Den of Geek found the comic SVC Chaos ridiculous because Kyo's and other characters' death rea trivialized. John Funk from The Escapist found the trailer for the series' live-action film confusing because Kyo's race was changed from Japanese to white. Beyond Hollywood was also confused by Kyo's portrayal in the film because of flashbacks to his childhood depicting him as Japanese whereas his adult self is American. Stuff also had a harsh opinion of Kyo being played by Sean Faris despite the character's Asian origins. Kyo's portrayal in The King of Fighters: Destiny received more favorable responses because the plot does not solely focus on his history, but also other characters from the games. Anime UK News enjoyed Kyo's handling in the manga A New Beginning due to how his rivalry stands out in the first fight more than the new protagonist, Shun'ei. Popularity Kyo has been well-received by gamers; he has appeared in several popularity polls. In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Kyo was voted as the staff's second-favorite character behind Iori. In a 2005 poll by SNK-Playmore USA, he was voted the sixth fan-favorite character with 176 votes, which led to him having less inclusion on the cover of Maximum Impact in the North American release. Additionally, in the January 30, 1995, issue of Gamest magazine in Japan, Kyo was featured at No. 4 in the Top 50 Characters of 1994. In the character-popularity poll on the website of Neo Geo Freak magazine, he was voted the third-favorite character with 2,574 votes. In another poll from 1997, Kyo took first place with 2,160 votes. At a museum of videogames sponsored by the municipality of Rome, a special illustration listed Kyo as the mascot of the mid-1990s era of Neo Geo. For the special endings in The King of Fighters '97, the video game journals Gamest, Famitsu and Neo Geo Freak created a team composed of three characters from the game so they would be featured in an image after passing the arcade mode. Neo Geo Freaks team was Kyo, Mai Shiranui and Billy Kane. In an ASCII Media Works poll, in which fans voted on video game or manga characters they would like to name their children after, Kyo's name was tenth in the male category. In the book Gaming Cultures and Place in Asia-Pacific, Kyo was named as one of the most popular video game characters in Hong