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, who also voiced the striker character Syo Kirishima.

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. In 2002: Unlimited Match he is a Kyo clone created by NESTS. He shares an ending with the other two Kyo clones; an incident in a cloning facility shows them being activated or destroyed.

His canon 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). Its unknown to where Kusanagi is after the events of 2003, since he did not appear in its sequel KOF XI. He might be likely to appear again in future installments.

His role in The King of Fighters: Skystage/Neo Geo Heroes Ultimate Shooting is similar to his 2003 counterpart, however he is sent by Chizuru to guard a certain area from any intruders such as the player. The player has to fight their way through Kusanagi in order to advance to the next level. He utilizes his moveset from previous games to launch projectiles or in some cases literal red flames at the player (even summoning white silhouette copies of himself to throw projectiles). His finisher is the Orochinagi which can send an entire wave of projectiles that can almost instantly kill the player's character.

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 (safe for Mai Shiranui and Malin, whom he unaware they use a hidden weapons): "Temee! Sude de shoubu shiyagare!" (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. He enjoys battling a pyrokinetic hand to hand combatants (including a weapon user, Mai), especially battling the original Kusanagi, Kyo.

Similar to Kyo-1, he's serious at most times. He has special quotes against characters like Kyo, Iori, K', and K9999 in KOF 2002. Its possible that since he does not have the same voice as Kyo (until KOF Skystage, which he was voiced by Kyo's voice actor), they gave him the voice of Mitsuo Iwata to differ from the latter and other Kyo clones, making him as a unique doppelgänger.

Powers

 * Pyrokinesis - Kusanagi has control over fire, but not immune to other types of fire he didn't create.
 * 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 fights using Kyo's original fighting style from KOF' 95, having no original techniques of himself. Oddly though, he has an altered version of Kyo's Mu Shiki known as instead the Saishuu Kessen Ougi: Rei Shiki (Final Showdown Secret Technique: Zero Method). Unlike the other two Kyo clones, the style/method theme naming of the three clans is consistent in Kusanagi's attacks, and his shared moves with the original Kyo tend to be the exact same with minor alterations in damage.

His new Desperation Move in 2002 UM is based on Syo Kirishima's striker attack and is known as 1999 Shiki: Kiri Homura (Method 1999: Mist Blaze), and parodies Domon Kasshu's line from G-Gundam. The method number also is a nod to KOF '99, the start of the NESTS saga, and was also Syo's debut as a striker.

Kusanagi was also given some of Kyo's techniques from KOF'97 and onward that were never seen in the classic moveset, such as the 910 Shiki: Nue Tsumi (Method 910: Nue Plucker) and its counter-based moves.

Music

 * Esaka? - The King of Fighters 2002
 * Esaka? 03 - The King of Fighters 2003
 * Niritsuhaihan (Antinomy) ~Mutually Exclusive Dichotomy~ - The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match (shared with Kyo-1 and Kyo-2), The King of Fighters Skystage/Neo Geo Heroes Ultimate Shooting

Game Appearances

 * The King of Fighters 2002 - Hidden character
 * The King of Fighters 2003 - Sub-boss, also a hidden character
 * The King of Fighters Neowave - Hidden Character
 * The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match
 * KOF Sky Stage - As a boss
 * Neo Geo Heroes: Ultimate Shooting - As a boss
 * KOF X Fatal Fury - As a Legend card

Cameo Appearances

 * The King of Fighters XIII - as an alternate color scheme for Kyo's classic outfit.
 * The King of Fighters: Another Day - The possible Kyo clone mentioned by K' that has been around South town

Similar Characters

 * Kyo Kusanagi
 * Kyo-1
 * Kyo-2