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}} is the main character in SNK Playmore's ''The King of Fighters'' fighting game series; he was first introduced in ''The King of Fighters '94'' as the leader of the Japan team. He is one of the iconic characters of the series and regularly appears on publicity material and merchandise. His name and abilities were designed in order to relate him with the ''Yamata no Orochi'' legend. Because he was highly popular and his outfit changed along the series, the designers created a few clones with his old appearance. Kyo is first introduced as a cocky delinquent high school student who is the heir to the Kusanagi clan, who can use pyrokinetic powers. In ''The King of Fighters'' universe, his clan is one of the three clans that sealed the legendary snake entity, Yamata no Orochi. Due to his clan's past, Kyo fights against the Kusanagi's enemies; his rival Iori Yagami, the last member of the Yagami clan, and the Orochi's soldiers. He enters every ''The King of Fighters'' tournament representing Japan and uses his clan's fighting style of Kenpo combine with his pyrokinetic ability. Aside from the main series, Kyo also appears in several other media series such as spin-offs and crossover video games as well as comic adaptations of the series. Video games journalists have praised his design and fighting style as one of the best from the series. Reviewers noted him to be a necessary character to have in every video game from the series and commented of him to have the best winning pose. A variety of collectibles based on Kyo have been created, including key chains and figurines. ==Conception and creation== When designing characters for the first ''King of Fighters'' game, developers wanted a new, "snazzy" hero who would easily fight against ''Fatal Fury'' and ''Art of Fighting'' characters. Through most of his development, Kyo was meant to be called , and was dressed in martial arts clothing common with fighting games at the time. But late in production, his name was changed to Kyo Kusanagi in order to relate him with the ''Yamata no Orochi'' legend, which was used as the idea to the first arc.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Kyo Kusanagi Official Profile )〕 His fighting style was changed as a part of the series' overhaul in ''The King of Fighters '96''. To appease all fans, they also included an older version of Kyo from ''KOF '94'' into ''The King of Fighters '97'' and placed ''The King of Fighters '95'' version of Kyo in ''The King of Fighters '98'', which made both versions of Kyo popular during location tests.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Kyo 94 Official Profile )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Kyo 95 Official Profile )〕 Developers from the game decided to make Kyo's main skill would be fire along with the other movesets from the other members of the original Japan Team being inspired by the anime ''Getter Robo''. In addition, the three members of the Japan Team had similar personalities to the main characters from such anime. Kyo was based on the main character who had a "fiery" persona. The elements and the personalities are also a homage to a Japanese phrase of giving birth to fire (it is roughly translated: "lighting strikes the earth which sparks the flame").〔 The idea of having two Kyos at once led to the concept of his clones.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=95 Kyo Official Profile )〕 During the early development stages of ''The King of Fighters '99'', SNK planned to avoid adding Kyo and Iori Yagami to the game, as the story's focus was meant to center on the new protagonist, K'. However, they retracted this decision as "they couldn't leave these popular characters in limbo".〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Kyo Kusanagi-1 Official Profile )〕 Kyo was redesigned for the game, but some designers wanted to return to his iconic school uniform. When they were nearing the end of their production schedule, staff members were indecisive upon which uniform the Kyo clone should wear. The project head decided to make two clones instead. To save time, the project head drew designs for Kyo-1 and Kyo-2 on the character roster.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Kyo Kusanagi-2 Official Profile )〕 The same event was repeated in ''The King of Fighters 2002''; the designers created another clone from Kyo called Kusanagi to include his school uniform design.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Kusanagi Official Profile )〕 Although Kyo retains his third outfit in ''The King of Fighters XII'', his moves were modified to his original ones from the first two games from the series. This was made in order to make the character to fight at short distances rather than using projectiles tactics and thus improve the balance from the roster and make fights more entertaining. His signature move, the , was given a mid-air variation for ''The King of Fighters XIII'' with designers keeping in mind the concept of coolnesss as well as its small difficulty in performing it. Kyo's "Neo Max" technique, the "", was the first move of its category to be made for the game. As a result, all the other characters' Neo Max techniques were made according Kyo's one in order to keep a balance of flashy moves. Kyo's repeated appearances in the series is due to the marketers and the main planners' insistence to add him, Iori, and other SNK regulars in every game, making it a challenge to decide the story for each title. Along with his rival, Iori, Kyo has been noted by several of the series' designers as being one of the most difficult characters to illustrate because of his popularity amongst fans. Originally, Kyo's girlfriend, Yuki, was not meant to be conceptualized, since her first mention ever in the story was in Kyo's profile as one of his most cherished possessions. Her addition to his profile was added by one of the programmers mostly as a joke since Kyo was more popular with female gamers.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 title=Yuki Official Profile )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kyo Kusanagi」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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