Kusanagi

Kusanagi is a character from The King of Fighters series of fighting games developed by SNK Playmore. He was first introduced in The King of Fighters 2002 as a hidden character. Due to Kyo's design changing, some of the developers desired the return of his old look. As a result, Kusanagi was added to the cast as a last minute decision. He is voiced by Mitsuo Iwata.

Story
He was believed by many fans to have been originally created as a NESTS experiment due to a special intro he has with K9999. This introduction is, in fact, a homage to Akira, as K9999 and Kusanagi have the same voice actors as Tetsuo and Kaneda, respectively. His actual backstory in KOF 2003 reveals him to be a product of Chizuru Kagura's magic, used to test the strength of the tournament's contestants. His evil appearance is possibly due to the fact that he was created by Chizuru while under the control of Mukai (the leader of the KOF 2003 operation) and Botan (the puppeteer controlling Chizuru).

It should be noted that SNK provided an actual short backstory for Kusanagi for The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match via Dr. NeoGeo blog, which would mean that, continuity-wise, the Kusanagi featured in 2002 and the Kusanagi featured in 2003 are actually 2 different individuals, regardless of the obvious similitudes, and the fact that the two of them are "copies of Kyo".

Personality
Kusanagi lives only to fight and wants to find a strong fighter for him to test his skills. In KOF 2002, he has a special intro against characters that use weapons in battle such as Choi Bounge, Chang Koehan, Billy Kane and Whip: "Temei! Sude de shoubu shiagare!" (You (bastard)! Fight me with your bare hands!), which is also taken even further in Unlimited Match when fighting against almost anyone who wields weapons; this is also another Akira reference.

Powers

 * Pyrokinesis - Kusanagi has control over fire.
 * Create Fire - Kusanagi can create fire from thin air.
 * Fire Attacks - Kusanagi can deliver attacks of fire.
 * Fire Projectiles - Kusanagi can fire a projectile of fire through the ground.
 * Pillar of Fire - Kusanagi can create a powerful pillar made of fire.
 * Fire Body - Kusanagi can put his own body on fire without burning himself.

Fighting Style
He mimics Kyo's early fighting style, having no original techniques of himself. His new Desperation Move is based on Syo's striker attack, and parodies Domon Kasshu's line from G-Gundam.

Music

 * Esaka? - The King of Fighters 2002, 2003
 * Niritsuhaihan (Antinomy) ~Mutually Exclusive Dichotomy~ - The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, KOF Sky Stage

Game Appearances

 * The King of Fighters 2002 - Hidden character
 * The King of Fighters 2003 - Sub-boss
 * The King of Fighters Neowave
 * The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match
 * KOF Sky Stage - As a boss
 * Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting - As a boss

Cameo Appearances

 * The King of Fighters XIII - as an alternate color scheme for Kyo's classic outfit.

Similar Characters

 * Kyo Kusanagi
 * Kyo-1
 * Kyo-2