You don't have to react quickly though, seeing as your shit hits like a quarter of the screen (droit's range is hilarious for how fast it comes out); that's precisely what makes her easy to play. I find the execution involved with playing Mitsuru to be fairly easy, but that's mostly just P4A in general. Also, I don't know the numbers but I wouldn't be surprised if Chie were less played than Mitsuru. In fact, other than Yu and Teddie (Yu being the most played and Teddie the least) I don't think there's any character which is significantly under- or over-played. I don't agree that Yu is easier to play than Mitsuru; he still has to score a knockdown.
Her normals are definitely fast. The speed of her normals aren't simply defined by their startup; what makes them fast is how huge they are and therefore what move they're likely to be competing with. The size of her 5A means that her 5A is competing with a lot of character's B moves for space control. You discussed her 5A; her 5A hitbox is also very long, and it still has an average startup for a 5A. Most 5As are a jab with a tiny range, not a poke. Also, citation needed on Chie vs. Mitsuru being in Chie's favor.
When Akihiko loses his persona, he loses one of his few space controlling options (his fullscreen super). Yeah, this is probably as inconsequential as Mitsuru losing her persona (which only costs her damage) but when most characters lose their persona, they stop being able to do things key to their game plan.
I know I didn't believe it either. He's right though, I checked.
That's why I was saying that for the most part Mitsu makes her 5A speed not matter if she spaces it correctly. however if she's in close range a number of characters can outright beat her poke. It's a godly 5A, but there are ways around it. The reason why Chie destroys Mitsuru is her amazing ability to get in, couple that with her ability to low profile 5A making it non-abusable and her fast 5A, and you're as good as dead against a good Chie player that understands the matchup and can get in on you. Once they get in you literally can't do shit because her jab will beat anything you have all the time. Couple that with her in awakening and she gets in for free as long as she has the meter. I believe T-Loc said Chie and Teddie are some of her worst matchups and I agree with that as long as the player knows the matchup and what beats 5A and can properly read Mitsu, Chie slightly more so. Aegis is straight up a free loss.
ehh, I'd say it's about average in terms of reactions, since you can't really convert anything off a counter from max range. You have to get in there somewhat and do a confirm. There are ways around it though, which I'm currently working on improving like fatal counters off of throw tech baits, or fatals off of blocked supers/dp's.
In terms of players I guess it's purely anecdotal, but in my experience with ranked I've seen about as many Mitsuru's as I do Naoto's. When I play a mirror match I'm usually surprised because I really don't see that many online, maybe it's because she's a charge character, but she's definitely on the low end of the played spectrum along with Teddie, Yukiko, slab and lab.
And Aki's fullscreen super isn't available all the time(only in awakening, plus you need meter) and thus is not as heavily relied upon, when compared to Mitsu who loses most of her combos that she uses all the time.
GG Onemic, I gotta admit I have NO IDEA HOW TO FIGHT MITSURU AHHH
My poor Kanji ;_;
Im sorry, Ima let you finish, but Mitsuru has one of the best pokes of all time
ggs man, if you continue using Labrys you can probably body me. I still have problems with the lab/slab matchup.