As a longtime fan of King of Fighters character Athena Asamiya (why? Shut up, that’s why), it did not escape my attention for even a moment that her character design in King of Fighters XII, seen at the far right of the above image, looked a bit different from the appearance she had sported over the years (left), outfit aside.
Personally, I didn’t think much of it, other than “oh, I guess they decided to redesign her a bit. Go figure.” But Kotaku has managed to dig deep and get to the bottom of how they got to what you see on the right from what you see on the left.
As reported on the blog Hatimaki, the director kept giving SNK illustrator Eisuke Ogura feedback. Ogura says that it is Athena’s design which has become the most drastically different.
As they began to draw her, they received… well, interesting comments on what to do with her appearance. Things like “she let her smile!” or “Make her legs fatter!”
Or just “Fatter!” Something one doesn’t hear every day in the school of Japanese female cartoon character design, I’m sure.
Ogura says that they had revised her character many times over, until they reached what we see in the final product of King of Fighters XII. And while I don’t dislike the design in its own right, I have to admit that it would be more difficult to recognize her as Athena outside of a KoF context. Her only real holdovers are the purple-colored hair and the star headband within.
