Kyo Kusanagi

Kyo Kusanagi the main protagonist in SNK's The King of Fighters video game series. He was first introduced in The King of Fighters '94 as the leader of the Japan team. He is the rival of Iori Yagami.

He was first introduced as a cocky delinquent high school student who is the heir of the Kusanagi clan, one of the three clans that sealed the legendary snake entity, Orochi, 1,800 years ago. His clan wields pyrokinetic powers, an inherited power that few members obtain. They, along with the Yasakani and Yata clans, keep one of the three sacred treasures used to contain Orochi long ago. His family's treasure is the Kusanagi Sword (草薙の剣, Kusanagi-no-Tsurugi), and his family crest is the sun, represented in a stylized halo of fire. His official nickname is Scion of the Flame (炎 の 貴公子, Honoo no Kikoushi) or The Cleansing Exorcising Flame (火炎 祓 濯, Kaen Harau Yusu).

Personality
Kyo is the over-confident but well meaning protagonist of the series, more interested in enjoying life than having to partake in any particular responsibilities. He is quick to dismiss subjects that don't interest him and will often carry out his actions with a devil-may-care attitude. Despite his seemingly arrogant and rude demeanor, he treasures his friends and family, enjoying their presence and particularly doting on his girlfriend, Yuki. His extreme disinterest in studies has led to his chronic inability to graduate from high school (which has become subject to in-jokes). Although he is confident in his poetic talent, most of his poems aren't considered to be good by his listeners.

Kyo takes his clan's responsibilities on a more personal level, disregarding ancient legends and predestined events as any reason for his actions. His strong sense of justice and his zeal to fight stronger opponents are what he believes to drive him to carry out his destiny. His rivalry with Iori is one of mutual hatred and was hardly spurred by their clans' history. When Kyo and Iori join forces, it is often begrudgingly and as a last resort solution to the conflict at hand.

Powers
Pyrokinesis - Due to his Kusanagi heritage, Kyo can control fire. He can create fire from thin air, create fire balls, deliver punches of fire, create pillars of fire and put his own body on fire. However, he is neither immune to other types of fire nor able to control other fires that he didn't create. Also, the flames he wields are nothing more than just ordinary fire: it does not have the mystical 'trapping' ability of Iori's purple holy flames.

Skills

 * Motorcycle Driving - Kyo likes to drive his motorcycle around the streets of Japan. Some official pictures depict Kyo driving a scooter.
 * Poetry - Kyo likes to write poetry as a hobby, though his poetry is generally not much liked by his listeners.
 * Ice Hockey - Although representing the element of fire, Kyo likes ice hockey.
 * Musical Instrument - Kyo is also an accomplished guitarist, as seen in The Band of Fighters

Fighting Style
Kyo fights using the Kusanagi style of ancient martial arts, a Japanese style of empty handed combat taught only to the Kusanagi clan members. Like most of the clan members in modern times, these are labeled as Method/Style with numbers; numbers that actually use alternate kanji different from their originals. These examples are 108 Shiki: Yami Barai (Method 108: Darkness Sweeper), etc. with "Reverse Methods" being stronger versions of other attacks such as Kyo's signature DM, Ura 108 Shiki: Orochinagi (Reverse Method 108: Great Serpent Mower) being an example. In some sources, this even applies to his "unnamed" normal attacks.

Kyo also knows Kenpo, and uses it in most of his normal attacks. Kyo's moveset emphasizes Kenpo from KOF '96 onwards, discarding his 108 Shiki: Yami Barai and 101 Shiki: Oboroguruma (Method 101: Hazy Wheel), instead focusing on two of the clan's other techniques, the 114 Shiki: Aragami (Method 114: Wild Bite) and 115 Shiki: Dokugami (Method 115: Poison Bite). However, Kyo adds varying amount of original followup techniques from these moves that range from kicks-to-elbow dropping attacks which are also types of notable moves in Kenpo. The names of these new moves are anything but vague and simple names (such as 402 Shiki: Batsu Yomi/Method 402: Punish Recital and 125 Shiki: Nanase/Method 125: Seven Rapids), possibly due to Kyo's taste for poetry.

Thus, Kyo is a strong combo character that takes a while to master as his moveset from KOF '96 and following games explodes to ridiculous levels. Mastering it though allowed players to more easily adapt to use other characters that had more diverse movesets. Kyo made way for archetypes with moves that not only had multiple inputs, but each followup had its own unique features. This would also pave way for powerful mixups and combos if pressure was well-setup. Story-wise, this was possibly due to his initial defeat by Goenitz, Kyo reformed his style into a more-offensive focus via his original followups from the Aragami and Dokugami.

In the original games (especially in KOF '95), Kyo followed the "Ryu and Ken" archetype with Iori, as Kyo's moves differ slightly from game to game in the same manner as Iori, mainly their Desperation Moves. Changes in KOF '96 and onwards made them vastly different from each other. Alternate versions of Kyo would retain his old movesets from older games for nostalgia's sake, though each alternate version would be notably different from game to game. The 100 Shiki: Oniyaki (Method 100: Ogre Baker) is the one technique both Kyo and Iori still share to this day.

Trivia

 * Kyo and Iori were designed by Shinichi Morioka. He would later depart from the company to work on The Fallen Angels (堕落天使, Daraku Tenshi) a game that would heavily influence the designs for K' and Maxima.
 * Early artwork shows Kyo and Saisyu having the Kusanagi symbol on their foreheads. This idea was referenced in one of the KOF Manhua's.
 * When Daimon uses Jirai Shin in KOF '95-'98, Kyo and Benimaru are the only background characters who'll jump.
 * Kyo, Benimaru and Daimon are the winners of all The King of Fighters tournaments hosted in Orochi Saga. And the most recent ones in XIII and XIV. Their victories are confirmed in Team Stories, Light Novels and cutscenes.
 * In Neo-Geo Freak 1998, the characters in KOF '98 have their own interviews. Here are Kyo's response to the questions.
 * What is your aspiration in this competition? - "It's only about dealing with the person standing on opposite side."
 * Who would you like to fight the most? - "No one really. But there are quite a lot of guys who want to try me out?"
 * Who would you like to team up with? / Who would you not like to team up with? - "They are the people I'm most comfortable with. Who do I not want to team up with? I don't want to answer that."
 * What is "KOF" for you? - "A big time killer."
 * Finally, please give a word to your fans. - "It's definitely me who resolves things in a blink of an eye. I don't have time to sleep!"
 * Yuichiro Hiraki was the pixel artist for Kyo in KOF '94 and Iori in KOF '95. Although he left SNK in 1997 to work on The Fallen Angels, he was asked by Kaname Fujioka to do Kyo and Iori's pixel art once more for Capcom vs. SNK.
 * In the Maximum Impact games, Kyo is the only character whose select-number-of Stylish Arts are styled akin to a majority of crouching light kick-to-light punch normal attacks in the original 2D games (though the input windows are fairly tight).