This issue actually has content on 5R! Lists all of the changes for each character as well as commentary on every character by various players... and a tier list:

S Rank: Taka-arashi, Wolf, Lion, El Blaze, Pai, Vanessa, Lei-Fei
A Rank: Goh, Akira, Jeffry, Lau, Eileen, Sarah, Jean, Aoi, Jacky, Kage
B Rank: Brad, Shun

I am finally maining a top tier character! WOOT!

Thanks for the list man.

btw, is it possible for you to translate some of the commentary?

lol @ Shun, game is probably extremely close together finally.

No C nor D tier? How leet is that!

I say give it a couple months or two for them to make a new tier list

Wow, Taka from trash to top? Something certainly changed. Looks like every character I play is A rank now (AK, KA, JE), as opposed to top, middle and bottom compared to before. This certainly does seem like it will change considering how condensed the list is.

And some translations of the commentaries would be amazing, though not expected.

Thanks for the list.

Shun is B rank! LOL LOL lil bastard.

I know why Taka went from shit to Super tier, and why Aoi dropped but the others I'm not very well versed on. I'll try to translate Taka/Aoi's articles but for the rest I may just take photos of them and then upload them somewhere for noodalls and anyone else to help translate.

Wow what tier compression...the next revision should be rock solid. Maybe solid enough for a console release?

No C-Tier. Way to go Sega balance team.

Tier compression seems to be the new fad when you look at how Arcadia tierlists have looked over the last few months for all games.

I'm so happy to see Taka at the top. Now if only Jeffry could hold his position I would have been set. Taka and Jeff are my dream team.

I'm not sure if it's a lot of work, but would it be possible to translate the names of the Akira players that commented for the Akira changes? That's what I'm quite interested in, as it seems like there are a few that commented.

Interesting to compare the above with the tier list formed from akai's data:

Tier A: Jean, Akira, Kage, Taka, Eileen, Wolf, Lau
Tier B: Sarah, Blaze, Vanessa, Jacky, Aoi, Brad, Jeffry, Lion, Shun, Pai
Tier C: Lei, Goh

Lei Fei seems to be a character that's super strong on paper but weak in terms of tournament appearance. Goh appears the similarly though to a lesser degree.

Conversely, Kage is a character that is weak on paper but does well in tournaments, though personally I think it's because there are so many Kage dedicated players in Japan who are very good.

Looks like there is agreement between the two lists that Taka and Wolf are tops. (Wolf's damage potential is...insane.)

Unfortunately, it does seem like Brad and Shun are slightly weaker than the others.

Bottom line, both paper theory and tournament performance indicates this is one of the most balanced VFs ever created. Now if Sega can only get this damn game on console...