Kuroko (黒子) is a fictional character in the Samurai Shodown series. Description
In early Samurai Shodown games, Kuroko was used as an official who officiated the match. He is similarly dressed and dons a red flag and a white flag (used in martial arts competitions to denote when a player hits an opponent) as his weapon. As a playable character, Kuroko used moves borrowed from other SNK characters, mainly from those in Fatal Fury or Art of Fighting, and unlike every other character in the game, it was his outfit that became red as his rage bar filled up; he also can't be thrown normally, like Earthquake in the same game, and apparently his flags, which he uses as weapons, can't be destroyed or lost. He becomes a copy of the player's character in Samurai Shodown III, and appears in official art with a younger Nicotine Caffeine. Kuroko has five brothers: Ichiro, Jiro, Saburo, Shiro, and Goro.Borrowed animations and attacks
In SS2 Kuroko references a wide variety of characters and attacks - bear in mind this invariably refers to animations available then, which is limited when compared to all that's been added to the games released since then:
- from Tung Fu Rue: stance, foot sweep (possibly other normal attacks as well, since they're roughly the same size, but Kuroko uses his flags to attack instead of regular punches, since he's in a weapon-based game), "giant spirit" special (in his then visible bare chest there are marks similar to those of the main character of Hokuto no Ken), projectile-throwing stance, rapid kick attack used as a throw
- from Ryo Sakazaki: taunt, Kohoken (looking like a tiger head as in Fatal Fury Special), Haohshokoken, and two version of the Ryuuku Ranbu, the second of which involves him spotting for a moment to get his breath back
- several kinds of projectile attacks from a varity of SNK characters such as John Crawley and Jubei Yamada
- Haohmaru's intro animation, drinking sake; some of his slashing attacks seem to be based on that character as well
- an attack where his flags were extended with a chain, and upon hitting the victim drags it towards him - Gen-An Shiranui has a similar attack with his claw in the same game.
In the latest game in he series, Samurai Spirits Tenkaichi Kenkakuden, he also seems to be present, and his moves seem to include Genocide Cutter (Rugal Bernstein), Kasaneate (Ryuhaku Todoh), Orochinagi (Kyo Kusanagi), Yamibarai and Yaotome (Iori Yagami), Cross Cutter (Heidern) and Shinkûnage (Geese Howard).Trivia
- Kuroko's voice is provided by Toshikazu Nishimura in Samurai Shodown 2.
- "Kuro" is the short form of the Japanese word for "black" used when combined with other words. "ko" means child, and in traditional kabuki, children were used as stagehands because they were smaller, and less visible.
- Kuroko's siblings have names similar to the Japanese words for the numbers one through five (ichi, ni, san, shi, and go)
- Kuroko is not his real name. His real name is shown in the ending of Samurai Shodown II; but it is, for unknown reasons, blurred.
[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Kuroko ]
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