Momoko

Momoko in The King of Fighters XI. Illustration by Hiroaki

**Momoko** (桃子, *Momoko*) is a character from *The King of Fighters* series. She is one of the three original characters debuting in *The King of Fighters XI*, along with Oswald and Elisabeth. There, she belongs to the Psycho Soldiers along with her idols and martial arts teachers, Athena and Kensou. Her name means *Peach child* in Japanese.

She was added into the cast to fit the image of the younger Psycho Soldier team, though developers have expressed discomfort with adding a character as young-looking as her amongst a large group of adults. Series illustrator, Hiroaki, drew her character "in her age group's defense" but struggled in making her as sweet as he would have liked. Her pants were kept baggy so her capoeira would seem to be authentic and more dynamic in its execution. She is also barefoot at all times, adding to the "down to earth fighter" with her baggy pants. Several aspects of her character — such as her throw, her odd fascination with breasts, and her leader desperation move — are homages to the manga *Shonen ESP Nejime*.

## Story

Athena personally asked Momoko to enter though Kensou had his doubts about entering a girl who "looks like a grade schooler". His complaints were quickly silenced by a personal talk (beating) from Athena and she was accepted into the team. Momoko's entry to the King of Fighters tournament, submitted by Athena, sparked the birth of the Neo Psycho Soldier team.

## Personality

Momoko is upbeat, care-free, and curious to explore new or interesting things with a passion. Acting young for her age, she easily gets offended when people confuse her for an elementary school student. She eats a lot and is always a little sad when she's refused food. Although new to the fighting circle, she tries her best to impress Athena.

## Powers

* **Psychic Powers** - Momoko has some control of psychic forces.
	+ **Telekinesis** - Momoko is still developing her telekinesis. She can teleport small objects.
	+ **Psychic Attacks** - Momoko can power up her attacks with psychic force. When she does that, her attacks are followed by several small stars.
	+ **Psychic Beam** - Momoko can fire a powerful beam of psychic energy.

## Fighting Style

Momoko is the first character to use Capoeira in the (2D) *KOF* games (Soiree Meira and Richard Meyer in the *KOF: Maximum Impact* series also practice it, Bob Wilson is the most well known for it and share the most similarity, while Duck King uses hip-hop dance as a fighting style, not Capoeira, despite having similar techniques and finally Yashiro Nanakase has some kick tecniques that resembles Capoeira). While most of her techniques are physical, they are accompanied by what looks like stardust. Also, her LDM is a powerful beam-like attack similar to the Kamehameha from the *Dragonball* manga and anime series. Momoko is a chain-move style character, similar to characters Angel and Gai Tendo. She is the fifth character in *The King of Fighters* games who can use her buttocks to attack, the first four being Mai Shiranui, Yuri Sakazaki, Shingo Yabuki and Athena Asamiya. Her version of the technique can be done three times in a row, similar to *Street Fighter* character Fei Long's "Rekka Ken".

Momoko's "DoReMi Canto" DM stands out by being a Deadly Rave-type move (attack sequence that requires the player to press a button for each individual attack) that has seven variations, which makes for effective high/low guessing games. During the move, Momoko chants the solfege, though one of the variants (an easy, "mess-up" option) sees her going off key and performing the same kick four times in a row. The name of the DM and the stardust seen in her moves may be references to the magical girl anime *Magical DoReMi*, which even features a character named Momoko (though she does not resemble this Momoko very closely).

## Fanon Appearances

### Game Appearances

* King of Fighters Retrowave - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Disaster in the Story - Playable character
* The King Of Fighters: Memorial - Playable character