Antonov

Antonov (Japanese: ; Cyrilic: Антонов) is a character in The King of Fighters series and the host of The King of Fighters XIV tournament. His nickname in The King of Fighters XV is "Restored Siberian Magnate".

He is voiced by Moriyuki Hishida.

Personality
Despite appearing to be an arrogant and cunning businessman at first glance, Antonov is actually a respectful, brave man with a strong code of ethics and a good heart. He willingly risks his life to protect the innocent from the collateral damage caused by Verse. Despite appearances, he's somewhat sensitive and will cry during a sappy movie.

Abilities

 * Superhuman Strength - Antonov possesses incredible strength surpassing Goro Daimon, King of Dinosaurs or Chang Koehan.
 * Seismic Wave - Using his incredible strength, Antonov can slam the ground using his palms causing anyone to fall.

Fighting style
Antonov fights with his Siberian Golden Fist, where he uses his brute strength with a side of strong punches, grapples, and flexing while dashing into opponents. Most of these are associate to that of professional wrestling.

Music

 * I'm THE KING OF FIGHTERS Type-1 - The King of Fighters XIV
 * I'm THE KING OF FIGHTERS Type-2 - The King of Fighters XIV (Story Mode and when he fights in Training Stage or DLC stages in Versus Mode)
 * Enter the Venue - The King of Fighters XV
 * I was THE KING OF FIGHTERS - The King of Fighters XV (only if Antonov is on the Hyper Galaxy Ring Stage)

Games

 * The King of Fighters XIV - Sub-Boss
 * The King of Fighters XV

Cameos

 * SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy - mentioned by Zarina in her boss scene with Athena

Trivia

 * Antonov is the second host to not have evil intentions for the tournament, the first being Chizuru Kagura.
 * The two characters also are the only sub-bosses who returns in a regular team in future KOF games.
 * However, unlike Chizuru, he didn't have any kind of a hidden agenda behind him hosting a KOF tournament.


 * The game's composers shout his name during his Type-2 theme song and Antonov himself proclaims "I am the King of Fighters!" in the intro of the theme song, as well as saying "Thank you!" and "Okay, one more!" near the end before looping.
 * The other version of his theme, Type-1, doesn't have this sayings, playing only the instrumental version.
 * The exclusive theme in The King of Fighters XV, "I Was THE KING OF FIGHTERS", is based on Type-2 of his song in KOF XIV.
 * All the themes of Antonov are sung by his voice actor, Moriyuki Hishida.


 * Antonov is likely based on WWE American wrestler Triple H (alias of Paul Michael Levesque).
 * His redesign for The King of Fighters XV is likely inspired on late WWE American wrestler Randy Savage (alias of Randall Mario Poffo).
 * His story concept is based on the story of Mr. Satan, from the Dragon Ball series.
 * Antonov and King of Dinosaurs are the only characters in the series to break physically the fourth wall.
 * The other character to use the feature in the series is Yuri Sakazaki: in her win pose against Gai Tendo in KOF XI, she suggests he try saying "Hurricane Upper!", referencing the fact that Gai and Joe Higashi have the same voice actor (that voices Joe until KOF XIII and Gai until KOF XI).
 * The Samurai Shodown series also uses the break of the fourth wall with the characters Yoshitora Tokugawa (during his fatefull battle with Jubei Yagyu [another fourth wall breaker] in Samurai Shodown (2019), he looks to the player), Wan-Fu and Iroha.