Donkey Kong (SSBM)/Back aerial

Hitbox visualization showing Donkey Kong's back aerial.

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Overview

DK does a midair kick behind him, which has sex kick properties. One of DK's best moves, it has a lot of desirable traits, including good range, a slight disjoint past his foot, low landing lag, an exceptionally generous autocancel window (both at the start and end of the move), and average (or slightly above average) stats in all other attributes (knockback, active frames, end lag, damage, shield stun, etc...), which makes it an all around good aerial that's a staple of DK's play.

Arguably the most important use of back air in DK's kit is as a tool in neutral, similar to Jigglypuff's back aerial. Due to the fact that DK's forward-facing aerials are consistently a lot less useful when approaching (forward aerial is slow and leaves him open to a whiff punish, and neutral aerial has limited range and weak knockback), DK players will opt to turn around then back air at their opponents when approaching or walling them out; they can accomplish this from a dash-dance by jumping from a pivot or turn-around shield-stop, or by using his neutral special to turnaround before cancelling the first-windup with the shield button, a technique known as Reverse Charge Cancelling. With good timing, it is possible to do a reverse charge cancel and land a back aerial within a shorthop.

Adding to its utility as a neutral option, it's also quite safe on shield, both when SHFFLd (which makes it +/- 0 on block) and when spaced. In addition, it can be used to set up a frame trap with his up special, which, due to its low start-up and initial intangibility, will beat the majority of most character's out of shield options, even Fox's infamous OoS shine. When the DK player is the one shielding, it's generally regarded as the best out of shield aerial, especially when the opponent has crossed-up the DK and up special would whiff; up aerial is slightly faster and is generally better from a shield drop, but will whiff otherwise due to the hitbox being placed on DK's head.

The move can also be comboed into from Cargo up-throw or down aerial, but DK generally has better options (namely, his up air), although it can be used as a DI mixup. It can be used to start combos, and the move's weak hit is an occasionally useful combo extender which can allow him to followup with another aerial, including itself, which can send the opponent off-stage and set up for edgeguards. The move's edgeguarding potential is incredible, especially considering that DK can do it by letting go of ledge and double-jumping before regrabbing the ledge, and can reasonably kill most opponents off-stage at +100%. He can even perform a pseudo-wall of pain by double-jumping, hitting the opponent 2-to-3 times while off-stage, before finishing the string with the strong hit of aerial up special and drifting back to the ledge.

Hitboxes

ID	Part	Damage	SD	BK	KS	FKV	Radius	Bone	Offset			Sound
Clean hit
0	0	13%	0	10	100	0	5.859	0	0.0	6.655824	-16.4052	Kick
1	0	13%	0	10	100	0	3.906	0	0.0	4.655952	-5.655888	Kick
Late hit
0	0	9%	0	0	100	0	5.4684	0	0.0	6.655824	-16.4052	Kick
1	0	9%	0	0	100	0	3.5154	0	0.0	4.655952	-5.655888	Kick