is a character and the protagonist of SNK's The King of Fighters series of fighting video games. The character was first introduced in the 1994 video game The King of Fighters '94 as the leader of the Japan team from the series' title tournament. A school delinquent, Kyo is the head to the Kusanagi clan who wield pyrokinetic powers. His clan is one of three who banished the legendary snake demon entity Yamata no Orochi, forming a rivalry with the cursed Iori Yagami, the successor of Kusanagi's ally turned into enemy. Besides reprising his role in printed adaptations, Kyo's personal life is explored in Yumekobo's game The King of Fighters: Kyo which deals with his personal life where his girlfriend Yuki is revealed to be predecessor of an ancient maiden the Kusanagi saved from Orochi in the ancient times.
Inspired by the boxing character Joe Yabuki from Ashita no Joe, Kyo was created by Yuichiro Hiraki after director Masanori Kuwasashi had the approval from producer Takashi Nishiyama to create the original character rivals guests from Fatal Fury, Art of Fighting among other SNK games in The King of Fighters '94. He was also given a character arc to contrast new protagonists introduced in later story arcs. Shinichi Morioka designed Kyo to make him look stylish and realistic with his high school uniform whereas styleos among other artists gave him more casual outfits starting with The King of Fighters '99. Besides redesigns, Kyo's gameplay also changed from standard fighting character that relies on distance to hand-to-hand combat. The change of design and gameplay led to creation of clone character explored in the NESTS arc involving the terrorist organization who creates an army of Kyo clones.
Video game journalists have praised Kyo's design and fighting style as among the best of the series and in fighting games in general. His constant changes of designs and moves were praised and has stood out as one of the protagonists from the series with the exception of The King of Fighters XIV. Kyo's role in the story has been praised for his heroic portrayal while facing villains, while also forming relationships with other characters, most notably Iori Yagami as both rival and ally, standing out even after finishing in his arc.
Conception and creation Origin and influences
In the making of the game The King of Fighters '94, director Masanori Kuwasashi expressed pressure about creating a new protagonist of the fighting game containing multiple SNK IPs. He consulted producer Takashi Nishiyama who thought it would be beneficial for sales. Another planned name before Syo was . In the end, SNK chose the name Kyo as they felt it was more fitting. While Kyo's girlfriend Yuki was also created by Morioka out of jealousy, Kuwasashi was against using her in a romantic scene, believing it would not fit the narrative.
Kyo is as a 19-year-old teenager who passes a year in high school in The King of Fighters '95. Unlike Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury, time in The King of Fighters never passes, resulting in Kyo always repeating a grade due to insufficient attendance during the Orochi arc. While in charge of writing the character, Hiraki sought to contrast Kyo with Street Fighter lead Ryu, as he believed the latter was a popular character in international markets, and that Kyo's characterization and design could benefit from appealing to as broad of a demographic as possible. In contrast to Terry and Ryo, Kyo was given a normal life in his debut. However, the death of his father Saisyu at the hands of Rugal Bernstein was executed to make him more tragic and serious when it came to his training, leaving Japan in his ending to become stronger in future battles.
Throughout most of his development, Kyo was named and was dressed in martial arts clothing common to fighting games of the time. The last name Kusanagi was intended as connecting point between the character and the Yamata no Orochi legend, which was the basis of the story arc of the series. The name Syo would later be used for Kyo's Another Striker in The King of Fighters 2000. Director Masanori Kuwasashi was responsible for the Orochi arc and handled how Kyo's traits are addressed in the narrative. The inclusion of the rival Iori Yagami and the revived Saisyu in The King of Fighters '95 were meant to give Kyo a more coherent story because the first game was written as a more all-star game. According to game designer Eisuke Ogura, the rivalry between Kyo and Iori still allows space for respect for each other and makes their team-ups with fellow Sacred Treasure Team member Chizuru Kagura to defeat a common enemy feel natural. Chizuru was created as means to expand the Orochi arc and bring Kyo and Iori together as the "Three Sacred Treasures Team", which represents the three Imperial Regalia of Japan. Characterization and voice actors
When it came to his personality, Kyo's creator Yuichiro Hiraki was inspired by Joe Yabuki from the boxing manga Ashita no Joe as he believed hotheaded fighters like Joe were popular and it would be a major contrast to the famous Street Fighter character Ryu in terms of how they see each other's need of fighting. In his introduction, Kyo debuted as a slightly hot-blooded and somewhat egocentric character, but then the outline of the character gradually develops with the introduction of new protagonists that make him act more calm in comparison. By The King of Fighters XV, Ureshino refers to Kyo and Shun'ei as the most mature protagonists in KOF history, which makes their interactions feel natural, especially because the former is looking after his successors. While Kyo and Benimaru's relationship was initially that of rivals, it eventually became like that of siblings, with Benimaru acting as the older one as he was heavily overshadowed by Iori. The romance between Kyo and Yuki remains stable across the franchise according to the novelist. Ureshino noted The King of Fighters '99 added a subtext of happiness of the two rivals meeting again, believing they had died when fighting Orochi and later would fight out of boredom. However, Ureshino does not see the idea of Iori developing his social skills as it would ruin the appeal he has with Kyo as well as the charm he has on his own.
Kyo's Japanese voice actor Masahiro Nonaka was first called to work in The King of Fighters '94 after meeting sound designer Yasumasa Yamada. At first, Nonaka had poor impressions of Yamada's work, as he believed it would not be as appealing as other SNK IPs. Nonaka's Kyo was inspired by rock singer Yutaka Ozaki, impressed by his rebellious personality and his appeal to Japanese people for writing inspiring lyrics. Seeing the similarities between Ozaki and Kyo's personalities, Nonaka wanted the latter to be like Ozaki. Nonaka's performance was well received, as he recalls having several fanletters involving several lines he made the character say, to the point Kyo became a more popular character than those from Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury. While recording The King of Fighters: Kyo, Nonaka revealed Kyo's more sensitive side when dealing with his girlfriend Yuki, the relationship which the actor favored for coming across as rather unique amongst SNK's works. Nonaka related to his character for being young and reckless until he "grew up" in his later appearances. Nonaka befriended Iori's actor Kunihiko Yasui and both noted that despite fans wanting their characters to become friendlier with each other, it did not appear to happen with Nonaka claiming that seems to be more common in action anime.
Tomoaki Maeno replaced Nonaka for The King of Fighters XIV and said he was putting in all his efforts into the project and hoped the fandom would enjoy it. Maeno was somewhat intimidated by the impact of Kyo as the main character from a famous game series. He often played The King of Fighters XIV as Kyo in order to fully appreciate the character. For The King of Fighters for Girls, Maeno was careful with his performance as he understood how beloved his character is. He was careful in his songs and took a liking to the catchphrase "Moetaro?" (Japanese: Got burned?). Yuichi Nakamura portrayed Kyo in a commercial promoting the cellphone game The King of Fighters All Stars.
Development Kyo's repeated appearances in every game in the series, at the insistence of SNK executives for marketing purposes, made story planning for each title challenging. Kyo and Iori were supposed to be removed after The King of Fighters '98 due to business reasons, but in the end, they have continued to appear ever since due to fans' demands. In the NESTS arc, Kyo then to some extent is involved in the story in terms of his connections with the new protagonist K'. Though K' was consistently promoted in each game port, Kyo was added to the Neo Geo CD's cover alongside him since Kyo leading his existence in the game to become popular knowledge. SNK chose to expand the previous Orochi's arc primarily focusing on Kyo Kusanagi, leading to the spin-offs The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood and The King of Fighters EX2: Howling Blood where his role from the Orochi arc is expanded.
The developers of Eolith, the series for The King of Fighters 2001, noted that Kyo and Iori were also popular in Korea, which led to the characters' immediate inclusion in their game when compared with the two previous installments where they had no official teams and were hidden. In the "Ash Saga", Kyo, Iori, and Chizuru's Three Sacred Treasures play a major role in the story. Both the Ash arc and Maximum Impact games were developed at the same time, which resulted in Kyo and Iori still playing a major role in the Another Day original video animation that promoted Maximum Impact 2. Furthermore, despite Ash being the protagonist of The King of Fighters XIII, the PlayStation 3 port of the game instead had Kyo used on the cover as means to promote more familiar characters. Eisuke Ogura claimed the staff originally were not confident with using Shun'ei as the sole protagonist in The King of Fighters XIV so for such installment the team decided to focus on Kyo and Iori again as the biggest focus.*https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=88&v=OEGudn2SuA0&feature=youtu.be *
Designs
When designing Kyo, developers wanted a new, "snazzy" hero who would fight against characters from other SNK series, Fatal Fury, Psycho Soldier, Ikari Warriors and Art of Fighting, eventually outshining them. Artist Shinichi Morioka designed Kyo, citing Akira Fudo from Go Nagai's Devilman manga and, (Translation by Shmuplations. ). and Shotaro Kaneda from Akira as major influences. Kyo's pixel art was created by Hiraki, who, despite leaving SNK to work on another project a few years later, was asked by Capcom's Kaname Fujioka to once again work on Kyo's design for the crossover game Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000. Several of the series' designers said Kyo is one of the most difficult characters to illustrate because of his popularity. As the "face" of The King of Fighters, Kyo's sprites were made by Toyohisa Tanabe, who aimed to be careful in designing him. In contrast to the other popular fighting game characters like Liu Kang from Mortal Kombat or Sagat from Street Fighter, Kyo was given a more realistic and stylish look, as Tanabe found other icons cartoony. In his first appearances, Kyo wears a modified version of his school uniform with a sun mark that represents his heritage as knitted by Yuki.