Origin and influences In the making of the game ''
The King of Fighters '94'', director Masanori Kuwasashi expressed pressure about creating a young lead who would clash with
SNK veteran fighters but after talking producer
Takashi Nishiyama, he thought it would be beneficial for sales. Kyo Kusanagi was created by SNK employee
Yuichiro Hiraki and designed by artist Shinichi Morioka. His design was inspired by the main character of
Katsuhiro Otomo's manga and film
Akira,
Shotaro Kaneda. When it came to his personality, Hiraki was inspired by
Joe Yabuki from the boxing manga
Ashita no Joe as he believes hotheaded fighters like Joe were popular. Another planned name before Syo was . In the end, SNK chose the name Kyo as they felt it 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 next game. 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 in 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 a demographic as possible. In contrast to Terry and Ryo, Kyo was given a natural 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. Through most of his development, Kyo was named and was dressed in martial arts clothing common in fighting games of the time. The last name Kusanagi was a mean of relating the character to 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 handling of the Orochi arc and 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'' wree meant to give Kyo a more coherent story as the first game was written as a more all-star game. Chizuru was created as a 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. 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 due to business reasons after ''The King of Fighters '98'', but in the end, they have continued to appear ever since due to fans' demands. In the NESTS arc, Kyo is then involved in the story to some extent in terms of the connections with the new protagonist
K'. Though K' was consistently promoted in each port, Kyo was added to the
Neo Geo CD's cover alongside the new lead since he became easier to access. The developers of the series for
The King of Fighters 2001,
Eolith, noted that Kyo and Iori were also popular in their country, which led to their 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 promotes
Maximum Impact 2. Furthermore, despite Ash being the protagonist of
The King of Fighters XIII, the
PlayStation 3 port of the game had Kyo instead used in the cover as a means to promote more familiar characters.
Characterization and voice actors (
pictured) to portray Kyo in his early appearances. 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. 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. When first reading of the game, Nonaka had poor impressions of his work, as he believed it would not be as appealing as other SNK IPs. Nonaka was inspired by rock singer
Yutaka Ozaki, as he was impressed by his rebellious personality, who appealed to Japanese people by writing inspiring lyrics for his songs. Seeing the similarities between Ozaki and Kyo's personalities, Nonaka wanted the latter to be like Ozaki. Nonaka's performance was notoriously 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 noticed had a more sensitive side when dealing with his girlfriend Yuki whom the actor favored as coming across as more unique relationships in SNK's works. Nonaka related to his character as 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 and expected the fandom to enjoy his work as the new voice of Kyo. Maeno noted the impact of Kyo was challenging as he was the main character from a famous series of fighting games. He often played the demo of
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?" (Got burned?).
Yuichi Nakamura portrayed Kyo in a commercial promoting the cellphone game
The King of Fighters All Stars.
Designs 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 fighting game characters featured in
The King of Fighters, Kyo was given a more realistic and stylish look, as Tanabe found the others too cartoony. This design was made by
Toshiyuki Kotani, also known as "styleos". In contrast to this stykle, in
Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits Bushidō Retsuden Kyo wears his father's green-themed traditional martial artist outfit with
prayer beads around his neck while keeping his original bandana with the Kusanagi crest. Falcoon redesigned Kyo's clothes for the spin-off game
KOF: Maximum Impact 2; his jacket was redesigned while keeping the appeal of the original costume.
The King of Fighters 2003 sees Kyo sporting a new outfit with a focus on belts and classical gloves by Reiko Masuyama. The Kusanagi Sun sign still remains in Kyo's leather jacket. In
The King of Fighters XII and
The King of Fighters XIII, Iori and Kyo were meant to wear new outfits that emphasized their sex appeal, but due to time constraints, they were removed. As a result, they sport similar outfits to the ones seen in the Ash ars. While Kyo often wears different outfits for each game's story mode, he was given a more masculine appearance for
The King of Fighters XIII while staying true to his
2003 outfit. Artist Eisuke Ogura expressed pressure when designing this incarnation of the character, saying it had to live up to an enduring reputation. With designers believing he had become a more traditional fighter, they gave him a simpler, more modern appearance for
The King of Fighters XIV. Character designer
Nobuyuki Kuroki said the staff wanted to captivate new fans with Kyo's larger design regardless of negative backlash. His appearance in
The King of Fighters XV was altered to resemble his previous appearance while altering other parts of his design, like his jacket and gloves according to the newer artist Tomohiro Nakata.
Gameplay The game's developers decided Kyo's main abilities would be fire-based, inspired by the
manga and
anime Getter Robo by
Go Nagai and
Ken Ishikawa. The elements and the personalities were also a homage to a Japanese phrase about giving birth to fire: "lightning strikes the earth which sparks the flame". Kyo was created originally as an all-rounder with a projectile, , an easily used anti-air move, being SNK's answer to Ryu's
Hadoken among other famous projectile techniques seen in fighting games. Despite the character's lazy demeanor, SNK made him develop new moves per game such as the where he grabs a foe with his hand and creates an explosion, to show that he actually takes fighting seriously. Kyo's signature Desperation Move is the , a massive slash of fire he creates with one hand which was carefully animated. The Orochinagi was conceptualized as the move Kyo would use to defeat the demon known as Yamata no Orochi. Starting in ''The King of Fighters '96'', this was changed as part of the series' overhaul to make Kyo's character more unique, removing his projectile in favor of hand-to-hand combat. Kyo's gameplay was modified again for ''The King of Fighters '99'' onwards with Kyo doing variations of his father's moves again like the flaming punches. In
The King of Fighters XII, Kyo's moves were modified to those from the first two games of the series to rely on his projectile. Kyo's Neo Max from
XIII technique, the , in which he covers the enemies with walls of fire, was the first move of this category to be made for
KOF XIII. The DLC "NESTS Kyo" focuses on his hand-to-hand combat labeled as "Rekka" in gaming community. SNK ensured neither Kyo version would be superior to the other. Besides retaining the Orochinagi, NESTS Kyo has the , a move where he consecutively punches the enemy while adding increasing flame damage to each strike originally used in ''The King of Fighters '97
. Mastering the technique in the spin-off The King of Fighters: Kyo'', makes Saisyu approve his son as the proper Kusanagi successor. NESTS Kyo's Neo Max is a new technique named , which covers the entire screen in flames. For
The King of Fighters XIV onwards, Oda wanted to keep Kyo's kenpō gameplay intact in order to avoid fan backlash, using hand-to-hand combat in a more aggressive fashion. ==Appearances==