| King | Story | Move List | Gallery | Quotes | Trivia |
King (キング) 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. In The King of Fighters series, she appears as one of the founders of the Women Fighters Team, along with Mai Shiranui and Yuri Sakazaki, beside being a frequent member of the Art of Fighting Team.
Her official nickname is "The Beautiful Kick's Illusion" (
Contents
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[2] 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 action crime film China White,[3] performed by Dutch Muay Thai action actress Saskia Van Rijswijk.
Personality
King is a kind and trustworthy but 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 (the two have special starting poses in many games 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 favorite 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 as a bartender.
Fighting Style
King uses a very distinct form of Muay Thai. She employs several acrobatic aerial and spinning kicks which are not used as much by Muay Thai kickboxers. Her fighting style is very similar many hybrid arts such as Japanese kickboxing, Korean Kun Gek Do, or Chinese Sanda. As King is French there may also be some Savate influence in her style.
Music
Themes
Image Song
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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)
Appearances
Trivia
- When King is knocked out with a special move in the first Art of Fighting, the top of her costume is ripped. 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 is ripped, leaving the under layer of said costume unbuttoned.
- The same thing occurs with Yuri Sakazaki in the reffered games (except in AOF 1, when she is a damsel-in-distress character.)
- In KOF XIII, during their pre-fight and win quotes with King, the traditional Muay Thai fighters Joe Higashi and Hwa Jai ridicule her fighting style, not acknowledging it as real Muay Thai practicioner. This continues to happen in future games of the series, only with Joe.
- 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.
- King is the only character in the Art of Fighting series with the same voice actress in all her game appearances (in her source series and in The King of Fighters series).
- Harumi Ikoma, her voice actress, continues with the character's voice dubbing in the current days.
Gallery
References
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