Kim Kaphwan

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. Geese Howard, Rugal Bernstein 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 "Evil is unforgivable!") "Hah!" and jumps into his fighting stance (Except for The King of Fighters 2003 and XI).[6]

Kim strives for excellence and righteousness in everything he does, be it his fighting or personal life. 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. 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.[7] 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.[8]

Kim first appears in Fatal Fury 2 as a playable character. He travels to Southtown to fight Wolfgang Krauser, who was looking for some decent challenges in the King of Fighters fighting tournament. On the way, he encounters the former King of Fighters champion Terry Bogard. They soon become good friends, and ever since, Kim always agrees to help Terry in all that he can, though a definite rivalry is maintained.[9] He also appears in all the Real Bout games from the series.[10][11][12] He is also present in Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition, a 3D game which retells the story from the first Fatal Fury game but with characters from the sequels including Kim.[13] He makes a cameo appearance in Garou: Mark of the Wolves in one of his son's (Dong Hwan) win poses.

In The 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.[14] Although both men resent Kim for his actions, they later grow up to grudgingly respect him.[15] Due to the increase of required members in The King of Fighters '99, Kim's rival, Jhun Hoon, joins the Korea Team.[16] However, in The King of Fighters 2001, Jhun has an accident, and he is replaced by Kim's student, May Lee.[17] By The King of Fighters 2003, the requirements of members return to three and this time the members of the Korea Team are Kim, Jhun and Chang.[18] In The King of Fighters XI, Kim appears as a member of the Fatal Fury Team along with Terry Bogard and Duck King as the team needed one more member.[19] In The King of Fighters XII, Kim is a playable character, but like each of them, he does not have a team.[20] As The King of Fighters XIII has returned to assigning the characters into official teams, Kim is cast as the leader of his team, composing of himself, Raiden, and Hwa Jai (both from Fatal Fury: King of Fighters). He is teamed with the men because, after "rehabilitating" Chang and Choi, he seeks out Raiden and Hwa Jai believing they are still working for Geese (they are not but they pretend that they still do so they can compete in The King of Fighters tournament). The games from the series which do not contain plot, The King of Fighters '98 and The King of Fighters 2002, also feature Kim along with Choi and Chang in the Korea Team.[21][22] In the console version of The King of Fighters Neowave, Kim appears as a hidden character without an official team.[23]

In the spin-off game, The King of Fighters Kyo, Kim is not playable but he can be aided by the lead character Kyo Kusanagi in order to train Chang and Choi.[24] In the two games for the Game Boy Advance titled EX: Neo Blood and EX2, the Korea Team is featured in its original form.[25][26] Kim does not appear in KOF: Maximum Impact as he was replaced with his pupil Chae Lim.[5] However, he is a hidden character in KOF: Maximum Impact 2 and also makes a cameo in Chae Lim's ending.[27][28] He also appears in the crossovers Neo Geo Battle Coliseum and the SNK vs. Capcom series as a playable character.[29][30] In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, he appears both as a background character in the King of Fighters Stadium stage and as a spirit.[31]

Kim also appears in two of the three animated films from Fatal Fury in which he takes supporting roles. He is voiced by Daiki Nakamura in the Japanese versions, and by David Kaye in the English dub. In Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle, Kim challenges Terry to fight after learning that he defeated the former crime lord from Southtown Geese Howard to test his own strength. Although he is defeated, he and Terry become good friends.[32] In the sequel, Fatal Fury: The Motion Picture, he also appears reuniting with Terry and his friends along with his family searching to have a rematch with Terry. However, during the meeting Cheng Sinzan (from Fatal Fury 2), enhanced by cyber-armor attacks all the people, and Kim is seriously injured. Despite his wounds, Kim manages to defeat Cheng, but spends most of the time of the film recovering.[8] He also stars in manhua from the video games which retell his actions from the games.[33]