efforts and expected the fandom to enjoy his work as the new voice of Kyo. Maeno noted the impact of Kyo was challenging as he was the main character from a famous series of fighting games. He often played the demo of The King of Fighters XIV as Kyo in order to fully appreciate the character. For The King of Fighters for Girls, Maeno was careful with his performance as he understands due to how beloved is his character. He was careful in his songs and took a liking to the catchphrase "Moetaro?" (Got burned?). Fighting style In his debut, Kyo fights with the , attacking opponents using flames and several hits from his limbs. This was developed by Mitsuo Kodama, an animator in charge of the first game in the series. In later series' tournaments, he combines fire with a personal style of kenpō. His fighting style was changed as part of the series' overhaul in The King of Fighters '96. To appease fans, producers also included an older version of Kyo from KOF '94 into The King of Fighters '97 and placed The King of Fighters '95 version of Kyo in The King of Fighters '98, which increased the character's popularity during location tests. In KOF '96 he was given a new move known as the , which Yasuyuki Oda said is one of his favorites because it reminded him of mecha series from the 1990s. Oda also noted that Kyo was one of his favorite characters in the series as found his moves easy to learn. Kyo's gameplay was modified again for The King of Fighters '99 onwards, with most of his original moves being left for his clones. Although Kyo retains his third outfit in The King of Fighters XII, his moves were modified to those from the first two games of the series to make the character fight in close quarters rather than using projectiles, improving the balance of the roster, and making fights more entertaining. Kyo's signature technique is the , a massive slash of fire he creates with one hand. The staff worked to incorporate this move into the game carefully, trying to make it as realistic as possible while using enhanced special effects. Based on Japanese myths, the Orochinagi was conceptualized as the move Kyo would use to defeat the demon known as Yamato no Orochi. This was given a mid-air variation