In my opinion, it isn't worth paying the extra $110 for the Darker Imperial Hinoki 2020 over the DS 90. I own multiple DS 90's, and now 2 Imperial blades, so I am speaking from personal experience.
I purchased an Imperial Hinoki 2020 a couple of months ago, and couldn't be happier with the quality. As a result, I purchased a second from TableTennis11 so that I would have a backup for tournaments, and it arrived this week. At best, I would say it is a below average DS 90 with an 'Imperial' stamp on it. The product description says "every single component and step of the development is excruciatingly carefully selected and controlled." If this is true, my blade should never have left their factory, and Tabletennis11 should not have sold it. It hurts me to say this, as I only play with 1 ply Darker blades, but I fear they must be desperate, or just don't care about their reputation anymore to pull a cheap marketing stunt like this.
If you still want to purchase one, make sure you have them send pictures of the blade from every angle possible prior to purchasing it. Don't make the same expensive mistake I made, trusting that it will be of the highest quality, as advertised.
You have to admit though, it's a pretty good scam stamping on an "Imperial" logo and charging a premium... unless of course you care about your reputation.
