Atemi Nage

Atemi Nage (Vital-Point Throw) is one of Geese Howard's Special Moves in both the Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series.

Description
Geese puts up a defensive stance. If he is hit during this pose, he'll perform a judo toss on the opponent. Each version has different properties.

Strategy
Geese's legendary set of counters. Atemi Nage can and WILL catch any attack that is considered a physical.

Jyoudan Atemi Nage is the counter you will see the most, due to it catching any and all physical specials, supers, Climaxes, and aerials. Unlike many other counters, upon activation Geese will immediately put the opponent in a throw state regardless of the attack it stops, rather than simply launching an attack. The comes out frame 1, and can even catch High-level attacks. In some cases this version of the counter can be a better option than Oni Hanmon, due to the fact it only does 20 less damage from 50% less meter. The down side is that it does not catch Low-level attacks, and cannot be followed up with any attack afterwards, not even with Raimei Gouha Nage.

Chuudan Atemi Nage can switch sides after a successful catch and allows for a full combo. Any combo DO want you follow up with will be heavily scaled down in damage, so you'll need to decide what will get you the damage you want vs. how much meter you want to spend on reduced damage. Due to it sharing the same input as Jyoudan Atemi Nage, it does not have an version.

Gedan Atemi Nage can launches opponent fullscreen after a successful catch. Can be followed up with Raimei Gouha Nage or Raging Storm in the corner, and unlike in KOF XIV, Raging Storm does not scale, allowing for some pretty crazy damage in the corner off a countered low. The normal version comes out 1 frame sooner than most crouching lows, but the version is your best bet for catching people trying to low confirm on your wakeup.

Trivia

 * The Atemi Nage is concidered to be a meme on the internet, due to its ability to counter every and any physical attack. This aspect has often been acknowledged by developers:
 * Geese's segment in The King of Fighters XIV's 10th Teaser Trailer has him countering various attacks from the cast. Funnily enough, he counters Joe Higashi's Sliding attack, which confirmed him before he appeared in a teaser trailer.
 * Geese's Trailer in Tekken 7 has a section dedicated to countering various attacks in the game with Atemi, including Rage Arts.


 * Geese's line of him saying "Predictable!" has been often misheard as "Predictabo!". This is has also become a meme.

Similar Attacks

 * Crack Counter - A version that his son uses.
 * Vow of Glory - A similar 3-level counter used by Najd.