point they feel like a married couple in The King of Fighters XV. The game's developers decided Kyo's main abilities would be fire-based, alongside the movesets of the other characters in the original Japan Team, who were all inspired by the manga and anime Getter Robo, created by Go Nagai and Ken Ishikawa. The three members of the Japan Team, Benimaru Nikaido, Goro Daimon and Kyo, had personalities similar to those of the main characters from Getter Robo. Kyo was based on the main character, Ryoma Nagare, who had a fiery persona. The elements and the personalities were also a homage to a Japanese phrase about giving birth to fire: "lightning strikes the earth which sparks the flame". According to Morioka, Ikki Kajiwara's Ashita no Joe and Nagai's Devilman manga series were influences too. Artist Nona said he found it difficult to design Kyo as a heroic character due to his dark traits, noting the character was also inspired by Akira Fudo, the protagonist of Devilman. Kyo's pixel art was created by Hiraki, who despite leaving SNK to work on another project a few years later, was asked by Capcom's Kaname Fujioka to once again work on Kyo's design for the crossover game Capcom vs. SNK: Millennium Fight 2000. Artist Falcoon states that Kyo has a strong attitude, making him one of the hardest characters to illustrate, while also noting that his rivalry with Iori Yagami is strong enough to make the duo likable. Designs and actors In his first appearences, Kyo wears a modified version of his school uniform with a Sun mark that represents his heritage of the Kusanagi. During the early stages of development for The King of Fighters '99, SNK planned to exclude Kyo and Iori from the game because its story was centered on new protagonist K', but they reversed this decision because "they couldn't leave these popular characters in limbo". Kyo's repeated appearances in every game in the series, at the insistence of SNK executives for marketing purposes, made story planning for each title challenging, with artist Hiroaki Hashimoto expressing a desire for his work to live up to Shinkiro's, which he said left a great impression on him. Several of the series' designers said Kyo is one of the most difficult characters to illustrate because of his popularity. Although Kyo was redesigned for KOF '99, some designers wanted to return to his iconic