In his team's ending, he saves Lin from Ron. Benimaru hopes to use Lin's abilities to help his search for Kyo. The agent also brings their final teammate, Lin. In the following year, Benimaru forms his own team with Shingo and his old friend, Seth. After he helps Shingo escape from the crumbling base, Benimaru continues to track NESTS to try and find Kyo. During the tournament finals, he learns about NESTS, a syndicate that is responsible for Kyo's disappearance. In reality, both Shingo and him were actually set up to join the "special team" with K' and Maxima.
He returns to Japan before the 1999 tournament due to an invitation he seemingly received from Kyo's pupil, Shingo. NESTS Saga Edit Īfter the climax of The King of Fighters '97, Benimaru resumed his modeling career and went on a world tour. Eventually, he befriends his teammates and joins them for the rest of the saga. He and Kyo enter the 1994 KoF tournament with the third place contestant, Goro Daimon. Despite his experience, he lost to newcomer Kyo Kusanagi and earned second place. When Japan held a tournament for their country's representative team in the King of Fighters, Benimaru entered and made it to the finals.
He is a professional fighter and part-time professional modeler who is very confident in his abilities. Story Edit Orochi Saga Edit īenimaru is a young son of a multi-millionaire family. In the character popularity poll on Neo Geo Freak's website, he was voted as the sixth favorite character with a total of 1,269 votes. He tied the spot with Samurai Shodown character, Shizumaru Hisame. (Not that there's anything wrong with that)." In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Benimaru was voted as the staff's thirteenth favorite character. It is also a homage to a Japanese phrase of giving birth to fire (roughly translated: lighting strikes the earth which sparks the flame).ĭue to the particular pitch in his voice, some fans have voiced question to Benimaru's sexuality to developers, to which they respond, "It's not what you think. In the show, there were three featured heroes who served as the inspiration for the KOF trio: the protagonist had a "fiery" persona, his friend was "edgy and daring", and the third hero was the "down-to-earth giant". The idea for his electric powers -as well as the other elemental powers for the rest of the Japan team- was derived from the anime Getter Robo. His vocal performance was initially deemed by his original designer to have nothing to do with the character's original image.
Additionally, his taunt in The King of Fighters XI mirrors Polnareff's stature from the manga. Even after Benimaru's name was decided on, the game developers continued to refer to him as Polnareff. He was loosely based on the character Jean Pierre Polnareff from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, right down to his outfit in The King of Fighters '94 and The King of Fighters '95.