Athena Asamiya

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Athena Asamiya
Game series	The King of Fighters SNK Vs. series
First game	Psycho Soldier
Voice actor(s)	Haruna Ikezawa Kaori Shimizu (Psycho Soldier) Reiko Fukui (1994) Moe Nagasaki (1995) Tamao Satō (1996) Yukina Kurisu (1997) Robyn Gryphe (Maximum Impact)
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	Japan
Blood type	B
Fighting style	Psychic kung fu

Athena Asamiya (麻宮アテナ, Athena Asamiya^?) 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.

Unlike every other The King Of Fighters character, Athena changes her outfit and hair style for virtually every KOF game, with a few exceptions.

1 History
2 The King of Fighters: Kyo
3 Princess Athena
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] 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 this Kensou has persisted in trying to make Athena his girlfriend, though thinks of him much more as a friend.

[edit] 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.

[edit] NESTS Chronicles

Athena Asamiya fighting K' in The King of Fighters 2003.

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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Princess Athena

Athena
Game series	SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom King of Fighters 2000
First game	Athena (video game)
Voice actor(s)	Mie Itō Haruna Ikezawa (KOF 2000)
In-Universe Information
Birthplace	Kingdom of Victory
Blood type	O
Fighting style	Sword and Magic
Weapon	sword

Princess Athena (アテナ姫) is the ancestor of Athena Asamiya and the protagonist of SNK's arcade game Athena, which is later ported to the NES platform. Athena is an elfish princess of the Kingdom of Victory, which inhabits a mysterious world. She was bored with the monotonous life day by day in her castle and desired to have exciting adventures. One day she opened the Door Which Shoudn't Be Opened at the undercroft of Castle Victory, and fell to another world called Fantasy World which was dominated by an evil emperor Dante, a creature based on Cerberus. The game features traditional RPG factors that Princess Athena needs to beat the monstrous bosses of all stages by using miscellaneous mythological weapons, equipments and items. Without some items, she can not make it through the adventures. All stuffs in the game are inspired by Greek mythology or ancient Roman culture including weapons, equipments, items and enemies' designs. Needless to say, Athena itself is named after the Greek goddess Athena.

After the first adventure, Princess Athena faded out of SNK's stages until fourteen years later, she appears as Athena Asamiya's Another Striker in KOF 2000. Then she becomes the secret boss of the dream match game SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom as an angelic being guarding the entrance to the Heaven World, where is believed to be one of the stages in her arcade game. Contrarily, the Capcom's character Red Arremer as another secret boss guards the entrance to the Hell World. Due to her defeat (which is caused by player's character) in SVC Chaos, she is sent to earth, the human world, by Kamisama for further training through the fighting tournament summoned by WAREZ in SNK Playmore's next dream match game NeoGeo Battle Coliseum as a playable hidden character. Although NBC's background stories are exhaustively given to every character, it's not a canonical continuation to each game's own title, neither is SVC Chaos.

In 2006, SNK Playmore released the mobile game Athena: Full Throttle for i-mode on FOMA90x platform, a sequel to the original arcade game. It takes place after Princess Athena defeated Dante, but she is again bored with the peaceful days without adventures. This time she opens the Door Which Shoudn't Be Opened: B, disregarding the advice from her loyal maid Helene (the name is from Helen of Troy), an additional playable character who is proficient in magic, and they both falls to the Elysium World to face a bunch of new villains. It features enough primary style as a homage to its prequel, and many new elements along with the amusing Omake mode for mobile phone users. This game got a direct sequel soon after its immediate popularity which features new adventures in Helene's alma mater, the Winning Witch Academy.

[edit] Trivia

Princess Athena's basic apparel is a red bikini which became a hot topic soon in Japan, and made her an iconic character in bikini, probably the second most representative in Japanese fiction works, after Lum of Urusei Yatsura.
Princess Athena's bikini fashion also appears in Athena Asamiya's maximum special move in KOF '97 due to its reputation.
To defeat the evil emperor Dante, Princess Athena must need the help from a Titan goddess who will give her a crucial item in a hidden stage. Without it Dante would be invincible and there would be no way to beat him. The Titan goddess also appears in SVC Chaos, beside Athena during her opening pose until the fight begins.
Princess Athena's exceed moves in SVC Chaos are inspired by the materials of her original arcade game, in which some enemy (even some stage boss) becomes her ally after she conquered the whole world. The weapons and equipments also appear in her exceed moves, such as Lion's Shield, Shell Necklace and Wings of Pegasus.
Many fans relate the SNK Athena to Saori Kido, the reincarnation of the Goddess Athena in Saint Seiya, due to the similar plots which are actuality based on the same Greek mythology. There is no relationship between the two works or characters of them. And there is no evidence to prove such assumption. Oppositely, there is some demonstrable theory against it. Both works made their debuts in the same year. Considering the development of game in its earlier stage and the serializing of manga on magazine, many similar plots were unable to be known by their creators.