Ash Crimson

Ash Crimson is a video game character in The King of Fighters series. His first appearance was in The King of Fighters 2003. Ash was the leader of the New Hero Team (composed also by Duo Lon and Shen Woo). Together, they made their first appearance in The King of Fighters 2003. His motives for entering are to take the powers of the descendants of the clans who sealed Orochi away, 1,800 years ago (Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami and Chizuru Kagura). He has succeeded thus far, leaving Kyo as the last power he needs. He is voiced by Sōnosuke Nagashiro.

Ash is designed with the intent of creating an "attractive evil character" with little changes done to him since conception. Falcoon adds that the main goal for Ash was to make him an ambiguous protagonist that purposely makes players "feel bad" for cheering for him.

Story
Ash entered the 2003 edition of The King of Fighters tournament alongside Duo Lon and Shen Woo. This team lost to K', Maxima and Whip in the semi-finals. Duo Lon went to search for Ron and Shen Woo went back home. Ash, then went to an underground cave, where Kyo Kusanagi, Chizuru Kagura and Iori Yagami were facing Mukai. Ash hid there, waiting for the fight to end. When Mukai was defeated, Ash appeared behind Chizuru and stole her Yata Mirror, badly injuring her in the process. Ash fled, leaving Kyo and Iori with Chizuru.

In the next tournament, Ash's team also lost in the tournament. Orochi's presence in the tournament was strong, which led to Iori entering the Riot of the Blood. Iori knocked out Kyo and Shingo was hurt to fight. Ash then appeared before Iori, easily defeating him and stealing his Magatama in the process. Ash was about to flee when Elisabeth Blanctorche, Benimaru Nikaido and Duo Lon appeared before him. Elisabeth acused Ash from abandoning "their mission" and fighting for personal gain. Ash then, trying to intimidate them, created purple flames. Benimaru and Duo Lon surrounded him, but Ash disappeared using the Yata Mirror. He told them to tell Kyo that he is next.

Personality
Ash is very cunning as well as sarcastic. He is an anti-villain as well as an anti-hero. Other than his well-planned tactics in stealing the powers of The Three Sacred Treasures, he has also given rise to some other trickery, such as 'accidentally' causing his team mates, Oswald and Shen (who don't know if Ash had planned something on them), to fight each other because Oswald wants to find drug dealers while Shen Woo wanted a good fight with a strong opponent. He then tells Oswald that Shen knows the whereabouts of the drug dealers and with this, gives Shen a worthy opponent, killing two birds with one shot. The outcome of this fight is unknown, but it is likely Oswald will remain in Ash's service. His talking style easily upsets many people, including Elisabeth Blanctorche, his former companion.

Powers

 * Pyrokinesis - Ash can create and control special green flames that look like melted wax.
 * Create Fire - Ash can create fire from thin air.
 * Fire Projectile - Ash can create projectiles made of fire.
 * Fire Attacks - Ash can increase damage of his punches and kicks with fire.
 * Fire Aura - Ash can create fire around his body.


 * Yata Mirror - The following are powers shown by Ash when he acquired Chizuru's Yata Mirror.
 * Seal Powers - Ash can make enemies not use their powers for a while.
 * Teletransport - Ash can disappear and reappear somewhere.


 * Yasakani no Magatama - The following are powers shown by Ash when he acquired from Iori's Yasakani no Magatama.
 * Create Fire - Ash can create purple fire.

Fighting Style
Ash uses a soft and somewhat acrobatic fighting style, dubbed by many fans as ballet-looking.

Ash may seem like a frail individual, but he is extremely powerful.Although it seems he could have defeated Kyo at any time, his goal is not to kill Kyo but to absorb his powers. In addition, defeating Chizuru and then Iori was a plan as he needed the Yata mirror to suppress the Orochi blood in Iori and then plans to use the Yagami flames to defeat Kyo.

His moves are almost all named after months of the French Republican Calendar, except for his LDM Sans-culottes — it should be noted however that Sans-culottes may be referring to the Sansculottides, which were the last days of the year in that particular calendar. All of the moves, including Sans-culottes, refer to the French Revolution.

Music

 * Splendid Evil - The King of Fighters 2003
 * Joker - The King of Fighters XI

Game Appearances



 * The King of Fighters 2003
 * The King of Fighters XI
 * KOF Maximum Impact Regulation A
 * The King of Fighters XII

Anime Appearances

 * The King of Fighters: Another Day

Trivia

 * KOF Maximum Impact 2: Regulation A earned its title for three reasons: arcade, arrange, and Ash. His quotes with Xiao Lon also suggests he hasn't met Duo Lon yet.
 * Ash's character design was not made by Falcoon. However, he did add extra details to Ash while he was illustrating him to better fit his character.