Ángel

Ángel (, pronounced as Ahn-hehl) is a character introduced in The King of Fighters series. She was introduced as a NESTS operative and was a member of the NESTS Team in The King of Fighters 2001. Her nickname is "Knockout ♥ Free Spirit".

Development
During the development of The King of Fighters 2001, Diana was originally intended to to be part of Team NESTS. In the process, BrezzaSoft approached the team of a Mexican game developer called EVOGA and offer to collaborate with them to develop their own fighting game, Rage of the Dragons for the Neo-Geo platform. The director of EVOGA, Ángel Torres, was challenged by the SNK staff to make an interesting bet on their match in The King of Fighters '98; should he lose, the KOF staff will make a character for Rage of the Dragons and must pay the sum of $5000 to the president of BrezzaSoft, and if he wins, EVOGA can request an original character for KOF 2001. The end results had Torres winning the bet, and BrezzaSoft created a female Mexican fighter named after the director of EVOGA himself, as she took Diana's slot for the NESTS team.

Personality
Ángel is a lighthearted, flirtatious and playful individual who behaves like a cat, in spite of her working status as an assassin for NESTS prior to the organization's disbandment. She is also quite violent and sadistic, as shown with her dangerous attacks and balefulness. One of Ángel's habits is being a exhibitionist; She flaunts herself to the crowd when a tournament match is about to start and she can be a bit of a show-off when the opponent is losing against her, to gain the crowds attention she'll boast about her skills and belittle her opponents in the fight. Despite her arrogance, she's all for a fair and good fight, feeling that her opponents shouldn't hold back when fighting to provide a good challenge.

It's also been shown that Ángel's really insensitive when it comes to people being angry at her, a good example of this is whenever Kula's irritated at her and Ángel's just indifferent about her insults. Kula gets really annoyed at Ángel's lack of compassion, even going as far as wanting to fight her for not apologizing for what she did to Foxy. While Ángel retaliates with heartless insults against Kula, it's hinted that Ángel does indeed care for Kula but she just loves teasing her. While being on the wrestling team, she's on good terms with Ramón and King of Dinosaurs, possibly considering teaming up with them again in the future.

Abilities

 * Enhanced Body - Due to her affiliation with NESTS, much of her body was enhanced to be far stronger than that of a normal human.
 * Superhuman Strength - She is able to lift and throw someone as heavy as Maxima.
 * Superhuman Reflexes - She is able to dodge several attacks.
 * Superhuman Stamina - Her body will only develop fatigue toxins after several hours of physical stress.
 * Superhuman Dexterity - Her dexterity is even greater than that of a 10th grade black belt.
 * Superhuman Speed - Ángel is so fast that she can translocate herself.


 * Motorcycle Driving - Angel likes to drive motorcycles.
 * Soccer - Ángel often plays soccer as a goalkeeper.

Fighting style
Ángel's fighting style incorporates elements of both Muay Thai (as seen in her stance and some of her kicks) and professional wrestling.

Music

 * NESTS - Ruler of the Dark - The King of Fighters 2001
 * Napolitan Trance - The King of Fighters 2002
 * Cowgirl with a Horse Loose - Days of Memories (Boku to Kanojo to Koto no Koi)
 * QT★@ngel - The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match
 * Sky Blue - The King of Fighters XIV
 * Ice Place -KOF XIV ver.- - The King of Fighters XIV (as Kula's opponent)
 * Liberty - The King of Fighters XV

Voice actors

 * Miina Tominaga - The King of Fighters 2001
 * Mayumi Shintani -The King of Fighters 2002~Unlimited Match
 * Miki Ogura - The King of Fighters XIV~present

Appearances
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Games

 * The King of Fighters 2001
 * The King of Fighters 2002 - potential mid-boss
 * The King of Fighters Neowave (PlayStation 2 only)
 * The King of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match - potential mid-boss
 * The King of Fighters XIV (also in Diabla DLC costume)
 * The King of Fighters XV

Mobile

 * Days of Memories (seventh title) - non-playable
 * SNK Gals Island Non Pre-mission Akiramenai de!
 * SNK High School Collection
 * The King of Fighters '98 Ultimate Match Online
 * Kimi wa Hero
 * The King of Fighters All Star

Comics

 * The King of Fighters: A New Beginning

Cameos
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 * The King of Fighters '94 Re-Bout - background
 * Nariyuki Quest
 * SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy - her outfit appears as a costume for Kula Diamond

Trivia

 * Ángel, Elisabeth Blanctorche, Kula Diamond, Isla, Vice, Foxy, Mature and Dolores are the only female members of Team Rivals.


 * Some of her moves and mannerisms pay homage to entertainer Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. Most notably, her "Winds Fairground", "Blue Monday Parade" and "Survivor's Banquet" mimic his "Laying the Smacketh Down", "Rock Bottom", and "People's Elbow", respectively. Her 2002, Neowave intro, and "Survivor's Banquet" quote roughly translates to "If/Do you taste The Angel's extraordinary skill!?", a play on The Rock's famous "If/Do you smell what The Rock is cookin'!?" catchphrase.
 * This would end up coming full circle, as both Ángel and The Rock would both eventually appear in the same game, it being The King of Fighters All Star.
 * Coincidentally, Skullgirls' creator and main game illustrator Alex Ahad created a fan-art where Angel and Dwayne Johnson are in a ring together.


 * Ángel's move names are all named after songs by the band Soul Flower Union and their predecessor Newest Model. Many of these references were removed starting with her appearance in KOF XIV, opting for a more conventional series of names.


 * Both Ángel and Shermie are tied for have the largest bust measurement out of all the KOF female characters (92 cm).


 * Because of the controversy surrounding K9999, starting with KOF XIV, Ángel's backstory was heavily edited, with only having betraying NESTS, and never mentions K9999 at all (despite Team NESTS ending in KOF 2001 implying that K9999 left the destroyed NESTS base on a helicopter).
 * It is currently unknown as of now, if Ángel has any relationship with K9999's replacement Nameless, or if she is aware of his existence. However, she is all but familiar to Krohnen McDougall, who is actually K9999 in a new identity.


 * In a 2005 poll made by SNK Playmore USA, she was voted as the third fan favorite character with a total of 2498 votes.


 * Prior to The King of Fighters XV, her name was rendered as "Angel" in English. Starting with KOF XV, her name was rendered as "Ángel", possibly done to be more in-line with the Spanish spelling and pronunciation of the name.
 * The same thing occurs with Ramón, her former teammate in the previous game.
 * Most players pronounce Ángel’s name the way how it is said in English. In English, her name is pronounced as "ayn-juhl". This is technically not incorrect since SNK uses the Spanish pronunciation for her name.


 * She is often considered the most difficult character to play in the series and is the only character in the launch roster of KOF XV to have a for beginners score of 1/5.


 * Due to her design, Ángel is currently one of the most popular and loved fighting game gals alongside Juri Han (Capcom's 'Street Fighter series) and Baiken (Arc System Works' Guilty Gear' series). Coincidentially, the three of them are actually hard to play.