Athena Asamiya
- This article is for the KOF character. For the SNK goddess, see Princess Athena.
| Athena Asamiya | |
|---|---|
| 'The King of Fighters series SNK vs. series character | |
| Athena Asamiya Athena in The King of Fighters | |
| First game | Psycho Soldier |
Athena Asamiya (麻宮アテナ) is a character originally from the former SNK's video game Psycho Soldier and a descendant of Princess Athena in its Athena. She later appears in The King of Fighters series of fighting games as a female fighter character and has appeared in each of its eleven editions. She was also given her own RPG game Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life in 1999 released only in Japan for the Sony PlayStation.
Athena is perhaps best known for changing her outfit and hair style for virtually every new KOF game.
History
Athena is a modern day high school girl in Japan. Her psycho power is a legacy from her ancestor Princess Athena through her mother and it seems no other one in her family possesses the same power. She is a typical protagonist of Japanese animation culture with strong sense of justice and will to fight evil, help the weak and exercise hard for self-progress. Objectively, she also has gained lots of popularity to make her an idol because of her energetic exterior and warm soul, both inside and outside fictions.
She started her experience of Psycho Soldier as one day, while returning home from school, Athena saw a couple of Chinese fellows about to defend themselves from a local tough guy, whom she immediately knocked out with her powers before he threw a single punch. After introducing herself to the travelers, she discovered that the teenage boy, Sie Kensou, likewise had psychic powers while the aged man, Chin Gentsai, was a venerable master of many Chinese martial arts. Recognizing a good thing, they joined forces to become the Psycho Soldiers. Since then, Kensou has persisted in trying to make Athena his girlfriend, though she thinks of him as a good friend and nothing more (as of yet). By KOF '95, Athena met Kyo, and became mildly attracted to him after their match. However, she respects the fact that he already has a girlfriend and dropped the crush.
Orochi Saga
While Chin trained Athena and Kensou in kung-fu, Athena led their efforts in crime fighting and conquering the world of team combat in the annual The King of Fighters tournament.
By KOF '96, Athena had become just as big a sensation in the fighting world as she was on the pop scene for her charm, unique style, and amazing powers. Though she had never led her team to an overall championship win, she and her powers--along with those of other major heroes in KOF — played a crucial supporting role in helping Kyo Kusanagi, Iori Yagami, and Chizuru Kagura defeat at various times Rugal Bernstein, Geese Howard, Goenitz, and Orochi.
In KOF '97, Athena was forbidden to take part in the KOF tournament by her master Chin. After presenting him a letter from a fan, Kaoru Watabe, a crippled girl who took inspiration to learn to walk again by watching Athena's determination in the tournament, master Chin had no choice but to join the tournament once again along with Athena and Kensou.
In the aftermath of KOF '97, the Psycho Soldiers met Kaoru, who now travels with them to most of their engagements and was even a striker in KOF 2000.
NESTS Chronicles
Before KOF '99, she met Bao, an adopted student of Chin and perhaps the most gifted psychic youngster she'd ever met. She also liked the boy very much since he was so cute and friendly, so he became the fourth Psycho Soldier. About this time, Kensou mysteriously lost most of his psychic powers.
In KOF '99, after K' defeated Krizalid, the collapsing NESTS base split Athena and Kensou from Chin and Bao as they fled. Just as Athena discovered an exit, falling debris trapped her leg. Kensou could not budge it, but just as another cascade of falling debris threatened to crush Athena, Kensou managed a massive burst of telekinesis to deflect it and finally extract Athena. Once they were safe and reunited with the other Psycho Soldiers, Kensou collapsed from exhaustion while Bao, who had barely a scratch from the ordeal, mysteriously went unconscious.
In KOF 2000, not advancing to the final round, the Psycho Soldiers remained on the streets of Southtown while K' and his team fought against Zero, a renegade NESTS agent. When the orbital laser cannon above, which Zero had planned to use to destroy NESTS, went haywire and began blowing up all of Southtown, Bao managed to deflect one of the blasts back into the cannon, which helped destroy it. The incident injured him so badly, though, that not even Athena's potent vitakinesis could help him.
Luckily, Kensou somehow unleashed his hidden "Dragon's Spirit", which saved Bao. Since then, Athena and Chin have determined that Kensou and Bao share some sort of psychic connection, especially because as Kensou's new psychic power has waxed, Bao's psychic power has waned. Chin thinks they simply share the same power, but Bao reveals to us after KOF 2001 that he secretly knows the true nature of their relationship, one not yet made clear to KOF fans.
Tales of Ash
For the first time since the beginning of KOF, the Psycho Soldiers did not enter the tournament in KOF 2003 since Kensou and Bao went on a year long training mission with Chin to master Kensou's unreliable "Dragon's Spirit". Not wanting to miss out on her annual fix of tournament competition, though, Athena joined forces with Hinako Shijou and Malin to form the High School Girls team, a strange but rather successful partnership.
For KOF XI, Athena reunites with Kensou after his year of training, and Momoko, one of Chin's growing cadre of psychic students, joins them to form the Neo Psycho Soldier team.
Though neither Athena nor the other Psycho Soldiers have much connection with the major plot in KOF 2003 through KOF XII (not yet released, but presumably the climax of the latest KOF plot arc), it seems she is destined to soon struggle alongside Kensou against the evil and powerful Ron and his henchmen, who intend to steal Kensou's power of the Dragon's Spirit.
The King of Fighters: Kyo
In the PlayStation game KOF Kyo, Athena had a mild crush on its main character Kyo Kusanagi, although she respects how he's already in a relationship with a young girl named Yuki, who becomes Athena's closest friend at school. That crush stems from their fight in the KoF'95, where Athena was extremely impressed by Kyo's powers and good looks, and then transferred to his school to know more about him.
This crush is not mentioned in the main The King Of Fighters series, most likely since it comes from Masato Natsumoto's manga The King of Fighters: Kyo, which wasn't considered canon until later.
Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life
In this role-playing game, Athena has to find answers about strange things that happened in her school, and later in various parts of Japan. Different from her other appearances, this game is played in similar way to Capcom's Resident Evil series. Also, in this game her friends Kaori and Kensou appear as support characters.
Trivia
- Athena has made an appearance in Baseball Stars Professional, one of SNK's earliest games for their Neo Geo home console system.
- Haruna Ikezawa, Athena's seiyu since KOF'98, was born in Athens.
- Athena's theme song for KOF'94, '96, '97 and 2002 is a remixed version of the Psycho Soldier theme. In some versions (e.g. the Neo-CD and Sega Saturn ports of '96 and '97), it includes vocals. This is yet another tie-in with the Psycho Soldier game, which also had this feature (a rare trait for its time). KOF XI features PS's ending track ("傷だらけのBlue Moon", "Kizudarake no Blue Moon", A Blue Moon Covered with Wounds), sung by Ikezawa. Incidentally, Athena performs this song in concert as part of the PS and Korean teams' backstories for KOF'99.
- Athena is the only character in KOF that changes her outfit for practically every new title. The only exceptions are SNK Gals' Fighters (KOF'99), KOF Neowave (KOF 2002) and the first KOF: Maximum Impact (KOF'98). While most of her costumes resemble one another in some fashion (and her default color scheme is dominated by red), KOF XI sees her fighting in the classic "sailor" school-girl outfit, as seen in various pre-fight intros as well as her appareances in SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium) and KOF '99 Evolution's alternative striker.
- Many games contain references to her wardrobe-updating habit. In '98, her "first character" pre-fight intro sees her changing into her previous four outfits before ending up in the current one. In SNK Gals' Fighters, her taunt has her producing a short jacket and an Anna Miller-style blouse/dress and looking puzzled over which one to wear.
- One of Athena's trademark special moves, the Phoenix Arrow, references her Psycho Soldier ability to turn into a phoenix. In KOF XI, her LDM is called Super Phoenix Infinity and sees Athena creating wings of pink energy and rising off the top of the screen before diving at her opponent wrapped in a phoenix's aura.
- In 2001, Athena has an SDM called the Psychic-9, where she delievers a series of attacks, changing costumes for each hit (going from the newest to the oldest) and finishing with either a two-handed push (wearing a school-girl uniform), a Psycho Sword (rising uppercut, wearing a bikini as a nod towards her Psycho Soldier incarnation) or the Fire Sword (swinging a flaming sword while dressed in Princess Athena's golden armour). Come 2002, her Psycho Medley HSDM has two different finishers - "Healing Athena", where she dons a vaguely Greek-looking dress and regains some life in a burst of light, and "Momoire-Gatame" (literally, "pink lock") where Athena and two of her friends/fans sit atop the opponent. In 2003, her Psychic-10 can also end with Healing Athena, though her dress is far less conservative here. Alternatively, her friends/fans return in the "Chu! Psycho Bomber" finisher, aiding Athena in launching a large, pink, heart-shaped projectile that explodes into a myriad of smaller hearts upon contact with the opponent.
- For a time, Athena was considered the mascot of SNK. She eventually lost this role to Terry Bogard due to the popularity of Fatal Fury. In her bio, Athena considers Terry to be a very rude person in reference to this.
See also
External links
