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- Aug 30, 2016
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You absolutely rock Mr. Karate IIDigging in the official novels of 'The King of Fighters '96', I noticed that the special meeting between Iori Yagami and Geese Howard was something strongly wanted: at this point it would be necessary to see if it was an idea foreseen by the original project of 'Real Bout Fatal Fury Special' or a simple fantasy that many fans of that period really wanted to see.
For pure casualty, now that SNK is trying to relaunch their own merchandise, the selected protagonists for some of the new novels and comics were Iori and Geese themselves.
As for Mr. Karate I's talk, in 'The King of Fighters '96' him actually appears in the epilogue of the 'Art of Fighting team' (Ryō, Robert and Yuri) and it would have been great to challenge him in a secret match (the same way Kyō meets Iori after beating Orochi in 'The King of Fighters '97'), but the yearly cadence of that period may have ruined everything yet again.
But then BlackaneseNiNjA, is the character in this prototype seen with Billy and Eiji really Iori?
The official Japanese transcription (八神 庵, Yagami Iori) doesn't seem to match what's written on this sheet, also, did you notice it too? The PG in this draft is basically Rody Birts a few years before he debuted on 'Art of Fighting 3'!
Iori and Geese did indeed meet in the kof 96 novel (Geese also met Mature and Vice during this counter as well and relayed that he was not the sponsor of that year’s K.O.F. tournament). However, since Iori debuted on a team with Billy Kane to begin with, the connection to Howard (pardon the pun) and his associates was already established.
I’d like to think that the connection in the novel itself was substantial to future appearances, however…
The Famitsu Bunko kof96 novel along with all the subsequent novels that followed in the series (kof96-kof2001) were written by Akihiko Ureshino (the prior kof95 novel was written by Rei Isaki) who had the immense task of trying to write a coherent story for each team and the tournament events. Since the novels were not necessarily set canon (along with the fantastic Dengeki CD Bunko audio dramas), I’m not sure if much of those interactions and story intentions would have reached Takara’s table…but the fanboy in me wants to believe that there was indeed a coherent narrative thread being maintained between SNK and Takara. Of course, only the devs would know for sure lol
The fact that Iori’s design was unfinished at this point in the document is supported by the interview from Vol. 5 of Neo Geo Freak magazine (pages 73-74) where the devs stated that when the idea for a “Rival Team” was conceived, Billy and Eiji were the first to be set even though the rival of the series protagonist had yet to be finalized (rather than starting with Iori and simply finding suitable teammates for him). As for the character design itself that is seen with Billy and Eiji in the kof95 design document, that character is indeed a prototype “Iori” in as much as the text under him simply reads “Kyo’s Rival” (though the use of “宿敵” in this case would convey a more long term rivalry):
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