Iori x Kyo

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Pairing
Pairing: Iori Yagami x Kyo Kusanagi
Alternative name(s): JPN Pairing Name/s: 京庵 (Kyouiori), きょういおり (Kyouiori)
ENG Pairing Name/s: Iori x Kyo, uncommonly known as KyoRi
Gender category: Boys' Love; M/M; Yaoi; Slash
Fandom: The King of Fighters
Canonical?: Fanon
Prevalence: Juggernaut Coupling
Archives: IorixKyo Fanfic Archive
Other: n/a
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Iori x Kyo, also known as Kyouiori and KyoRi, is a Juggernaut pairing (coupling in Japanese) within The King of Fighters fandom. The ship is between Kyo Kusanagi and Iori Yagami, both prominent characters. Kyo is the protagonist of KOF, debuting in the first game of the series and appearing in all subsequent releases. Iori is his sworn rival, debuting in the second game of the series. It has been shipped since Iori's introduction in 1995 as KOF's most popular M/M ship by a large margin in Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and English-speaking circles. This ship is so well-known that the people at SNK themselves have joked about it in official material throughout the years, though its chances at actually becoming canon are nonexistent.

Common Tropes

  • Star-Crossed Lovers: Fits them to a T. Both posses their clans' treasured sacred flames, which they can summon at will, and these clans do not see eye-to-eye. Although some interpretations by fans have the clans' leaders accept Iori x Kyo, others do not.
  • Orochi Blood Pact Curse: Hundreds of years prior to KOF, Iori's family made a pact with the evil spirit known as Orochi at the expense of each Yagami heir dying young, or otherwise during childbirth if applicable. Iori's been shown coughing up blood in order to use more powerful moves against opponents. Kyo often acts as someone who can care for Iori when this becomes too much for him to handle in Iori x Kyo fic. Riot of the Blood is related to this and sets off when Orochi's spirit is near Iori.
  • Concave and Convex: Kyo is optimistic and outgoing while Iori is deadpan and brutish. They even have obvious sun, (Kusanagi symbol,) and moon, (Yagami symbol,) dichotomy.
  • Hobby Sharing: Both Kyo and Iori have known hobbies and likes. Fanworks very often have them bond over these specific things.
    • Kyo: Motorcycle driving, poetry (bad poetry, canonically,) ice hockey, playing guitar.
    • Iori: Playing bass guitar, singing, (related, his favorite genre is jazz,) cats.

Overall, angst is more common than fluff for these two.

Iori x Kyo Fandom

Japanese-speaking

Many works of manga, fanart and fanfic for Iori x Kyo can be found on Pixiv and Twitter, to name a few.

In terms of Doujinshi Circles, there are too many Iori x Kyo doujinshi creators to count. Here is a small sampling:

Spanish-speaking

Many works of Spanish-language fancomics, fanart and fanfic for Iori x Kyo can be found on Facebook, FanFiction.Net, Archive of Our Own, Instagram and Twitter, among other websites. Miauneko is a prominent fan, with her well-regarded Iori x Kyo fics and translation work for otherwise Japanese-only KOF material. She runs KOF Archive[1], a multi-lingual Facebook page with over 3.4k followers as of December 2023.

English-speaking

Some Spanish-language fanworks may have English translations. Similar to Miauneko, RinoaDestiny is also prominent fan for her well-regarded Iori x Kyo fics.

Example/Notable Fanac

Fancommunities/Fanevents

Fan Fic

Fan Animation

Archives

References/Further Reading