What is Kara?

[$Intelligent_Ho0vy$]

idk i just hear this word thrown around everywhere these days but what the heck is a kara? can someone explain this to me?

[Vassago Rain]

It means a character has a normal or command normal that moves them forward ever so slightly during startup, which you can then cancel into a throw, effectively letting you grab the opponent even though he wasn't in range.

[Rikkore]

Kara basically just means to cancel. usually done so with normals or command normals that move characters foward. so let's say Sagat's Kara fireballs or Ken's kara throw. A lot of characters have kara cancel. Ryu, Gen, vega, oni, etc.

[Goofy Oomfie]

"Kara" is japanese for empty, it's used as preffix used to say that a move is being kara canceled. This is cancelling a normal into a throw or command throw before it hits, usually before the active frames. The point is that the canceled move moves you forward, effectively extending the range of your throw.
An example is cancelling Makoto's f.LK into her command grab (hcb.K), which is called kara-karakusa. There's a bunch of them but some are more useful than others. IIRC Makoto's kara throw lets you grab an opponent after comboing the command grab into HP xx qcf.HP just like in 3rd Strike. It's not trivial, though. I've been able to pull it off on keyboard but haven't done it ever in stick, since it requires you to do the hcb motion in a few frames.

[$Intelligent_Ho0vy$]

thank you guys, stay awesome my dudes!

[-Ramen-]

Originally posted by Herzenswärme:

"Kara" is japanese for empty, it's used as preffix used to say that a move is being kara canceled. This is cancelling a normal into a throw or command throw before it hits, usually before the active frames. The point is that the canceled move moves you forward, effectively extending the range of your throw.
An example is cancelling Makoto's f.LK into her command grab (hcb.K), which is called kara-karakusa. There's a bunch of them but some are more useful than others. IIRC Makoto's kara throw lets you grab an opponent after comboing the command grab into HP xx qcf.HP just like in 3rd Strike. It's not trivial, though. I've been able to pull it off on keyboard but haven't done it ever in stick, since it requires you to do the hcb motion in a few frames.

Kara can be used for armor properties as well, it isn't just for throws. (Though throws are the most known, and common.)

Yun has kara palms that are a necessity if you wanted to play him at higher levels.

Anything can be cancelled into another input if the next input is higher in the priority scaling. EX moves cancelled into super/ultra will give armor properties of the EX move, but will not burn the EX meter of the move that was cancelled.

You can kara EX parry into super as Gouken, or EX run into super for Fuerte for armor cancelled supers. You can armor cancel ultras too. Fuerte has a very useful Armor cancel for his Ultra 2.

Gen can cancel his focus attack into his stance change for a stance parry. You can even Kara taunt with focus attack > taunt to absorb fireballs, or single hits with high recovery frames.