Originally posted by Superboy Prime
Nah dude.With an emulated Ansatsuken Sakura managed to impress Ryu. She also fought Bison and sparred with Ken.
So far Hitomi has only managed to beat Jann Lee. Impressive by her own right, but Sakura has shown more potential.
I say she beats her without a doubt because this time she WILL know how to perform the Ansatsuken moves.
So, lets get this right, the ability to impress Ryu + potential upside >>> Hitomi's Sucess + Experience?
Hitomi fought against Hayate, and although she lost, I'd say Hayate is about par with Bison. By reading the wikipedia post on Sakura, it sounds like she was beaten soundly and easily, where as Hitomi was atleast competitive against Hayate. Based on that alone, you'd almost say that Hitomi's faced off against opponents equal to that of what Sakura's faced and had more success, so therefore Hitomi gets the nod based on the competition, and sucess she's faced.
Ryu is a bit better than Ken, so Sakura's sparring with Ken means very little if she's training with Ryu. Hitomi trained with Ein (Hayate) for a stint, plus has been a black belt for many years and would have a great deal more experience, even including Sakura's stint with Ryu. You can't suggest that Ken/Ryu is that much better than Hayate, so the two girls have both sparred with great fighters.
So keeping in mind that the two have similar backgrounds and only Hitomi has proven results, I'd say Hitomi wins. It's great that Sakura has upside, but whether or not it materializes is something completely different. Hitomi, who would be 21 according to the storyline, would only have improved as well, not to mention that at 18 she finished 3rd in the DOA3 tournament.
Who knows what Hitomi might have accomplished in that three year period, but it's likely that she'll have improved as well since she too has massive upside, and I'd say more than Sakura since... well, you know, Hitomi has actually accomplished something.
In fact, I can't even see why this match would be close...