Rock Howard

Rock in Bleach the King of Fighters A15

### Birthdate

December 20, 1978; 16 years old (*BKOF*~*BKOFE*), 18 years old (*BKOFSN*~present)

### Height

171 cm (5'7¼")(BKOF~BKOFE), 177 cm (5'9¼")

### Weight

55 kg (121 lbs)(BKOF~BKOFE), 57 kg (125 lbs)

### Family/Relatives

Rudolph Von Zanac (grandfather, deceased), Maria Howard (grandmother, deceased), Geese Howard (biolgical father, deceased), Marie Heinlein (mother, presumed deceased), Wolfgang Krauser (half-uncle), Kain R. Heinlein (uncle), Terry Bogard (adoptive father) Andy Bogard (Uncle through being adopted by Terry), Leona Heidern (girlfriend), Maki Kagura (former love interest), Alice Ip (ex-fiancée)

### Likes

The hat Terry gave him, his Honda bike that he bought with his earnings, driver gloves

### Dislikes

People who boast all the time, His father, Being compared and mentioned to Geese Howard

### Hobbies

Touring, playing the bass (he can perfectly copy any song he hears once)

### Favorite food

Jambalaya (but he doesn't like the sausages)

### Fighting style

Martial Arts + Psycho Power, Hakkyokuseiken (learned with Terry)

### Element

Lightning
Typhoon

**Rock Howard** (ロック・ハワード, *Rokku Hawādo*) is the deuteragonist in SNK's *The King of Fighters* video game series. He was first introduced in *Bleach the King of Fighters*. He is the friendly rival of Hon Fu.

He is one of the deuteragonists alongside Hon Fu in Bleach the King of Fighters, the deuteragonist of Kyo in Bleach the King of Fighters 2ndMIX, one of the secondary tritagonists alongside Hon Fu in Bleach the King of Fighters EXTREME, the deuteragonist of Kyo in Bleach the King of Fighters SuperNOVA, the major tritagonist in Bleach the King of Fighters SuperNOVA2, the recurring character and hero in Bleach the King of Fighters X, the supporting character for both Bleach the King of Fighters X2 and Bleach the King of Fighters X3, and the deuteragonist of Kyo in Bleach the King of Fighters A.

## Story

### The King of Fighters

Rock a personality will reveals his adopted father Terry Bogard. And whereabouts to forward his best friend Kyo Kusanagi became settled with understand. Rock then believe at work of Heidern, and so can fighting his rival Hon Fu in Hong Kong. He got work something happened to his best friend and rival, as well as Emi Toshiba and Yuni Verse coming mission to training recommend cause around. He is the manager defeat Wolfgang Krauser von Stroheim goes can fighting believe start to The King of Fighters tournament. Rock is Vanessa can will be fight that someday there about, and everything while beside revision of Seth and Vanessa. Alice Ip the servant of Wolfgang Krauser. He aggressively Alice can intelligent that is what trail whereabouts fight of Seth and Vanessa. A those irregular coming there Kyo upon come in tournament. Rock is Hon Fu that see in Seth was falling off Clock Tower in England. He is betrayal Leopold Goenitz arrive on the reminiscences breakthrough.

Rock is Sie Kensou a rival calm in mind destiny. He and Kensou being entered to The King of Fighters 2ndMIX tournaments. He is a comfortable his adoptive father Terry Bogard, and while work checking as Ryo Sakazaki. Rock is Kensou next betrayal his father Geese Howard in Howard Estate.

He is walked to his friend Hon Fu became stronger awake. He being started The King of Fighters EXTREME tournaments. Rock betrays Goenitz and Krauser kidnap Uryu Ishida in Karakura Town. He is Athena Asamiya equality backing comfort get time about. He is Hon Fu get better his uncle through being adopted by Terry.

### The King of Fighters SuperNOVA

Rock Howard in BLEACH The King of Fighters SuperNOVA (2007)Rock Howard in BLEACH The King of Fighters SuperNOVA 2 (2008)
### The King of Fighters X

Rock Howard in BLEACH The King of Fighters X (2010)Rock Howard in BLEACH The King of Fighters X2 (2011)Rock Howard in BLEACH The King of Fighters X3 (2014)
### The King of Fighters A

Rock Howard in BLEACH The King of Fighters A (2017)Rock Howard in BLEACH The King of Fighters A15 (2021)
## Personality

Rock is a shy young man with an inner struggle. Usually as a bit of a gag, he's often nervous around women, especially those older than him, with the exception of Hotaru Futaba (for being kind and compassionate with him). He is also a childhood friend of Kim Kaphwan's sons, Kim Jae Hoon and Kim Dong Hwan.

He is shy with women as aforementioned due to being around men throughout most of his early life as Terry was raising him, though in a more serious case of his insecurities, every day Rock fights off his evil side in order not to succumb to it, and tries to get out of the shadow of his father. He often decries the evil blood in him, which intensifies whenever he uses stronger energy-based attacks, which in some cases causes him pain. He is not proud of his heritage and refuses to refer to Geese as his father, stating him to be "that man" or "that person".

He is the "middle ground" between Geese's excessive evil and Terry's excessive festive personality. Rock is also very compassionate, offering to help those in need (he offered to help Hotaru find her brother). Another notable foil that sets them apart is that in most of his battle quotes, Rock when speaking in the Japanese script has more usage of clear Japanese compared to both Terry and Geese's English.

## Powers

* **Gather Chi** - Rock can gather chi energy.
* **Sense** - Rock can sense the presence of people nearby.
* **Energy Projectile** - Rock can fire a projectile of energy called Reppuuken, just like his father's. He can even use the Double Reppuuken.
* **Energy Attack** - Rock can use chi to increase the damage of his normal attacks (punches, kicks and so forth). He uses this power in a similar fashion Terry does and, sometimes, the energy takes the form of wings.
* **Energy Geyser** - By touching the ground with his hands, Rock can make a geyser of energy come from below the ground. He called this attack Raging Storm. Rock's Raging Storm differs from Geese because Rock's version is weaker (as well as resembling a gust of wind more so than Geese's).

## Skills

* **Acrobatics** - Taught by Terry, Rock is proficient in acrobatics. His move Rising Tackle is an example of this.
* **Basketball** - Having played basketball with Terry since a young age, he has become a very proficient player.
* **Cooking** - Having learnt to live by himself since a young age under Terry's tutelage, Rock is very proficient at cooking, as he knows how to cook and prepare several kinds of different culinary recipes.
* **Motorcycle Driving** - Rock likes to drive around Second Southtown with his Honda.
* **Musical Instrument** - Rock is a very skillful bass player.
* **Musical Mimicry** - Rock can recall and replay a musical melody he hears.

## Fighting Style

Much of Rock's fighting style came from Terry and Geese. Terry taught him the arts of Boxing, Karate, Kung Fu, Kickboxing and Street Fighting, while he instinctively uses aikijutsu moves derived from his father, Geese Howard. A combination of both of these sides tends to be his Crack Counter technique, a counter/reversal move that is a combination of aikijutsu's reversal-techniques and Terry's form of basketball-motif kickboxing (via Terry's Crack Shoot). Rock also uses a version of Terry's Buster Wolf known as the Shining Knuckle.

The techniques Rock directly lifts from his father are so far, the Reppuuken, Raging Storm, Shinkuu Nage and Deadly Rave (known instead as the Deadly Rave Neo); like his father, he too has a mythology demon-based attack, known as the Rasetsu (the Japanese name for Rakshasa). Via Terry's influence, Rock uses a variation of his Power Dunk during his Rage Run: Type "Dunk" (with his Type "Shift" variation being named after the over-shift term), though the only shared technique between them is the Rising Tackle.

Even so, by mixing all these arts, Rock uses a unique fighting style, which gameplay-wise transitions into a well-rounded style that can allow him to apply pressure, mix-up and mindgames all at once. However, this comes with trading both Geese's power and Terry's simplicity in favor of versatility and speed, which still leaves gaps he must try hard to make up for.

## Voice Actors

* Eiji Takemoto - BKOF~BKOFS
* Kyle Hebert - Bleach the King of Fighters SuperNOVA
* Yoichi Masukawa - Bleach the King of Fighters SuperNOVA2~present
* Chihiro Suzuki - BLEACH King of Fighters (anime)
* Shintaro Asanuma - BLEACH King of Fighters 3
* Robert McCollum - BLEACH King of Fighters (anime) (English voice)

## Game Appearances

* Bleach the King of Fighters
* Bleach the King of Fighters 2ndMIX
* Bleach the King of Fighters EXTREME
* Bleach the King of Fighters STRIKE
* Bleach the King of Fighters SuperNOVA
* Bleach the King of Fighters SuperNOVA2
* Bleach the King of Fighters SuperNOVA2: ULTIMATE Special
* Bleach the King of Fighters X
* Bleach the King of Fighters X: UNLIMITED Special
* Bleach the King of Fighters X2
* Bleach the King of Fighters X2: GENERATIONS Special
* Bleach the King of Fighters X3
* Bleach the King of Fighters X3: REVOLUTION Special
* Bleach the King of Fighters A
* Bleach the King of Fighters A: GENESIS
* Bleach the King of Fighters A15
* Bleach the King of Fighters A15: CROSS RAYS

## Relationships

### Friend

* Leona Heidern – His girlfriend
* Alice Ip – His ex-fiancée
* Kyo Kusanagi – His best friend
* Hon Fu – His friend and rival
* Emi Toshiba – His friend
* Yuni Verse – His friend
* Sie Kensou – His rivalry friend
* Choi Bounge – His rivalry friend

### Enemy

* Geese Howard – His deceased father, Kyo killed Rock's father in the 2005 Bleach the King of Fighters 2ndMIX.
* Wolfgang Krauser – His best friend's archenemy.

## Trivia

* Rock, Ryo Sakazaki, Terry Bogard and Billy Kane are the only characters to win a ***KOF tournament*** outside the ***KOF*** universe.
	+ Rock, Billy and Terry are the only Fatal Fury series characters to win a ***KOF*** tournament.
* Rock, Tizoc, Bonne Jenet, Hotaru Futaba and Gato are the only original characters of ***Garou: MOTW*** who makes an or more appearances in ***The King of Fighters series***.
* Rock's face looks similar to Awakened Kaede from ***The Last Blade*** series, featuring nearly identical hair color, style and eyes. Possibly to take a jab at this similarity, ***SNK Playmore*** included Kaede's outfit as an extra uniform for both ***KOF: Maximum Impact*** games.
	+ In ***Kimi wa Hero***, Terry was unable to tell them apart and greets Kaede under the assumption that he's Rock.
	+ He inadvertently caused a redesign for K' due to a similar hairstyle; K' is now wearing his shades constantly since ***XIII***.
* Rock's theme in ***Garou: Mark of the Wolves***, ***Spread the Wings***, uses part of the melody from the late Robert Miles's song, ***Children***. This was intentional as the composer of *Garou*′s soundtrack is a fan of Miles.
	+ Unlike some theme song entries in ***KOF XIV***, Rock's original theme does not receive an arranged, new version, but instead is replaced by an entirely new theme, ***Emergence***, possibly due to copyright issues. This also extends to Rock and Geese's Destiny Battle Theme, ***Way to The Horizon***, which contains elements to both Spread the Wings and Emergence.
* Ironically, Rock's predicament of losing his mother Marie, and developing a vendetta against his own father, is exactly the same scenario in Geese's life as well, unwittingly repeating history with his own son.
	+ The only difference is due that Rock not having a sibling (in Geese's case, with Wolfgang Krauser and Jeff Bogard).
* Rock is an similar blonde hair with Naruto Uzumaki of the Naruto manga series.
	+ He share resemblance very strongest of Ken in Street Fighter arcade game franchise.

## See also

* Rock Howard/Move List
* Rock Howard/Quotes
* Rock Howard/Gallery