Orochi
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Orochi (オロチ, Orochi) is the main antagonist of The King of Fighters series, first appearing as the final boss of The King of Fighters '97.
It and its followers serving as another interpretation of Yamata no Orochi, the mythical eight-headed serpent, Orochi is an extremely powerful chthonic supernatural being of peerless ambition that regards itself as executing the will of Gaia. Believing humanity to be too untrustworthy to peacefully coexist with the planet, Orochi wages war against humankind until being sealed away by the Three Sacred Treasures of Japan and kept at bay by their descendants for the next 1,800 years.
Patiently waiting for its return, the battles between Kyo Kusanagi and its Eight Excellent Masses culminate in the serpent god incarnating within Chris during the climax of the 1997 tournament. As an all-powerful god, Orochi has gathered many minions around it and is responsible for many major events of the series. Its legacy and influence persist throughout the next several arcs of KOF, with characters either being related to it or wanting its power for their own ends.
Appearance
As it is a disembodied soul-like collection of thoughts without a body, it always needs a catalyst in order to be active in the "base world." Orochi, as depicted in KOF '97, is it merely changing his herald Chris' form to represent the strong-willed fighters of the tournament; using Chris as a catalyst, Orochi takes the form of a tall, muscular adult wearing white slacks and brown leather shoes, with a black pattern floating on its bare upper body. Notably, it sports white hair and piercing red eyes, depicted in official illustrations and in-game cutscenes as vertical slit-shaped. In KOF '98 UM, it is shown to stand at almost a similar height to Rugal Bernstein (around 197 cm (6 ft 6 in)). Later depictions portray the deity as being more muscle-bound.
It has no actual gender but is shown to have used a female body as illustrated in the "battle of 1800 years ago", seen in The King of Fighters: Kyo. As of recently, due to using Chris as a host, Orochi is often identified as a male, and this design lingers even in The King of Fighters XIV.
Personality
Orochi is an immensely powerful being who intends to serve "Gaia" at all costs. It will protect her from anything, even from what she created herself. Its purpose is to restore a sense of balance when the will of the earth is set to lose balance due to the influx of "negative emotions" such as anger and hatred generated by humans. The elimination of humanity is not its purpose but merely a part of the process to regain their lost sense of balance. Thus, its existence cannot be defined by human definitions of good and evil, and when it is released in '97, unlike its heralds, the Eight Excellent Masses, it does not show any feelings of anger or hatred toward humankind but rather maintains an indifferent attitude. Still, it does not refrain from citing their sins and their harmful, self-destructive acts as reasons for their elimination.
However, it does grudgingly acknowledge their potential to be able to change for the better, just barely holding on to some hope that humanity may one day understand the pain of nature and tells them that they still have a chance. Overall, Orochi is not a truly sinister being by itself and only desires a balance between man and nature. This is in stark contrast to its clone, Mizuchi, who is an extremely malicious entity arrogant with power, loathing humans with a passion and challenging the winners of the Neo Geo Battle Coliseum with sadistic pleasure.[a] In the non-canon KOF SKY STAGE, Orochi is fascinated by the likes of Kula Diamond, which it describes as a creation of humankind with a pure heart and intention superior to that of humans themselves.
The serpent god tends to keep its speech to a minimum when not necessary, but demonstrates full awareness of the power it possesses over humans, going as far as to mock the Three Sacred Treasures and boldly proclaim, "There is nothing greater than me." Upon taking control of Chris, Orochi donned a wide, disconcerting smile and maintained a sinister, devilish grin the entire time while fighting the Three Sacred Treasures. It remains silent during battle, except when it uses its Super Special Moves or wins a match.
Orochi's storyline, linking itself to Gaia and being called "God's messenger" or "Gaia's will," appears to have been inspired by a mix of Neopaganism and Shinto, such as Orochi having a direct preference for nature, represented by its allegiance to Gaia; it is also a twist of Christianity and Satanism from The Book of Revelations, appearing to be a god-like figure and a demonic serpent in its true form who usurps the redemptions and damnation methods of Christ as well as the nihilist and occultist methods of Satan.
History
Background
The Battle of 1800 Years Ago
Since ancient times, long before the emergence of humans, Orochi watched over all living things on the earth, including nature, and had sometimes continued to provide them with blessings and hardships. However, as humans evolved, they gradually became a detriment to nature, and Orochi finally decided that humans were not a part of nature and turned against them, becoming extremely hostile. Possessing the weak parts of people's hearts, and inflating all kinds of negative emotions such as hatred, jealousy, and resentment, it plunged the world into chaos. In addition, he had his own followers, the Eight Excellent Masses, directly punished, and used its own overwhelming power to capture the eight shrine maidens necessary to draw out its dark power efficiently one after another.
It succeeded in capturing seven of them, the exception being Kushinada, and while it was initially difficult to capture her due to the large-scale human resistance, Orochi was able to use the seven he had captured to revive itself, albeit incompletely. It eventually succeeded in capturing Kushinada, but just when humankind's execution was supposed to commence, a surprise attack by the Kusanagi and Yasakani clans, who possessed crimson flames, and the Yata clan, skilled in witchcraft, destroyed the unity of the shrine maidens at the moment when their power for a complete resurrection reached critical mass. This allowed Kushinada to be recaptured and foil the ritual.
Thus, Orochi was unable to return fully and was sealed away together with his Eight Excellent Masses by the three clans, utilizing the Kusanagi Sword, the Yasakani Jewel, and the Yata Mirror. The three clans would go on to also become known as the Three Sacred Treasures, and their family heirlooms — responsible for bestowing the clans' powers — would be handed down to future generations in order to continue holding Orochi at bay.
The 660 Years Old Error
Orochi and its seal would be strictly monitored by the Yata clan over the next thousand years or so. Despite the Kusanagi, Yasakani, and Yata clans' unity, the Yasakani developed an admiration and longing for Orochi's power, particularly due to a feeling of inferiority to the more popular Kusanagi clan. As a result, 660 years ago, they attempted to obtain Orochi's power in exchange for the release of Orochi's "soul." However, only the souls of the Eight Excellent Masses were released as a result of the Yata clan having moved Orochi's seal to another location in preparation for an unexpected situation.
In order to sow discord between the Three Sacred Treasures, one of the freed Eight Excellent Masses abducted and sacrificed the Yasakani clan leader's wife to Orochi. They then approached the Yasakani clan leader, who was imprisoned for attempting to releasing Orochi's soul, and told him that Yasakani's wife had been murdered by Kusanagi to atone for his family, a false fact to destroy the relationship between the two clans. Deceived by this story, the Yasakani leader became hateful to the Kusanagi and, in an effort to exact their revenge, made a "blood pact" with Orochi that bestowed upon them its great power. With this, the Yasakani clan completes the worst technique in history, "Forbidden Style 1211: Eight Children." The Orochi clan then instigated the Yasakanis to confront Kusanagis with this new technique.
The Orochi clan had two objectives: one was to eradicate the Kusanagi clan, which excelled in martial arts among the Sacred Treasures and stood in the way of Orochi's resurrection; the other was to cause a war between the two sides and lure the Yatas, who guarded the Orochi seal, into the fray and away from the seal. The war continued for a while but was never settled, and during that time the spirits of the Orochi clan and the freed Eight Excellent Masses disappeared somewhere. Eventually, the conflict entered a lull, but the strife became so decisive that the relationship between Kusanagi and Yasakani was severed. The Yasakani would later change their name to "Yagami," meaning "eight gods."
Though not present, Orochi itself was aware of this new development and patiently waitied for its return.
Orochi Saga
The King of Fighters '97
The hostility between the Kusanagi and the Yagami clan and the liberation of the Eight Excellent Masses 660 years prior would eventually culminate in the 1997 King of Fighters tournament and contribute to Orochi's return.
Tales of Ash
New Age Saga
Quotes
Quotes- “Listen carefully, you poor children... the footsteps of destruction are at hand.”—Win, KOF '98 UM
Trivia
- Orochi appears in The King of Fighters 2002: Challenge to Ultimate Battle and its remake, The King of Fighters 2002: Unlimited Match, as part of Orochi Chris' MAX2 move. Upon utilizing this move, Chris briefly transforms into Orochi and unleashes a screen-filling attack before returning to normal.
- When first introduced in KOF '97, Orochi could not crouch but had attacks that must be blocked low and were identical to its standing attacks. Crouching stances and attacks were first implemented in the PlayStation version of KOF '97 but in a very incomplete form with severe frame cuts. These were redone when Orochi was added to KOF '98 UM and newly drawn sprites were used. The clone Mizuchi, on the other hand, used a combination of his Arcade and PlayStation KOF '97 sprites with improved animation frames.
Notes
- ↑ As depicted in the non-canon Neo Geo Battle Coliseum (2005).
