The King of Fighters: Another Day

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The King of Fighters: Another Day is an animated series based on the popular fighting game series King of Fighters. It was produced by Production I.G, and revolves around the plot of the 3-D version titled KOF: Maximum Impact, along with some touches of the current 2-D series storyline about Ash Crimson (e.g. Iori Yagami appearing powerless).

The anime was released in the brand-new ONA format, with four chapters of 6 minutes each. It was released on DVD as a pack-in with the Japanese release of KOF: Maximum Impact 2. The DVD is Region 2-encoded, but has English subtitles, as well as an English dub track.

The U.S. marketing strategy of King of Fighters: Another Day was far less accessible. Originally intended to be included with King of Fighters 2006 (KOF: Maximum Impact 2's U.S. title) as a pre-order / early buyer bonus for customers of EBGames and GameStop, the US arm of SNK failed to ship out the discs in conjunction with the then new release. Several weeks later, after some complaint from angry fans, the bonus DVD's started showing up at EBGames and GameStop brick & mortar locations and in many cases were obtainable for previous buyers upon request yet quantities were limited and many are still left without it despite their devotion.

The U.S. DVD comes in a square cardboard envelope. The DVD is Region 1 Encoded and includes both English and Japanese subtitles and audio, both in Stereo and Dolby Digital 5.1. Special features include commentary on all episodes, character design galleries for major characters appearing in the series, one trailer for the animated series and three Japanese commercials for KOF: Maximum Impact 2.

Contents 1 Plot Summaries 2 Japanese Cast 3 Music 4 Trivia 5 External links

[edit] Plot Summaries

• Chapter 01: All Out (Released on December 2, 2005)

The story starts after the end of the first KOF: Maximum Impact. After the demise of Duke and his gang, Alba and Soiree Meira lead a rather normal life, looking over the citizens of Southtown. One day, the city goes down in flames. With Alba out for the night, Soiree stayed with his companions to protect the citizens from the disaster, as he promised to his brother. That was only until a non-friendly meeting with Iori Yagami who, even powerless, proved to be a monster as always for Soiree (who fought Iori after he rudely pushed a little girl - Soiree's protégé - out of his way). The church they shot into during the battle started crumbling down over them. Soiree rushes to protect the girl and, had not Athena Asamiya and Mai Shiranui interfered, they would be burnt to a crisp. By the dawn, Soiree digs on the rubble, trying to find Iori until Alba informs him Iori survived. Alba also shows that he had rescued the two last survivors of the fire - a couple of kittens. Soiree, feeling he accomplished his promise to Alba, collapses, extenuated.

• Chapter 02: Accede (Released on January 6, 2006)

The Second Chapter picks up with Terry Bogard fighting Rock Howard. In the fight Rock stumbles over a ledge, but Terry grabs his arm to keep him from falling to his death. Rock then grins, lets go, and falls down, just the way Geese Howard did during his final encounter with Terry. Suddenly, Rock wakes up from this nightmare and decides to leave the house where he and Terry live together for some fresh air. When he leaves, he has the sight of the fire spreading over Southtown. A blue light beam fired over Geese Tower calls his attention. On the tower's rooftop, Billy Kane and Lien Neville are fighting. Billy defeats her and hangs her beyond the broken ledge with his pole, when Rock arrives and is told that she is an assassin out to kill them both because they are connected to Geese Howard. Rock disagrees with this action and starts fighting Billy while Lien manages to grab onto the edge of the building. In a moment of Billy's distraction, Rock is able to grasp Lien's hand as she is about to fall. Billy then claims that Rock shames the legacy of his father (a claim consistently denied by Rock) and decides to kill both him and Lien. However, Lien is able to attack Billy and defeat him with the same beam fired moments ago. Rock asks Lien if killing him would free him from the shade of Geese. She answers that it is up to him. The scene then progresses to a burned area and Lien asks Rock why he went there. He tells her it was because a picture of his mother was there after he sees it was presumably burnt. Later when Rock returns home, Terry goes up for a nap and tells him to wake him when breakfast is ready. Rock proceeds to state that he smells ash, and notices the picture of his mother underneath Terry's jacket. Rock smiles for a moment, muttering thanks to Terry for his kindness.

• Chapter 03: In the Dark (Released on February 3, 2006)

At the beginning of the third chapter, we see K' and Maxima involved in some kind of sabotage operation in the tunnel system underneath Southtown (while the fire is raging). Being inexperienced with things like these, K' asks Maxima if he can't clarify what he's doing there. Maxima is rigging some cables in order to achieve some important information for them, though this is not explained at that point. Meanwhile, in the Ikari headquarters, Heidern is assigning a mission for Leona, Ralf and Clark, when their intelligence sector detects movements around the base (K' and Maxima in the underground), so the Ikari Team is reassigned to find these possible intruders. Back down, Maxima notices his activities were spotted, shuts off the connection (creating a partial blackout) and starts running away with K', unaware that some troops sent by Heidern are watching them down there. They run to the subway line and catch the first bypassing train. Aboard the train, Maxima tells K' that "they" evaded to Southtown in order to capture the remaining clones (safe to say, from the NESTS cloning project), stating that at least one of them still exists, but K' reminds him that they had one goal left: find out the whereabouts of a kidnapped scientist called Makishima. Before Maxima can say a word, one of Leona's earrings enters through a window and explodes like a flashbang, creating a long enough distraction for Leona, Ralf and Clark to invade the train. Ralf accuses them of kidnapping the scientist, and they start fighting. When Clark manages to put Maxima in a submission move, Maxima uses a cannon hidden in his arm to burst open a near door (throwing Clark off of him in the process) and tells K' he needs 24 seconds. When this time expires, Maxima grabs K' and they run off the train to get another one. At first, Ralf renders them crazy enough to do so, but he sees Whip in this other train and he ascertains that was a calculated move. In there, K' is laying on his back when he sees Kula and finally he understands what Maxima was talking about all along.

• Chapter 04: All Over (Released on March 3, 2006)

Here is where the previous chapters' stories intertwine. A news helicopter is flying over Southtown in order to broadcast the fire disaster but leaves before anything can be done. On the streets below, Kyo Kusanagi rises from some rubble while rescuing a victim when he sees a green flame rising before him. Knowing that such a sign could only be a call from Ash Crimson, Kyo runs off to the streets to find him. Watching atop a building, Ash drops a crane from above just as Alba arrives on the scene and sees Kyo unscathed, wielding his red flame, causing Alba to conclude that Kyo was the one who started up the fire. Seeing that there's no way out of this, Kyo and Alba begin fighting while Ash watches everything with a joyous expression. His glee ends when Iori arrives, However, before Iori can attack, Ash blinds him with his flame and disappears. This also causes the fire burning across Southtown to disappear. Alba and Kyo continue their battle while being watched by a soldier under Heidern's command, when the Ikari Troop arrives. Confusing Kyo for a clone, Ralf plots to attack him until Iori arrives and says that it is the real Kyo and then stops the fight. He informs them that Ash was the cause of the fire. Alba realizes Kyo had no fault on the fire incident, but Kyo claims that he is responsible in part, to which Alba apologizes. The three fighters then part their ways, but not before Iori warns Kyo not to die until he can kill him. As the sun rises, everything seems to be returning to the peaceful mood that existed before the fire. Alba is shown finding the two kittens that he rescues in the first episode. The final scene shows Ralf asking if Kyo isn't really a clone while lighting a cigarette. Kyo, lighting his flame, asks Ralf if he would like to find out.

[edit] Japanese Cast

• Kouji Haramaki as Soiree Meira
• Masahiro Nonaka as Kyo Kusanagi
• Kunihiko Yasui as Iori Yagami
• Hiroyuki Satou as Alba Meira
• Akoya Sogi as Mai Shiranui
• Eiji Takemoto as Rock Howard
• Fumiko Inoue as Lien Neville
• Haruna Ikezawa as Athena Asamiya
• Hiroko Tsuji as Luise Meyrink
• Katsuyuki Konishi as Maxima
• Monster Maezuka as Ralf Jones
• Satoshi Hashimoto as Terry Bogard
• Seijirou as Billy Kane
• Sonosuke Nagashiro as Ash Crimson
• Yoshinori Shima as Clark Steel
• Yuuki Matsuda as K'

[edit] Music

• Ending Theme: "Regret" by Dakota Star

[edit] Trivia

• The voice acting for the characters is the same that is supplied to the games (even with the update on Billy's voice, made by Seijirou).

• Although the anime bridges the gap between the two Maximum Impact games, it also brings to light sub-plots carried over from King of Fighters XI by introducing them through its main setting: the fire that broke out through Southtown. Some of them may include Iori's search for Ash Crimson, who stole his power in KOF XI, Mai's search for Andy, Rock and Billy being target for assassination, and the confrontation between K's team and the Ikari Warriors.

• The series had been target of criticism from anime fans especially because of two facts: the short length of each episode and, much because of this, the long wait between the release dates of each episode. It's a consenting feeling that, with the time it takes for the episodes to be released, a better background story could be developed, with a longer running time.

• In the end of the fourth episode, we see Ash leaving Southtown on a motor boat together with Elisabeth Blanctorche -- although this is just a visual hint, it evidences the connection between them. After the credits of this episode, there is a cutscene to the crumbled down church (where Alba, Soiree and the little girl are at the end of the first episode), in which Luise Meyrink appears (hinting the story will continue onward to KOF: Maximum Impact 2).

• When looking closely at the outfits of all characters in the series (excluding the Maximum Impact originals), it was only Kyo who used his attire for KoF: Maximum Impact 2/KoF 2006. Everyone else used their outfits from the 2D series. It is also noteworthy that Terry uses his Mark of the Wolves-era for default, even though he appears in his classic outfit in Rock's nightmare sequence at the beginning of the second episode.

[edit] External links

• Official site of the anime