Hitomi

Hitomi is a very friendly, cheerful, energetic girl but is also a hard-working martial artist, through-and-through. Her victories have come as a result of a grueling, life-long training regimen as well as a complete commitment to her studies and her art. Not only has Hitomi practiced her techniques, she has studied them, coming to understand the deeper principles behind karate as well as of the art itself.

She is very much an honorable competitor and always fights fairly in a match, to do otherwise would bring shame to her name, her martial art, and her father's dojo. Often after winning, she will compliment her opponent rather than shame them like other fighters in the series. She is also fair in her dealings with others treating everybody equally and with the respect that they deserve.

Despite her Japanese name & study in Karate, it appears that Hitomi is acclimated more into the German lifestyle than that of the Japanese: she lives in Germany, sports western attire, and has a relatively close, more visible relationship with her German father while her relationship with her Japanese mother is less known.

She also at times can be extremely naïve

Appearance: Hitomi is a slender, athletic, and petite young woman of average height with a physically fit build. Although she has Japanese heritage from her mother, Hitomi has a more Western appearance, overall: she has blue , yet almond-shaped Asian eyes and shoulder-length brunette hair, which is styled with long straight-bangs and a front fringe, normally pushed back with a pink headband.

History

Early Life:

Hitomi was born in Germany to her German father who is a karate master with his own dojo, and her Japanese mother. From a young age, Hitomi trained in the art of Karate under her father's guidance. By the age of eighteen, she had earned a black belt.

After the events of Dead or Alive, Hitomi found ‘Ein’ passed out in the Black Forest, after he had been abandoned by Dead or Alive Tournament Executive Committee, after they had finished Project Epsilon. Hitomi took him home, and she and Ein studied karate, until Ein left to enter the second Dead or Alive Tournament to find out about his past, which he forgot due to Amnesia. During this tournament, Ein regained his memories, remembering that he was really Hayate, a shinobi leader, and returned home to the Mugen Tenshin village.

The Third Tournament:

Hitomi enters the third tournament in order to test her skills against other martial artists and prove to her father that she was now a capable fighter, and an independent woman. While working on the Freedom Survivor as a waitress, she reunites with Ein and meets Ayane. When Hitomi asks her if she's Kasumi, the ninja is angered and fights Hitomi. After the fight, Ayane is surprised that Hitomi's karate is equal to her ninjustu. Ein then finally tells Hitomi that his real name is Hayate and that he and Ayane are ninjas, much to Hitomi's surprise. While on the ship with Ein, she meets Jann Lee, who also shares a keen passion for martial arts, and the two share some philosophies about the way of martial arts. However Hitomi gets mad at him for being too hard on opponents after he brutally defeats Leifang.

With Hitomi ranking third place in the tournament, her father lets her leave the dojo, and she moves on with her new life as an independent adult.

The Fourth Tournament:

When a sudden illness befalls upon her father, the family's dojo goes into despair and becomes afflicted with financial trouble. To help her father, Hitomi enters the fourth Dead or Alive Tournament in an attempt to win the cash prize. During the tournament, she faces and defeats Leifang after a dispute over a cabbage, but the two of them form a friendship afterwards. Then she faces Jann Lee again, after he 'rescues' her from a T-Rex; she finds it "cruel" of Jann to attack the dinosaur, despite its attempt to eat her.

In the DOATEC Tritower, Hitomi eventually encounters Hayate again, and she pleads for him to come back with her to the dojo, admitting that she does not know what to do without him. Hayate tells her that he can't because he is no longer Ein, and the fourth tournament is no tournament at all, but a war. He then asks her to spar for old time's sake; she happily accepts. After the fight, they tell each other to take care and Hitomi runs down the stairs and passes Ayane with tears in her eyes.

After the tournament, Hitomi returns home, continuing to live her independent life.

The Fifth Tournament:

Upon hearing about the fifth Dead or Alive Tournament, Hitomi reunites with Leifang and the two of them set off a journey to train together. While training at a circus that's still under construction, the pair does a friendly sparring match against Brad Wong and Eliot. They are then invited to the tournament by Zack, who does so humorously by launching himself into the air with the human cannon.

Later, Hitomi and Leifang travel to South America to continue their training. There, they spot Jann Lee being recruited by Zack into joining the tournament. Knowing that they need to do their own training, they spar against each other to improve their skills. After the fight, the two of them go their own ways, promising each other to meet again at the tournament. While on her own, Hitomi runs into Ayane, who's trying to find Kasumi's clone. Hitomi asks if she's entering the fifth tournament, but Ayane said she isn't, while chastising her choice of clothing for training. The two women battle it out for a bit and Ayane leaves to continue her search.

At the tournament, Hitomi defeats Mila in the quarterfinals and Eliot in the semifinals. Before the finals, Hitomi reunites with Hayate, proudly telling him that she needs to win one more fight and she'll be champion. She then asks him if he could spar with her, telling him that her muscles are a bit tight. Hayate grants her request and they spar together. After the fight, they wish each other good luck, and then Hayate departs with Ayane.

Hitomi is defeated by Jann Lee in the finals, making her the runner-up of the tournament.

Fighting Style: Hitomi can be considered the successor to Ein, in terms of fighting technique and statistics. However, Hitomi is slightly faster, compared to Ein's strikes being somewhat more powerful.

Hitomi's fighting style relies on quick, medium-damage strikes and a good mix up game, making her well-suited to an aggressive, offensive play style. She also has throws useful for both punishing blocking foes and resetting the tempo in her favor. Her recovery time frame is also excellent, and her holds and parries make her defensively quite balanced as well, as she has both expert holds to deal heavy damage upon good reads and her parries can help eliminate pressure as they shut down high and mid punches and have follow up attacks as well, which can scare faster opponents into using slower kick attacks instead. As a well-balanced character with simple commands she's very easy to use and well-suited to beginners. Her tell-tale "wind-up" shared with Ein, however, is a popular counter-attack weakness for her. Her "interruption attacks", however (such as the Tsubauchi), are competent in keeping the opponent off-guard, as well as making Hitomi preferable for aggressive players.

While solid, Hitomi does lack in terms of evasion as she has very few crouching lows and her standing lows, while plentiful and used as a mix up from a lot of her strings, are very easy to react to, and easy to jab interrupt. Her speed is also mostly applied to her punches as her kicks tend to be average or below average in speed and execution, and like Ein she's better suited at about mid range but only when dealing with quicker foes up close, but her reset throws and her parries can easily help help her at close range.

Dead or Alive 6 keeps her mostly unchanged, but she's given a few new string enders like her thrice hitting mid to high jab from her high kick, adding more offensive edge to her move set. She's also gained a couple of Ein's moves from Last Round too, making her better suited for playing more defensively and ranged when needed.