Athena Asamiya

For the protagonist of her self-titled game, see Athena.

Athena Asamiya ( アテナ, Atena Asamiya) is a character originally from Psycho Soldier and a distant relative and modern-day counterpart of Princess Athena from Athena. She later appears as a regular fighter in The King of Fighters series; she is perhaps best known for changing her outfit and hair style for virtually every main installment. She stars in her own ADV game Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life that was only released in Japan for the Sony PlayStation in 1999. Her official nickname is The Psychic Powered Idol.

Development
Athena was a highly anticipated character for the King of Fighters lineup, and the developers relate that they are constantly working to keep her in the series. Throughout the years, her sailor uniform outfit was a frequent request from Japanese fans that was denied due to the belief that it wouldn't translate well with the overseas audience. This kept up until The King of Fighters XI, where Athena finally had her sailor uniform, and her classic Psycho Soldier outfit was used in The King of Fighters XII.

Personality
Athena is very outgoing, polite, and friendly. A happy girl with righteous virtues and well-meaning morals, she treasures her fans and those who are helpless and strives to do her best to fight for them, though she can be a bit of a crybaby at times.

Athena often chides Kensou for slacking off in his training. She either is well aware of his crush on her, but usually chooses to ignore his romantic advances since he seems to embarrass her, or she is oblivious about his romantic interest in her.

Abilities

 * Powers
 * Psionics - Athena is a powerful psychic, being capable of harnessing several psionic abilities.
 * Psychokinesis - Athena can move objects with her mind.
 * Psychic projectile - Athena can condense her psychic energy into the shape of a ball and fire it at her opponent.
 * Psychic energy strikes - Athena can materialize and coalesce psychic energy on her limbs, in order to strengthen her physical attacks.
 * Psychic barrier - Athena can surround her body with a resilient shield of energy. This energy barrier can also be used offensively
 * Teleportation - Athena can bend space with her mind in order to move herself, objects or other people.
 * Psychic Reflector - Athena can create a shield-like barrier that deflects projectiles.
 * Psychic Healing - Athena can channel her psychic energy in order to heal herself or others of wounds and damage. This is seen in The King of Fighters 2000 as her striker move.


 * Skills
 * Singing and Performing - Athena is a J-Pop star of established fame. She is an accomplished singer who has many fans, including Jhun, Momoko and Kaoru. She has found success among male and female fans alike.
 * Web Designing - Athena is good at designing and creating websites and makes a hobby out of it. In fact, she is good on everything relating to the internet and also likes to shop online.
 * Lacrosse - Athena is especially good at lacrosse.

Fighting style
Athena was taught Kung Fu by Chin Gentsai, probably the style of Wing Chun. Her stance was loosely based on Liuhebafa. While Athena is a capable hand-to-hand fighter, she mostly relies on her psychic powers to fight. Athena is not feared for her martial arts training, but she is respected and can somewhat hold her own against some fighters. Athena's fighting style revolves mostly around simple yet effective strikes, and around speed and acrobatics, rather than strength. She uses her psychic powers to full effectiveness when in combat, improving her martial capabilities, controlling the battlefield and catching the enemy off guard with several surprise tactics.

Voice actors

 * Rushina (anonymous SNK employee) - Psycho Soldier
 * Reiko Fukui - The King of Fighters '94, Metal Slug Defense (recycled audio)
 * Moe Nagasaki - The King of Fighters '95
 * Masae Yumi - Neo Geo CD Special
 * Tamao Sato - The King of Fighters '96, Neo Print
 * Yukina Kurisu - The King of Fighters '97, The King of Fighters: Kyo
 * Haruna Ikezawa - The King of Fighters '98/UM ~ present, Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life, KOF Sky Stage, Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting
 * Robyn Gryphe - KOF: Maximum Impact (English voice)
 * Lily Kong - KOF: Maximum Impact 2 (English voice)
 * Feng Youwei - Neo Print (Chinese voice)

Live-action actors

 * Kei Ishibashi - Athena live drama

Similar characters

 * Athena

Trivia

 * The name Athena comes from a Greek goddess associated with wisdom, handicraft and warfare.
 * Athena's surname means "hemp, flax" (麻) (asa) and "temple, shrine, palace" (宮) (miya).
 * Nona, one of the series' designers, reply that Athena is his favorite original character in the series.
 * In the Neo Geo Freak's 1997 Volume 8 character poll, she was voted as the eighth favourite character with a total of 1,139 votes. 833 votes from the male fans and 306 votes from the female fans. In the character popularity poll on Neo Geo Freak's website, she was voted as the tenth favorite character with a total of 1,020 votes.
 * Athena's birthday, March 19, falls on White Day.