Athena Asamiya

Athena Asamiya
Athena and The King of Fighters character
Athena Asamiya in The King of Fighters XI
First game	Psycho Soldier (1987)
Voiced by	See character design
Fictional profile
Birthplace	Japan
Fighting style	Chinese martial arts

Athena Asamiya (麻宮 アテナ^?, Asamiya Atena) is a character originally from the former SNK's 1986 video game Psycho Soldier and a descendant of Princess Athena from the earlier Athena game. She later appears in The King of Fighters series of fighting games as a female fighter character and has appeared in each of its 14 editions. She was also given her own video game Athena: Awakening from the Ordinary Life,which only released in Japanese regions for the PlayStation in 1999.

In her first appearance in Psycho Soldier Athena has long pink hair and wears a black Japanese school uniform. For The King of Fighters '94 series, there was pressure within staff about including the character. The staff worked so much on her that other developers accused them of favoritism. One of the designers tried to explain Athena's poses but the developers found it funny. Athena wears new outfits in every game, some with little changes. Her hair, however, is purple and becomes short from The King of Fighters '99 to The King of Fighters 2001. The staff from the series has been requested by fans to return her Japanese school uniform in several games, but they only made her wear it only in her introductions as they thought it would not be well received by gamers from other countries. However, by The King of Fighters XI, Athena appears with a white school uniform and in The King of Fighters XII she returns to her original Psycho Soldier outfit as the members from SNK wanted to return The King of Fighters series to its "original concept." In The King of Fighters XIII, Athena returns wearing the same clothes but with a color alteration (white shirt and blue skirt; more in line with her attire from The King of Fighters XI).