King

King is a character in both Art of Fighting and The King of Fighters series. She debuted in the original Art of Fighting as the sole playable female character. Her official nickname is The Beautiful Kick's Illusion.

Development
King's appearance in the first game was made to hide her gender, with the game's flyer even using he to refer the character. According to an interview with her designer, King was primarily inspired and modeled after Jamaican singer, Grace Jones. During the concept stage they took additional inspiration from the henchwoman character in the Hong Kong film China White, performed by Dutch Muay Thai action actress Saskia Van Rijswijk.

Personality
King is a kind, trustworthy, and violent woman. She is unquestionably loyal to her friends, but relentlessly unforgiving towards her enemies. Although King is very passionate, she rarely shows a sensitive side to her friends (and when she does, things just seem to go wrong). She often dresses in masculine and androgynous clothing, mainly a purple tuxedo. Over time, she has also shown a feminine dress sense more and more often. For her KOF XIII team story, she expresses a desire to a wear a dress for her teams' victory party. She has a great affinity for fine wine. She also tends to obsess over money so she can pay Jean's medical bills. King seems to be quite attracted to Ryo Sakazaki (they even have special starting poses to imply this).

King acts quite masculine, and shows a feminine side as well every now and then.

Powers

 * Energy Projectile: King can launch a projectile of energy with her kicks.

Skills

 * Acrobatics: King is a very acrobatic fighter using moves like "Trap Shot" and "Tornado Kick".
 * Advanced Kicking: King uses a lot of powerful kicks in her moveset.
 * Billiards: King is a very proficient (maybe even professional) billiards player, in everything from pool to snooker, her favourite sport.
 * Drink Mixing: King is an expert in coming up with new drinks all the time as she has been working in bars most of her life.

Fighting Style
King uses a very distinct Muay Thai. She employs several acrobatic jumping and high kicks which are not used as much by Muay Thai kickboxers. Her fighting style is very similar to the Korean style of kickboxing known as Kun Gek Do, which is effectively elbows, knees and low kicks of Muay Thai combined with kicking techniques of Taekwondo.

In their pre-fight quotes with King, traditional Muay Thai fighters Joe Higashi and Hwa Jai ridicule her fighting style, not acknowledging it as real Muay Thai.

When King is knocked out with a special move in Art of Fighting, the top of her costume flies off. This continues to happen in Art of Fighting 2, The King of Fighters '94, and The King of Fighters '95 but doesn't happen again until KOF XIII. If this is done during AOF ' s story mode, King will say different quotes after her defeat. The same occurrence happens again in KOF XIV, only this time, the top layer of the top of her costume flies off, leaving the under layer of said costume unbuttoned.

Music
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Themes

 * Micha Iya! (Don't Look!) - Art of Fighting
 * Kabocha to Piero (Pumpkin & Piero) - Art of Fighting 2
 * Ne? (Isn't it?) - The King of Fighters '94, The King of Fighters '98 and Ultimate Match (When teamed with Yuri and Mai)
 * Tsuchi o Hau Bass (The Ground-Crawling Bass) - The King of Fighters '95, The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match (as EX King)
 * Get'n Up - The King of Fighters '96, The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match (When teamed with Kasumi and Mai)
 * Fairy - The King of Fighters '98; The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match
 * Sha-La-La - The King of Fighters '99
 * Beauty and the Beast - The King of Fighters 2000, The King of Fighters EX: Neo Blood
 * The Queen of Fighters - The King of Fighters 2001
 * I'm Hot for You - The King of Fighters 2003, The King of Fighters XIII (when the music is set to "Type B", console version only, shared with Yuri Sakazaki and Mai Shiranui)
 * After a Long Absence - The King of Fighters XI
 * Who is Queen? - The King of Fighters XIII
 * Splendid Soldier - The King of Fighters XIV
 * Micha Iya! -KOF XIV ver.- - The King of Fighters XIV (as Ryo's opponent)
 * How About a Trip to PAOPAO CAFÉ? - The King of Fighters XV
 * Destiny - The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match
 * A Wonderful Person - Days of Memories (Koi wa Good Job!)

Image Song
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 * The Song of Fighters II - Shared image song with other King of Fighters characters

Voice Actors

 * Harumi Ikoma - Since her debut
 * Yumi Tōma - The King of Fighters '94 Dengeki Bunko drama CD
 * Masako Katsuki - Art of Fighting anime
 * Sharon Becker - Art of Fighting anime (English voice)

Anime Appearances

 * Art of Fighting (anime)
 * The King of Fighters: Destiny

Trivia

 * In the Neo Geo Freak's 1997 Volume 8 character poll, she was voted as the sixteenth favorite character with a total of 616 votes.