashing attack when going down a slope, he will travel farther than he usually does, potentially saving him or at least making his punishment lesser than what it could be. If you slide far enough away from the foe when whiffing your dashing attack, the only option for some foes to punish you in time will be their dashing attack, giving you an opportunity to get the sought after tile. This is especially true if the foe wants to avoid damaging Washizu's gold so as to not offend him. If Washizu is in the ending lag of the move and is sliding up a slope, he'll come to a stop sooner, which will lessen the ending lag somewhat, though the move is still slow.
FORWARD TILT - DECEIVING TRAP
Washizu takes out the pathetic plastic ball and chain again, but this time swings it down in front of him at the full length of the chain. The plastic ball comes down 1.25 Bowser widths in front of Washizu, dealing 6.5% and knockback that kills at 190%. However, after it comes down, Washizu hits a button on the chain, which causes real iron spikes to come out of the ball! These spikes deal a powerful 14% and knockback that kills at 110%!
This move is fast and has good range, though has a rather large blind spot in front of Washizu, with the chain not being a hitbox in this attack. What's more important is anybody hit by the pathetic ball itself will be knocked out of the way before they can be impaled by the spikes, making the powerful hitbox rather difficult to hit with unfortunately. The move's range at least makes it decent for catching rolls, with foes ideally dodging the plastic ball hitbox before being hit by the spikes. The most common way to hit with the move, however, is that it's very good against shields. The plastic ball is a hitbox as it's slamming down and will be blocked by the foe's shield, damaging it, ideally just barely enough that the spikes that come out of the ball on the ground will shield poke through it and hit the foe directly!
This move is primarily good for punishing shields and dodges, which makes it good in tandem with the White Suit and if the foe's defensive options are weakened by having their blood drawn. That said, even if you're just threatening with the plastic ball hitbox, the move's speed and range can make it a threatening spacer if the foe isn't in point blank range yet, so long as you're careful. This move does not have any of the wonky Sheik chain gravity on it like the jab does, though, so it's not as good for being defensive. The range will be shortened if Washizu uses this attack against the ledge/the top of a gold pile's slope, enabling Washizu to hit foes who are closer to him with that move in such scenarios if he's aware of it.
It's also worth noting that Mahjong doesn't care if you hit with the sourspot or the sweetspot, you still get an ftilt tile. If Washizu has set himself up where getting the ftilt is a threatening tile, foes have to be scared of the ordinary plastic ball ftilt. If they're scared enough of it and excessively dodging/shielding to avoid it, then that just makes it easier to hit with the sweetspot anyway.
UP TILT - NECK CHAIN
The plastic ball and chain appears strapped to Washizu's neck as he spins around. Washizu's body is not a hitbox during this attack, just the ball and chain. The chain deals multiple flinching hits that are miniscule and deal less than 1% damage, pushing foes to the outer bounds of the hitbox. This theoretically does the most damage if Washizu hits the foe at point blank range at the start of the move, but the damage gain is so small that it's not terribly worth it, netting you 2.5% extra if done perfectly. The ball hitbox deals 8% and horizontal knockback away from Washizu that kills at 165%, located 1.25 Bowser widths on either side of Washizu due to the speed at which he is spinning. It could be considerably more powerful if Washizu turned the spikes on on the ball, but he doesn't want to risk hitting himself with the thing when it's bound around his -neck-.
This up tilt can be angled horizontally the same way some ftilts can be angled vertically. This will cause Washizu to tilt his head and swing the ball and chain around at a 45 degree angle. This is mostly useful to hit grounded enemies, though gives the move some considerable vertical range also, enabling the move to combo after a uthrow where it otherwise couldn't. Angling the move also changes the angle of the knockback, and if performed on a slope can potentially have Washizu swing the ball completely vertically. Standing near the top of a slope with the move angled up can make it into a weirdly viable KO option if a foe tries to just jump over Washizu's gold, potentially killing at as little as 125% under totally ideal conditions. It'll stop comboing out of uthrow before that, unfortunately, but this is still good if you just want to space the foe a long distance away.
Used at the ledge, the downward angled one's knockback is ideal for gimping foes, similar to the jab. This is significantly more powerful than the jab, but leaves the dizzy Washizu with much more ending lag than that move. Having both of these moves at your disposal after having thrown a White Suit off-stage with dsmash will leave the foe in a rather miserable position getting back to the stage without Washizu having to bother getting off, and unlike his aerial gimping game, is still very powerful with no boosts from Mahjong.
DOWN TILT - CANE STAB
Washizu angrily stabs the pointed end of his cane into the ground in front of himself. This move has very poor range in front of Washizu, though at least has the decency to be fast. The attack deals 7.5% and deals knockback at the Sakurai angle that kills at 155%. Foes will always be tripped by this attack if they are a low enough percentage that they take horizontal knockback along the floor from the Sakurai angle, rather than getting launched at higher percentages. This attack is mostly useful for tripping foes, and once it stops doing that you're basically just using it as one of the few close range panic buttons Washizu has. He would have a more realistic shot of comboing with the move if his dashing speed wasn't bad, and as is mostly has to stick to comboing it into Side Special. The move will always combo into Side Special so long as it trips, and at super low percents can combo into grab or the sourspot ftilt. If you're not looking for a Mahjong hand that can make use of the dtilt or your hand is getting full and you risk pushing out tiles you actually want to use, this simple combo into Side Special is a good way to space without filling your hand with garbage you don't want.
Like many of Washizu's moves, this attack is easiest to hit with at a slope/the ledge, this time it's because the move is aimed at the ground. The move doesn't gain advantageous knockback in those situations, though, and he because foes won't be on level ground in those scenarios Washizu won't be able to earn his trip. Washizu needs a runway of ground for the foe to slide along, longer the higher the foe's percentage is, if he wants them to stay tripped and be able to combo the move into something. Those dtilt trips don't come for free.
While this move is still fast, the hitbox only comes out when the cane hits the ground, meaning the move is good at shield poking. Considering the somewhat slow nature of Washizu's grab, shields are a rather powerful measure to deal with him at point blank range, where he is already fairly weak in general. His other anti shield move, the ftilt, doesn't hit at point blank range either unless Washizu uses the move close to a ledge. This is still far from ideal, but it gets the job done in a dire situation. If Washizu does get the dtilt into his stale moves list a couple of times, the Sakurai angle knockback will keep tripping foes for longer, enabling the combo into Side Special to keep going strong.
FINAL SMASH - WASHIZU ARC
Upon inputting Final Smash, a group of White Suits appear in front of Washizu to try to grab the foe(s) like in his grab, though there's a lot more of them this time. If successful, Washizu will take them to his mansion in a cinematic and force them to sit down at his Mahjong table to play Mahjong with him for the next 20 years. The passage of time is conveyed by spinning clocks, and after it's complete, the foe will have aged! This will treat them as if Washizu had performed a single full strength dthrow on them, and can potentially kill them. During the Final Smash, Washizu can make any inputs he wants to get those tiles into his hand, given he's playing literal Mahjong for 20 years. If the match was a time match and Washizu is currently winning the match, the timer will instantly go down by 2 minutes.
Washizu mysteriously seemed to have not aged over the 20 years that have supposedly taken place...Which is because he has secretly used an aging formula from a tacky spin off manga to drug the foe. The tacky nature of this formula explains why character models do not significantly change after this Final Smash is used - Lucas, for example, just gets a mustache and gray hair similar to Porky rather than aging into a proper adult model.
