Kim Kaphwan

Game series Fatal Fury series
King of Fighters series
SNK Vs. series
First game Fatal Fury 2
Voiced by (English) David Kaye (anime)
Brett Beyer (Maximum Impact)
Voiced by (Japanese) Satoshi Hashimoto
Daiki Nakamura (anime)
Information
Birthplace Daegu, South Korea
Blood type A
Fighting style Taekwondo


Kap-hwan Kim[I] (キム カッファン 김갑환), usually written surname first as Kim Kap-hwan, is a character in both the Fatal Fury and King of Fighters series by SNK. He is a master of taekwondo, and also considers himself a fighter of justice. Since Kim was young and during his taekwondo training sessions, he was always reminded to fight for justice, and use the martial art as a way to accomplish this. He is notable for being the first Korean fighter in video games.

History

Fatal Fury

Kim is the reigning Tae Kwon Do champion of the world. Kim has been able to use this in his favor and fight against the best fighters on the planet. He first traveled to fight Krauser, who was looking for some decent challenges. On the way, he encountered the "Lone Wolf" himself, Terry Bogard. They soon became very good friends, and ever since, Kim always agrees to help Terry in all that he can, though a definite rivalry is maintained. Kim also has two sons, Kim Dong Hwan and Kim Jae Hoon, as well as a wife (named Myeng Swuk in Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture), as well as many others in his dojang. By the time of Garou: Mark of the Wolves, Kim was defeated by Freeman.

King of Fighters

Kim is considered as both a sport and national hero in his native Korea. This status is what enabled him to convince the authorities to give him custody over Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge to rehabilitate them out of their criminal ways. Although both men resented Kim for his actions, they have since grown to grudgingly respect him. In most of his King of Fighters appearances, he has been team captain of Team Korea.

In The King of Fighters XI, Kim appeared as a member of Team Fatal Fury in place of Mai Shiranui. Terry Bogard and Duck King convinced Kim to join the Fatal Fury team in King of Fighters XI upon Mai's refusal to join. It is likely that Kim's original team, Team Korea, has been disbanded, dissolved or maybe he just accomplished his goal since both Choi and Chang can be seen dressed as normal civilians in KoF XI.

Personality

One of Kim's defining characteristics is his strong, inherent sense of justice. It is to the point where he has the innate ability to tell whether or not someone is evil or holds dark intentions just by looking at that person.

As such, whenever Kim fights against an evil character (e.g. Rugal Bernstein, Geese Howard, etc.) or someone somehow influenced by Orochi or any other sinister power (e.g. Iori Yagami, etc.), Kim has a special opening pose, in which, he glares menacingly at the evil opponent, and he slowly raises his hand and points at the opponent, saying "Aku wa yurusan!" (Japanese for "I don't forgive evil!") "Hah!" and jumps into his fighting stance (in previous instances, Kim just points). Watching Kim's intro against a character is a good way to tell if the character is considered evil in the canon of the story.

Something to note about that intro: In Capcom vs. SNK 2, he does it against Akuma, Shin Akuma and Evil Ryu but in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom, he doesn't against either form of Akuma, giving the impression SNK/Playmore doesn't regard Akuma as "evil" per se. (Although he discusses the way to choose with Akuma and claims to bring justice when it's Shin Akuma in dialogue before their fights.)

Kim strives for excellence and righteousness in everything he does, be it his fighting or personal life. He is a loving husband and father, and a strict disciplinarian. He is deeply respected and admired by his acquaintances for his honesty and bravery, and has many friends amongst the characters in both King Of Fighters and Fatal Fury (chief amongst them being Fatal Fury's main protagonist, Terry Bogard).

However, the Fatal Fury Team ending in King of Fighters XI shows that Kim might be quite an annoyance at times as well; in this case, he spends the whole time talking about justice and its power, and eventually all his teammates (not only Terry and Duck, but Chang and Choi as well - Joe Higashi, Andy Bogard and Mai Shiranui make them company) leave him alone at PaoPao Café only with Richard Meyer and Bob Wilson to "listen" to his seemingly endless lecture.

Also, in this sequence, it is shown that Kim has a strong accent, interpolating certain sounds (mostly that of the letter S) with an nonexistent U sound. For example: under-su-tand instead of "understand". This, like Japanese usage of R for L, may be some form of broken Romanised pronunciation inherent to Korean native speakers.

Reception

In Gamest's 1997 Heroes Collection, Kim was voted as the staff's tenth favorite character. In a 2005 poll made by SNK-Playmore USA, he was voted as the tenth fan favorite character with a total of 119 votes.

Related Characters

* Husband of Kim Myeng Swuk (had a brief appearance in Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture)
* Father to Kim Dong Hwan (elder son) and Kim Jae Hoon (younger son)
* Means to reform team mates Chang Koehan and Choi Bounge
* Friendly rival and teammate with Jhun Hoon
* Mentor to May Lee Jinju, Chae Lim, and Seo Yong Song
* Close friends with Terry Bogard and Hon Fu
* Ancestor to Kim Sue Il of Kizuna Encounter.
* Also teamed with Duck King in KOF XI
* Descendant of Kim Hye-Ryen (from Samurai Shodown: Edge of Destiny)



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