Robert Garcia

Robert Garcia (ロバート・ガルシア, Robāto Garushia) is a character in the King of Fighters video game series. A practitioner of Kyokugenryu Karate, he first appeared as the deuteragonist in Art of Fighting and currently appears in the King of Fighters video game series. Thus far, he has been a playable character in every edition of KOF except The King of Fighters XI; however, he has recently been added back in for the Playstation 2 version of the game. He is the first known foreign practitioner of Kyokugenryu Karate, earning the title "The Raging Tiger" or "The Ultimate Tiger" (最強の虎, Saikyo no Tora). According to Neo Geo Freak, he is visually modeled on Andy Garcia and Steven Seagal.

In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Robert was voted as the staff's forty-sixth favorite character. He shared the spot with seven other characters, including Samurai Shodown character, Hattori Hanzo, and King of Fighters character, Goenitz.

Art of Fighting
Robert is the son of Alberto Garcia, a wealthy Italian businessman and best friend of Takuma Sakazaki, the master of Kyokugenryu Karate. When he was younger, Robert was fascinated with the fighting style as he saw it as a way to escape from his father's shadow in the stifling high class society. Against his father's wishes, Robert trained under Takuma Sakazaki and often sparred with Ryo. As time passed, Ryo became his best friend and he eventually developed romantic feelings for Yuri. He has held a special relationship with Yuri ever since he first met her, and would likely wed her if not for Takuma and Ryo, who either overprotect Yuri out of habit or suspect that Robert might take her for granted.

In 1978 (by the Art of Fighting timeline), Geese Howard secretly blackmailed Takuma into working for him after he kidnapped Yuri. Meanwhile, Ryo and Robert began searching Southtown's dojos, dives, and nightclubs for clues about Yuri's disappearance. In the process, they fought Southtown's toughest criminals, bouncers, and martial artists. They eventually learned that Mr. Big allegedly masterminded the kidnapping.

One of Mr. Big's henchmen led Ryo and Robert to Mr. Big, and Robert defeated him. When he demanded that Mr. Big release Yuri, Mr. Big sent them to a dojo where his henchman Mr. Karate purportedly held Yuri. Exhausted from his fight with Mr. Big, Robert stepped aside to let Ryo fight Mr. Karate. Ryo nearly used a Haoushoukouken to finish him off, but Yuri, having escaped her captors unharmed, sneaked in and told Ryo not to harm him since Mr. Karate was really their father, Takuma. Then they had a joyous reunion.

After the first King of Fighters tournament which was held by Geese, Robert visited Central America to help Freia Lawrence, a childhood friend, save her friend Wyler, whose demonic power made him go berserk. Following his father's wishes, he decides to head back home and help run the family company. Before he boards the train out of Glasshill, Yuri surprises him by having her own ticket. They return to Italy together.

Orochi Saga
In the 1994 King of Fighters tournament, Takuma, Ryo, and Robert participated as the Kyokugenryu Karate team. Against Ryo's wishes—Ryo fearing that she would poorly represent the Kyokugenryu school—but with Robert's support, Yuri entered the tournament with King and Mai Shiranui as her partners. After this and subsequent tournaments, Robert and Ryo sneaked away or fled the venue to avoid Takuma's demands that they immediately renew and redouble their training.

After KOF '95, He then returned to the Kyokugenryu Dojo where Takuma informed his disciples that he felt too old to fight in the next KOF tournament. To Ryo's opposition and Robert's favor, Takuma granted his slot on the team to Yuri. Ever since, Robert has represented Kyokugenryu Karate at KOF as best as he could, and has looked forward to fighting alongside Yuri every year. However, much to his chagrin, Robert has never had one moment alone with his crush thanks to Ryo's overbearing surveillance. Despite being the only foreigner on the team, he can well represent Kyokugenryu Karate.

NESTS Saga
With the arrival of KOF '99 and its teams of four, Robert had the pleasure of welcoming Takuma back to the Kyokugenryu team. Once again under the scrutiny of two Sakazakis, Robert worked harder than ever to prove his worthiness for Yuri. Part of that effort became Robert's drive to prove his mastery of Kyokugenryu to Takuma, which led to Robert's new and innovative kicking-based style.

Returning from his pre-KOF 2000 vacation, he disappointingly learned that Yuri defected to Mai's team. To make matters worse, with Takuma's blessing, Ryo invited his love interest, King, to join the Art of Fighting team. Robert had a low opinion of King and initially refused to fill Yuri's spot with "some strange lady who dressed like a guy and her inferior Muay Thai discipline". He challenged King to test whether she would not blemish the name of Kyokugenryu Karate. She accepted and pushed Robert to his very limits, and he reluctantly acquiesced, welcoming King to the team with all the grace his wounded ego could muster. Though no longer fighting beside his love, he competed just as hard in KOF 2000 to impress her since she was still watching him. Unfortunately, Southtown's destruction due to the Zero Cannon overshadowed infatuations that year. The Sakazakis, left homeless, relied on Robert to support them until they rebuilt their dojo.

Unfortunately, as KOF 2001 approached, the Garcia Foundation went bankrupt due to the NESTS cartel's intrigues. Now just as broke and miserable as his adopted family, Robert turned to the Sakazaki family for help. The Sakazakis could not stand the sight of a distraught Robert, so Yuri announced her return to the Art of Fighting team to cheer him up, having Li Xiangfei take her old place on Mai Shiranui's team. Ryo and Takuma also promised to help Robert win KOF 2001 and its prize money to revive the Garcia Foundation's finances. That year, with so many debts of money and gratitude to pay, Robert fought harder than ever before. Though his team did not win, it somehow received the prize money amid the confusion surrounding NESTS' destruction. The Garcias' fortunes partly restored, Robert repaid the Sakazakis for their support by rebuilding their dojo.

Ash Saga
With the coming KOF 2003 adjusting teams back to three members, Takuma once again retired from competition to let Ryo, Robert, and Yuri form a team. Though the tournament passed otherwise uneventfully for the Art of Fighting team, they returned to find an assaulted Takuma sprawled across the dojo floor. Though he claimed to know the true plot behind the current KOF tournaments, he did not reveal it, nor did he reveal his attacker.

Though the Garcia Foundation no longer faced liquidation as it did in KOF 2001, it needed significant help to rebuild its prior fortunes. Though he wanted to help investigate KOF along with Ryo and Yuri, immediately before the KOF XI began, Robert's duties demanded that he devote all his time to his company. Takuma asked King to take the third spot in the Art of Fighting team to replace Robert since she had made a fine teammate before. In reality, Takuma had hatched a ludicrous plot to force the consummation of Ryo and King's still tentative relationship, a plot in which Robert played a very reluctant part.

Personality
Robert is the stereotype of the rich partying playboy. He doesn't take life so seriously and always has a smile on his face. He often acts as the reluctant mediator for the Sakazaki siblings though he often sides with Yuri if he can. He is considered to be a natural genius by friend and foe alike.

Robert benefits from his father's wealth. He always wears fancy clothes and drives expensive cars. Despite Ryo and Takuma's constant scrutiny, he sometimes gives luxurious gifts to Yuri. Robert also has an air of cockiness due to his constant wealth, which is seen by his friend Ryo as a sign of rudeness since Ryo's family lives in constant poverty due to having their finances run the Kyokugenryu dojo.

Powers

 * Gather chi: Robert can gather ki from Gaia, the mother-earth.


 * Energy Projectile: Robert can fire the Kouken and Haoh Shou Kouken blast normally.


 * Multiple Attacks: Robert can channel his ki energy into his legs to deliver multiple kicks at a very fast ratio.

Fighting Style
Robert uses the Ryugeki principle of Kyokugenryu Karate. This is the second lowest grade of Kyokugenryu Karate, thus between Raiou and Kou-Ou but closer to the latter. Robert's style focuses upon lethal kicks, his signature move being the Genei-kyaku or Spirit Kick.

Music

 * Swing the House - Art of Fighting 2
 * Mojo - Art of Fighting 3
 * Ryuuko no Ken - The King of Fighters 94
 * Ryuuko and Ken - The King of Fighters 95
 * Kamikirimushi - The King of Fighters 96
 * Art of Fight - The King of Fighters 98, 2002
 * Ryu-Ko - The King of Fighters 99
 * The Beauty and the Beast - The King of Fighters 2000
 * Fight to the Limit - The King of Fighters 2001
 * Kyoku-gen - The King of Fighters 2003

Voice Actors

 * Eiji Yano - Art of Fighting (during battle)
 * James W. Hove - Art of Fighting (during demo)
 * Kay Inage - Art of Fighting 2, The King of Fighters series ('94~'95, XI), Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
 * Mantarō Koichi - Art of Fighting 3, The King of Fighters series ('96~2003), The King of Fighters: Kyo
 * Masanori Ikeda - Art of Fighting anime
 * Nick Sullivan - Art of Fighting anime (English voice)
 * Hideo Ishikawa - The King of Fighters '94 Dengeki Bunko drama CD

Live Action Actors

 * Timothy Lowell - Art of Fighting 2 commercials

Game Appearances



 * Art of Fighting
 * Art of Fighting 2
 * The King of Fighters 94
 * The King of Fighters 95
 * Art of Fighting 3
 * The King of Fighters 96
 * The King of Fighters 97
 * The King of Fighters: Kyo
 * The King of Fighters 98
 * The King of Fighters 99
 * The King of Fighters 2000
 * The King of Fighters 2001
 * The King of Fighters EX
 * The King of Fighters 2002
 * The King of Fighters EX2
 * The King of Fighters 2003
 * The King of Fighters: Neowave
 * Neo Geo Battle Coliseum
 * The King of Fighters XI - PS2 port only
 * The King of Fighters '98: Ultimate Match
 * The King of Fighters XII
 * The King of Fighters (pachinko)
 * Quiz King of Fighters
 * Days of Memories (eighth title)

Anime Appearances

 * Art of Fighting (anime)

Similar Characters

 * Another Robert

Trivia

 * One if his winposes is him tossing and catching a coin. The coin is a reference to his story in Art of Fighting, where his father gave it to him before he left the Garcia mansion. His father did it so Robert could remember his roots and one day comeback to it. It wasn't brought to focus again until Art of Fighting 3 although it appeared sooner than that.